Was that a 2.2GHz laptop or a 1.1GHz one?
All laptops to some extent cut speeds at certain times but perhaps this will serve as a warning for those people that look to compare and purchase cheap laptops.
<a href="http://www6.tomshardware.com/mobile/02q4/021101/index.html" target="_blank">Dell makes crap laptops =P</a>
Somehow I don't think these would sell very well if Dell advertised this fact.
I'd be interested to know how well the G3/G4 holds its speed when running on battery because I'd be willing to bet it would do so a lot better. In fact given the G3's power requirements I wonder if it cuts speeds at all except when it is being underutilised.
[ 11-03-2002: Message edited by: Telomar ]</p>
<a href="http://www6.tomshardware.com/mobile/02q4/021101/index.html" target="_blank">Dell makes crap laptops =P</a>
Somehow I don't think these would sell very well if Dell advertised this fact.
I'd be interested to know how well the G3/G4 holds its speed when running on battery because I'd be willing to bet it would do so a lot better. In fact given the G3's power requirements I wonder if it cuts speeds at all except when it is being underutilised.
[ 11-03-2002: Message edited by: Telomar ]</p>
Comments
A@ron
<strong>Powerbooks and iBooks do the same thing, the clock speed is just that much slower that it isn't so dramatic</strong><hr></blockquote>
well they have processor cycling and also an option to reduce processor speed... I think it reduces it to a set speed on G3s and like 20 percent on G4s
They definitely don't just have their clock rates halved permanently while under battery power though.
<strong>The mobile PIV generally reduces when it isn't doing anything and I am sure the G3 and G4 do the same. What I'm not sure of is if they reduce from peak clock rates during peak operation even while under battery power.
They definitely don't just have their clock rates halved permanently while under battery power though.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Well you certainly don't have to have it slow down if you don't want. Intel utilizes a technology known as Speed Step which does in fact lower the clock speed quite considerably (not always in 1/2 though, my P3-650 goes to 500). The default option is to have Speed Step engage whenever the laptop is on battery power and turn off when the laptop is plugged in. The user can easily change this setting to whatever they want.
AMD has a much more granular power technology called PowerNow which will reduce the clockspeed in 50-100MHz increments to adjust to the CPU demand of the applications running. Then Transmeta has their LongRun technology which supposedly increments by 1MHz steps to match system requirements.
[ 11-04-2002: Message edited by: Patchouli ]</p>