5 ms·
1% is still a lot for power saving. If the system is idle, it should be at 0%. If it is anything above, then it shows poor design.
by andreyv 3y ago
1% is still a lot for power saving. If the system is idle, it should be at 0%. If it is anything above, then it shows poor design.
- klausa 3y agoThe only state where a modern computer is "idle" is when it's turned off.
- crazygringo 3y agoRealistically no modern consumer OS is ever at idle for long. It's constantly monitoring WiFi signals, battery level, checking for background processes to run, and a hundred other things. Whether CPU usage is being reported as 0% or 1% averaged over the course of a second doesn't have anything to do with poor design. It's just being rounded from values like 0.3% or 0.8% anyways.
- vlovich123 3y agoMonitoring Wi-Fi signals is, afaik, something that happens on the Wi-Fi chip itself, not the CPU. While you’re correct that nothing stays truly idle, the modern design is that the main CPU really does stay largely idle because of the power costs involved and instead dedicated microprocessors absorb the load when possible.
- alxhill 3y agoSure, but most modern OSes would inform the user when the WiFi connection dies - so there's something happening on the CPU too.
- vlovich123 3y agoOn a state change, sure. But you're not frequently gaining & losing WiFi access.
- kec 3y agoYou can’t really make this claim without measuring the actual impact, especially on a system with frequency scaling and 8+ heterogenous cores.