How To: Improve the performance of Windows Vista by Tweaking the Power Settings

Posted by admin On December - 20 - 2008

By default, Windows Vista sets the power options to a “Balanced” plan. This is normally ideal for a long battery life. Laptop and notebook users can greatly improve performance by altering these settings.So you need not have to worry about tweaking the power options in Windows Vista to save power.The bad part of this is that even if you have a powerful processor and other hardware, you cannot be able to use it at its best because of this power settings. So you can disable these power saving features of Windows Vista and get the maximum performance out of your PC.

If you open the Power Options dialog in Windows Vista control panel and hit “Change plan settings” for any of the plans and then hit “Change advanced power settings”, you’ll see a number of knobs you can tweak.One of these settings in particular is the Processor power management item. If you expand out the “Processor power management” settings, you’ll see values similar to the following:

According to “High performance” power profile, the CPU is pegged at 100% (except when it’s on battery).
In the “Balanced” profile, however, the CPU is allowed to range between 5% and 100% of its maximum frequency whether it’s plugged in or running on battery.
Interestingly though, for “Power saver” profile, the CPU is limited to only operate between 5% and 50% of its maximum frequency.

This clearly shows that Microsoft Windows Vista’s power management works a treat.

Tips: if you’re doing anything fairly CPU intensive note that your CPU will take longer to complete the task if on “Power saver” mode. If you need your machine to work as quickly and as responsively as possible, use “High performance” mode, and if you want the best of both worlds, choose “Balanced”!

Follow these steps to disable the default power settings in Vista.