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Ubuntu's Power Consumption Tested

Posted by kdawson on from the no-lyme-disease dept.

RedDragon writes "Ubuntu 7.10 is due out on Thursday, October 18, and in addition to desktop 3D effects, GNOME 2.20, and other features is the use of the Linux 2.6.22 kernel with the tick-less (CONFIG_NO_HZ) kernel feature. But does this mean enhanced power savings when compared to past Ubuntu releases? Phoronix tested Ubuntu power consumption looking back 2-1/2 years at the six Ubuntu releases from Ubuntu 5.04 to the yet-to-be-released Ubuntu 7.10. Testing was done when the system was idling and then under load, and when the Lenovo notebook was powered via the battery and then again with the AC adapter. The Pentium M CPU temperature was also monitored. While Ubuntu 7.10 does include the tick-less kernel feature, more daemons and processes running by default on these modern Ubuntu releases is actually causing an increase in power consumption."

4 of 330 comments (clear)

  1. Is this supposed to be a surprise? by cleatsupkeep · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm confused - don't computers now use more power then they used to? Because of new software and being able to do more powerful things?

    I mean - Vista will use more power than Windows XP, OS X will use more power than Mac OS 9.

    Or is there a fundamental flaw in my logic that I'm missing here?

    1. Re:Is this supposed to be a surprise? by Cruicky · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It would have been nice if the article confirmed that the HPET timer was active, which I believe is rather important for the tickless kernel to work most efficiently.

  2. Other OSes? by p0tat03 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'd be more interested in seeing how Ubuntu's power consumption stacks up against Windows and MacOS...

    1. Re:Other OSes? by tomee · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I agree. There also seems to be no info on whether they used the 3d-desktop stuff. I would imagine that that would have a much greater impact on the power consumption, and it would be interesting to see some data on that.