Configuring Power Management Settings

You can change how some power management features are handled from the Configure Power Management Settings control panel page. See below for complete descriptions of the available settings.

NOTE: Changes to these settings require Windows Administrator privileges.

Accessing the Power Management options

Settings

Enable Windows idle detection: Use this option to control whether SpeedStep is enabled, which allows processors to dynamically switch between different power states to conserve power. When this checkbox is selected, SpeedStep functionality is enabled. When it is not selected, SpeedStep is disabled, which increases power consumption but eliminates increases in Real-time latencies caused by power state switching.

NOTE: The CPU usage displayed in the Task Manager in Windows 10 and Windows 8.1 includes the duration when Windows idle detection is disabled. To eliminate jitter with RTSS timer response latency, we recommend that you disable Windows idle detection. As a result, you may see 100% CPU usage in the Windows Task Manager when the Subsystem is running. There is no side effect on Windows load balancing for this type of 100% CPU usage.

Windows Processor Energy/Performance Bias: Optionally override the current Windows Energy/Performance Bias setting. When this checkbox is selected, you can choose a value on the range between increased performance (High performance/low energy efficiency) or increased energy savings (Low performance/high energy efficiency).

Reducing energy consumption from Windows cores will promote RTSS thread performance, since RTSS cores and Windows cores reside on the same socket on multi-core systems.

NOTE: This setting is not supported on all machines. When not supported, this setting is grayed-out.

Windows Power Management: Power plans can help you maximize your computer's performance or conserve energy. Make a plan active by selecting it or choose a plan and customize it by changing its power settings.