Introduction to the Bitsum Highest Performance power plan

[Jeremy Collake]

For a long time, Bitsum provided the knowledge and capacity for users to customize their power plans, and automate when those power plans are induced. With ParkControl, we revealed hidden CPU settings that control core parking, and wrote about how much core parking and CPU frequency scaling can affect performance of real-world CPU loads.

Put simply, these power saving technologies work well to conserving energy, but come with a trade-off. When the CPU is down-clocked or cores parked, it is not ready to execute code, and thus some degree of ramp-up time is required when new code needs executed. This especially impacts performance when the CPU activity comes in bursts, which is the most common type of CPU load.

Now Process Lasso offers a power plan preconfigured for maximal performance. When in this new Bitsum Highest Performance power plan, your CPU always remains ready to execute new code. Core parking is disabled and the CPU is always running at it’s maximum frequency. You can automate when it is induced with Process Lasso’s Gaming Mode, or you can use the default application power profiles feature.

We hope our users enjoy this new capability!

Process Lasso - https://bitsum.com/processlasso/

#pr

[BenYeeHua]

Just to make sure, it is preconfigured and you can change the setting without Process Lasso changing it back, am I right?

[Jeremy Collake]

Yes, you can make whatever changes you desire and Process Lasso won't revert them.

[BenYeeHua]

Good, I hate some OEM powerplans that like to change it back after I changed it.

[noidea]

I 'm here right?
Now Samsung is running high Performents -Rapid Mode on,
what is the difference to
"the Bitsum Highest Performance power plan"
AMD FX Core Parking switched off by Mircosoft Fixit
does it make sense to change!!!!!!

[Jeremy Collake]

If you already have your PC configured to disable core parking and CPU frequency scaling, then it's the same thing.

However, with Lasso's Gaming Mode, you also have adjustments made to ProBalance.

I would advise just letting Lasso manage this for you. Keep it simple and the solution in one place.

[HLee]

I'd seriously wish the automatic usage of the High Performance power profile would be optional (i.e. could be switched off in the settings).

My main machine is a Lenovo Thinkpad W530 who's thermal design is mediocre at best - I rarely use the Core i7 in Turbo mode for CPU temperatures tend to hit the higher 90°C quite fast (not critical but not very good for the life expectancy of the chipset either). If I use any GFX-intensive application (like most games) in combination with CPU Turbo mode, GFX temperatures, CPU temperatures and motherboard temperatures go up to a level that's making me seriously uncomfortable as the fan speed is fairly limited and the fan's heat pipe has to handle both the nVidia GFX chips and the Core i7 at the same time.

It wouldn't be that bad if I'd have a way of changing the Bitsum High Performance power profile to NOT switch to turbo mode, but with Lenovo's Power management interfering I have no idea how to achieve that as the Windows 7 Power Management doesn't seem to provide any settings allowing to select/ deselect the usage of Turbo Mode (even using advanced settings) and the Bitsum Profile doesn't show in the list of Profiles managed by Lenovo's own Power Manager either. The only way I might be able to configure the Bitsum profile to NOT use Turbo mode might be using the Registry Editor, but I didn't identify the required key/ setting yet.

The only workaround so far seems to manually apply a different power profile to each of the programs marked as "gaming mode" in process lasso which is somewhat clumsy and unfortunate.

Apart from that it's unfortunate if (re)introducing a new (old) feature into a software like Process lasso suddenly changes the behavior of certain concerned applications (i.e. games/ multimedia processes) that drastically without any warning. Auto-Update installed the new feature and it took me several hours to identify the source of the new thermal problems and changed behavior.
It would have been nice if the usage of the profile would have been optional and switched off by default, maybe opening a msg box on first use to notify the user of the new feature.

In addition that all that I currently have the strange situation that after starting up Windows 7, I always seem to have the Bistum profile activated even though on shutting down Windows used my own default profile.

[Jeremy Collake]

Thank you for your feedback.

An option to not induce this new custom power plan when Gaming Mode is active will be forthcoming in the next beta version, likely today.

The cause for retention of the Bitsum Highest Performance power plan after your PC's reboot will also be investigated and dealt with.

Complications with OEM power management software is an area of research.

Please continue to report on how these changes improve your experience with Lasso's Gaming Mode.

[HLee]

I installed version 7.2.1.5-beta x64 to see if there were any changes regarding the game/ multimedia mode Bitsum Highest Performance power plan.
Observations so far:
- With one exception, Process Lasso seems to apply the Highest Performance power plan after booting up the machine regardless of the power plan selected on shutdown (I checked the selected power plan a couple of times on shutdown to be sure). I can't tell anything about the one exception except that one single time windows seemed to have started with my default power plan (unless I overlooked something there, but I'm not aware of any other application on my PC except PL that changes the power plan automatically).
- For the reasons mentioned in my previous posting I linked the one remaining application marked as game/ multimedia (I removed all other applications from the list because of the BHP power plan) with my default power plan, but beta seems to really like the BHP power plan: when starting the game while already using my default power plan everything seems to work as expected (Windows 7 continues to use the default power plan while gaming) but when quitting the game, Process Lasso now applies the BHP power plan - a very wild speculation there: it seems as if when I start the game, PL applies the BHPPP for a short moment before overriding it with my linked default PP and on exiting the game it restores the PP to the one active just before overriding it (which for a short moment was BHPPP) - just a very wild speculation though.

[edkiefer]

Since new power plan I had 1 instance were plan got stuck on wrong plan .
I have normally my own balanced power plan . I have calc.exe to HP plan and had it open .
ran one of my games, power plan goes to bitsum HP fine .
close game, power plan goes to win default HP plan, everything still fine .
then I close calc.exe but instead of plan going back to my balance it stayed in HP .

I try and reproduce but couldn't, it only happened one time that I noticed .

[Jeremy Collake]

I appreciate the continued feedback.

Regarding Bitsum High Performance power plan being switched to at startup in the latest beta: I am surprised to hear that, and am checking into it a bit more thoroughly. I'm also adding some additional safeguards for certain error conditions, but don't think they are at work here. The log may give some indication about the power plan switch.

Scenarios where the governor is shut down while in Gaming Mode were handled poorly in the last final version. That's what I corrected in the most recent beta.

If I determine user exposure to be non-negligible, I'll add a special one-time adjustment to Balanced if it appears that the system may be 'stuck' in the Bitsum High Performance plan. While this may adversely impact some users who have opted to intentionally remain in the Bitsum High Performance power plan, it will correct the larger number of impacted users. But I'll decide upon that when I've fully evaluated this issue and estimated user exposure.

[edkiefer]

maybe it would help to store the default plan user set in windows in ini , instead of just going back to previous plan after a power plan switch from a exe or game mode .

[Jeremy Collake]

A persistent 'return to' power plan is something I've considered and may implement. The next final version will add some Gaming Mode options to the UI, so there will be a place for such a setting to be in the future.

[idbirch]

I'm running 7.2.1.7 and also frequently finding my machine is stuck in the Bitsum High Performance plan.  I have 2 paths configured to trigger Game Mode in the format X:\Games\* and the same 2 paths in the Power Profiles config screen but there are no processes running from either of those paths.

[edkiefer]

since configure game process auto plan is now bitsum HP, don't have any of those in the app power profile plans .
they will conflict as there trying to do same thing .
If it a game just have there path's in the game/multimedia one .

[idbirch]

Thanks edkiefer, I'll try with only Game Mode paths configured and remove them from power profiles.

[idbirch]

OK, I've not seen this problem again since removing all paths from the Power Profiles section. I wonder if the GUI needs some additional logic to prevent users from making this same mistake and essentially turning on the same feature twice via different menus.