[mythtv-users] Lower power nvidia desktop frontend

Matthew Asplund mattasplund at gmail.com
Thu Dec 24 23:13:20 UTC 2009


I have built two matching frontend machines.  They are low power AMD dual
core processors (athlon 4450e, 2.3 GHz) on nvidia 8200 motherboards (one is
a Biostar GF8200-m2+ and the other os an ASUS m3n78-vm) with 4GB or memory.
 I got a Kill-A-Watt meter, and they run at about 50W idle, and 80W or so on
full CPU.  This is with the power set at OnDemand under Ubuntu 9.10.

I realize that the other way to deal with battery usage is to try to get the
nvidia chipset power savings working.  I read a bit on the internet and
found that there was an option for the nvidia drivers
Option "RegistryDwords" "PowerMizerLevel=0x2"
that goes in the device section of the x.org file, and is supposed to put
the chipset in a low power mode. I did it, and the nvidia configuration
program, still shows the clock at 500 MHz, which is the same as usual (I
think). In reading up a bit on it, I am wondering if this is mostly about
computers on battery power, and not on AC power.

Has any played (successfully) with it? I am hoping to get my idle power
usage down another few watts, and that in combination with suspend and
resume will increase the WAF of my system.
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