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UnixMac · Oct 8, 2004, 10:02 AM

How do you set your energy saver (I'm more interested in G5 owners, as PowerBook people have energy consumption to worry about)?

I used X-bench and got numbers in the 200-206 range with it in auto for CPU, and 246-255 with it in High... so I wonder if Auto really kicks it up as much as High does?

xe0 · Oct 8, 2004, 10:44 AM

I crank dualies to Highest when Im gaming or doing some serious illustration or design work.
To be honest I can't tell the difference. But physiologically it makes me feel better when I throttle the CPUs up during these tasks

Mafia · Oct 8, 2004, 11:20 AM

never noticed any problems during auto and still damn fast imo. i guess if i started seeing slow downs in certain apps i would put it into highest.

mafia

MrForgetable · Oct 9, 2004, 03:05 PM

Originally posted by UnixMac:
How do you set your energy saver (I'm more interested in G5 owners, as PowerBook people have energy consumption to worry about)?

I used X-bench and got numbers in the 200-206 range with it in auto for CPU, and 246-255 with it in High... so I wonder if Auto really kicks it up as much as High does?

When I have the Powerbook plugged in (no energy consumption worries), I put it to custom or auto, then when I play 3D games such as Halo or use processor intensive work, I use highest. The difference in speed is about the same (25% from Auto to Highest with the PowerMac, 30% with the Powerbook), so it's all up to the user.

Cadaver · Oct 9, 2004, 07:02 PM

I keep my DPG5 in "highest" mode - I don't notice any fan speed difference, though there is a slight difference in processor speed (benchmarkable, at least).

UnixMac · Oct 9, 2004, 08:42 PM

Originally posted by Cadaver:
I keep my DPG5 in "highest" mode - I don't notice any fan speed difference, though there is a slight difference in processor speed (benchmarkable, at least).

Yeah.. That's what I noticed too. X-bench had a full 40 more points for processor score. I asked an Apple hardware engineer about this, and I also asked him about whether it's better to let the computer sleep, shut down, or keep running.. here's what he had to say...

The processor speed selection is not going to harm the machine to be placed in high, because when you set Highest, it's still protected from overheat, and a few other excesses. He also said it's probably best to let the computer stay on and not go to sleep, and just let your monitor sleep. He said, unless you're going to be away from it for more than a day or if their is bad weather (thunderstorms) in the area, just keep it on.

Big Mac · 02:15 AM

I dropped down to Automatic on my DP 2.0 because I was concerned about the U3 Heatsink temperature level, even though the higher temperature did not trigger higher fan speed. I'm not completely sure I'll keep it on Automatic, but I think I probably will unless I need the extra speed. Keeping the components at a reasonable temperature level is a more important consideration to me than the extra speed provided.

Every opinion I've heard on the subject contradicts the statement that Macs should be left on rather than put to sleep. But if you want to run yours all the time, there should not be much harm in it. Before computers had sleep mode, my Macs used to run all the time.

d.fine · Oct 10, 2004, 05:16 AM

Automatic, for temperature and fans' speed sake ...

Maflynn · Oct 10, 2004, 06:47 AM

Dual G5 on highest. No problem with the U3 Heatsink or fans, I want that bad boy going full blast

chris v · Oct 10, 2004, 08:25 AM

Logic recommends the highest setting, though there's so much headroom here that I'm not sure it really matters. Though RC 5 and SETI probably benefit from it when I'm asleep.

What's a good temperature monitoring app for a G5?

UnixMac · Oct 10, 2004, 08:26 AM

Originally posted by Big Mac:
I dropped down to Automatic on my DP 2.0 because I was concerned about the U3 Heatsink temperature level, even though the higher temperature did not trigger higher fan speed. I'm not completely sure I'll keep it on Automatic, but I think I probably will unless I need the extra speed. Keeping the components at a reasonable temperature level is a more important consideration to me than the extra speed provided.

Every opinion I've heard on the subject contradicts the statement that Macs should be left on rather than put to sleep. But if you want to run yours all the time, there should not be much harm in it. Before computers had sleep mode, my Macs used to run all the time.

Has anyone actually told you why though? I'd be interested in hearing the reasoning so that I can draw my own informed conclusions. The reasoning I was given for leaving it on is the stability of the components (temps going from cold to hot over and over), and the disadvantage of spinning up and down the hard drives. But strangely enough, I am told the hard drives will spin down on their own anyway if there is no activity for over 1 hour, but I haven't tested this yet.

I don't know what I'm gonna do, I think for now I'll try leaving on and see how stable it runs. After all, all of those G5 clusters that are being used as supercomputers are on all the time... I wonder what their failure rate is? would be interesting to find out.

UnixMac · Oct 10, 2004, 08:40 AM

Originally posted by chris v:
Logic recommends the highest setting, though there's so much headroom here that I'm not sure it really matters. Though RC 5 and SETI probably benefit from it when I'm asleep.

What's a good temperature monitoring app for a G5?

I use Temperature Monitor....

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/mo...994&page=2

Works great... and can do a lot more.