When you want to save battery life on a laptop or save energy and have a cool and quiet computer it is best to use that "Power Saver" energy scheme.
However, sometimes you want to use the full power of your computer when loading programs or performing specific CPU intensive tasks. Not even the "Balanced" energy scheme allows you to have the best of both worlds.
This program is switching automatic between low and high power energy plans depending on the load of the CPU. This way you will always save energy when no power is needed, but also make all power available once the system needs it.
On the top part of the GiMeSpace Power Control window you can select the 2 power schemes you want to switch between, it can be the system default schemes or custom schemes. It is recommended to use the "Power Saver" as the low power scheme and the "Balanced" as the high power scheme. "Balanced" provides more dynamic CPU frequency adjustments then the "High Performance" scheme.
Next you can adjust the CPU loads that trickers a switch between the schemes. The low setting is the percentage that will cause a switch to the low power scheme if the CPU load drops below this number. Around 20 to 30% usually works well. The high setting is the percentage that will cause a switch to the high power scheme if the CPU load goes above this number. Around 70 to 80% usually works well. (Please note that this CPU usage percentage is calculated for the CPU on it's current operating frequency, the windows task manager displays CPU usage relative the maximum boost frequency so these numbers differ.)
Please note that once a switch to the high power scheme has been made the CPU load drops automatic because there is more CPU capacity available on a higher frequency.
Then you can select the minimum time that needs to pass before a switch back is allowed. This to prevent too much switching.
The last setting is the setting that tells this program how often the CPU load is checked. At 0.5 seconds the program will respond very fast to sudden changes in the CPU load however because the load is measured over such a small time period, it might react to small spikes in the CPU load that would not require a change of power scheme. 1 Second is usually a good time measurement.
You can also switch manually by simply clicking on the notification area icon. Right clicking on this icon brings up a menu that allows you to pause, show or exit this program.
The program itself has been made in such a way that it has no impact on the CPU load at all, so you only save more energy by running it.
New, since version 1.1 is the ability to monitor the CPU temperature. You can enable this function and set the limiting temperature in Celsius. When the CPU gets this hot it will switch to the powersaving scheme and it will stay there until the CPU temperature drops below 50C.
This function is very useful since some programs and even Windows services sometimes get into endless loops doing nothing but running your CPU in loopscausing overheating and high energy usage. This function protects your CPU against these badly behaved programs.
The temperature measured is the thermal area of the CPU which shows slightly different temperatures than cores themselves.
It is freeware so every windows user can benefit from more power savings without giving up the horsepower of their computer. It requires Windows Vista or later editions to work.
Download GiMeSpace Power Control v1.1.1
