# Underclocking?



## rnot (Aug 19, 2011)

I was just toying around with my TB went the idea came to me, would underclocking provide any significant battery saving? So I set SetCPU to 245/768 on OMFGB 10/12 with the latest IMO, and as far as I could tell there was no real gain in battery life. What sucks is that I don't get service at home, so my cell standby and time without a signal is always extremely high, so my results are most likely in no way accurate or valid.

My question than is has anyone else tried this and found any results?

Also, when setting the max in SetCPU the notch will be at 768, but the green line behind it will still be up at 1024. Which makes me wonder if it was still running at 1024 or was actually set to 768?


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## ERIFNOMI (Jun 30, 2011)

I don't underclock but I do undervolt. Underclocking might not make a bit of difference, especially if you never jump up to 1024MHz anyway. If you had something randomly spiking to 1024MHz for just a moment and you limited it to something less like 768MHz, it may make a difference, but not much. If you're doing something that actually needs 1024MHz and you limit it to 768MHz, you're going to spend more time doing that task and likely more battery. Also, it depends on your voltage at each step. For example, you're going to need less power to run at 256MHz than 1024MHz but it might not be any different between 768MHz and 1024MHz. That's all controlled by your kernel.

Anyway, a bigger problem is going to be your lack of service or being in poor service areas. I can get 50%+ more time out of my battery than my buddy can because at my house I have good to excellent service and he has poor to none. My cell standby beats his by a lot.


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## HalosGhost (Jun 29, 2011)

ERIFNOMI said:


> I don't underclock but I do undervolt. Underclocking might not make a bit of difference, especially if you never jump up to 1024MHz anyway. If you had something randomly spiking to 1024MHz for just a moment and you limited it to something less like 768MHz, it may make a difference, but not much. If you're doing something that actually needs 1024MHz and you limit it to 768MHz, you're going to spend more time doing that task and likely more battery. Also, it depends on your voltage at each step. For example, you're going to need less power to run at 256MHz than 1024MHz but it might not be any different between 768MHz and 1024MHz. That's all controlled by your kernel.
> 
> Anyway, a bigger problem is going to be your lack of service or being in poor service areas. I can get 50%+ more time out of my battery than my buddy can because at my house I have good to excellent service and he has poor to none. My cell standby beats his by a lot.


Aaaaall of this.


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## Gabiola1 (Jun 10, 2011)

Ive been running underclocked and undervolted for the past few days. No real lag in performance and I am getting better life. Running CM7 with IMOs newest kernel in Batt Saver mode. Using the controls built into CM7,not setcpu, I underclocked to 768 and undervolted by 50 using vipermod. You can use an app named CPU Spy to see how much time you spend at each level. Bad cell coverage is killer on battery life as others mentioned.


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## loonatik78 (Jul 24, 2011)

rnot said:


> I was just toying around with my TB went the idea came to me, would underclocking provide any significant battery saving? So I set SetCPU to 245/768 on OMFGB 10/12 with the latest IMO, and as far as I could tell there was no real gain in battery life. What sucks is that I don't get service at home, so my cell standby and time without a signal is always extremely high, so my results are most likely in no way accurate or valid.
> 
> My question than is has anyone else tried this and found any results?
> 
> Also, when setting the max in SetCPU the notch will be at 768, but the green line behind it will still be up at 1024. Which makes me wonder if it was still running at 1024 or was actually set to 768?


Underclocking is a lousy way of doing what the governor should do. It also saves nearly no power.


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