PD (12) Windows VM disables SpeedStep? Results increased power usage?

Discussion in 'Windows Virtual Machine' started by MihaiE, Feb 13, 2017.

  1. MihaiE

    MihaiE Member

    Messages:
    27
    Hello,

    Please have a look at the image below (from "Intel Power Gadget" Mac app, produced by Intel itself):
    Screen Shot 2017-02-13 at 10.15.01.png

    In the first half, no PD VM was started. In the second half, I have started a W10 PD VM, but it was idling. What is to note is that with the PD VM fully initialized, the CPU remained at a based frequency of 4GHz (it's a 4790K), while before that, macOS allowed for the CPU speed to drop to lower frequencies, thus lowering consumption.

    Now, the above screenshot was taken on a desktop, but I also have a laptop and in the past 5 years I have noticed that with a VM started, battery consumption increased significantly even if the VM was not actually doing anything (Windows Search service disabled, Windows Update service disabled - all these done in order to minimize consumption).

    Questions: Is PD disabling Intel SpeedStep? Or maybe Windows is doing that, or is there something wrong with the VM?
     
  2. Raj@Parallels

    Raj@Parallels Guest

    Messages:
    467
    Please let us know the versions of Parallels Desktop and Mac OS X?
     
  3. MihaiE

    MihaiE Member

    Messages:
    27
    PD 12.1.3 on macOS 10.12.3
     
  4. PaulChristopher@Parallels

    PaulChristopher@Parallels Product Expert Staff Member

    Messages:
    3,158
    Thanks for reaching out! Please check out this article to distribute your Mac CPU resources between Mac OS X 10.12.3 and Windows 10 in the most efficient way. You can also change the "Resource limit" depending on the usage. " Tune Windows for speed " and "Longer battery life" will optimize power usage in Windows 10 virtual machine.
     

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