OS effect on power consumption? Windows 7 vs Windows 10

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Daox
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OS effect on power consumption? Windows 7 vs Windows 10

Post by Daox » Mon Oct 30, 2017 1:28 pm

I'm wondering if anyone knows how upgrading to Windows 10 will effect power consumption? I am currently running 7 and I would assume 10 has more power saving features, but google isn't really giving me any good answers. I would imagine the amount of background processing would have a pretty huge effect on consumption, but I'm just not finding any solid info.

Here is what I did find:
Windows 10 Battery Life Is Better—Except When It's Worse

CA_Steve
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Re: OS effect on power consumption? Windows 7 vs Windows 10

Post by CA_Steve » Mon Oct 30, 2017 2:31 pm

I doubt if there is a meaningful difference between the two with desktop use.

pati.trip
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Re: OS effect on power consumption? Windows 7 vs Windows 10

Post by pati.trip » Sun May 31, 2020 1:22 am

CA_Steve wrote:
Mon Oct 30, 2017 2:31 pm
I doubt if there is a meaningful difference between the two with desktop use.
Really? I would expect that if the Software is more efficient, meaning consuming fewer resources, it will imply directly on the amount of energy needed to make it work. So, from my first impression, I would say that if Windows 10 is more optimal than 7, it should/must impact on the amount of energy consumption, isn't?

CA_Steve
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Re: OS effect on power consumption? Windows 7 vs Windows 10

Post by CA_Steve » Sun May 31, 2020 8:04 am

resurrecting this, eh?

I think that lower level firmware and hardware features impact desktop power use much more than whatever optimization MS has done for Windows. Processor power stepping and the race-to-idle modes, for example. DX12's ability to greatly lessen CPU calls is another great example.

If you want to talk about laptops, it may be a different story.

pati.trip
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Re: OS effect on power consumption? Windows 7 vs Windows 10

Post by pati.trip » Sun May 31, 2020 8:16 am

Yes, probably that is the difference. Last 5 years I have only worked with laptops, not desktops at all, and here I really see a big difference in terms of energy consumption depending on how optimal the Software is. So by extension the same for Windows diff version.

P.D: I have resurrected this accidentally, I did not realize it was 3 years old thread :lol:

CristianoO'Quinn
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Re: OS effect on power consumption? Windows 7 vs Windows 10

Post by CristianoO'Quinn » Sun Jun 21, 2020 3:54 am

Let's assume you do gain some battery life, it isn't going to be in the hours range as the same components are being driven by the battery. Such as the LCD, the HD/SSD, the ram, the CPU, you will still be using it the same, so there might be some gains in battery life, but this has to cost something - so a little performance, a slower IDLE CPU, screen blanking more often and so on.
The age of your existing battery also plays a part.
Make a backup of your data and give it a go, if you don't like it restore your system.
But as mentioned, battery life should not be what drives you to choose Windows 10 or to stay with Windows 7

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