Power throttling in Windows 11 and 10 is a dynamic feature that lowers the performance of the CPU and GPU when they are not being used. This is done to save power. Its goal is to keep systems from overheating, extend the life of laptop batteries, and improve overall system efficiency by intelligently managing power allocation. This guide shows you how to Enable or Disable Power Throttling in Windows 11/10.
Power throttling changes how much power is sent to the processor, which slows down its clock speed and overall performance. This feature is especially useful for mobile phones, where battery life is very important. In Windows 11 and 10, users can easily change the settings for power throttling to suit their needs and preferences.
Power throttling can greatly extend battery life, making it a useful feature for people who value portability and saving energy. On the other hand, turning it off might be better for tasks that need maximum performance, even though it will use more power and might shorten the battery life. Users can find the best balance between speed and battery life on their Windows devices by learning about and managing the power throttling settings.
How to Enable or Disable Power Throttling in Windows 11/10
- Click on the ‘Battery Indicator‘ icon located on the taskbar.
- A power mode slider will appear with four positions from left to right: Battery saver, Recommended: Better Battery, Excellence in performance, and Best Performance.
- Move the slider to the right to enable Best Performance.
- Enabling Best Performance disables Power Throttling and other power-saving functions, significantly increasing power consumption.
Allow background apps to use less power
- Open Settings in Windows 10 or Windows 11.
- Navigate to System.
- Select “Battery” from the options.
- In Windows 10, click on “Battery Usage by App” from the left panel. In Windows 11, go to “Battery Usage”.
- Locate the desired app from the list.
- Uncheck “Let Windows decide when this app can run in the background”.
- Check “Allow the app to run background tasks”.
- Save or apply the changes.
- Verify that the app is now excluded from Power Throttling.
Benefits of Power Throttling
- Power throttling’s main job is to keep things from getting too hot. It helps keep your CPU and other parts within safe temperature ranges by using less power. This keeps them from getting damaged and keeps the system stable.
- Longer battery life: Power throttling on laptops greatly lowers the amount of power they use, which means the battery lasts longer, especially when doing less demanding tasks like browsing the web or using productivity apps.
- Noise reduction: Slowing down parts lowers their fan speeds, which makes them run more quietly, which is especially helpful in quiet places.
- Improves system responsiveness: Throttling can sometimes make the system more responsive by stopping thermal throttling, which happens when performance drops quickly because of high temperatures. This can happen when a lot of difficult tasks are going on at the same time.
Impact of Power Throttling on Performance
How it works:
- Less processing power: When you throttle, your CPU and GPU run at slower clock speeds, which makes your computer run less quickly. You can tell this when you’re doing hard things like gaming, editing videos, or rendering 3D models.
- Possible drops in frame rate: During gameplay, gamers may experience drops in frame rate and stuttering.
- Extended processing time: It may take longer to finish tasks that need a lot of processing power.
Health of the system:
- Less heat is made: Throttling keeps your parts from getting too hot, which extends their life and stops thermal damage.
- Longer battery life: Laptop throttling saves battery life by lowering power use.
- Less noise: Fans and other system noise tend to be quieter when the clock speed is lower.
Tips for Optimizing Power Throttling Settings
Power throttling is important for:
- Stopping overheating: It keeps your CPU and other parts from getting too hot, which can damage them or make them less stable.
- Longer battery life: Throttling helps laptop batteries last longer by lowering power use when the system is not being used as much.
- Improving performance: Throttling algorithms often give more attention to tasks that need more processing power. This keeps critical applications running smoothly.
Possible risks of turning off or changing power throttling:
- Overheating: Turning off throttling can cause too much heat to build up, which could damage parts, cause the system to crash, or even cause it to shut down.
- Less battery life: Getting better performance often means giving up battery life. Turning off throttling can make your laptop’s battery die much more quickly.
- Performance that isn’t stable: Throttling algorithms are carefully tuned to find the best balance between performance and stability. If you change them, they might behave strangely or crash.
FAQs
Open Task Manager and click on the Details tab. Look for Power Throttling. If you don’t see Power Throttling, right-click on a blank area next to Status, and click on Select columns. Check the box next to Power throttling and click OK.
CPU throttling happens when you set a CPU limit on a container. This can make your application take longer to respond, which can lead to a throttling problem. If your underlying node has more resources than you need, your container workload will still be slowed down because it wasn’t set up correctly.
Throttling because of heat isn’t a bad thing in and of itself. It’s possible that thermal throttling is the only thing keeping your CPU from melting down if it’s not cooled well enough.
