Thinkpads Forum

The same effect occurs when you don't turn your power management features to max. I notice the IBM driver sets max power savings as the default when you install it, but the Atheros generic driver doesn't. I had my IBM card set to normal power saving when I took those figures. When I set it to max power saving, the amount of power used when idle dropped considerably - it was quite difficult at times to pick it.

marlinspike wrote:I think you'll find the wireless draws significantly more energy when it is actually in use (i.e. not just on but actually downloading/uploading)

I just ran a quick test.

14" SXGA, x1400, profile set to minimums, bluetooth disabled. WiFi connected, but idle settled down to about 11.5-11.6 watts. I transferred a 2GB+ file from my desktop and it settled at 15.5-16.0 watts. That's the cost of the WiFi and the hard drive accessing.

Still, surfing the web doesn't put much draw on the Intel card and it remains in the 12.5 range for me.

So I am struggling to get below 17W. I must be doing something wrong. Here is what I have done on my 2GHz T60p (1400x1050):

Power Plan: Maximum Battery life (Max CPU = lowest, Display level 1 of 7)
ATI Catalyst settings: PowerPlay adjusted for Maximum Battery Life, allowing refresh rate reduction and auto color depth reduction

not sure how helpful this is for real world use, but i got it down to 9.76 today. 1 out of 7 on brightness, wireless off, ultrabay drive removed, bluetooth and IR turned off. i was working on a word document at the time.

Seems like the T60 uses less power than the T61.

anyway, I have a T61p with lowest settings in Power Manager, bluetooth off, WiFi on; I get 13.5-13.8 watts power draw on XP Pro SP3. When I boost LCD brightness to 11/15 I'm at 17 watts. Not bad I guess.

I think that it is a general trend to see the older models draw less than the newer ones, starting from the original Pentium-M models.

I had an X21 wnd that averaged about 8.6W idling with no wireless, display at 5/7 and hard drive running. My R40 averages about 9W idling with wireless on, display at 5/7, DVD/CDRW drive inserted and hard drive running. My current X31 idling with wireless on, display at 5/7 and hard drive running averages 8.2W. I normally use it with the display at 4/7 though, which brings the power usage down to 7.8W.

What I have noticed through looking over various generations of machines from Pentium-M Banias-based Centrino through Pentium-M Dothan, Core Duo and then Core 2 Duo is that the average power usage has been creeping up but the running times have been staying about the same. If my X31 or R40 were using 13.5W, they would be lightly loaded, maybe playing MP3s while actively surfing the net and visiting sites with a few small flash animations. I would not be surprised if a more modern machine such as a R61 or X61 would approach 20W while doing the same thing.

Do we have a winner yet? Maybe a couple of winning configurations.