Asus EPU Power Saving Mode: Should I enable it?

[Dankk]

Looking around at the BIOS for my Asus P8P67 motherboard, there's a feature called "EPU Power Saving Mode" which is disabled by default. The information on the sidepanel of the BIOS explains pretty much nothing useful... only that it saves power... somehow.

I'm baffled as to how little information there is about this feature. I've looked all over the internet about it, and I don't think anyone knows exactly how it works.

When I set EPU Power Saving to "Enabled", I get a menu with four different modes: "Auto", "Light Power Saving", "Medium Power Saving", and "Max Power Saving".

How exactly will this feature help (or potentially make things worse, for that matter)? Will it give me lower temperatures? Will it lower my gaming performance as well? Will my overall computer performance be slower?

I'm not an overclocker, BTW. I'm just a little too curious about this feature and whether or not I should have it enabled, or just leave it turned off. Thanks.

 

[borisvodofsky]

No, disable it.

 

[coffeejunkee]

Thanks for that in-depth explanation, boris.

TS, this EPU is like Asus' own version of Intel's EIST. It adjusts cpu voltage and speed according to load. It's been a while since I read a review about it but the savings were pretty much irrelevant. If I wasn't so lazy I would have tested it already to see if it has improved but since I am it'll have to wait a bit (if ever).

But likely it's biggest advantage is that it allows the marketing department to put some more fancy stickers on the box.

 

[MyCoder]

yes, disable

I do not think would work

 

[Hugo Drax]

Thanks for that in-depth explanation, boris.

TS, this EPU is like Asus' own version of Intel's EIST. It adjusts cpu voltage and speed according to load. It's been a while since I read a review about it but the savings were pretty much irrelevant. If I wasn't so lazy I would have tested it already to see if it has improved but since I am it'll have to wait a bit (if ever).

But likely it's biggest advantage is that it allows the marketing department to put some more fancy stickers on the box.

Why does asus bother to spend resources and HW to build a feature that offers no advantage.

 

[bononos]

Why does asus bother to spend resources and HW to build a feature that offers no advantage.

Probably for the reason you quoted.

 

[haaiamerica]

make it as default mode, no need change.

 

[Kent_Diego]

I enabled it. Did not hurt anything.

 

[Agent-A01]

If you dont OC i dont see any problem leaving it enabled.

 

[TsBPhoenix]

For some reason when i disable my EPU or move it to a High performance mode or Auto mode mine freezes or just turns off I have no idea why it does this, (any info would be helpfull), but it seems as though EPU is actually keeping my PC working atm

 

[GotNoRice]

It would probably be a useful feature at stock speeds, but it tends to cause issues when overclocking, especially if you are pushing the limits of your chip.

 

[Termie]

I have found it drops voltage by about .02-.03 volts at both idle and load, which translates to a couple of watts, as measured on my Kill-a-watt. It appears to become disabled when overclocking, however, at least on the newer version. When I used it in the past, I think it would actually cause crashes when overclocking.

So yes, it has some effect, but for most people it probably isn't worth the trouble, and if you're overclocking, it either won't work or will lead to instability.