"balance_power" in energy_performance_preference file when powersave governor set (verified in terminal)

[Heavygrass]

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Have you tried? Yes

• Searching through existing/closed issues to see if your bug has already been already submitted? Yes
• If installation failed with auto-cpufreq-installer,have you tried installing auto-cpufreq using Snap package?
  N/A
• Have you tried configuring auto-cpufreq?
  Yes
• Have you tried suggestions in troubleshooting section?
  Yes

Error output:

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/energy_performance_preference
balance_power
balance_power
balance_power
balance_power
balance_power
balance_power
balance_power
balance_power
balance_power
balance_power
balance_power
balance_power

---

System information:

Add/paste output of:

conservation mode is on                
                                                                                                                       
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                             
Linux distro: Ubuntu 24.04 Noble Numbat
Linux kernel: 6.14.0-35-generic
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS with Radeon Graphics
Cores: 12              
Architecture: x86_64
Driver: amd-pstate-epp

------------------------------ Current CPU stats ------------------------------
                             
CPU max frequency: 3301 MHz
CPU min frequency: 400 MHz                                 
                             
Core    Usage   Temperature     Frequency
CPU0      2.1%        45 °C      2390 MHz
CPU1      2.0%        45 °C      2393 MHz
CPU2      4.0%        45 °C      2394 MHz
CPU3      1.0%        45 °C      1516 MHz
CPU4      7.1%        45 °C      2391 MHz
CPU5      6.1%        45 °C      2394 MHz
CPU6      4.0%        45 °C      2392 MHz
CPU7      1.0%        45 °C      2393 MHz
CPU8      5.2%        45 °C      2394 MHz                                                                              
CPU9      0.0%        45 °C      2395 MHz
CPU10      3.1%        45 °C      2387 MHz
CPU11      2.0%        45 °C      2393 MHz

CPU fan speed: 0 RPM
auto-cpufreq version: 2.6.0

Python: 3.12.3
psutil package: 6.0.0
platform package: 1.0.8
click package: 8.1.7
distro package: 1.9.0

Computer type: Notebook
Battery is: charging

auto-cpufreq system resource consumption:
cpu usage: 0.0 %
memory use: 0.29 %

Total CPU usage: 3.5 %
Total system load: 1.22
Average temp. of all cores: 32.00 °C 

Currently using: powersave governor
Currently turbo boost is: off

I think /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/energy_performance_preference should not contain balance_power when powersave governor is used.
Let me know if I'm wrong.
Have "Extreme performance" setting in BIOS, not sure if its relevant.
Kernel 6.14.

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_driver
amd-pstate-epp

Thank you.

[Heavygrass]

Also scaling_max_freq for each core is way higher than base 3.3Ghz frequency with powersave governor.

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq
4604000
4604000
4604000
4604000
4604000
4604000
4604000
4604000
4604000
4604000
4604000
4604000

[AdnanHodzic]

Have you tried explicitly defining this as part of configuration file, if yes what happens then?

Also scaling_max_freq for each core is way higher than base 3.3Ghz frequency with powersave governor.

#899 was just merged which might help with this ...

[Heavygrass]

Have you tried explicitly defining this as part of configuration file, if yes what happens then?

I haven't used a configuration file at all yet, so its a bit of a learning curve for me. Will update if I do.
BTW one might need to apply some load to reproduce 4604000 frequency described above, not exactly sure yet.

[Heavygrass]

Added config file from the above link. The only change is turbo = never.

[charger]
# see available governors by running: cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors
# preferred governor
governor = performance

# EPP: see available preferences by running: cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/energy_performance_available_pre>
 energy_performance_preference = performance

and restarted service, but with charger connected --debug shows
Currently using: powersave governor and
Battery is: charging.
This may be related to battery charging limits I set manually a while ago (don't remember exactly how sorry).

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/energy_performance_preference
power
power
power
power
power
power
power
power
power
power
power
power

[AdnanHodzic]

@CasperVM since you created #899, out of sheer curiosity do you have any ideas regarding this?

[Heavygrass]

This is how I set battery charging limit:

sudo modprobe thinkpad_acpi force_load=true
echo 85 > /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_control_end_threshold

Let me know if more info needed.

[CasperVM]

Hmm that's odd, I do know there's different energy_performance_preference available when using the pstate driver. For me there's only performance on my machine. It might have to do with the scaling_govenor being set to performance for me as well?..

@Heavygrass auto_cpufreq uses two things for determining whether on battery: whether AC power is connected, and if the battery is charging. You could run sudo auto-cpufreq --monitor to see what it's doing. If AC plugged: yes it should apply the more performant profiles/or the [charger] section in the config.

Could you for debugging purposes show us what happens under load and cat all cpufreq settings?;

(for first cpu core cpu0):

for f in /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/*; do echo "$f"; cat "$f"; echo; done

Also the scaling_govenor and energy_performance_preference are totally different settings.

• scaling_govenor -> default cpufreq setting for linux used by acpi-cpufreq driver.
• energy_performance_preference -> used by the pstate drivers, nudges the cpu in a certain direction via firmware.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but when using pstate drivers, I don't think it's always entirely possible to enforce CPU behavior like with regular old acpi-cpufreq, because you're essentially telling firmware to take over. scaling_govenor in these cases is more of a mode select exposing underlying energy_performance_preference's?

Additionally, when there's no config, default get applied to energy_performance_preference, which might just be balance_power, so this could be correct behavior. Would we want to change this?

kernel docs amd pstate

@AdnanHodzic

[Heavygrass]

@CasperVM

Could you for debugging purposes show us what happens under load and cat all cpufreq settings?;

Sure, but I just noticed that even with config file (or with with config file only?) and AC connected GUI can manually change governor to both Currently using: performance governor and Currently using: powersave governor, so I'm not sure what GUI/governor setting should I run the above command with?
Does GUI or config file have priority for setting the current governor?
Should I use config file?

[hamzaband4]

I'm having a similar issue but i can't achieve stable 60 fps by any way.

I noticed something, when turbo turns on my fps increases to 60 then decrees and being stable at 35-40fps in powersave however if its 11fps on performance mode.

I really wish you can fix this soon because i really love your tool and i'm now forced to use the default power management which i don't wanna use.

Thank you for your efforts and hardwork.