3 ms·

Would ordering one of these with 32gb of ram lead to a significant decrease in battery performance?

neogodless 5y ago
Looks like the increase from 8GB to 32GB is going from ~3W to 12W of power consumption. The CPU likely consumes 30-45W depending on configuration. So it's not trivial, all things considered.
- Synaesthesia 5y ago
  CPUS or SOCs these days can achieve quite low power states when in idle, like aingle digit watts. Where do you get the 12w from?
  - Guest42 5y ago
    Thanks for followup, I was curious if the ram was allocated in blocks if sections could go unused. Right now I have 16gb and it's been great and I generally don't put much pressure on it (except for some occasional Android Studio virtualizing). However, it seems as though software resource usage has a tendency to creep up over time so it seemed like more RAM would be a safe option. I also tend to use the computer more lightly when it's unplugged. I don't know much about hardware so all input is appreciated.
  - neogodless 5y ago
    Just a preliminary web search. Here's one example: https://www.crucial.com/support/articles-faq-memory/how-much-power-does-memory-use https://www.crucial.com/support/articles-faq-memory/how-much... > As a rule of thumb, however, you want to allocate around 3 watts of power for every 8GB of DDR3 or DDR4 memory. High-performance memory such as Ballistix® parts can draw more power, especially if you overclock the voltage beyond XMP settings. Similar numbers here for slower DDR4-2133. https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i7-5960x-haswell-e-cpu,3918-13.html https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i7-5960x-has...
- kcb 5y ago
  Wouldn't that only really apply while doing intensive memory accessing. Something that you would probably only be doing a very small percentage of time.
  - fnord77 5y ago
    no - simply refreshing memory state costs power. The DRAM memory refresh cycle happens about every 60ms. In the background, memory cells are constantly read and rewritten. Power consumption adds up pretty quickly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_refresh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_refresh
    - kcb 5y ago
      Sure but that is not peak power consumption. The charts I'm seeing for DRAM power consumption are based on the gbps.

Looks like the increase from 8GB to 32GB is going from ~3W to 12W of power consumption. The CPU likely consumes 30-45W depending on configuration. So it's not trivial, all things considered.

Synaesthesia 5y ago
CPUS or SOCs these days can achieve quite low power states when in idle, like aingle digit watts. Where do you get the 12w from?
- Guest42 5y ago
  Thanks for followup, I was curious if the ram was allocated in blocks if sections could go unused. Right now I have 16gb and it's been great and I generally don't put much pressure on it (except for some occasional Android Studio virtualizing). However, it seems as though software resource usage has a tendency to creep up over time so it seemed like more RAM would be a safe option. I also tend to use the computer more lightly when it's unplugged. I don't know much about hardware so all input is appreciated.
- neogodless 5y ago
  Just a preliminary web search. Here's one example: https://www.crucial.com/support/articles-faq-memory/how-much-power-does-memory-use https://www.crucial.com/support/articles-faq-memory/how-much... > As a rule of thumb, however, you want to allocate around 3 watts of power for every 8GB of DDR3 or DDR4 memory. High-performance memory such as Ballistix® parts can draw more power, especially if you overclock the voltage beyond XMP settings. Similar numbers here for slower DDR4-2133. https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i7-5960x-haswell-e-cpu,3918-13.html https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i7-5960x-has...
kcb 5y ago
Wouldn't that only really apply while doing intensive memory accessing. Something that you would probably only be doing a very small percentage of time.
- fnord77 5y ago
  no - simply refreshing memory state costs power. The DRAM memory refresh cycle happens about every 60ms. In the background, memory cells are constantly read and rewritten. Power consumption adds up pretty quickly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_refresh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_refresh
  - kcb 5y ago
    Sure but that is not peak power consumption. The charts I'm seeing for DRAM power consumption are based on the gbps.