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The industry spent decades preaching us about power savings, with Microsoft settings application lecturing about power saves and the update app programming them

The industry spent decades preaching us about power savings, with Microsoft settings application lecturing about power saves and the update app programming them on renewables peak, only for... wasting gigawatts by forcing us to have copilot everywhere. If Microsoft were consistent, which isn't, power saving mode would disable AI features.

carschno 6mo ago
In literally must have missed that. When did Microsoft ever encourage energy saving? Is this related to power saving for extending laptop battery runtime? But then I don't get the link to renewable energy. Anyway, I agree with the notion of the extreme energy-inefficiency of LLMs. The scale of it makes it hard to imagine any less efficient product will ever be invented.
- shaky-carrousel 6mo ago
  They literally have a green leaf next to power saving options. Also, there's an option in windows upgrades to time the upgrades to when the grid is mostly renewables.
  - smcin 6mo ago
    Apparently since Windows 11, Sun Valley 2 update ("22H2"?) back around 3/2022. https://www.pcgamer.com/windows-11-update-will-help-your-pc-prioritise-renewable-energy/ https://www.pcgamer.com/windows-11-update-will-help-your-pc-... https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2024/04/22/reducing-the-environmental-impact-of-windows-devices/ https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2024/04/22/reduc...
  - i_think_so 6mo ago
    Could this be hacked to schedule upgrades to only happen when the user is not about to join a meeting in 5 minutes? "Yeah, uh, my local electric provider is burning coal 24/7 except at 9-10 pm on these 5 dates each year...."
pletnes 6mo ago
They asked developers to help them improve windows battery life on laptops, competing against chromebooks and macbooks. The AI gigawatts are all in data centers. They never cared for the environment (in this way, at least).
- baobabKoodaa 6mo ago
  Windows still asks you to reduce the refresh rate of your monitor from 240Hz to 60Hz in order to save the environment.
  - watwut 6mo ago
    Mine dont

carschno 6mo ago

In literally must have missed that. When did Microsoft ever encourage energy saving? Is this related to power saving for extending laptop battery runtime? But then I don't get the link to renewable energy. Anyway, I agree with the notion of the extreme energy-inefficiency of LLMs. The scale of it makes it hard to imagine any less efficient product will ever be invented.

shaky-carrousel 6mo ago
They literally have a green leaf next to power saving options. Also, there's an option in windows upgrades to time the upgrades to when the grid is mostly renewables.
- smcin 6mo ago
  Apparently since Windows 11, Sun Valley 2 update ("22H2"?) back around 3/2022. https://www.pcgamer.com/windows-11-update-will-help-your-pc-prioritise-renewable-energy/ https://www.pcgamer.com/windows-11-update-will-help-your-pc-... https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2024/04/22/reducing-the-environmental-impact-of-windows-devices/ https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2024/04/22/reduc...
- i_think_so 6mo ago
  Could this be hacked to schedule upgrades to only happen when the user is not about to join a meeting in 5 minutes? "Yeah, uh, my local electric provider is burning coal 24/7 except at 9-10 pm on these 5 dates each year...."

pletnes 6mo ago

They asked developers to help them improve windows battery life on laptops, competing against chromebooks and macbooks. The AI gigawatts are all in data centers. They never cared for the environment (in this way, at least).

baobabKoodaa 6mo ago
Windows still asks you to reduce the refresh rate of your monitor from 240Hz to 60Hz in order to save the environment.
- watwut 6mo ago
  Mine dont