Use All Available CPU Power in Current Windows!

article #1418, updated 1066 days ago

Something relatively new. Very interesting changes from some Microsoft documentation, searchable here. Performance improvements have been visible in general behavior of all machines tested for this so far. On some, reported CPU speed does still change over time. BIOS changes are likely to assist as well.

The lines below work in administrative Powershell. It creates a new power scheme called “Maximum Performance”, based on the hidden built-in “Ultimate Performance” if it exists on your system. To revert, just go into Power in the Control Panel and reselect your original power scheme.

powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61

$oldpower = powercfg -getactivescheme
"Creating power scheme:  Maximum Performance"

$newpower = powercfg -duplicatescheme scheme_current
$newpower = ($newpower[19..54] -join "")
powercfg -changename $newpower "Maximum Performance"
powercfg -setactive $newpower

# Makes maximum CPU speeds available, by default they're not
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFBOOSTMODE 2
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFBOOSTMODE1 2
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFINCTHRESHOLD 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFINCTHRESHOLD1 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFINCTIME 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFINCTIME1 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFDECTHRESHOLD 100
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFDECTHRESHOLD1 100
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor LATENCYHINTPERF 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor LATENCYHINTPERF1 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFAUTONOMOUS 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFDUTYCYCLING 0

# Sets overall throttles to maximum
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PROCTHROTTLEMAX 100
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PROCTHROTTLEMAX1 100
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PROCTHROTTLEMIN 100
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PROCTHROTTLEMIN1 100
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor HETEROCLASS1INITIALPERF 100
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor HETEROCLASS0FLOORPERF 100

# Turns off CPU core controls, tells OS to just use them all.
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor CPMAXCORES 100
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor CPMINCORES 100
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor DISTRIBUTEUTIL 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor CPDISTRIBUTION 0

# Minimizes CPU spinup time, and maximizes spindown time, just in case
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor CPINCREASETIME 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor CPDECREASETIME 100
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor CPHEADROOM 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor CPCONCURRENCY 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor LATENCYHINTUNPARK 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor LATENCYHINTUNPARK1 0

# Sets energy savings preference to zero
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFEPP 0

# Commits all above changes to current power plan
powercfg -setactive scheme_current

Some detail can be had here and here.

These changes are disrecommended for cooling-poor laptops. And one might want to watch the temperatures of poorly built desktops and even some poorly built servers, too.

A version of the above which alters the original power scheme, and runs in administrative CMD, is below. The below is not very easily reversible. It does not use the “Ultimate Performance” builtin.

REM Makes maximum CPU speeds available, by default they're not
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFBOOSTMODE 2
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFBOOSTMODE1 2
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFINCTHRESHOLD 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFINCTHRESHOLD1 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFINCTIME 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFINCTIME1 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFDECTHRESHOLD 100
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFDECTHRESHOLD1 100
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor LATENCYHINTPERF 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor LATENCYHINTPERF1 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFAUTONOMOUS 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFDUTYCYCLING 0

REM Sets overall throttles to maximum
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PROCTHROTTLEMAX 100
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PROCTHROTTLEMAX1 100
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PROCTHROTTLEMIN 100
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PROCTHROTTLEMIN1 100
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor HETEROCLASS1INITIALPERF 100
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor HETEROCLASS0FLOORPERF 100

REM Turns off CPU core controls, tells OS to just use them all.
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor CPMAXCORES 100
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor CPMINCORES 100
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor DISTRIBUTEUTIL 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor CPDISTRIBUTION 0

REM Minimizes CPU spinup time, and maximizes spindown time, just in case
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor CPINCREASETIME 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor CPDECREASETIME 100
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor CPHEADROOM 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor CPCONCURRENCY 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor LATENCYHINTUNPARK 0
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor LATENCYHINTUNPARK1 0

REM Sets energy savings preference to zero
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor PERFEPP 0

REM Commits all above changes to current power plan
powercfg -setactive scheme_current

Categories: