Why does my MacBook CPU get hotter under NixOS than under Mac OS?
I have a dual boot MacBook (late 2008) with Mac OS 10.9 and NixOS. I observe that under similar conditions, with only one or two applications open and not doing any computations, the CPU gets 5-10 °C hotter under NixOS than under Mac OS. This can even be felt on touch.
In my NixOS configuration, i have
powerManagement.enable = true
powerManagement.cpuFreqGovernor = "powersave";
Is this a result of some inefficiency of Linux kernel, or am i missing some configuration options under NixOS, or is it a NixOS bug?
Update 2018-09-02.
This energy consumption problem may be not specific to NixOS and be a general issue with Linux on MacBook, as mentioned in this "Linux on Mac?" reddit thread.
However, this looks strange: I have installed system-monitor GNOME shell extension and could observe that in idle condition the CPU usage is oscillating between 1% and 2%, while the CPU Core temperature still stays above 60 °C (at room temperature of about 25 °C), with the fan doing 2000 rpm.
What could be using so much power while the CPU is only 1-2% used?
Update 2019-02-03.
This turned out to be related to (the absence of) the proprietary NVidia driver.
nvidia hardware macintosh power-management
asked Jun 21 '15 at 13:25
AlexeyAlexey
5301720
add a comment |
I have a dual boot MacBook (late 2008) with Mac OS 10.9 and NixOS. I observe that under similar conditions, with only one or two applications open and not doing any computations, the CPU gets 5-10 °C hotter under NixOS than under Mac OS. This can even be felt on touch.
In my NixOS configuration, i have
powerManagement.enable = true
powerManagement.cpuFreqGovernor = "powersave";
Is this a result of some inefficiency of Linux kernel, or am i missing some configuration options under NixOS, or is it a NixOS bug?
Update 2018-09-02.
This energy consumption problem may be not specific to NixOS and be a general issue with Linux on MacBook, as mentioned in this "Linux on Mac?" reddit thread.
However, this looks strange: I have installed system-monitor GNOME shell extension and could observe that in idle condition the CPU usage is oscillating between 1% and 2%, while the CPU Core temperature still stays above 60 °C (at room temperature of about 25 °C), with the fan doing 2000 rpm.
What could be using so much power while the CPU is only 1-2% used?
Update 2019-02-03.
This turned out to be related to (the absence of) the proprietary NVidia driver.
nvidia hardware macintosh power-management
asked Jun 21 '15 at 13:25
AlexeyAlexey
5301720
1
could you compare that to some other linux distro? it might be a general linux on macboook problem, i think.
– Rok Garbas
Jun 22 '15 at 9:35
1
also maybe something like launchpad.net/macfanctld might help you configure fans properly
– Rok Garbas
Jun 22 '15 at 9:38
Thanks for the link. I do not know about other linux distros, currently i have this one and do not plan to install any other.
– Alexey
Jun 22 '15 at 12:23
Maybe you are right, and the problem is general to Linux distribution, that they cannot manage Apple hardware so efficiently and on such a low level, as Mac OS: reddit.com/r/linux/comments/20lqba/linux_on_a_mac/cg4hhpb
– Alexey
Jun 22 '15 at 12:30
add a comment |
I have a dual boot MacBook (late 2008) with Mac OS 10.9 and NixOS. I observe that under similar conditions, with only one or two applications open and not doing any computations, the CPU gets 5-10 °C hotter under NixOS than under Mac OS. This can even be felt on touch.
In my NixOS configuration, i have
powerManagement.enable = true
powerManagement.cpuFreqGovernor = "powersave";
Is this a result of some inefficiency of Linux kernel, or am i missing some configuration options under NixOS, or is it a NixOS bug?
Update 2018-09-02.
This energy consumption problem may be not specific to NixOS and be a general issue with Linux on MacBook, as mentioned in this "Linux on Mac?" reddit thread.
However, this looks strange: I have installed system-monitor GNOME shell extension and could observe that in idle condition the CPU usage is oscillating between 1% and 2%, while the CPU Core temperature still stays above 60 °C (at room temperature of about 25 °C), with the fan doing 2000 rpm.
What could be using so much power while the CPU is only 1-2% used?
Update 2019-02-03.
This turned out to be related to (the absence of) the proprietary NVidia driver.
nvidia hardware macintosh power-management
asked Jun 21 '15 at 13:25
AlexeyAlexey
5301720
I have a dual boot MacBook (late 2008) with Mac OS 10.9 and NixOS. I observe that under similar conditions, with only one or two applications open and not doing any computations, the CPU gets 5-10 °C hotter under NixOS than under Mac OS. This can even be felt on touch.
In my NixOS configuration, i have
powerManagement.enable = true
powerManagement.cpuFreqGovernor = "powersave";
Is this a result of some inefficiency of Linux kernel, or am i missing some configuration options under NixOS, or is it a NixOS bug?
Update 2018-09-02.
This energy consumption problem may be not specific to NixOS and be a general issue with Linux on MacBook, as mentioned in this "Linux on Mac?" reddit thread.
However, this looks strange: I have installed system-monitor GNOME shell extension and could observe that in idle condition the CPU usage is oscillating between 1% and 2%, while the CPU Core temperature still stays above 60 °C (at room temperature of about 25 °C), with the fan doing 2000 rpm.
What could be using so much power while the CPU is only 1-2% used?
Update 2019-02-03.
This turned out to be related to (the absence of) the proprietary NVidia driver.
nvidia hardware macintosh power-management
nvidia hardware macintosh power-management
asked Jun 21 '15 at 13:25
AlexeyAlexey
5301720
asked Jun 21 '15 at 13:25
AlexeyAlexey
5301720
edited Feb 3 at 0:04
Alexey
asked Jun 21 '15 at 13:25
AlexeyAlexey
5301720
asked Jun 21 '15 at 13:25
AlexeyAlexey
5301720
asked Jun 21 '15 at 13:25
AlexeyAlexey
5301720
5301720
1
could you compare that to some other linux distro? it might be a general linux on macboook problem, i think.
– Rok Garbas
Jun 22 '15 at 9:35
1
also maybe something like launchpad.net/macfanctld might help you configure fans properly
– Rok Garbas
Jun 22 '15 at 9:38
Thanks for the link. I do not know about other linux distros, currently i have this one and do not plan to install any other.
– Alexey
Jun 22 '15 at 12:23
Maybe you are right, and the problem is general to Linux distribution, that they cannot manage Apple hardware so efficiently and on such a low level, as Mac OS: reddit.com/r/linux/comments/20lqba/linux_on_a_mac/cg4hhpb
– Alexey
Jun 22 '15 at 12:30
add a comment |
1
could you compare that to some other linux distro? it might be a general linux on macboook problem, i think.
– Rok Garbas
Jun 22 '15 at 9:35
1
also maybe something like launchpad.net/macfanctld might help you configure fans properly
– Rok Garbas
Jun 22 '15 at 9:38
Thanks for the link. I do not know about other linux distros, currently i have this one and do not plan to install any other.
– Alexey
Jun 22 '15 at 12:23
Maybe you are right, and the problem is general to Linux distribution, that they cannot manage Apple hardware so efficiently and on such a low level, as Mac OS: reddit.com/r/linux/comments/20lqba/linux_on_a_mac/cg4hhpb
– Alexey
Jun 22 '15 at 12:30
1
1
could you compare that to some other linux distro? it might be a general linux on macboook problem, i think.
– Rok Garbas
Jun 22 '15 at 9:35
could you compare that to some other linux distro? it might be a general linux on macboook problem, i think.
– Rok Garbas
Jun 22 '15 at 9:35
1
1
also maybe something like launchpad.net/macfanctld might help you configure fans properly
– Rok Garbas
Jun 22 '15 at 9:38
also maybe something like launchpad.net/macfanctld might help you configure fans properly
– Rok Garbas
Jun 22 '15 at 9:38
Thanks for the link. I do not know about other linux distros, currently i have this one and do not plan to install any other.
– Alexey
Jun 22 '15 at 12:23
Thanks for the link. I do not know about other linux distros, currently i have this one and do not plan to install any other.
– Alexey
Jun 22 '15 at 12:23
Maybe you are right, and the problem is general to Linux distribution, that they cannot manage Apple hardware so efficiently and on such a low level, as Mac OS: reddit.com/r/linux/comments/20lqba/linux_on_a_mac/cg4hhpb
– Alexey
Jun 22 '15 at 12:30
Maybe you are right, and the problem is general to Linux distribution, that they cannot manage Apple hardware so efficiently and on such a low level, as Mac OS: reddit.com/r/linux/comments/20lqba/linux_on_a_mac/cg4hhpb
– Alexey
Jun 22 '15 at 12:30
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
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I think I've understood the origin of the problem, though I did't manage to test my explanation properly.
First of all, I'd like to note that setting
powerManagement.cpuFreqGovernor = "powersave";
on my machine was an error. According to the output of
cpupower frequency-info
the only available governor on my machine were performance and schedutil. I've set
powerManagement.cpuFreqGovernor = "schedutil";
and it seems that this slightly reduced the CPU temperature.
It turned out that this was not the main issue, however.
I recently installed Linux Mint and Manjaro on this machine, and noticed that under both systems the CPU temperature stayed as low as under Mac OS, if not lower. It turned out that the difference was due to the proprietary NVidia driver. I did not have the nvidia driver on NixOS (because of having problems with it), but I installed it at first on Linux Mint and Manjaro. When I realised that nvidia driver breaks screen brightness keys and virtual consoles, I removed it, and the CPU temperature went up by 10 or 15 °C on an idle machine.
I conclude that on my machine some open source video drivers cause high power consumption.
answered Feb 3 at 0:01
AlexeyAlexey
5301720
add a comment |
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I think I've understood the origin of the problem, though I did't manage to test my explanation properly.
First of all, I'd like to note that setting
powerManagement.cpuFreqGovernor = "powersave";
on my machine was an error. According to the output of
cpupower frequency-info
the only available governor on my machine were performance and schedutil. I've set
powerManagement.cpuFreqGovernor = "schedutil";
and it seems that this slightly reduced the CPU temperature.
It turned out that this was not the main issue, however.
I recently installed Linux Mint and Manjaro on this machine, and noticed that under both systems the CPU temperature stayed as low as under Mac OS, if not lower. It turned out that the difference was due to the proprietary NVidia driver. I did not have the nvidia driver on NixOS (because of having problems with it), but I installed it at first on Linux Mint and Manjaro. When I realised that nvidia driver breaks screen brightness keys and virtual consoles, I removed it, and the CPU temperature went up by 10 or 15 °C on an idle machine.
I conclude that on my machine some open source video drivers cause high power consumption.
answered Feb 3 at 0:01
AlexeyAlexey
5301720
add a comment |
I think I've understood the origin of the problem, though I did't manage to test my explanation properly.
First of all, I'd like to note that setting
powerManagement.cpuFreqGovernor = "powersave";
on my machine was an error. According to the output of
cpupower frequency-info
the only available governor on my machine were performance and schedutil. I've set
powerManagement.cpuFreqGovernor = "schedutil";
and it seems that this slightly reduced the CPU temperature.
It turned out that this was not the main issue, however.
I recently installed Linux Mint and Manjaro on this machine, and noticed that under both systems the CPU temperature stayed as low as under Mac OS, if not lower. It turned out that the difference was due to the proprietary NVidia driver. I did not have the nvidia driver on NixOS (because of having problems with it), but I installed it at first on Linux Mint and Manjaro. When I realised that nvidia driver breaks screen brightness keys and virtual consoles, I removed it, and the CPU temperature went up by 10 or 15 °C on an idle machine.
I conclude that on my machine some open source video drivers cause high power consumption.
answered Feb 3 at 0:01
AlexeyAlexey
5301720
add a comment |
I think I've understood the origin of the problem, though I did't manage to test my explanation properly.
First of all, I'd like to note that setting
powerManagement.cpuFreqGovernor = "powersave";
on my machine was an error. According to the output of
cpupower frequency-info
the only available governor on my machine were performance and schedutil. I've set
powerManagement.cpuFreqGovernor = "schedutil";
and it seems that this slightly reduced the CPU temperature.
It turned out that this was not the main issue, however.
I recently installed Linux Mint and Manjaro on this machine, and noticed that under both systems the CPU temperature stayed as low as under Mac OS, if not lower. It turned out that the difference was due to the proprietary NVidia driver. I did not have the nvidia driver on NixOS (because of having problems with it), but I installed it at first on Linux Mint and Manjaro. When I realised that nvidia driver breaks screen brightness keys and virtual consoles, I removed it, and the CPU temperature went up by 10 or 15 °C on an idle machine.
I conclude that on my machine some open source video drivers cause high power consumption.
answered Feb 3 at 0:01
AlexeyAlexey
5301720
I think I've understood the origin of the problem, though I did't manage to test my explanation properly.
First of all, I'd like to note that setting
powerManagement.cpuFreqGovernor = "powersave";
on my machine was an error. According to the output of
cpupower frequency-info
the only available governor on my machine were performance and schedutil. I've set
powerManagement.cpuFreqGovernor = "schedutil";
and it seems that this slightly reduced the CPU temperature.
It turned out that this was not the main issue, however.
I recently installed Linux Mint and Manjaro on this machine, and noticed that under both systems the CPU temperature stayed as low as under Mac OS, if not lower. It turned out that the difference was due to the proprietary NVidia driver. I did not have the nvidia driver on NixOS (because of having problems with it), but I installed it at first on Linux Mint and Manjaro. When I realised that nvidia driver breaks screen brightness keys and virtual consoles, I removed it, and the CPU temperature went up by 10 or 15 °C on an idle machine.
I conclude that on my machine some open source video drivers cause high power consumption.
answered Feb 3 at 0:01
AlexeyAlexey
5301720
answered Feb 3 at 0:01
AlexeyAlexey
5301720
answered Feb 3 at 0:01
AlexeyAlexey
5301720
answered Feb 3 at 0:01
AlexeyAlexey
5301720
5301720
add a comment |
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1
could you compare that to some other linux distro? it might be a general linux on macboook problem, i think.
– Rok Garbas
Jun 22 '15 at 9:35
1
also maybe something like launchpad.net/macfanctld might help you configure fans properly
– Rok Garbas
Jun 22 '15 at 9:38
Thanks for the link. I do not know about other linux distros, currently i have this one and do not plan to install any other.
– Alexey
Jun 22 '15 at 12:23
Maybe you are right, and the problem is general to Linux distribution, that they cannot manage Apple hardware so efficiently and on such a low level, as Mac OS: reddit.com/r/linux/comments/20lqba/linux_on_a_mac/cg4hhpb
– Alexey
Jun 22 '15 at 12:30