We have created a terminal tool to monitor CPU frequency/utilization/Temperature. It now also supports monitoring power on Intel CPUs newer than Sandy-Bridge.
You can see the power graph in watts on the bottom as well as on the side bar.
This only reads total CPU power, not per process and not including other components.
Hi, new here. As we all know, battery life on Linux is often worse than windows out of the box (which is an issue that deserves its own post, so I won't rant on it here.) But nobody seems to be talking about the power draw disparity on desktop computers. Between the latest CPU/GPU power requirements and the cost of electricity getting to the point where people are starting to take their power bills into account for the first time, this concern is fresh in my mind. Can anyone confirm whether or not a desktop PC uses more power on Linux than Windows? Like, if you're gaming, does it use more power, or is it only using more power when running at idle or lighter tasks? I'd do it myself but I don't have a desktop. This seems like a pretty important topic nobody is talking about. I understand this is sort of a big ask, especially if you don't dual boot. But I feel like this is really important question that needs an answer.
Edit: I'd like to thank everyone for responding, especially the guy who linked some previously done tests that showed its not even worth worrying about. They called it unsatisfying, but I see that result as quite satisfying. In the age of mobile computing, it's pathetic that Linux uses more power than Windows on a laptop, glad to see that on desktop it's not as consistent of a problem.
We have created a terminal tool to monitor CPU frequency/utilization/Temperature. It now also supports monitoring power on Intel CPUs newer than Sandy-Bridge.
You can see the power graph in watts on the bottom as well as on the side bar.
This only reads total CPU power, not per process and not including other components.
The simple answer is: You can't by software
powertop seems to be fair in this situation
Use an electronic watt-meter
In instance check this link from intel
Which option I have to measure power consumption in Linux?
How can I find out the estimated power use of my desktop computer? - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange
linux - How to find power draw in watts? - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange
Linux power draw ON DESKTOP.
The power consumption depends on your hardware and usage of resources. I have a smart plug that shows me the draw at any point in time and although I feel resource management is better under Linux I didnt notice any significant difference in consumption between Linux and Windows under similar workloads.
Having said that, with similar consumption I found around a 10,000 points advantage with Linux on geekbench's CPU tests on my liquid cooled AMD 5900x (so Linux seems to do more with a similar amount of energy at the end of the day)
If you're so worried about consumption and you absolutely need to get the lowest possible energy consumption, get an efficient CPU (with a low TDP), get an efficient GPU (again, with a low TDP), turn off your LEDs (minor difference but every little bit counts), set up a quiet fan profile (again, not a huge difference but helps), undervolt, underclock, run in Eco mode or limit your energy consumption directly in the BIOS...
I guess my point is that ultimately, the electrical consumption is going to be more dependent on the hardware and what you do with it than it will be about the operating system.
Hope this helps...
Edit: added "hardware" to the first sentence ... and edit for clarity
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I know that powerstart let you know the power consumption of a laptop, but this software is not useful with a desktop computer.
Anyone knows a software to mesure the software consumption in a desktop and laptop computers?
Thks in advance
At that point, I would think about using a power monitor to measure the load on the computer at any time.
You could hook up your computer or surge protector to something like Tweet-a-Watt and then keep track of the metrics from there on a per day/week/month basis.
I imagine you could use ACPI/APM to monitor some aspects (and mayhaps power, as well) of the different components of a computer.
And if you're knowledgable about electronics, you could always home-grow your own solution by attaching voltmeters and ammeters to different components to see i.e. graphics card load, hard drive load, etc.
some UPS devices have displays that track power consumption, too, and there may be ways with the USB connectivity and a program like apcupsd to poll that kind of information for graphing with something like Cacti.
otherwise you're looking at a wall outlet with a display, like a Belkin Conserve Insight F7C005q Energy Use Monitor.
Btw, powertop will work with desktops and show power consumption, as long as you have a relatively modern Intel(tm) system (Intel as in Not AMD, not Intel as in Not Sparc).
If your computer actually keeps track of power (e.g. notebook), than on kernel 3.8.11 you can use the command below. It returns power measured in microwatts.
cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/power_now
This works on kernel 3.8.11 (Ubuntu Quantal mainline generic).
Another KISS solution, completing Adam's suggestion. This is for people who don't have a power_now file. (Arch)
echo - | awk "{printf \"%.1f\", \
$(( \
$(cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT1/current_now) * \
$(cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT1/voltage_now) \
)) / 1000000000000 }" ; echo " W "
Reports the actual power draw in Watts with one decimal place.
Hi, new here. So as we all know, battery life on Linux is often worse than windows out of the box. But nobody seems to be talking about the power draw disparity on desktop computers. Between CPU and GPU power requirements and the cost of electricity getting to the point where people are starting to take their power bills into account for the first time, this concern is fresh in my mind. Can anyone confirm whether or not a desktop PC uses more power on Linux than Windows? I'd do it myself but I don't have a desktop. This seems like a pretty important topic nobody is talking about. I understand this is sort of a big ask, especially if you don't dual boot.
The power consumption depends on your hardware and usage of resources. I have a smart plug that shows me the draw at any point in time and although I feel resource management is better under Linux I didnt notice any significant difference in consumption between Linux and Windows under similar workloads.
Having said that, with similar consumption I found around a 10,000 points advantage with Linux on geekbench's CPU tests on my liquid cooled AMD 5900x (so Linux seems to do more with a similar amount of energy at the end of the day)
If you're so worried about consumption and you absolutely need to get the lowest possible energy consumption, get an efficient CPU (with a low TDP), get an efficient GPU (again, with a low TDP), turn off your LEDs (minor difference but every little bit counts), set up a quiet fan profile (again, not a huge difference but helps), undervolt, underclock, run in Eco mode or limit your energy consumption directly in the BIOS...
I guess my point is that ultimately, the electrical consumption is going to be more dependent on the hardware and what you do with it than it will be about the operating system.
Hope this helps...
Edit: added "hardware" to the first sentence ... and edit for clarity
I know that my CPU usage is lower on Linux, but I didn't measure my power consumption.