Power Consumption

High fan speed

Symptom: high fan speed on AC power.

Solution: refer to Reduce power consumption / fan noise on AC power.

Symptom: high fan speed during video playback.

Cause: missing hardware video acceleration.

Solution: check the web how to enable hardware video acceleration for your Linux distribution and/or web browser.

Symptom: fan speed never goes down.

Solution: uninstall or disable thermald.

Hybrid graphics

When your laptop shows a much higher power consumption under Linux than with the factory installed operating system, the most common cause is hybrid graphics.

Laptops with hybrid graphics contain two graphics processing units (GPUs), the primary one on the Intel or AMD processor die (‘integrated’, iGPU) and a secondary one by Nvidia or AMD (‘discrete’, dGPU).

Linux will use the iGPU by default, but the unoccupied dGPU may still draw lots of power for nothing. Because of the large number of combinations of kernels, drivers and hardware, TLP’s default configuration may not always produce optimal results.

Solution: try the following steps.

Step 1: Enable Runtime Power Management for GPU drivers

Remove all GPU drivers from the denylist, leaving only

RUNTIME_PM_DRIVER_DENYLIST="mei_me"

Version 1.3: use RUNTIME_PM_DRIVER_BLACKLIST

Apply the changed settings with

sudo tlp start

Anticipated result: the GPU will be suspended (power down) automatically when in idle state.

Note

nouveau: the open source driver for Nvidia GPUs enables runtime power management by default; keep it in RUNTIME_PM_DRIVER_DENYLIST to enable power saving and power down on AC too
nvidia: to enable power saving and power down on AC with the proprietary Nvidia GPU driver, enable runtime power management generally with RUNTIME_PM_ON_AC=”auto” or selectively for GPU id and sound controller id only with RUNTIME_PM_ENABLE.
radeon: there is not enough evidence available for the open source driver for older AMD GPUs; watch what happens when you remove it from the denylist
Remember to uncomment the config line by removing the leading #

Step 2a: Switch to the iGPU - Nvidia Optimus with proprietary driver and settings tool

Start nvidia-settings, goto PRIME Profiles, select Intel (Power Saving Mode). Logon again (or reboot).

Result: rendering the screen content is shifted to the iGPU, sending the dGPU to idle state, thus permitting runtime power management to power down the dGPU (see Step 1).

Step 2b: Switch to the iGPU - Other GPU hardware, drivers or tools

Nvidia: if you do not want to use nvidia-settings or prefer to employ the open source driver nouveau, look into Switcheroo and Optimus/Prime or Optimus-Manager (list does not claim to be exhaustive).
AMD: your mileage will vary depending on the driver, use amdgpu with Switcheroo (Gentoo Wiki) as a starting point.

Also look for tools already integrated into your specific Linux distribution or desktop. Last but not least, your laptop may permit to disable the dGPU in the BIOS setup.

Nvidia Optimus and Audio power saving

Concerns nouveau and nvidia drivers.

Disabling audio power saving on AC prevents automatic power down of the dGPU. Make sure you either use TLP’s defaults or change your different configuration to:

SOUND_POWER_SAVE_ON_AC=1
SOUND_POWER_SAVE_ON_BAT=1