Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Powerstate in Dual Head Mode

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Powerstate in Dual Head Mode

    I have a Thinkpad T60 with X1400.

    The machine works quite well as long as I don't put it into the docking station. If I do, I get DualHead upon reboot, that works quite well, but as we know aticonfig doesn't allow powerstate switching upon using DualHead and for good reason, because if I use atipower to force switching to the 128MHz mode, I get screen corruption with DualHead, other modes are ok though.

    I'm not entirely sure whether atipower really works in that mode, though. While switches are displayed, the GPU occasionally jumps from 60 to 75 degree (in like <1s) which makes the fan go fullspeed (about 4000rpm) and myself go nuts. If not in the docking station and in low power state, I NEVER saw such jumps so I think there IS something about powerstate and DualHead that doesnt mix very well.

    For example, this is the output of the tpfancontrol script, the fourth integer is the GPU temperature, it's sampling every 2 seconds and I was just browsing the web, fan was not even running because of low load:

    L=0->0 EC=00 RPM= 0 T=(48 39 36 61 35 _ 32 _ , 37 50 46 , _ ) Z=0+00000_0_,010,_
    L=0->7 EC=00 RPM= 0 T=(49 39 36 76 35 _ 32 _ , 37 50 46 , _ ) Z=0+00060_0_,010,_
    > Changing fan level: 0->7 (temps: 49 39 36 76 35 _ 32 _ , 37 50 46 , _ )

    Why on earth does it jump up 15 degrees, makes the fans run full blast for a few seconds and then quickly goes back to 60 (in about 15seconds)?

    This is using fglrx as supplied in Ubuntu 7.04 (I cant seem to get the latest 8.36 to compile on Feisty, it complains it has no support for Xorg 7.2...) so I can't test if Catalyst Control Center could do anything for me, really.

    Is there anything I can do to prevent the GPU temperature from skyrocketing for no apparent reason (I just use 2D apps, and nothing fancy at that, sometimes I happens if konqueror has to render a new directory or something like that, irritating as hell, anyway)?
    Last edited by bimbo; 18 May 2007, 09:51 AM.

  • #2
    PowerPlay is not currently supported by fglrx when using multiple display heads.

    ATIpower (http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=9367) could possibly work to downclock, but as it uses PowerPlay, I would guess not.
    Michael Larabel
    https://www.michaellarabel.com/

    Comment


    • #3
      Well, it does claim to switch powerstates (and the display corruption with lowest mode indicates it DOES DO SOMETHING)
      Even aticonfig agrees on that:
      core/mem [flags]
      -----------------
      1: 128/135 MHz [low voltage]
      * 209/135 MHz [low voltage]
      2: 324/135 MHz
      3: 446/351 MHz [default state]

      But I cant figure out if the chip actually gets to run on a slower clock...

      Comment

      Working...
      X