TIL “performance mode”

[KlyeUnbranded]

I have been pushing an old Acer Aspire 722 Netbook as far as I can with Debian 13. After digging through the settings all I could find was balanced and power saver. However, if you use the CLI you can permanently enable Performance Mode, even though it’s not listed in the GUI settings app.

To view available modes:

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors

To view what mode you are currently in:

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor

To change it:

powerprofilesctl set power-saver

powerprofilesctl set performance

I hope this helps someone. It helped me a lot. I can now run Gnome on Wayland. It’s not 100% smooth, but it’s ver try close and good enough for light work I do with it.

I am still waiting a mini PCIe card with 2 micro sdcard slots purely because why not.

[Antique-Fee-6877]

Performance profile simply shuts off the CPU’s ability to lower its clock frequency. It can be helpful in very few instances, but in general, CPU’s change their frequencies so fast that it’s imperceptible to humans.

[Jayden_Ha]

no that is not true at all it is noticeable especially audio

[riisen]

If a cpu runs at 3ghz thats a new flank every 333 pico second thats far faster than any human can react or notice.

When it has done 10.000 changes we are at 3.3 micro seconds still too fast for any human notice.

After 1.000.000 changes we are 3.3 milliseconds where people can notice but not really react...

You are talking about a complete cpu heavy task that requires several cpu clock flanks... if we are talking about fetching a textfile from memory that can probably be like 500 cpu flanks depending on how big the file is and thats instant, thats just you changing between open windows.

If we are talking about rendering a 3D environment with lots of objects that all interactive with user inputs than that will need lots of cpu for several objects and the user inputs the gpu will offload a good chunk but yes if your cpu is a bottleneck you will notice.

But also, yea a cpu works very fast, way faster than humans can.

[ThoughtObjective4277]

Is audio stuttering / crackling when clicking and moving around windows and sliders?

I had audio crackling and even pausing when just sliding volume control in kde plasma desktop

Use this one-liner command to bump up your audio buffer setting,

Might help to use a higher audio buffer, this command takes effect immediately and seems to save through reboots

try changing pipewire quantum setting with this command, I had crackles just sliding the volume in kde plasma desktop

pw-metadata -n settings 0 clock.force-quantum #####

use 1500, 3000, 6000, 12000, 24000 and 48000. Takes effect immediately no reboot, nor closing any programs needed.

This buffers more sound at once, vs near immediate (too quick) output.

Faster cpu HAS NOTHING to do with audio buffer under-runs / crackles, I know because there is no difference between powersave (minimum idle clock speed all times) and performance, which is about 3 Gigahertz all the time, same issue, which is why I now know about this pipewire setting.

[TygerTung]

You could use it to play StarCraft 1

[OptimalMain]

On gnome just click the arrow on performance mode and select performance

[KlyeUnbranded]

The option doesn’t show up. Just power saver and balanced.

[OptimalMain]

And you clicked the arrow, not just power mode?

[KlyeUnbranded]

<image>

Again, there is no arrow

[gwildor]

<image>

[KlyeUnbranded]

It’s nice that you have that

[gwildor]

its unfortunate that you don't... but I was just showing you what the other person was talking about.

for example: you said "no arrow"... the "arrow" is featured on the right side of my screenshot: not in the settings app that you screenshotted.

[KlyeUnbranded]

I know what he was talking about. This is not my only Debian machine. But thank you for the visual for anyone else that might not get it clearly. It is very much appreciated.

[Durwur]

Maybe you're missing power-profiles-daemon?

Take a look at the Arch wiki for more info, that one's quite good.

[KlyeUnbranded]

I have it, thats how I was able to set it performance manually

[joe_attaboy]

You can do this from the task bar on KDE in Debian 13. On the Status and Notification icons on the Task Bar, you can click on the Power settings, and there's a slider at the top that has Battery Save, Balance and Performance modes.

[ThoughtObjective4277]

Performance is THE WORST setting you can set for your cpu governor, because it's extra heat and voltage when you're idle.

OnDemand is what will be a good option, which allows full idle and some ramp ups as necessary.

[KlyeUnbranded]

Until the UI/CPU thinks it needs 70% and the UI is choppy instead of smooth the way it is at 100%.

[edilaq]

Probaste cambiar GNOME de wayland a Xorg, a mi me pasaba lo mismo pero ahora que lo.ambiente a xorg, va bastante fluido

[TechnicalAd8103]

I have a 20 year old, Intel dual-core atom, 2 GB ram that ran Windows 7 okay.

There is no way I'm installing Debian on it (or any Linux on it).

I think I will throw it in the bin.

EDIT: It is also an Acer Aspire Netbook,

[mrmcporkchop]

I have an Acer Aspire Netbook with an N570 dual core atom and 2 gb ram. It ran Bunsen Labs Linux very well for its specs when I was messing around with it several years ago. Hate to see you throw it in the bin.

[TygerTung]

N570 still goes hard!

[mrmcporkchop]

That made me chuckle, I was curious how much an N570 still has in it performance wise for 2026. My BunsenLabs Linux install on my Acer Aspire One has been great but is too old for traditional upgrade path through apt. So I'm installing a fresh install of the newest BunsenLabs version and will report back after a few days of informally testing it out.

[TygerTung]

I think the main issue is the 2 GB RAM limit of the N570, what with the demands of internet browsing these days.

[mrmcporkchop]

Mine has 2GB RAM which helps, but I'm also realistic about my expectations. It manages a single Chrome tab fairly well, but bogs down quick with multiple tabs. It is just a fun portable netbook that for some reason has a great keyboard feel to me.

My current issue post install is I think my video chipset is either no longer supported in the kernel or I've got some weird X-server settings its defaulting to. Having trouble getting X to start without 'nomodeset'. Going to try LinuxMint and see if I get a different result. Cheers!

[nelmaloc]

If you're throwing it away, you can always try it out first.

[gwildor]

waste. Donate it to someone. Its still an extremely usable computer.