2009-04-02, 18:58
I just noticed a post over at the Mediaportal forums mentioning they had implemented a new screensaver mode that drop the FPS to 5fps so that machines which are always powered on (like mine which runs as a home server and XBMC client in one) use less power when the frontend isn't being used.
I thought this would be a cool thing to add to XBMC so had a poke around before making a request, and what do you know those clever XBMC guys already have it implemented!
To make use of the feature it seems you have to set your screensaver in XBMC to 'blank' instead of 'dim' (even though both visibly dim the screen.. blank doesn't actually blank it fully!)
Just tested and found;
Dim Screensaver - Average CPU % 15 to 20 - FPS stays at around 55fps
Blank Screensaver - Average CPU % 4 - FPS drops to 10fps
Should help to keep the energy bills down and keep things running cooler.. while doing your bit for the planet at the same time.
Hope this is of use to some of you guys who leave XBMC running 24x7 like me!
I thought this would be a cool thing to add to XBMC so had a poke around before making a request, and what do you know those clever XBMC guys already have it implemented!
To make use of the feature it seems you have to set your screensaver in XBMC to 'blank' instead of 'dim' (even though both visibly dim the screen.. blank doesn't actually blank it fully!)
Just tested and found;
Dim Screensaver - Average CPU % 15 to 20 - FPS stays at around 55fps
Blank Screensaver - Average CPU % 4 - FPS drops to 10fps
Should help to keep the energy bills down and keep things running cooler.. while doing your bit for the planet at the same time.
Hope this is of use to some of you guys who leave XBMC running 24x7 like me!
