Bitsum Dynamic Boost
Automatically switch power plans when your PC enters and leaves the idle state
Power Plan change Notifications
Notifications of when and what process changed your active power plan (image)
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Introduction to CPU Core Parking
CPU Parking is a low-power sleep state (C6) supported by most modern processors and operating systems. It dynamically disables CPU cores in an effort to conserve power when idle. Unfortunately, this power saving comes at a price: Latency when CPUs need unparked to execute code.
Initially, core parking was controlled entirely by the operating system. The aggressive core parking of Windows led to a great deal of inefficiency during bursting CPU loads. Intel moved core parking control onto the chip in the Skylake generation, and AMD followed, but still the parameters of the Windows power plans are set to aggressively park CPU cores. Even the default ‘High Performance’ power plan is not immune. The new ‘Ultra Performance’ power plan copies what Bitsum did with our own ‘Bitsum Highest Performance’ power plan and finally disables core parking entirely.
ParkControl (and Process Lasso) not only let one more easily configure CPU core parking and frequency scaling, but also allow for dynamic entrance into a higher performance power plan. For instance, with Process Lasso, you can automatically enter ‘Bitsum Highest Performance’ will you start a game, then go back to ‘Balanced’ when you exit.
ParkControl has Dynamic Boost to allow you to set active and idle power plans. Process Lasso has a similar feature with its IdleSaver.
Efficacy of Disabling Core Parking
Empirical evidence shows that disabling CPU core parking can make a tangible improvement in system performance. There are many factors that will determine precisely how effective it will be for a given situation. However, generally, Windows is too aggressive in its core parking, resulting in high latency during bursting CPU loads, stemming from the overhead of having to unpark CPU cores. Since bursting CPU loads are the most common type for many workloads, core parking can be a substantial drag on system performance and responsiveness.
Using ParkControl
ParkControl lets you easily set CPU core parking and frequency scaling parameters for both AC (plugged-in) and DC (battery) power states of your device.
Both CPU core parking and frequency scaling are power saving features of modern CPUs. CPU core parking is when cores are put into a sleep-like state when demand is low. Similarly, CPU frequency scaling allows the CPU base frequency to be lowered, again to conserve energy.
Each power plan has its own settings, and can be selected via the power plan drop-down. When you select a power plan, the user interface will populate with that power plan’s settings. After making changes, click the ‘Apply’ button to save them. Use the ‘Make active’ button to switch the PC to that power plan.
Settings
Parking
Enable or disable CPU core parking in the selected power plan.
Freq Scaling
Enable or disable CPU frequency scaling in the selected power plan.
Heterogenous Policy
Core parking policy for heterogeneous systems, e.g. Intel 12th+ gen with E-cores. Hetero Parking is more energy efficient, and Standard Parking is more performant.
Short/Long Threads
For heterogenous systems, this selection indicates how to schedule short and long running threads. For instance, long running threads can be relegated to the E-cores. Possible values: 0: All processors 1: Performant processors 2: Prefer performant processors 3: Efficient processors 4: Prefer efficient processors 5: Automatic
Advanced: Parking %
The percent of CPU cores that must remain unparked. Set to 100% to disable core parking entirely.
Advanced: Freq %
The minimum percent of the base CPU frequency allowed. Set to 100% to disable below-basefrequency scaling.
Bitsum Dynamic Boost
When checked, Bitsum’s Dynamic Boost is enabled. This is a feature to automatically switch your device between power plans based on user activity. When active, use one power plan, and when idle use another.
Show power plan change notifications
When checked, notifications will be shown when the user or an application changes the active power plan.
Show park settings in Windows Power Options
This toggles the visibility of core parking settings in Windows advanced power plan edit dialog.
How to Restore Defaults
Any changes you make with ParkControl are easily reverted. To restore defaults of a power plan, simply click the ‘Restore defaults’ link shown on the user interface. You can select each stock power plan (or overlay) to restore the defaults of it.
Non-stock power plans such as Bitsum Highest Performance can be restored to default by deleting and recreating them.
Changing Parking Settings Using PowerCfg.exe
Instead of using ParkControl, you can change power settings from the Window’s command line interface via Powercfg.exe. You must run this utility with elevated rights, so be sure to open an elevated console window by right-clicking ‘cmd.exe’ and selecting ‘Run as Administrator’.
Note that these commands adjust the currently active power plan, as indicated by SCHEME_CURRENT.
First, backup ALL your Power Settings by creating a dump of everything to a TXT file. It is unlikely you will ever need this, but…
powercfg /qh > powerconfig.txt
We’ll be reconfiguring the power plan attribute CPMINCORES (0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583).
To mandate 50% of available cores always remain unparked, run:
All the above configure core parking while the system is plugged into AC power. For DC (battery) power, core parking is usually forced, but to configure it you would instead use ‘-setdcvalueindex’.
APPLY New Settings, NOW!
After changing the power scheme settings for CPU Parking as desired, you then want to make the changes active by running the command:
powercfg /setactive SCHEME_CURRENT
With ParkControl, a reboot is NOT required for these changes to take effect – in contrast to direct registry edits or other core parking software.
After applying tweaks, check the Windows Resource Monitor (resmon.exe) and verify that CPU Parking is indeed as you intend,
How to Show Core Parking Options in Advanced Power Options
This gets tricky because not all settings apply to all models. There is, however, a general ON/OFF switch that DOES apply to all CPU models. Below we’ll present the most commonly used simple ON/OFF core parking switch, and how to show it in the Windows Advanced Power Options without any registry edits!
Execute the following commands to hide or un-hide the primary ON/OFF switch for core parking in the power plans.
Click here for AnandTech’s excellent article on Skylake Autonomous Mode settings. Click here for a list of more power plan attributes.
FAQ
If I have Process Lasso, do I need ParkControl? Can I run them together?
You do not need it, but you may choose to also have it installed.
ParkControl offers these additional features over Process Lasso:
A real-time system tray icon showing CPU core parking status
Easy access to CPU core parking settings
Power plan change notifications
Longer answer:
ParkControl is a distinct product that can be run in tandem with Process Lasso. If you already have Process Lasso, then you don’t need it, but may wish to use it.
ParkControl is most commonly used to manually adjust existing power plans to disable core parking.
Process Lasso’s Bitsum Highest Performance power plan already includes those adjustments.
ParkControl also has the ability to show notifications when the active power plan changes, Process Lasso doesn’t have that.
The one overlapping feature is ParkControl’s Dynamic Boost is very similar to Process Lasso’s IdleSaver.
What are these overlays? Where is the Bitsum Highest Performance power plan?
If only you see ‘overlays’ and no Bitsum Highest Performance (BHP) power plan, that means your system is using Power Modes in lieu of traditional power plans. In this case, the BHP power plan is not necessary and ‘Maximum Performance’ should be used instead. If you want to tweak that power plan, you can use ParkControl to do so!
How can I enable Power Modes (overlays)?
Switching to Power Modes
Users can switch to Power Modes (overlays) by entering the ‘Balanced’ power plan, then opening the System Power settings and selecting one of the three Power Modes, as shown below. Alternatively, the battery icon in the tray can be used to select a Power Mode. After doing this, restart ParkControl for them to show up.
See this post for more information.
I want to use Dynamic Boost, but my PC keeps going to sleep. How do I fix this?
When your PC goes Idle, Dynamic Boost switches to ‘Power Saver‘. If you do not want your PC to sleep, you need to change that setting for the Power Saver power plan. To do this, open ‘Power Options‘, find ‘Power Saver‘, and edit it. You can also switch to it, then change the sleep settings in their separate config area in Windows.
Will disabling CPU core parking and frequency scaling improve performance?
CPU core parking and frequency scaling can have a dramatic impact on real-time performance of bursting loads like audio/video, gaming, VOIP, and more. That is a big reason we have made such a ‘fuss’ over them. It was nice to be ‘vindicated’ by Intel, who has moved core parking control to the hardware in new CPU generations because the OS’s management was so sub-optimal. As long as they retain the ability to disable core parking, and I’m sure they will, it should be a good change. Microsoft seemed to focus entirely on battery life in recent years, leaving performance to suffer, particularly for desktop users.
Should I manually edit the registry instead?
No, direct registry edits are not advisable. ParkControl makes these changes the correct way. The storage of the settings is backed in the registry, but why would you go hacking around in there when you can make these changes the right way and not risk damage? ParkControl’s changes to the system power plans are persistent, they don’t go away.
My CPU cores won’t park! What is wrong?
First, if you never saw your CPU cores park, then it may be that your system just doesn’t support core parking. If you have seen your cores park in the past, but aren’t seeing parking activity, double check with the Task Manager or Resource Monitor (resmon.exe) to make sure it is not just a display error in the ParkControl GUI.
Do ParkControl's changes persist?
ParkControl changes settings of the Windows power plans based on your selections. These changes persist even if ParkControl is not running or uninstalled. For system defined power plans, you can reset to defaults in the Windows Power Options (linked to from the ParkControl GUI).
I can't activate ParkControl Pro. What is the issue?
First, ensure that you are using the right activation code. You can use any name. Do not confuse the ‘purchase key’ on the invoice with the activation code. They are the same format.
Otherwise, failure could be caused by a temporary network problem, or prior use of a pirated copy of our software that modified your system HOSTS file, preventing resolution of our servers.
Try installing Process Lasso from https://bitsum.com/. It will alert you if the HOSTS file was modified. If you don’t see a warning, then it wasn’t the cause. You can later uninstall Process Lasso.
Core parking is already disabled on my system, should I enable it to save energy?
ParkControl is normally used to disable core parking to achieve a performance boost, not enable it. Enabling core parking can cause performance problems with some CPUs, depending on how aggressive the parameters are. That said, yes, you can save energy by enabling core parking, but we recommend only doing that in select power plans, such as Power Saver.
What does AC and DC mean?
AC = When your device is plugged in.
DC = When your device is using its battery.
Why isn't my CPU frequency as high as I expect?
The CPU frequency displayed is an average of your based (non-boosted) current CPU core clocks. There are multiple ways to represent CPU frequency, and this is the one chosen by ParkControl. Boosted and all-CPU frequencies may not be reflected.
I get a message, "ERROR: The core parking settings could not be applied.". How do I fix this?
Process Lasso’s ProBalance technology helps maintain system responsiveness in the face of high loads. Background processes are kept in check and lags are reduced.
(1) GUI: Show advanced view by default
(3) GUI: Expand heterogenous dropdown control widths to improve text fit
v4.2.0.14 – Sept 15, 2023
Add indicators for E-cores to graphs
(1) GUI.CoreGraphs: Overlay leaf icon on Efficiency cores
(1) GUI.CoreGraphs: Append 'Efficiency' to tooltip when E-core
(1) GUI.CoreGraphs: Owner draw on light themes (changes appearance)
(5) GUI: Expand widths of hetero dropdown controls
(7) GUI: Automatically repair registry to fix 'ERROR: The core parking settings could not be applied.' (caused by damage from unidentified third-party software or guidance on web)
(9) GUI: Assorted minor adjustments
v4.1.0.16 – Sept 1, 2023
Add Heterogenous Thread Scheduling Policies
Fix an issue where cores could incorrectly show as parked on Intel 12th+ (also impacts Task Manager and Resource Monitor)
Allow installation of BHP alongside Power Modes by experimental option
(5) GUI: Add experimental setting 'Always Show Bitsum Highest Performance' to show BHP alongside power modes (overlays) (7) GUI: Expand width of some static controls for translations (11) GUI: Add short/long Hetero Thread Scheduling policies (13) GUI: Show 'install/uninstall BHP' control if 'Always Show BHP' is set, and handle appropriately (15) GUI: Don't show cores as parked if there is a load on them, despite performance counter values; fixes cores can show incorrectly as parked, an issue also impacting Task Manager and Resource Monitor.
v4.0.0.44 – Aug 24, 2023
Change UI control layout, grouping AC and DC settings
Add Recent Power Plan Events display
Add Heterogenous Scheduling Policy setting
(1) Add 'Settings\Experimental\Always Show Efficiency Class Selection' menu item
(7) GUI: Translation updates
(7) GUI: Add success messagebox to 'Restore defaults' action
(21) GUI: Remove slider controls
(21) GUI: Reorient UI controls, grouping AC and DC settings
(21) GUI: Add Heterogenous Scheduling Policy for heterogenous systems
(23) GUI: Remove icon in upper left
(33) Installer: Fix uninstaller unintentionally created a ProcessLasso registry key while checking for its existence
(37) GUI: Add 'Tools\Show Recent Power Plan Events' menu item and dialog
(43) GUI: When editing a custom plan with no default frequency scaling value, use 5% as failsafe default (was 10%)
v3.0.1.2 – Jan 23, 2023
(1) Fix 'Show park settings in Windows Power Options' checkbox was dysfunctional in last version
v3.0.0.38 – Nov 10, 2022
Support for Balanced Power Modes (overlays)
Refactor Dynamic Boost feature
Assortment of other enhancements
(3) Add support for Balanced Power Modes (overlays)
(11) Refactored Dynamic Boost internals
(13) Enhance update package integrity check
(13) Show CPU Utility % instead of Time % on core utilization graphs, when available
(17) Add support for topologies where a NUMA node contains more than 64 logical cores, spanning multiple groups (e.g. 3995wx on Win10 21H1+)
(17) Add Dynamic Boost option to disable when device is in Battery Saver mode, defaults ON
(17) Add Dynamic Boost option to disable when device on battery power (DC), defaults OFF
(17) In free edition, allow Dynamic Boost config to be opened, but not enabled
(25) Add app menu to main window
(27) During uninstall on overlay systems, change to 'Better Battery' (mid) overlay
(31) Add power line (AC/DC) and Battery Saver status
(33) Cosmetic work
(33) Allow defaults to be restored for power overlays
(33) Limit unhide of core parking options specifically to that setting
(33) On Win10 also unhide class 1 parking settings when unhide option checked (not applicable to Win11)
(33) Hide install BHP syslink control on power mode systems
(33) Add description to Dynamic Boost config dialog
