· Power Management BIOS Settings are now enabled for PowerEdge R715 and R815.
· Detailed information on these BIOS settings can be found in the Power Management Modes section below.
Ordering Information
PowerEdge R715 and R815BIOS Setting
Option / SKU / Description
HPBIOS / 330-3492 / Performance BIOS Setting
ESBIOS / 330-3491 / Power Saving BIOS Setting
ESPBIOS / 330-5116 / Dell Active Power Controller BIOS Setting
Power Management Modes:
OS Control
AMD processors support Enhanced AMD Power Now which enables the processor to dynamically change its operating frequency in response to workload changes. The industry standard implementation of this power management feature is in the Operating System (OS). The OS monitors process/thread level utilization of the processor and uses processor controls to change the processor’s operating frequency. For heavy workloads, the OS will run the processor at higher frequencies for additional performance. Lighter workloads do not need high performance, thus the OS will run the processor at lower frequencies.
Active Power Controller
The Dell Active Power Controller (DAPC) is a Dell proprietary implementation that provides improved performance/watt over the OS implementation of AMD Power Now. DAPC was first released with the 11G server platforms. DAPC is implemented in system BIOS and uses hardware level counters, etc to determine hardware utilization. BIOS uses this information to determine when to change the processor’s operating frequency.
DAPC is OS independent. The OS no longer has control. This provides a consistent power management solution regardless of the installed OS. Some OS(s), particularly hypervisors, do not support power management, thus DAPC provides a solution when there otherwise would not be one.
Maximum Performance
The Maximum Performance Mode disables power management. In this mode, the processor frequency is statically set to the highest supported frequency.