Underclock RPi

[helpme]

I know this sounds silly. Everyone is talking about overclocking. But I would like to know if it is possible to underclock RPi because this may lead to lower power consumption. Is this even possible?

[itimpi]

Yes it is possible, but those who have tried it have reported negligible power saving.

[helpme]

Yes it is possible, but those who have tried it have reported negligible power saving.

Will undervoltage help? Can undervoltage be done on the broadcom chip in the first place?

[hojnikb]

nope. not much.
Its not the arm, that uses all the power. It's the usb/eth combo chip, that sux power and inefficient switching chips for 3V3 and 1V8 voltage.

If you want to get lower power consumption, you need to get model A, then replace regulators with more efficient ones and lastly try underclocking/undervolting.

[Thaddy]

See it as shopping with your girlfriend/wife/partner. Never noticed that her slow pace feels like it actually costs your MORE energy to keep up with (and money, that's a different subject) than keeping your own pace? Same with hardware, most of the time. No joke: some microcode/paths may very well be very unhappy with underclocking. It's rather finely tuned. There is definitely also a minimum speed and current given a certain processor implementation in hardware that keeps your system happy.

[drgeoff]

nope. not much.
Its not the arm, that uses all the power. It's the usb/eth combo chip, that sux power and inefficient switching chips for 3V3 and 1V8 voltage.

If you want to get lower power consumption, you need to get model A, then replace regulators with more efficient ones and lastly try underclocking/undervolting.

I think that if you search this forum you'll find that others have already investigated the "inefficient chips for 3v3 and 1v8" (which are not switching regulators) and concluded that there is little if anything to be gained in reduced power consumption by changing them to switching types.

[pluggy]

The biggest saving is using a model 'A', it uses about a third of the power of the 'B'. Everything else will make negligible savings.

[AndrewS]

There's lots of good information on http://www.daveakerman.com/?page_id=1294