CPU Unpark

Trying to find a balance between computer performance and power consumption remains a challenge for CPU manufacturers. In order to improve energy saving, functions such as CPU core parking were introduced. This function allows the power management engine and the scheduler to decide upon the number of cores that are actively running threads at a point in time. However, the user has no control over the CPU state but CPU Unpark is designed to change that, giving you the freedom to adjust the core parking index.

The application requires no installation and is ready to go as soon as you launch it. It features a modern-looking interface that comprises a real-time graphical representation of the CPU usage. The number of enabled cores is displayed alongside the number of parked cores, which are CPU cores that are put to a low power state for energy saving purposes.

The main window of CPU Unpark also displays the selected power plan. You can change this with a few clicks from the drop-down menu by choosing between a balanced, a high-performance and a power saver plan, the three standard options available in Windows. The system’s power state is also shown (for instance, with laptops, you get to see if the machine is plugged in).

The lower side of the windows includes a slider that helps you adjust the core parking index. It ranges from 0% to 100% and can be freely adjusted using the mouse cursor. In the following, we will describe an example to show how the index adjustment actually works.

For a computer with 6 cores, for instance, each core will represent approximately 17% of its total power. If we want the machine to never park 2 cores out of 6 and be allowed only to toggle a low power state for 4 cores only, we have to set the index to 34%, given that 17*2 equals 34. A value of the index closer to 0 allows the PC to park any number of cores, while an index with a value near 100% instructs the machine to force all cores to run at top performance at all times. Once the “Apply” button is clicked, the changes take effect.

An application such as CPU Unpark gives you a bit more control over the way your computer handles the power-performance dilemma. You get to decide how the CPU acts and, depending on your goal, you can change the number of CPU cores that are allowed to park. If you want more performance, then you can set the index close to the maximum value. Otherwise, if you are targeting energy efficiency, you can configure the PC to park a higher number of cores.