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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Would downscaling a display allow for better battery life? (feddit.uk)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hello. I know this isn't completely related to Linux, but I was still curious about it.

I've been looking at Linux laptops and one that caught my eye from Tuxedo had 13 hours of battery life on idle, or 9 hours of browsing the web. The thing is, that device had a 3k display.

My question is, as someone used to 1080p and someone that always tries to maximise the battery life out of a laptop, would downscaling the display be helpful? And if so, is it even worth it, or are the benefits too small to notice?

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[–] PetteriPano 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

My PowerBook G4 might be a bit dated, but running other resolutions than native is quite heavy on that thing. Your built-in display can handle one resolution only - anything else will require upscaling.

Your GPU can probably do that upscaling for cheap. But cheaper than rendering your desktop applications? 🤷‍♂️

You'll have to benchmark your particular device with powertop.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Isn't rescaling usually done by the display driver? I am fairly certain this is the case for external displays. Are laptop displays any different?

Edit: with "display driver" I mean the hardware chip behind the display panel, dedicated to converting a video signal to the electrical signals necessary to turn on the individual pixels.

[–] PetteriPano 2 points 1 week ago

For an external display I'd bet the case is the hardware driver for the panel.

At least my 17" Powerbook G4 with a massive 2560x1440 display does it in the software display driver. I'm sure some laptop panels do it in hardware as well, but seems there's some very janky shit going on at least with laptops that have both integrated and discrete GPUs.