On Sat, Apr 9, 2011 at 8:21 AM, Matthew Monaco <dgbaley27@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On 04/08/2011 02:11 AM, Tom Gundersen wrote: >> >> On Fri, Apr 8, 2011 at 10:38 AM, Matthew Monaco<dgbaley27@xxxxxxxxxxx> >> wrote: >>> >>> I like having volume control for HDMI out. And I like that this >>> mysterious >>> starving audio, playing silence, glitch has disappeared. But I don't like >>> that pulse uses so much CPU and i think it's a major reason why my >>> computer >>> is runn 5-8 degrees C hotter with gnome3 >> >> FWIW, this is almost certainly a bug that can be fixed. In my >> experience PA allows huge power savings compared to ALSA (down from >> more than 100 wakeups/sec to less than 10 wakeups/sec). >> >> Try debugging a bit to see what is going on powertop2 should be very >> helpful. >> >> Cheers, >> >> Tom >> > > I don't see how your CPU can be _less_ active with PA. I thought PA added a > layer that didn't exist before and didn't actually remove anything. > > I'll say though, that changing VLC from 'default' or explicitly ALSA to > PulseAudio dropped CPU usage of PA from ~16% to 3%. (It's mysterious to me > why that 3% remains when the media is paused though). > > I guess I need to go through gstreamer and other app-specific settings and > explicitly point to PA. > PA buffers better than ALSA, or is supposed to, in any case. Of course, if you're using its ALSA-emulation that's a moot point. AFAICR (haven't had this problem for ages), CPU usage from PA is basically caused by the resampling, which you can just modify to a simpler method if you don't need the higher quality of the default (speex, I believe). So yes, PA would save CPU cycles and battery (its meant for use on cellphones as well, after all, the nokia people were involved at some point).
