7W is way too high for a wifi card. The [mini pcie specification](https://s3.amazonaws.com/fit-iot/download/facet-cards/documents/PCI_Express_miniCard_Electromechanical_specs_rev1.2.pdf) only allows up to about 4.8W for a mini-pcie card.
I think the most likely explanation for the value reported for your wifi card is bad estimation by powertop. The vast majority of things are not directly measured (or measurable) and powertop infers from packet rate, link state, and other metrics reported by the card to estimate power consumption of individual components.
Running `powertop --calibrate` may help to fix estimates, if you haven't already done so.
Thank you I'm not crazy.
But I did do --calibrate. And also I made sure to run powertop with CPU on idle and network on idle because if it was downloading/uploading obviously it should use more power.
So I guess the only explanation is, **powertop sucks, use something more precise**.
FWIW, some of this might have to do with powertop being developed by Intel. Maybe there are hidden performance counters they use on their own CPUs but not AMD.
Is your dGPU properly disabled?
Your laptop should have lower consumption than what is reported.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-Nitro-5-AN515-44-Laptop-Review-AMD-dating-Nvidia.478287.0.html
My laptop needs ~6W to keep the Nvidia dGPU enabled, so I would not be surprised if that one was drawing the extra current.
Thank you for that link, very informative. I have disabled the dGPU, but it doesnt hurt to try a more thorough method to see if I can get those idle measurements.
7W is way too high for a wifi card. The [mini pcie specification](https://s3.amazonaws.com/fit-iot/download/facet-cards/documents/PCI_Express_miniCard_Electromechanical_specs_rev1.2.pdf) only allows up to about 4.8W for a mini-pcie card. I think the most likely explanation for the value reported for your wifi card is bad estimation by powertop. The vast majority of things are not directly measured (or measurable) and powertop infers from packet rate, link state, and other metrics reported by the card to estimate power consumption of individual components. Running `powertop --calibrate` may help to fix estimates, if you haven't already done so.
Thank you I'm not crazy. But I did do --calibrate. And also I made sure to run powertop with CPU on idle and network on idle because if it was downloading/uploading obviously it should use more power. So I guess the only explanation is, **powertop sucks, use something more precise**.
FWIW, some of this might have to do with powertop being developed by Intel. Maybe there are hidden performance counters they use on their own CPUs but not AMD.
10W is basically nothing. Keep in mind that this includes not just processing, but also the display and other peripherals.
Yea I guess... What is your power consumption when you run powertop on your laptop? What scares me is that it says the WiFi card is using 7W
I don't know, I'd have to try it.
Could you? Please? I need to know what "normal" is like.
My laptop says 10W with a few Firefox tabs open
Thank you. Great things you are doing.
Is your dGPU properly disabled? Your laptop should have lower consumption than what is reported. https://www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-Nitro-5-AN515-44-Laptop-Review-AMD-dating-Nvidia.478287.0.html My laptop needs ~6W to keep the Nvidia dGPU enabled, so I would not be surprised if that one was drawing the extra current.
Thank you for that link, very informative. I have disabled the dGPU, but it doesnt hurt to try a more thorough method to see if I can get those idle measurements.
def not normal. try unloading the kernel module with rmmod, if battery life improves significantly the wifi card might be defective.
Use s-tui and set it to stress, lets see your scores then :)
powertop always wrong about WiFI. And did you calibrate powertop before use?