How to fix high power consumption when Intel Arc graphics card is Idle

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The Intel Arc A series graphics card has the problem of excessive standby power consumption, and the average power consumption during standby is 48.7W. Under normal circumstances, the standby power consumption of similar products from other manufacturers is much lower than that of Intel ARC graphics cards in the same scenario, and most of them are half or less.

Image: ASRock

In response to this problem, Intel officials have recently provided corresponding solutions and explained the reasons. According to the official guidelines, users must first configure the BIOS:
  1. Allow OS controlled ASPM by setting Native ASPM to Enabled.
  2. Enable PCI Express root port ASPM and select L1 Substates.

If users are not sure where to find these settings, they can consult the motherboard manual or contact the corresponding motherboard manufacturer, because different manufacturers may have different names for the same settings. The next step is to configure the Windows* power settings, as follows:

  1. Go to Start > System > Power & sleep.
  2. Click on Additional power settings.
  3. Select your preferred plan and click on Change plan settings.
  4. Click on Change advanced power settings.
  5. Look for PCI Express.
  6. Click on the ‘+‘ sign next to PCI Express to expand the options.
  7. Click on the ‘+‘ sign next to Link State Power Management to expand the options.
  8. Select Maximum power savings as the Setting using the drop-down menu.
  9. Click Apply and then OK.

Intel said Active-state power management (ASPM) is a power management mechanism for PCI Express devices to garner power savings while otherwise in a fully active state. Currently, two low power modes are specified by the PCI Express 2.0 specification: L0s and L1 mode. For Arc A-series graphics cards, ASPM L1 mode and global OS settings must be enabled to support their low power modes.

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