Fedora burns twice as much power as Ubuntu

Ask Fedora
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This is an interesting finding, and powertop is a great tool.

I personally do not care much about power efficiency and use performance profile 100%, but curious to see where the discrepancy is coming from.

here are some suggestions, give it a try (i kept links just in case you’ll want to dig deeper):

Analysis of Power Consumption Issue on Fedora 43 KDE

You’ve encountered a known problem: Fedora KDE consumes approximately twice as much power at idle compared to Ubuntu on the same hardware. This isn’t specifically a Lunar Lake issue, but rather a matter of Fedora/KDE configuration and lack of default optimizations.discussion.fedoraproject​

Why This Happens

Main causes of high power consumption:

  1. PowerTOP not enabled by default — power-saving settings aren’t activated automatically on Fedora. Ubuntu automatically applies optimizations.fedoramagazine​
  2. CPU frequency scaling — On Intel Lunar Lake, intel_pstate with HWP (Hardware-managed P-States) is used, but settings may be suboptimal.wiki.archlinux​
  3. ASPM (Active State Power Management) — PCIe bus power management may be disabled, adding 1-2W of consumption.frame+1​
  4. Lack of TLP or tuned — Fedora doesn’t have aggressive power-saving settings by default, unlike Ubuntu.reddit​
  5. Background services — KDE and Fedora may have more active background processes consuming resources.discussion.fedoraproject+1​

How to Check Where Energy Is Going

1. Install powertop and run diagnostics:

bash

sudo dnf install powertop
sudo powertop --calibrate  # ~1 hour calibration

After calibration, run in interactive mode:

bash

sudo powertop

What to check:

  • “Frequency stats” tab — CPU should be in high C-states (C8 is deepest)
  • “Idle stats” tab — time spent idle
  • “Tunables” tab — power-saving settings (red = Bad, green = Good)linuxconfig+1​

2. Check CPU frequency scaling driver:

bash

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_driver

On Lunar Lake, it should show intel_pstate. If it shows intel_cpufreq, that’s passive mode.

3. Check ASPM status:

bash

journalctl -b | grep ASPM

It should be enabled. If disabled, add to kernel parameters: pcie_aspm=powersave

4. Review powertop output:

Look at the “Tunables” section for any “Bad” items that can be optimized.redhat+1​

Step-by-Step Optimization

Step 1: Basic optimization with powertop

bash

sudo powertop --auto-tune
sudo systemctl enable powertop.service
sudo systemctl start powertop.service

This activates all “Good” settings. Expect 1-2W reduction.fedoramagazine​

Step 2: Use TLP (more flexible option)

bash

sudo dnf install tlp
sudo systemctl enable tlp.service
sudo systemctl start tlp.service

Edit /etc/tlp.conf:

bash

PCIE_ASPM_ON_BAT=powersupersave
CPU_SCALING_GOVERNOR_ON_BAT=powersave
WIFI_PWR_ON_BAT=on
USB_AUTOSUSPEND=1

This should provide 1-2W savings.reddit+1​

Step 3: Enable ASPM in grub

Edit /etc/default/grub:

bash

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="pcie_aspm=powersave"

Then:

bash

sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
sudo reboot

Step 4: Use Battery profile in KDE

In KDE power settings, select the “Power Save” profile when on battery. This limits turbo boost and reduces background activity.discussion.fedoraproject​

Step 5: Optimize with tuned

Fedora includes tuned for power profiles:

bash

sudo dnf install tuned
sudo systemctl enable tuned
sudo tuned-adm profile powersave

This works well with powertop for comprehensive optimization.discussion.fedoraproject​

Lunar Lake Specific Considerations

Several Fedora users on Lunar Lake have achieved 3-4W during light usage using the balanced-battery profile with powertop. On ThinkPad X1 Carbon with 258v, some reached 12+ hours battery life with a 56Wh battery.reddit​

Critical note: Lunar Lake only supports s2idle (not S3 deep sleep), which means minor drain during suspend (~1.3%/hour) is normal.discussion.fedoraproject+1​

Verifying Results

After all optimizations, run:

bash

sudo powertop --calibrate
sudo powertop  # after an hour of data collection

Target result: 2.0-2.5W at idle with screen at 10% brightness, Wi-Fi enabled.

About acpi_osi=“!darwin”

This parameter was needed for old MacBooks. On modern Lunar Lake, it’s not required and may cause issues — don’t add it unless necessary. Lunar Lake initializes correctly with default ACPI settings.kernel+1​

Final Recommendation

Start with powertop --auto-tune, then install TLP with ASPM powersupersave, and verify results through powertop. If there’s still a difference under 1W, it may simply be distribution-level differences in background services. In that case, optimize background processes (disable unnecessary systemd services, ensure Bluetooth and Wi-Fi aren’t constantly active in the background).discussion.fedoraproject+3​

Assisted-by: Perplexity