Ubuntu running cooler than Mint/Debian

[kc1di]

For some reason which I have not delved into Ubuntu 22.04 LTS /gnome DE is running 10 degrees cooler on my laptop than ether Debian 11 or Mint.
Not sure why but like that. Not a big fan of gnome but think I'll leave it in for a bit see what transpires.
Ubuntu -gnome - 35 to 44C
Mint Cinnamon - 48-56C
Debian 11 XFCE - 45-57C Occaionlly under load up to 70C

 

[Brickwizard]

@kc1di
as you know, I swapped to Mint LMDE on the desktop when I installed my NVMe drive, not only is it faster [combination of NVMe & LMDE] its also a lot cooler
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 29.8 C mobo: 27.8 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A

it was running at around 45 C

 

[kc1di]

I may have to give LMDE a spin, But need to wait a few days.

 

[CrazedNerd]

It might have something to do with the shell variables and the way they interact with the operating system, but yes that is some very interesting info.

 

[Oldhabbits]

Ubuntu gnome - 35 to 44
Probably because gnome is virtually empty these days ? ;-)
Greetz,
Eddy

 

[osprey]

For some reason which I have not delved into Ubuntu 22.04 LTS /gnome DE is running 10 degrees cooler on my laptop than ether Debian 11 or Mint.
Not sure why but like that. Not a big fan of gnome but think I'll leave it in for a bit see what transpires.
Ubuntu -gnome - 35 to 44C
Mint Cinnamon - 48-56C
Debian 11 XFCE - 45-57C Occaionlly under load up to 70C

It may depend on the respective settings of the cpufreq governors. Those available may include: conservative, powersave, ondemand, userspace, performance, schedutil. On this system, it's powersave:

[[email protected] ~]$ cpufreq-info
cpufrequtils 008: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2009
Report errors and bugs to [email protected], please.
analyzing CPU 0:
  driver: intel_pstate
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
  maximum transition latency: 4294.55 ms.
  hardware limits: 800 MHz - 3.70 GHz
  available cpufreq governors: performance, powersave
  current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 3.70 GHz.
                  The governor "powersave" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency is 800 MHz.
<snip>

It could be something else as well, but this was just a thought since it does affect cpu temperature. The effectiveness of the fan is also another variable, and that can vary with distros. Maybe depends on power management.

 

[KGIII]

Hmm... You might be onto something. The Ubuntu flavors ship with 'powersave' and Mint ships with 'ondemand'.

I think... That's going by memory and at least checking both Ubuntu and Lubuntu. I do have an LMDE box, but it is powered off currently and I am too lazy to walk across the house to turn it on.

 

[kc1di]

I can confirm that all CPUs are using powersave and that maybe the difference I did not check Mint or Debian before installing Ubuntu. So can't say for sure what they were using. All I know is that ubuntu is running well on this machine.

 

[KGIII]

Though, assuming the same work loads, is there really 10° in difference between the two - powersave and ondemand? They both throttle down to the lowest point and they both spike to the maximum frequency as needed.

Hmm...

 

[Alexzee]

Just an idea (I could be wrong) maybe the temperature governor plays a part in how the temps are elevated depending on the DE or Window Manager?

Power allocator governor tunables — The Linux Kernel documentation

CPU temperature varies widely in different WMs (Solved) / Applications & Desktop Environments / Arch Linux Forums

bbs.archlinux.org

 

[f33dm3bits]

Of course Ubuntu is cooler than Mint because Mint is based on Ubuntu

 

[kc1di]

This is not to say that I like ubuntu better than mint, But just making an observation

 

[kc1di]

Though, assuming the same work loads, is there really 10° in difference between the two - powersave and ondemand? They both throttle down to the lowest point and they both spike to the maximum frequency as needed.

Hmm...

Good Question, Which I'm not prepared to answer at this time

 

[CrazedNerd]

Yo @kc1di , does your BIOS have a temperature reader? If it does, I'd recommend also doing your tests with that factor in mind. Unfortunately only post 2010 custom built desktops seem to have that, i don't remember any of my old laptops having that feature. That will make it clear how accurate each of those operating systems are.

Anyways, on my desktop, both the BIOS and Ubuntu with lm sensors tend to project my motherboard heat at around 40 - 50 C, the CPU seems to always hover around 50 and gaming increases the temperature by around 1 to 2 degrees. The games are about PS3 quality in terms of graphics, i decided to basically stop using graphics cards because they are a major inconveinience and expensive, they cost almost as much or more than a commercial gaming system so I decided that builds selected with good onboard graphics are just as good. I'm not one of those people who spends hundreds or thousands of bucks on games on a regular basis...

 

[dos2unix]

I'm getting here a little late, so I may have missed something. All the kernels are basically the same from all vendors.
They all get their kernel source code from the same place. So it seems just about all Linux kernels are created equal.
(There may be a few differences).

But I have noticed some distro's run "busier" than other distro's. So then why? I look at the processes.

ps -ef | wc -l
451

I have one distro that runs less than 300. I have a BSD install that runs less than 250. My main daily driver
typically runs over 440. Is that bad? Not necessarily, it just means I'm doing more.
On this box I'm running 3 or 4 VMs, sometimes a game or 2. An nVidia card, 2 LANs, often 2 different browsers.
Sometimes I'm listening to mp3's in the background. My guess is, I've installed at least 50 packages that
aren't part of the "standard vanilla" install.

KDE and MATE tend to use more resources than XFCE and Budgie, Chrome uses a little more Firefox,
My Teams chat app is rarely ever turned off. Of course all processes aren't created equal either.
Browsers tend to be hogs. When I compile something big (a kernel for example) can take 90% of 11 cores.
Bluetooth and wireless keyboards tend to make things busier than running USB keyboard.

Anyway the point is.. my computer is doing a lot. It runs a little hotter than other distros I have installed
on other computers. My Intel i3 (2 core) is obviously going to run a little cooler than my i7 (6 core) system.
My Ryzen 9 tends to run hotter than the Intels, I have water cooling on this system, so it never gets really hot.

I really never worry about CPUs temps that much. I check it every now and then, but I only worry if it stays
above 150F. Typically I run around 90-110F range..

CPUTIN: +95.9°F (high = +176.0°F, hyst = +167.0°F) sensor = thermistor

 

[kc1di]

Yo @kc1di , does your BIOS have a temperature reader? If it does, I'd recommend also doing your tests with that factor in mind. Unfortunately only post 2010 custom built desktops seem to have that, i don't remember any of my old laptops having that feature. That will make it clear how accurate each of those operating systems are.

Anyways, on my desktop, both the BIOS and Ubuntu with lm sensors tend to project my motherboard heat at around 40 - 50 C, the CPU seems to always hover around 50 and gaming increases the temperature by around 1 to 2 degrees. The games are about PS3 quality in terms of graphics, i decided to basically stop using graphics cards because they are a major inconveinience and expensive, they cost almost as much or more than a commercial gaming system so I decided that builds selected with good onboard graphics are just as good. I'm not one of those people who spends hundreds or thousands of bucks on games on a regular basis...

No my bios on this machine does not offer that feature.

 

[BigBadBeef]

I don't what kind of gnome experience you've got, but mine is quite a bit modded visually, and my system overhead is non-existent in spite of it.

Perhaps what is plaguing you is the fact, that closer you are to the minimum system requirements for any desktop environment, the more your system may struggle to render it, thus creating more heat and draining more battery.

 

[kc1di]

Found one of the problems with mint. I use Vivaldi Browser 90 percent of the time and seems if i have more than one or two tabs open the temp runs high on Mint. That does not Happen in Ubuntu. So not sure what the reason is. But It's a start to figuring it out. In any event I'm back on Mint with this machine. Figured out I still don't like Gnome

 

[BigBadBeef]

Figured out I still don't like Gnome

The feeling's probably mutual!