Yes. System Idle Process does not execute instructions, not even NOPs. It is instead in one of the power-saving idle states, where much of the cpu is turned off until it receives a hardware interrupt.
Then I’m going to stop running Folding@home, then.
ETA: I’m still going to leave my computer on at night, though, because it often freezes shortly after booting, but leaving it on lets me avoid this problem.
Yes, but to be clear it is using more power then when it is off. There’s a decent argument that when one works out the marginal power use it makes sense to run Folding@home or some similar program.
Does my computer really use less energy when it’s running System Idle Process instead of Folding@home?
Yes. System Idle Process does not execute instructions, not even NOPs. It is instead in one of the power-saving idle states, where much of the cpu is turned off until it receives a hardware interrupt.
Then I’m going to stop running Folding@home, then.
ETA: I’m still going to leave my computer on at night, though, because it often freezes shortly after booting, but leaving it on lets me avoid this problem.
Yes, but to be clear it is using more power then when it is off. There’s a decent argument that when one works out the marginal power use it makes sense to run Folding@home or some similar program.