10. Multimedia Performance: PC Mark 2002

While CPU performance and memory performance are pretty much the same for the "Always On" and "Portable Laptop" power schemes, the Asus M2N falls considerably behind under the "Presentation" power scheme. What's more, the CPU gradually heats up to almost 100°C under this setting because Asus relies on passive cooling under the "Presentation" power scheme, as it assumes the workload on the processor will be minimal. In other words, the CPU fan doesn't kick in under this setting. Consequently, the CPU heats up under a heavy workload and then starts to throttle down once it hits a certain temperature. Throttling is characterized by a drop in clock speed and operating voltage. The CPU's performance falls off, as does its power consumption. That means that whenever the M2N is running with this power scheme and the CPU workload is high, the processor will be throttled down to an average of 700 MHz within a few minutes.

According to the ACPI specification rev. 2.0b, this kind of power-saving/ cooling method is legitimate, albeit not particularly elegant. By our measurements, the die temperature barely remains within Intel's specifications for the Pentium M (100°C junction temperature).

Most notebook manufacturers prefer to control the CPU with Enhanced SpeedStep and active cooling with the "Presentation" power scheme and an AC power source. This technology speeds up or slows down the CPU clock speed as required by whichever application is currently being used. If the CPU heats up due to being clocked faster (i.e., if the current application places a heavy workload on it) the processor fan kicks in and prevents the CPU from throttling down.