4 things you should change in your PC's power plan

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When you install Windows, it comes with pre-built power plans that determine how your computer and some of its components work. While there is an Ultimate Performance power plan that you can enable, in most cases you don't need to enable it. Instead, we recommend turning on High Performance mode and then making a few other changes.



4 Enable high performance mode

The absolute minimum

Enabling the High Performance Power Plan in Windows

As we just mentioned, enabling High Performance Mode is the first power-related change you should make to Windows. Enabling High Performance Mode will prevent your CPU speed from dropping when idle, while also keeping some components on that would otherwise go to sleep. This setting is fine for desktops, but we recommend trying it out and seeing if it works for you on a laptop.

To enable high performance mode, do the following:


  1. Open the Start menu and search for Control panel. It should be the first search result.
    Screenshot of Windows 11 search with results for Control Panel

  2. In the View Menu in the upper right corner, change from category To Small symbols.
  3. Click Power options.
    Screenshot of the Control Panel in Windows 10 with the Power Options button highlighted

  4. You will see all your power plans, but you may need to View more plans Section.
  5. Click High performance

High Performance Mode also offers the added benefit of making your PC run faster, but at the cost of higher power consumption.

3 Display and sleep timer

Make your PC stay awake longer

Hibernate and settings to disable the display in Windows

If you're frustrated with your PC staying on (or rather, not staying on) for so long, you can extend the screen off and sleep timer in your power settings. This will keep your screen on longer when you're not using your PC, and you can also prevent it from going to sleep on its own. This will obviously use more power, but if you want to keep your screen on without touching it for some reason, this setting is for you.


For one thing, I use it so I can keep an eye on a web page on my PC while I'm doing other things around my apartment. It can be frustrating when my screen automatically turns off, but this gets around that problem.

2 Disable selective USB power saving

It can solve problems with USBs and does not offer many advantages to having it turned on

Disable selective USB suspend in Windows

By default, Windows turns off certain USB devices after a certain amount of time to save power, as they are deemed unnecessary. While this may help reduce power consumption in some cases, in reality the power savings are minimal. There are countless reports online of people having problems with their USB devices and then finding that disabling this setting fixed the problem, so we recommend turning it off.


I personally had an issue with an older USB device that also frequently disconnected when I had this setting turned on. Disabling this setting solved the problem. There is no harm in turning it off and you won't lose anything, so we recommend turning it off immediately.

This can slow down your GPU

Disable Link State Power Management in Windows Power Plan

There is a power management option in Windows called “Link State Power Management”. This setting has three options: off, moderate power savings, and maximum power settings. While this setting will reduce the PCIe link to a lower spec when your GPU is idle or not in use, it doesn't save much power. Additionally, there have been reports of incompatibilities that can occur if you use it while overclocking.


Although this feature is nothing, need Disabling it is another one of those features that can't hurt. It doesn't save much power and eliminates the potential for problems that could arise. This setting can cause problems on laptops if disabled as this may not turn off the dedicated GPU.

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