Laptop using Windows users might be better off uninstalling Google’s Chrome, according to Forbes magazine.
Apparently Chrome can drastically affect battery life, and even slow down your computer.
The problem is the “system clock tick rate.” Chrome sets the rate to 1.000ms. The idle, under Windows, should be 15.625ms. This means that the chip is waking far more often than at 15.625ms.
Vole warns that tick rates of 1.000ms might increase power consumption by “as much as 25 per cent.”
Macs and Linux machines don’t have the problem because they have “tickless timers.” IE and Firefox don’t exhibit this issue at all, instead they up the refresh when needed.
Noone seems to be keen to do much about it. It was apparently first seen in 2010, but the last confirmed bug addition was made yesterday.
If you must use Chrome it is probably a good idea to turn your browser off whenever possible. You could use Firefox which hogs memory or IE which is still IE unless Google does pull finger.
