Vendor guidance
Which power plan for your processor?
There is no universal "best plan". What Windows should do with your processor depends on its generation — and since Intel brought in hybrid cores, half the answer is not even the plan, but the power mode, the slider Windows only shows on "Balanced".
Which plan with which processor
✔ recommended · ~ usable (with a trade-off) · ✘ not recommended. This is exactly what the app shows on every plan installed on your machine.
| Windows plan | Hybrid-core Intel | Intel without hybrid cores | Ryzen 5000+ | Ryzen ≤ 4000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balanced + "Best performance" modethe default plan, with the Windows slider pushed all the way | Recommended | Usable | Usable | Usable |
| Balanced ("Balanced" mode)the out-of-the-box setting | Usable | Usable | Recommended | Usable |
| High performancelegacy plan, with no power mode | Not recommended | Recommended | Not recommended | Not recommended |
| AMD Ryzen Balancedinstalled by the AMD chipset driver | Not recommended | Not recommended | Usable | Recommended |
| Power saverprocessor held back, display dimmed | Usable | Usable | Usable | Usable |
| The 2017 top-performance plannot to be confused with the power MODE of a similar name | Not recommended | Not recommended | Not recommended | Not recommended |
The rule, processor by processor
| Processor | Plan | Power mode | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intel with hybrid cores (P and E) — most Core chips since the 12th generation, and Core Ultra | Balanced | Best performance | This is Intel’s own guidance. The package that drives how work is split between P-cores and E-cores only applies to the "Balanced" plan; the legacy "High performance" plan turns power modes off and forces a placement policy that measurements show to be erratic. On these processors, half the answer is the MODE, not the plan. |
| Intel without hybrid cores — up to the 11th generation, plus a few newer models (i3, Pentium) | High performance | None | With no P-cores and E-cores to arbitrate between, the legacy plan does the job, and Windows only exposes the mode slider on "Balanced" anyway. There is no point hunting down the 2017 top-performance plan: it does not give you a single extra FPS, and it keeps drives and USB ports awake permanently into the bargain. |
| Ryzen 5000 and later | Balanced | Balanced | AMD’s guidance: from this series on, the chipset driver no longer installs a dedicated plan, because CPPC relies on "Balanced" to place work on the preferred cores. Forcing "High performance" brings nothing measurable and draws more power. |
| Ryzen up to the 4000 series | AMD Ryzen Balanced | Balanced | Installed by the AMD chipset driver, it handles boost and work placement better than the Windows plans on these generations. If it is missing — driver never installed — "Balanced" is the fallback AMD expects. |
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between a power "plan" and a power "mode"?
- The plan is the full list of settings (sleep, display, processor state, USB, PCIe…). The mode is the Windows slider, between "Best power efficiency", "Balanced" and "Best performance". Windows only offers that slider on the "Balanced" plan — elsewhere it still exists, but it does not apply. On a hybrid-core Intel, it is the slider that carries the vendor guidance: the plan on its own is not enough.
- Why is the 2017 top-performance plan not recommended to anyone?
- That plan dates from 2017 and targeted workstations. Against "High performance", it does not give a single extra frame per second in games, but it stops drives and USB ports from going to sleep, which raises power draw and heat for nothing in return. No manufacturer recommends it for gaming.
- Does "High performance" give more FPS than "Balanced"?
- On a recent processor, no: Windows already raises clock speeds on demand, and on hybrid-core Intel chips this plan even degrades work placement. On an Intel without hybrid cores, it avoids a few state transitions and remains the right choice.
- How do I know whether my Intel has hybrid cores?
- Not from the generation number: Intel sells 12th-generation Core chips with no E-cores (some i3 models, and the Pentium and Celeron chips of the same family), and one Core Ultra does not always have the same split as another. The app reads the real topology of the processor — how many performance cores, how many efficient cores — and decides on what it found, not on the name.
- Should I turn off "core parking"?
- No. Windows has handled this on its own for several versions now, and a suitable plan already sets it correctly under load. Editing the registry by hand brings nothing and can destabilise a laptop.
- What is the "energy preference" the app shows on some PCs?
- A Windows setting that tells the processor where to sit between responsiveness and power draw, from 0 (all for performance) to 100 (all for efficiency). It only exists on processors that support modern clock management (CPPC) — recent Ryzen, recent Intel — and the app only shows it if Windows exposes it on your machine. Setting it to 0 does not win you frames per second: it asks for a stronger preference, it guarantees nothing.
- What about on a laptop?
- The same rule applies to the processor, but battery life comes first day to day: Windows keeps two sets of values, one on mains power and one on battery. An aggressive plan on battery drains the cell with no real gain, since the machine is limited by its thermal envelope anyway.
What AngAinOne does
- It names the plan AND the mode
- The Power page reads your processor, shows at the top the plan and the mode the rule gives it, says what is active when the two differ, and applies both in one click.
- It hides no plan
- Every installed plan stays on screen, sorted from the most suitable to the least, each with the reason behind its verdict. You can pick another one knowing exactly what you are doing.
- It stays reversible
- Every plan is saved to a .pow file before any restore, the settings from before a preset are kept so you can go back, and undoing a tweak puts back the plan AND the mode that were active before.
This guidance comes from Intel and AMD, reviewed on 12 September 2026. It changes with each processor generation: the app always applies the current version, so you do not have to follow the news. The other tweaking myths.