As of v1.1.0, PowerTools supports customizing values for most functionality. This can be useful for advanced uses like overclocking or untested hardware. Please remember that the terms of the license place all responsibility on the user to use these features responsibly.

NOTE: Advanced features are meant to be used by advanced users. Advanced users are expected to be able to figure this out without NGnius.

Steam Deck

The Steam Deck driver has an optional advanced mode which is activated when a valid pt_oc.json JSON file is present in the ~/.config/powertools folder. No values are optional. Any file error will be logged to /tmp/powertools.log (release builds) and the default config will be used instead. This file roughly reflects the design of PowerTools internal Steam Deck drivers.

The structure and default values are defined in oc_limits.rs. If you do not understand the JSON sample as well as the Rust declaration you should not use this feature.

NOTE: since some kernel interfaces only accept the default Steam Deck ranges, changing certain ranges is only a placebo in the UI. The log is your friend to find out when this is happening.

battery

The top-level battery object contains the custom configuration for the battery part of the Steam Deck driver. Presently, this only contains 1 field.

charge_rate

Bounds for the battery inrush current, in milliamps. The limits are expressed in the format {"min": u64, "max": u64}.

cpus

cpus

A list of CPU objects corresponding to each hardware CPU thread in the same order as the Linux kernel. Extra CPUs in this list will be ignored, missing CPUs in this list will not be possible to change through PowerTools.

clock_min

Bounds for the CPU minimum frequency, in MHz. The limits are expressed in the format {"min": u64, "max": u64}.

clock_max

Bounds for the CPU maximum frequency, in MHz. The limits are expressed in the format {"min": u64, "max": u64}.

clock_step

CPU frequency slider quanta. This is a u64.

global_governors

A boolean (true or false) to enable or disable the UI element which sets the governors of all CPUs at once.

gpu

fast_ppt

Bounds for the GPU fast PPT value, in W/ppt_divisor. The limits are expressed in the format {"min": u64, "max": u64}.

slow_ppt

Bounds for the GPU slow PPT value, in W/ppt_divisor. The limits are expressed in the format {"min": u64, "max": u64}.

ppt_divisor

Divisor for the PPT values. This is a u64.

ppt_step

GPU PPT slider quanta. This is a u64.

clock_min

Bounds for the GPU minimum frequency, in MHz. The limits are expressed in the format {"min": u64, "max": u64}.

clock_max

Bounds for the GPU maximum frequency, in MHz. The limits are expressed in the format {"min": u64, "max": u64}.

clock_step

GPU frequency slider quanta. This is a u64.

Other AMD APUs

The generic driver is part of a more sophisticated system to automatically detect which driver and which config need to be loaded for the system that PowerTools is running on. This information is cached in limits_cache.json in the ~/.config/powertools folder. Loading behaviour is similar to pt_oc.json except limits_cache.json will also be updated by PowerTools daily by downloading the latest version from the URL in the file.

The structure and default values are defined in the limits_core crate. The automatic detection and configuration of the generic AMD drivers are handled by auto_detect.rs. That should be used as the ultimate source of truth, since this documentation cannot communicate that functionality as exhaustively or effectively.