Lenovo Prepares The Linux Kernel For "Ultra-Performance Capability" On Latest ThinkPads

A recently posted Linux kernel driver patch by Lenovo is for a new "ultra-performance capability" with their latest ThinkPad laptops for ensuring their hardware achieves the best Linux performance when in the "performance" ACPI Platform Profile while conserving the most power in the balanced and power-saving mode.

Mark Pearson of Lenovo's great Linux team sent out a patch earlier this month for supporting an improved performance mode found on some new ThinkPads. The patch adds support for this "ultra-performance capability" to ensure this mode is used when operating in the "performance" platform profile for ensuring the best performance possible. In the lower-state platform profiles this capability isn't engaged.

For at least some laptops/BIOS versions the ultra-performance capability mode is already enabled by default, in which case this patch ensures optimal power-savings for the non-performance profiles.

In the patch message it was noted that this addition to the ThinkPad ACPI driver was tested on a ThinkPad T14 G4 AMD model. I've also confirmed the ThinkPad P14s G4 AMD also supports this new mode. Speaking of which, the ThinkPad P14s with Ryzen 7 PRO 7840U continues working out great as my main production system. The P14s Zen 4 laptop with Fedora Workstation 39 has been my main production system now for a number of weeks and has been a great modern Linux laptop.

The ThinkPad ACPI driver patch for this improved performance mode is currently under review on the mailing list while given the timing it will likely be ready in time for the v6.8 kernel cycle.