MaxQ and MaxP are platform configurations with specific performance and power consumption levels. MaxQ is targeted for optimal perf/Watt and MaxP for high perf with good power efficiency. The power budget for MaxQ is 7.5W, and MaxP is defined with a budget of 15W.

Capping CPU and GPU frequencies is the mechanism to put platforms into MaxQ and MaxP. The performance, as well as the power consumption, of the platform is therefore capped. Under the cap, individual frequency governors for CPU and GPU scale the frequencies according to the load to further reduce power consumption. The frequency caps can be placed during boot or by manually issued command after boot. Once the caps are in place, the corresponding power mode is entered. It remains in effect until a new command is issued to change the mode. The cap values are pre-qualified through selected use cases.

The following table shows parameter of MaxP and MaxQ modes:

To change between modes, use the nvpmodel -m <id> command, where <id> is the mode ID. This command requires superuser privileges and must be called using sudo.

There are also two shortcut commands, power-maxq and power-maxp, that sets modes 0 and 3, respectively.