Google Chrome's Quirky Tick
Cue the memorable quote uttered from Obi-Wan in Star Wars: Episode III towards Anakin in the final battle scene: “You were the chosen one!”
For many, the rise of Chrome was an answer to many people’s problems with Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Some still claim, "Google Chrome remains the Windows web browser to beat." Now, however, the prodigal web browser of the great Google may be falling from grace. That is because it has been discovered that all those complaining that Chrome was wasting their battery’s life may actually have some merits to their complaints.
Google Chrome’s programming sets the system clock tick rate in the computer to a rate of 1.000ms. This means that the processor is waking 1000 times per second, which is more than fifteen times the rate at which your processor should be working when idle.
Other browsers like Internet Explorer also speed up the tick rate of the system clock to the 1.000ms rate, but they only do it when the browser demands that much functionality, such as when you are streaming videos on Netflix. With other internet browsers, the computer’s system clock tick rate remains close to the 15.625ms idle rate when browsing websites.
Who cares about the clock and tick rate? For most people, the tick rate means nothing. To your battery, the tick rate could have profound effects. Microsoft confirmed that a tick rate of 1.000ms can increase your battery power consumption by as much as 25 percent.
What is going to be done about the Chrome battery drain? Nothing. Users have been complaining of Chrome's consumption since early 2010 and Google has yet to address the issue. While Google has said it will provide an update that will fix the issue, especially after renewed coverage of the problem, it has yet to come into fruition.
Perhaps one of the reasons that Google hasn’t fixed its Chrome child is that most people either aren’t aware of it, aren’t bothered by it, or are using Chrome on their Macs or Linux machines. Chrome’s quirky tick problem doesn’t affect individuals who use the browser on something other than a PC because Macs and Linux machines have “tickless timers” circumventing the problem all together.
