What is the purpose of Dynamic Tick in Windows?

Looking at the BCDEdit entry of the Windows documentation, there is a entry for disabledynamictick. But it does not describe what that does or why someone would need to disable the kernal ticks. Can someone explain what dynamic ticks are used for in Windows?

Solution 1:

According to this blog post:

Dynamic Ticks are a feature that lets windows stop the system timer when nothing is happening in order to conserve power.

The article goes on to explain why you might want to disable this feature:

This [feature] is nice for portable and battery systems but can be a problem for desktops, especially since the tickless mode has been known to cause strange issues on some systems; especially when gaming or engaged in other media related tasks.

This gaming forum post discusses the relationship between these ticks and DPCs (Deferred Procedure Calls), which is the mechanism Windows uses to prioritize certain critical tasks ahead of other lower priority tasks.