Techniques to tie a processor power state transition on a platform to another power state transition on the platform. In an embodiment, processor governor functionality of an operating system detects an idle condition of a processor executing the operating system. Based on the processor idle condition and one or more indicated conditions of other platform devices, tying logic may determine a system power state to transition the platform to. For example, the tying logic may select from one of a plurality of idle standby system power states.