To reduce power consumption, receiver circuit blocks within a wireless device are biased with less current whenever possible while still achieving the desired performance. The receiver circuit blocks may include a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) that generates an oscillator signal used for frequency downconversion of a received signal from the forward link, a low noise amplifier (LNA) that amplifies the received signal, and a mixer that frequency downconverts the received signal. The VCO may be biased with less current if phase noise performance is less stringent, e.g., when (1) the wireless device is not transmitting on the reverse link, (2) a large amplitude jammer is not detected, and/or (3) the received signal level is sufficiently high. The bias currents of other receiver circuit blocks may also be adjusted based on transmitter activity, detected jammer, and/or received signal level.