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Getting the Most Performance Out of a Laptop Battery
Nitsua
Gloucester, VARegistered User regular
Gloucester, VARegistered User regular
Okay, I've tried looking around the web for answers to this and looking a bit through these forums and could come up with nothing. I even went to the forum of the site that made this laptop for me and I got no answer from them either.
What I'm wanting is to get the most performance I can out of my Laptop while using the battery. I've already tried setting up the power options to the maximum that is allowable underneath Vista and I still have issues even running an old game like Neverwinter Nights. While the game is playable, it stutters every two seconds or so and is very noticeable as I'm running from place to place. Other games look like a slide show (Halo 2) or have a huge amount of input lag (Silent Hunter 4) to even be playable.
I know my laptop can handle these games effortlessly and it does while I have it plugged into the wall - it even can play DoW2 without any trouble at just under Ultra settings and it manhandles the above games under the same circumstances (though all at the max settings of course). The system isn't a beast, but it is at least an upper-midrange system for a laptop.
Here are my specs:
Intel® Montevina Core 2 Duo Mobile T9550 2.66 Ghz/6MB Cache/1066FSB
4 GB(2 GB X2) DDR2-800 PC6400
Mobility 512MB NVIDIA GeForce GO 9600M GT (with the GDDR3 RAM)
250 GB 7200rpm Serial-ATA-150
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
Now, I'm not asking for longevity - even if I only get half an hour out of my battery it would be better than not being able to play at all when I'm not near a power source - I just want playability. I know my computer can put it out since it does when plugged in, but am I crazy to ask it to perform under battery power or do you fine folks know of any tricks to coax said performance out of a laptop while off AC power?
What I'm wanting is to get the most performance I can out of my Laptop while using the battery. I've already tried setting up the power options to the maximum that is allowable underneath Vista and I still have issues even running an old game like Neverwinter Nights. While the game is playable, it stutters every two seconds or so and is very noticeable as I'm running from place to place. Other games look like a slide show (Halo 2) or have a huge amount of input lag (Silent Hunter 4) to even be playable.
I know my laptop can handle these games effortlessly and it does while I have it plugged into the wall - it even can play DoW2 without any trouble at just under Ultra settings and it manhandles the above games under the same circumstances (though all at the max settings of course). The system isn't a beast, but it is at least an upper-midrange system for a laptop.
Here are my specs:
Intel® Montevina Core 2 Duo Mobile T9550 2.66 Ghz/6MB Cache/1066FSB
4 GB(2 GB X2) DDR2-800 PC6400
Mobility 512MB NVIDIA GeForce GO 9600M GT (with the GDDR3 RAM)
250 GB 7200rpm Serial-ATA-150
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
Now, I'm not asking for longevity - even if I only get half an hour out of my battery it would be better than not being able to play at all when I'm not near a power source - I just want playability. I know my computer can put it out since it does when plugged in, but am I crazy to ask it to perform under battery power or do you fine folks know of any tricks to coax said performance out of a laptop while off AC power?
Nitsua on
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It's automatically downclocking your CPU, probably the FSB, and definitely your GPU, when it senses you're on battery. And that's what's killing your fun.
As you noted, this will kill your battery - but at least you'll be able to play. :P
*Disclaimer - I don't have a Vista box handy right now, so that may not actually be what it's called.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
If I had to make a wild guess, I'm guessing the GPU isn't being clocked back up when he sets the power settings to max in Vista. It might only be clocking his CPU back up.
Yea, check your video card drivers, thats usually where these things are handled.
GT: Tanky the Tank
Black: 1377 6749 7425
Windows has a tendency to ignore Windows power settings in favour of third party power settings if you have them (ie Acer bundles Acer ePower control panels with laptops and it will pre-empt windows' power settings) so you if you've got a third party control panel for batteries, you may wish to uninstall it or at least check the settings within it.
edit: The only thing under PCI-E is Link State Power Management and it is off on both Plugged In and Battery. It's the only option I have under there.
edit: Okay, I think I found something out. Somehow, my graphics card driver is not allowing me to adjust the hardware acceleration. I'm going to look for a different driver (I have the newest from nVidia) and see if that changes things.
Hmm... with laptop video cards, sometimes its actually best to run with the original drivers. Technically, the laptop manufacturer, and not the graphics card manufacturer, is responsible for the drivers.
GT: Tanky the Tank
Black: 1377 6749 7425
About the drivers, I just reverted back to the drivers that came on the disc and I still can't get any Hardware Acceleration at all. I looked it up on Google and it seems to be a fairly common occurance.
I'm going to keep poking around and see if I can find anything. Thanks for all of your help so far - at least it is giving me ideas on what to look for.
edit: Thanks, Frem, the bios had Active State Power Management turned on... I'm going to see if that is what caused it. Hopefully that fixes it because I've tried a slew of different drivers and none of that seems to work at all.
edit2: While it was a good idea, that didn't work either... still getting massive input lag in the office section of SH4 while under battery power - the moment I plug back in though the lag goes poof. Beginning to think it's a waste of time to even try.