laptop battery life bad because of GPU

karlos_tapia
karlos_tapia Member Posts: 10

Tinkerer
edited November 2023 in 2019 Archives
I  think the tittle pretty much explains what is going on. I used to be able to use the laptop for about 4 to 5 hours on battery life for simple tasks, but now I can barely get two. It seems the problems is the GPU, it stays on even when I have the laptop on battery saver mode. 
Does anyone have an idea of what is going on?

Answers

  • XdxD
    XdxD Member Posts: 1,584 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    karlos_tapia said:
    I  think the tittle pretty much explains what is going on. I used to be able to use the laptop for about 4 to 5 hours on battery life for simple tasks, but now I can barely get two. It seems the problems is the GPU, it stays on even when I have the laptop on battery saver mode. 
    Does anyone have an idea of what is going on?
    Your PC has integrated graphics?
    Trying to do my best here - Your happy Predator owner =)!
  • sri369
    sri369 ACE Posts: 2,774 Pathfinder
    One reason I noticed was when you have monitoring tools like MSI on that poll graphics card for various details, turning it on even when not in use. You might be well off turning the graphs/monitors off (the tools work even without the monitor).
    One more option you can try (I am doing this) is disabling GPU support for non game software like browsers. Our systems are strong enough to pull these without need for GPU.
    By restricting GPU only to games, and optimizing CPU to about 60% capacity (considering I use it at low-mid when on battery and that I do not play any games), my battery life moved from about 3 hours to over 5 now. For videos from hard disk (not browser/youtube ones) I get over 6 hours and this is well enough for me on any of my trips. (Hours above are with screen at about 40%-50% brightness.)
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  • karlos_tapia
    karlos_tapia Member Posts: 10

    Tinkerer
    sri369 said:
    One reason I noticed was when you have monitoring tools like MSI on that poll graphics card for various details, turning it on even when not in use. You might be well off turning the graphs/monitors off (the tools work even without the monitor).
    One more option you can try (I am doing this) is disabling GPU support for non game software like browsers. Our systems are strong enough to pull these without need for GPU.
    By restricting GPU only to games, and optimizing CPU to about 60% capacity (considering I use it at low-mid when on battery and that I do not play any games), my battery life moved from about 3 hours to over 5 now. For videos from hard disk (not browser/youtube ones) I get over 6 hours and this is well enough for me on any of my trips. (Hours above are with screen at about 40%-50% brightness.)
    i do believe that the problem started after I installed MSI Afterburner to undervolt the GPU. before that I used to get 6 to 7 hours of normal usage, I the fans would barely or never go on when I was using it on battery. I am going to try to turn of everything on MSI and report back later.
    is there any specific steps that I need to follow that you could give me? I want to go back to being able to take this laptop to classes again.
  • sri369
    sri369 ACE Posts: 2,774 Pathfinder
    karlos_tapia said:
    i do believe that the problem started after I installed MSI Afterburner to undervolt the GPU. before that I used to get 6 to 7 hours of normal usage, I the fans would barely or never go on when I was using it on battery. I am going to try to turn of everything on MSI and report back later.
    is there any specific steps that I need to follow that you could give me? I want to go back to being able to take this laptop to classes again.
    Just what i suspected!
    Right click on the monitor and click "pause".


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  • karlos_tapia
    karlos_tapia Member Posts: 10

    Tinkerer
    sri369 said:
    karlos_tapia said:
    i do believe that the problem started after I installed MSI Afterburner to undervolt the GPU. before that I used to get 6 to 7 hours of normal usage, I the fans would barely or never go on when I was using it on battery. I am going to try to turn of everything on MSI and report back later.
    is there any specific steps that I need to follow that you could give me? I want to go back to being able to take this laptop to classes again.
    Just what i suspected!
    Right click on the monitor and click "pause".


    I shall try that and reset the laptop to see if it helps 

  • karlos_tapia
    karlos_tapia Member Posts: 10

    Tinkerer
    no matter what I try to do, this apps are always keeping the GPU active, the fans are always on even though the cooling is set to passive, and I still have no clue what to do...
  • Red-Sand
    Red-Sand ACE Posts: 1,892 Pathfinder
    karlos_tapia said:
    no matter what I try to do, this apps are always keeping the GPU active, the fans are always on even though the cooling is set to passive, and I still have no clue what to do...

    Go to the Nvidia Control panel and at the top where it has "File, Edit" etc find the option to have the Nvidia activity show in the system tray.

    Then when the icon is there click on it to see what your Nvidia GPU is using.
    - Hotel Hero
  • karlos_tapia
    karlos_tapia Member Posts: 10

    Tinkerer
    the problems there is that they never show to be using the GPU on that icon.
    something makes me think that it has to do with the latest Windows update, I restarted the laptop from factory to makes sure it was not an app or something, but it is still happening.
  • karlos_tapia
    karlos_tapia Member Posts: 10

    Tinkerer
    UPDATE
    it seems one of the main problems was the power options of Windows, after unplugging it or restarting the laptop it would go for high performance mode. Even when I changed it to be on balance or power saver mode, it would stay stuck on performance. Right now it seems to be back to normal, I been watching youtube and doing some light stuff (my usual workflow for a school day) and the battery is a bit better now, even the battery remaining says about 4 hours with 70% left. I will continue to update as I go, and also sorry to be bothering everyone in this community with my annoying problem abput battery life.
  • sri369
    sri369 ACE Posts: 2,774 Pathfinder
    karlos_tapia said:
    UPDATE
    it seems one of the main problems was the power options of Windows, after unplugging it or restarting the laptop it would go for high performance mode. Even when I changed it to be on balance or power saver mode, it would stay stuck on performance. Right now it seems to be back to normal, I been watching youtube and doing some light stuff (my usual workflow for a school day) and the battery is a bit better now, even the battery remaining says about 4 hours with 70% left. I will continue to update as I go, and also sorry to be bothering everyone in this community with my annoying problem abput battery life.
    Do yourself a favor, and create a custom power plan out of balanced, and delete the high performance plan completely. You might want to do a backup, just in case. Windows 10 is notorious for pushing to max performance like laptop was a tablet. And select your power plan for both on power and on battery profiles.
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