Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: Grimper on December 20, 2008, 07:30:14 pm
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I just recently got a very nice laptop, but im having some problems with power management.
If i have it on the high performance scheme and plugged into the wall, my high end games like FSO and GTA 4 run fine.
Then if i unplug it, the frame rate in whatever game im playing will drop, not by much, buts its noticeable. And this is all while im still on the high performance power scheme.
Heres my specs:
HP Pavillion DV5 1054TX notebook pc.
Windows Vista Home 32bit Service Pack 1
Intel Core 2 Duo @2.53GHz
3GB Memory
NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT (Dox Optimised 180.84)
Ive heard some things about a power optimisation program built in to nvidia cards, could this be what is slowing my puter when its unplugged? And if so how do i turn it off?
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Laptops aren't optimized for games, so I just recommend playing your games only when the laptop is charging, like me. :)
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In the Windows power options control panel, set it to the "home" or "always on" profile when you want to play games. That should probably fix it.
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Its already on high performance, meaning im getting the most power and the least battery life.
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Some notebooks have a button which forces the notebook into high performance mode when on battery and vice versa when on AC. It may also be a key combination, so check the notebook manual too. Failing that, there might be power management options in BIOS. Failing even that, contact HP support and ask them what's the trick, alternatively ask a search engine.
It is also possible it cannot be changed by user at whim, it is after all a notebook and usually people prefer the battery to last as long as possible.
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its really just a matter of changing your power profile around and tweaking some other random settings, like cpu throttling.
my laptop has a dual gpu setup an hd 3200 for power efficiency, and a much more powerfull hd 3650. the factory setting was to automatically switch gpus when on bettery, which caused games to crash. the setting for that is in the catalyst control center. last i checked hp used nvidia so it may be a different config all together.
i dont know if xp has power profiles the way vista does. but my power icon in my tray, when i click on it produces 3 power profiles. my system came with several presets, but i deleted them all and substituted my own. i got one that has all the settings rigged for batterly life, low screen brightness, cpu throttles set at 0 to half and gpu in power save mode. then i have one thats sort of in the middle, it allows throttling of the cpu and i keep the brightness down, but the gpu is on full. good for playing things like tagap or old games on the go. then i have a full on high performance mod for when i want to play crysis at the bus stop. it gives me about an hour of play time before its toast. ive set them so that i have to manually change modes.
when you go setup one of these power profiles, you get a huge list of parameters to tweak. so dont expect to slap anything together in a hurry.
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I have made my own power profiles, and high performance has full CPU and GPU speed. So it seems its something automatic that i cant control in the power profiles.