M11X software design hurts battery life premise

The lack of adequate performance when the 335m is off is becoming annoying. It seems the drivers do not use the HD4500 to maximum effect and rely on the 335m. The problem is this puts a huge dent in the battery life for video, since the 335m drains a lot more battery. 3D is also an issue, as PSXE shows when playing games. The HD4500 on same chipset devices like the Asus have no problems with the HD4500 and playing games with PSXE.

The HD4500 should have zero problems with the SU7300 playing Hulu and other higher res video, but using the HD4500 is a stuttery, blocky mess. Switch on the 335m and no problem. I have no problems playing the same content on laptops that use the HD4500 and have no dedicated GPU and use ULV chipsets.

At first, I thought that Flash 10.1 was leveraging the 335m, but the actual issue is the HD4500 appears to be crippled on the M11X.

The fan issue is another point, but already been beaten to death. If AW fixes the fan and "uncripples" the HD4500, the M11x will have an optimum environment for battery life.

 

I just got my M11x with the C2D chip + bluetooth. Even with bluetooth off, with the same settings, I'm not getting the kind of battery life my Pentium M11x is getting. Strange as hell. I thought both chips are supposed to have the same power draw. Unless the monitors have different power draw, I don't know what's going on. Maybe the 500GB HD draws more power than the 160GB one I had on the Pentium version.

edit: the C2D chip isn't even OCed!

 

The reason the 4500 is not performing is well is because the shared driver is much older than the normal driver for both GPUs. Both the Nvidia and Intel GPU driver are like a year older in the M11X duel graphics driver package than what the respective cards normal drivers use.

As for the C2D taking more power I don't know what is up with that, I commonly get 8+ hours on my C2D when doing non-strenuous tasks.

 

Exactly. I get around 8-9hrs on the Pentium, and only 6hrs on the C2D. What is up with that.

edit: maybe it's because the bluetooth still eats power even after you turn it off. This sucks.

 

8 hours? Is that with the cpu nonOCed, led lights off, what else?

I run my SU7300 on OC, Intel IGP, LED lights on dim, and bluetooth and wifi on and I am getting 6 hours roughly of battery life.

 

is the driver for the M11X customised because of the two graphics chips? Can't you just install the updated driver?

 

Ok, update. Apparently the laptop gets more battery out of OCing!!! Since they decrease the voltage on the OC, you actually get more battery out of OCing the CPU than if you left it in unOCed. Of course, if you undervolt the CPU while it's @ 1.3ghz, you should probably get more battery life.

@Raqemup
You can easily get 8 hrs with power safer mode + OCed CPU + integrated GPU + 3 bars of brightness + LED off + bluetooth off while surfing the web and using MS word. If you watch flash videos, you should still be able to get around 6-7hrs.

 

This actually makes sense, the dynamic energy formula for CMOS chips is actually independent of frequency so the lower voltage when you overclock would equal higher battery life.

 

I have noticed that the battery seems to last longer when OC'd as well. This is the reason I think that there is a voltage drop when OC'd and why the CPU is really running at 1.6ghz when OC'd.

The reason people may be seeing conflicts (1.6 / 1.73) is the voltage drop of .1 is probably not accounted for in some benchmark software.

update:

I would be happy if they just update the HD4500 drivers and correct the fan issues. I kind of like the net effect of the voltage drop (power / clock / battery life).