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    Underclocking On Battery

    Discussion in 'Alienware' started by Deathcore, Apr 7, 2010.

  1. Deathcore

    Deathcore Notebook Consultant

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    Hey, I've had a search about but couldn't find a definitive answer.

    Is there any way to stop the my graphics cards from underclocking on battery power?, Regardless of anything it try the maximum they go to on battery power is 350mhz ish.

    Anyone got any ideas to try besides flashing them always high.

    Thanks!
     
  2. myx

    myx Notebook Deity

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    Check in the power plan options the maximum power for the gpu, might help.
     
  3. DR650SE

    DR650SE The Whiskey Barracuda

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    Check the Command Center. In the power options you should have the ability to set the GPU at max performance when on Battery. That should stop it from throttling.
     
  4. AirSinner

    AirSinner Notebook Evangelist

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    Sounds like Powermizer is down clocking your GPU to save battery life. This should help.
     
  5. Deathcore

    Deathcore Notebook Consultant

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    One of the first things i changed on the laptop was the power plan settings (to use full PCIE Bandwidth etc),
    I'm on W7 and don't have anything but AlienFX and AlienSense in the Command Center.

    I'l give that app a go, I assumed it was something to do with powermizer but i was under the impression i had disabled it via some registry tweaks i found on this site as well a others.

    Thanks for the help, I'll update soon.

    - EDIT

    Just tried it and it still does the same, On battery the GPU clocks go to
    383Mhz - Core
    301Mhz - Memory
    767Mhz - Shader

    I'm using the Beta drivers by the way, Is anyone else getting this? and Wasn't the powermizer in this revision of driver tweaked due to the DPC latencey issue?

    It hasn't really bothered me until now, I only ask becasue i went to a LAN party at the weekend and our row's power tripped out so i was the only one who could continue to game. (However at a very low FPS), Its not something bad, just something that would be nice to have working how i'd like.

    Thanks again.
     
  6. Mr Pras

    Mr Pras Hardware and systems

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    I'm not 100% but I think the only way is to change the bios so that the low power 3d (profile 3) is the same as the high power 3d (profile 4)..

    I'm fairly sure that the battery cannot supply the 75W necessary for the GPU to run at full. I expect that your machine would probably just freeze or something..
     
  7. inap

    inap .........................

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    even if you could your battery would last you maybe 30 mins.
     
  8. Deathcore

    Deathcore Notebook Consultant

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    It should be able to cope, But yeah, It wouldn't last long although the battery life doesn't bother me that much as i only really use the battery as a UPS.

    I thought that by toying with the bios may be the only way, Cheers!