How to make the most of your G73JH battery (2:30-2:40 runtime)

So as it turns out, and god knows why, the 5870 stays a full 3d power even when on battery. Browsing the internet, I'm sure most of us get about 1:40-1:50 out of it.

So after a little discussion in the noise thread, I clock the 5870 down as far as I can to 100/200 (you need to step down to 300/300 first, jumping straight down will get you a GSOD)


And I ran it from full power down and my runtime 2:30-2:40, 60% brightness, KB lights on low, processor capped at 60% from P4G.

Nearly an extra hour of runtime is significant, so if other people can corroborate my reports I'd appreciate it.

1) Get http://downloads.guru3d.com/AMD-GPU-Clock-Tool-v0.9.26.0-For-HD-5870-download-2383.html and install it.
2)make 3 shortcuts to it with the following options
-eng=700 -mem=1000 (mine says 800/1100 cause I run an OC when gaming)
-eng=300 -mem=300
-eng=100 -mem=200
name them high to low power, respectively

3)Make sure you have reasonable battery settings


Full disclosure (1 minute spindown is because I replaced one of the 500GB drives with an SSD, and the other is storage, so it's set to 1 minute cause I want it off)
The power difference from this is probably small anyway.

Here's how it works.
OK:
low->mid
mid->high
low->high
low<-mid
mid<-high

NOT OK:
high->low

when you're going onto battery for a prolonged period, simply double click the medium, wait for the window to flash and vanish, then double click on low. done. To return to full power, run high at any time.

Please post if you have any questions or comments. Also why did ASUS not get dynamic clocking working before shipping?

Edit: running in low also makes the laptop quieter in general

Edit 2: I hit 2:49 before it suspended.

 

nice write up!

 

THAT is cool! Will definitely try this once I get my G73.

 

Speaking of which, are there any programs that will automatically execute programs when switching power sources?

I tried googling but was unsuccessful.

 

Nice man. I was just pondering doing something like this but wasn't sure how low you could go.

*edit* Uh, I managed to GSOD it by trying my "high power" shortcut. Could you go into more detail how you made your shortcuts? Maybe I just made an error.

*edit 2* Looking at your pics, looks like I did that. I'll try it again later when I'm not in an office and report back if I still have issues.

 

That's pretty awesome. I used the laptop on the livestock show floor while buying animals last month. I barely got enough battery life to make it to the end. This will be extremely helpful.

 

Ok, going from stock to 300/300 all at once cause it also. I seem to not be able to step it like that. I can step one at a time without issue manually. I may just do a manual bit when I want more batt life.

 

Will this also work with the g51 series?

 

Thanks, this was very handy. I now have the Mobility HD 5850 in my MSI GX640 running at 50/100.

 

It should work with any laptop, but most of them do dynamic clocking.

 

No it doesn't. Read about PowerPlay on the G73.

Q

 

That's exactly how I have mine set, but it's not doing it, and my battery lasted just about 2:50 today so I have no idea what's going on.

 

Self modded, sorry to work your scroll wheel

 

Thanks to the original poster, this worked wonders for me, I downclock my laptop when I go to bed so it makes less noise when I leave downloads going on. Thumbs up, works great!

Wow how about if you calm down?

 

First of all, sorry for this a bit off-topic, but it's important.

Do you know that such laptop hard drives have head parking technology and that Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF) for a hard drive is only 600 000 head parkings. If you set your drive to spin down after 1 min, then there's no guarantee that Windows won't wake it at random times. If windows will wake your hard drive every 2 minutes, then your hard drive will die after about only 833 days, which is slightly more than 2 years.

You can use any tools such as HDD Tune and look at the S.M.A.R.T. table for your hard drive to see the "heal load/unload cycles".

A lot of people don't know about this problem and then wonder why their hard drives fail after 2-3 years, when some other hard drives work for 7+ years.

I would sacrifice a few more minutes of battery for healthier hard drive.

 

I know about powerplay and it was the first thing I tried, but it didn't work, so I moved on.

Yes I'm fully aware, also it's merely a storage drive so windows never wakes it up. It's probably getting 1 or 2 unloads per day.

Also go look up APM if you want to see the real deal with head unloading.

 

I think I am completely missing something here. I just downloaded and installed the latest ATI Catalyst 10.3 (like an hour ago) and I'm still NOT seeing the Powerplay feature. Under the top left "Graphics" arrow pulldown menu, I see:
Welcome
Information Center
Desktops & Displays
Display Options
3D
Video

But no PowerPlay.
Which Catalyst version are you using? It really should be the same on all 5870s, right? I mean, the fact that mine is a Sager should not matter here, right?

Just to show, there is the information posted in Catalyst under Information Center>Graphics Software

Driver Packaging Version 8.712-100302b-096986C-ATI
Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
2D Driver Version 8.01.01.1010
2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/CLASS/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0000
Direct3D Version 8.14.10.0735
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.9704
Catalyst™ Control Center Version 2010.0302.2233.40412

 

did you install the mobility 10.3s?

 

Yeah, I have the mobility 10.3...

EDIT: I got it from this site:
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx?src=CCC-CheckForDriverUpdates

I chose:

windows7 x64 > Mobility Radeon > Mobility Radeon HD 5000 Series

So I just googled for the drivers and I found some other ATI sites as well (they all seem official) that don't require you to make the above specifications like the site I found. Now I'm not sure which site has the most updated drivers. Can someone with a working PowerPLay feature link the place they got 10.3 from, please? Thanks.

 

I don't know, all the G73JHs have it show up, are you talking about your Sager?

 

Self modded, sorry to work your scroll wheel

 

Yeah, this is for my Sager. (EDIT: I think I'll go back to the Sager forums and see if the other guys can see PowerPlay)

 

Self modded, sorry to work your scroll wheel

 

I just tried several different configs, and managed to get powerplay to work. The culprit is touching your GFX card clocks. Essentially powerplay doesn't know the difference between 2D and 3D clocks.

Not a big difference because it still runs at full clocks on AC power which raises the heat and noise levels.

also 100/200 is a far cry from 300/1000.

Wasn't there an INI file that let you set powerplay's clocks and voltages?

 

I use program called Quiet HDD to set APM to 200 and AAM to 256. Suggest everyone to get this if they are running regular disk drive as a primary drive.

 

Self modded, sorry to work your scroll wheel

 

using the 10.2 preview drivers, a desktop 5870 I was working with had voltages and clocks in an text file (I think it was ini) for the power states.

The levels are (for nvidia cards too) 2D, low-power 3D, performance 3D.

Normally they dynamically clock for heat, noise, and power reasons.

The 5870M in this machine is only clocking depending on battery life, and it's only the core.

My 275GTX in my desktop does this, and the 5870 that was in another machine does it, but the 5870M doesn't do it (as far as I have found)

 

Self modded, sorry to work your scroll wheel

 

I can verify this happens, although I didn't know what the clock speeds were since I couldn't see anything. How I found out that turning off the display lowered the clock was through FAH. I noticed that the amount of time to complete a WU increased and the amount of PPD decreased every time the display turned off. I no longer turn the display off. In fact I would like to know of a way to turn off the display and not have it down clock.

 

Self modded, sorry to work your scroll wheel

 

My point is it should clock down when it's not being loaded for heat and noise reasons when plugged in. All the desktop cards do this. And my Nvidia 6800Go used to to this too.

And it should clock the RAM down too.

 

Self modded, sorry to work your scroll wheel

 

Self modded, sorry to work your scroll wheel

 

Yep, I'm doing something like that now. I have 'Turn off the display' set to "Never", with one minor exception, I turn the keyboard off with the backlight button (left of Turbo button) and then have the "Blank" screensaver kick-in 20 minutes later. That seems to keep the GPU working at full speed.

Hmm, I didn't know about this method. I have PowerPlay set to "Maximize Performance" when plugged in and the G73 is almost always on AC. However, your saying that un-checking PowerPlay would further maximize the performance?

Will do.

 

I don't think ATi or AMD don't think people buy a laptop with a HD5870 looking for 4 hour battery...

Most laptop gamers know getting over an hour on a performance GPU like HD5870 is pretty good. Getting 2 hours stock like you do with the G73 is incredible.
- No matter what you do, there are STILL 800 STREAM PROCESSORS and GDDR5 memory. No matter how much you downclock the HD5870, it's simply not good for battery life.
- What ATi did, as is now very clear, this is a DESKTOP HD5770 in our notebooks. That's why Nvidia and ATi switchable graphics switch to either their own version of IGP or Intel integrated, which were DESIGNED for battery life, and nothing more. Can't game on these GPUs nor can you even watch really well encoded HD videos. Maybe low quality 720p resolution videos, but not the full details.
- The only way to increase battery life is to somehow have the HD5870 shut down 600 stream processors... and use GDDR3 memory instead of the GDDR5 or something.
- But at this point you can't do anything intensive work. So there is NO POINT in having a HD5870 is you want to do work on battery. Buy a cheap netbook instead....

If you want more battery life, you buy one with switchable graphics like the UL series.

But because I am weird, I will be buying a 2nd battery for when I go back to school.

 

But we already have G73JH's so we may as well work together to make the best of what we have.

 

I didn't buy the G73 for long battery life. If I was concerned about that, I would have bought the Asus UL50 instead.

 

Neither did I, but it's nice to have all the same.

 

Self modded, sorry to work your scroll wheel

 

My G51 struggled with downclocking with a Nvidia GPU.... out of all the drivers I tried over the time of ownership, only 2 downclocked properly. So, I'm betting this isn't an Asus intended thing, but more a driver issue. I highly doubt Asus would disable downclocking intentionally, even if this is "high end gaming laptop"

Afterall, if so, why would they even bother giving us Power4Gear and a turbo option and a CPU that's not just locked on full speed?

 

Self modded, sorry to work your scroll wheel

 

I've been traveling, but I skimmed over these posts since I got home. Yeah, if I drop the mem clockspeed at all, it's guaranteed to GSOD. After doing this a couple of times I decided the heat and batt difference wasn't a big deal to me.

Quag, I haven't installed that MSI app (I did download it and will mess with it) but I can tell you that my PowerPlay already does the 300 core downclock on battery without messing with it. I use a gadget I dl'ed to check the speeds. Anyway, I'd love for someone to get somewhere on this, but I certainly don't want something that dangerously underclocks.

Ah, the MSI just monitors clocks. Looks like the OC/downclock functions won't work. Anyway, I just want to add that people should be careful under and overclocking. Kind of goes without saying, but I just went with the herd rather than looking into it a bit more.

 

Self modded, sorry to work your scroll wheel

 

Meh, it was for business ,so not so exciting. Be doing that a lot in the next few months. Will be glad when it's done so that I can be with my family.

 

Yes, I'd like to avoid having the GPU under clock when the display is automatically turned off by the Power Options.

Okay, I did the following:

1. Downloaded, installed and ran MSI Afterburner.
2. Went into Power Options and set 'Turn off the display' to one minute.
3. Went into PowerPlay, made sure 'Plugged in' was set to "Maximize Performance".
4. Disabled PowerPlay and clicked 'Apply'.

After one minute the display automatically turned off. Waited one minute and moved the mouse to turn the display back on. As you can see in the image below, the GPU under clocked to 300 despite the PowerPlay option being set to disable.



I returned to Power Options and changed 'Turn off the display' back to "Never".

The next thing I did was use Fn+F7 to turn off the display. Waited one minute and pressed Fn+F7 again to turn back on the display. There was no under clocking.

So, while <strike>adjusting</strike> disabling PowerPlay doesn't prevent under clocking, using the key combo does prevent it.

No, I said that I have it set to "Never" to prevent under clocking the core. I use the screensaver, while not as good as turning the display off, only for my convenience of automatically darkening the display.

 

A reboot is needed to affect a change in the enabling/disabling of PowerPlay.

Q

 

As we've discovered, setting clocks with the AMD GPU tool stops the powerplay from doing anything. So if you're not planning to go onto battery that might work.

 

I went through the whole thread (with some delay, sorry about that). The discussion was useful (if not entirely on-topic) up to a point, and then it degenerated. I deleted everything after that point.

Please try to keep things on track from now on. Thanks!

 

There are some good reasons to manually downclock instead of using PowerPlay, though much less so on the G73JH. For example, my MSI GX640 with 10.3 drivers chooses to downclock itself to 100/1000, but I've found that at those clock speeds the screen goes black when it tries to wake up from sleep, or boot into Windows.

As a consequence, in "Maximum Performance" mode it cannot wake up from sleep, and, worse still, if fails to boot if it's in "Maximum Battery Life" mode. The best solution is to disable PowerPlay altogether.

On the other hand, the laptop had no trouble at all waking up from sleep when I manually set the clocks to 300/300, and clocking the memory lower made it run much cooler.

 

I also imagine your battery life would increase drastically.