Inspiron/Vostro battery life - gaming vs office tasks

What is the difference in battery life in your notebook with a dedicated graphics card (8400/8600) when it is being used for light tasks like word processing and surfing as opposed to gaming?

If you have experience with a Vostro or Inspiron I would like to hear from you. Thanks!

 

from what i've experienced, i get around 3.5 hours of light tasks while on "Power Saver", with the 6 cell
haven't tried gaming yet, usually only do it when it's plugged in

 

I have been a ble to pull out up over 6 hours with wifi on doing regualr tasks

gaming I was able to get 3 hours

9cell battery

With 8600m GT

 

An integrated graphics card, such as the X3100, uses 4-6 Watts of power at full load, and somewhere below that at idle (I'd guess 1-2 Watts). Dedicated nVIDIA GeForce 8M series cards use about 6 Watts at idle - about as much as an integrated card at full load. At full load, the 8400M GS uses 15 Watts of power, and the 8600M GT uses 22 Watts of power ( source). So that's about 9-16 Watts more power consumption while gaming as opposed to low-graphics tasks.

Of course, even primarily graphics-intensive gaming tends to push the CPU above its most power-saving states as well. Some games will push the CPU all the way from its lowest-power states (4-6 Watts range) up to the full 35 Watt power consumption. Single-threaded or less-CPU-intensive games might still allow one core to be on low power, giving around 20 Watts of CPU power consumption.

So overall, for a graphics-heavy and CPU-light or single-threaded game, you're probably looking at about 30 Watts per hour more power consumption with the 8600 GT and a single-threaded game than on idle. If the game maxes out the CPU as well then you're looking at 45 Watts per hour more than idle. If a game used heavy CPU usage and light graphics (perhaps 2D), you'd be looking at about 30 Watts more power usage than idle. Subtract 6 Watts per hour for the first two of those numbers for the 8400 GS.

Those estimates are probably a bit low in reality - I haven't factored in that the fans will be spinning much faster, and thus consuming more power, while gaming. But even without that factored in, it's a big difference. Considering that at idle (full brightness, one USB port used, WiFi off), the machine uses about 20 Watts per hour, gaming easily doubles and may triple power usage. With an 85 WHr battery you should be able to get an hour even with very demanding games, but with a 56 WHr battery you'll be hitting the limit after about 50 minutes.

I'm assuming that was with a brand-new battery? I could get 5:35 (until it hibernated at 3%) with minimum brightness and no WiFi or USB a couple months after I bought the computer, and about 6:15 with the screen off as well (using it as a music player).

Also, which game? For even an old GPU-intensive game, I doubt you could get more than 2 hours even on the very first charge (this is based somewhat on my own experience playing Battlefield Vietnam for part of the first battery charge - 45-60 min of BFV and 2 hours of other (fairly low-demanding except CD drive) stuff at reduced brightness took 92% charge before I realized my power strip was off). For very demanding games, 1.5 hours would be very good even on the first or second charge and with WiFi off. I could see a strategy game with low AI turn times (i.e., few calculations and almost all you making moves) getting three hours, but not a game that consistently used lots of power.

 

Battery is 8 months old.

game gta sa was able to last a tad above 3 hours

 

Interesting. It must not increase the GPU load all that much. I can see it not increasing the CPU very much, GPU must be less than 100% load as well. If life were 4 hours at idle, that's 21 Watts per hour, 3 hours with a game would be 28 Watts per hour - a 7 Watt increase. If 4.5 hours at idle, then it's 18.666 Watts per hour - a 9.333 Watt increase in GTA SA. Still seems a bit low for a 3D game with considerable action and detail, but perhaps possible. I haven't played it myself so I can't benchmark its power draw.

 

Dell 1530: T7500, 2GB RAM, 8600GT, 200GB 7200RPM Drive, 9 Cell Battery gets me 3-4hours on the battery saving settings using Word, Internet, Emails etc. While the same config allows for 2.5 hours of COD4 away from the desk. Turning all the settings down gave me an extra 20-40 minutes! Turning the back light down to the last notch, but turning up brightness in game (this changes the colors on screen, rather than negating turning down the back light). By doing all stated steps, I added 60-70 minutes of COD4 away from my desk.

 

On 'Maximum Performance', I get at least 2 hours of battery life doing normal tasks [Word, music, some flash games even, etc.] with WiFi on. At least 3 hours with WiFi off. I never play games [3D] on battery, so I don't really know how long I can play a game on battery. Screen brightness is down 2 notches from maximum brightness. I have the 6-cell, btw. Laptop specs below.

 

I was quite stunned the first time my self. I was sitting in International studies playing gta (the Prof has a monotone voice with a HEAVY filipino accent) played for an hour and 45 mins, kept playing in hallway arrived at Studies of the UN an hour and 10 minutes in the battery light turned red and I looked at the time.

 

Hi. OP here. I recently received my Vostro (specs in signature) and I'm quite impressed with the battery life for office tasks. The battery meter said I had 4.5 hours at 95-100% charge so this matches Apollo13's figures, though that would be for typing and touchpad-only and minimum screen brightness (it's fine for word processing). Has anyone squeezed 5 hours from a 6-cell battery?

 

Right around 6 hours on battery on the 9 cell, but I've never run it all the way down.

 

After some more playing around, I am getting about 4 hours to 13% on a brand new 6 cell.

 

When my 1520 had the x3100 I got around 4.5 hours on the 6 cell battery. Now that I have the 8600, it's closer to 2.5