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    Buying a GT 630m laptop instead of a GT 650m increase battery life?

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by neverloggedin, Aug 6, 2012.

  1. neverloggedin

    neverloggedin Notebook Enthusiast

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    My question is will opting for a worse graphics card give you better battery life? (Same laptop)

    I am thinking of buying an Asus n56vm instead of n56vz, n56vm has 630m and n56vz has 650m.

    Now there is quite a difference between the GPUs in graphic performance but how will it affect the battery life?

    Thanks
     
    neverloggedin, Aug 6, 2012
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  2. bobuy00

    bobuy00 Notebook Geek

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    Don't.

    The 630M is a Fermi chip while the 650M is a Kepler chip. And because of the smaller process the Kepler will always have the lower power consumption and better battery life.

    Correction:
    According to this
    Comparison of Nvidia graphics processing units - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    The 650M has a TDP of 45W while the 630M has a TDP of 33W

    So at full speed the 650M will have a shorter battery life, but bear in mind that the 650M is on par with a 560M giving it a higher performance per watt. And that because of Optimus they will both have the about same battery life when on idle or doing light tasks.
     
    bobuy00, Aug 6, 2012
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  3. Syberia

    Syberia Notebook Deity

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    Don't most laptops with low- to mid-range nVidia GPUs have Optimus? I don't know about your particular model, but if it does, the the dGPU won't matter unless you're doing something like gaming on battery.

    Sent from my Tricorder using Tapatalk
     
    Syberia, Aug 6, 2012
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  4. MegaBUD

    MegaBUD Notebook Evangelist

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    Doesnt matter... with optimus.. you gonna use the IGP while browsing or watching movie... and the GPU will kick in only in games...
     
    MegaBUD, Aug 7, 2012
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  5. Deks

    Deks Notebook Prophet

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    It won't matter because in both cases, the laptop will switch over to the IGP (integrated gpu) to conserve power - so battery wise, there won't be a difference.

    However, the 630M is MUCH slower compared to the 650M (and as someone else mentioned, 630m is based on last generation technology, so its less efficient and less powerful) - so if you want to play games and don't want to worry too much about graphic performance, go with the 650M (battery life in this instance won't be a problem).
     
    Deks, Aug 7, 2012
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