Do driver updates for GeForce Go 7600 have much effect on battery life?

Hi folks,

Just got an Acer 5685 last week and I am now trying to optimise it for max. battery life. So I would like to know if there is any gain in battery life for me to bother installing these latest forceware drivers over the ones that came pre-installed on my laptop?

Is it worth underclocking the gfx card to gain battery life for normal windows activities like surfing the web/ reading ebooks etc?

(You maybe asking why has this guy got a dedicated gfx card ... well its for Vista Aero interface along with the ability to play some games like Civ4 ocassionally... not really bought it as a gaming laptop).

Thanks
Jules

 

Newer drivers shouldn't have any effect on your battery life, no. Remember to set the video card to be in battery saver mode when you're unplugged; there are options to change that in the video card's control panel.

Underclocking the video card usually does not do anything significant for battery life. The video card not only underclocks itself automatically, but also undervolts. If you underclock manually, the card won't undervolt. It is better to let the card manage power.

Remember to set your Windows power scheme to "Power Saver" on battery - it will disable the Aero interface and therefore the video card won't have to manage all the special effects. To do this, click on the battery icon in the system tray, and select Power Saver.

 

Thanx for the advice ... "Thanks" button does not seem to be there so I've done it manually. Looks like based on what you said I will not play around updating drivers etc as this is a pain sometimes having to get driver-cleaner etc working!! I did some overclocking of my graphics cards on my desktops using third party drivers like Omega for ATI for example and I wasted loads of time "pratting" around with the settings etc.


Even though I have not yet got Vista (waiting for free express upgrade to come through!) I will use that tip for when I am not gaming!

Thanks again
Jules

 

Sorry, I don't have the answer to this question, but as you have the notebook, are you aware of there being a facility whereby you can switch the graphics from dedicated to integrated?

I have seen some Sony Notebooks have this feature, avaliable at the flick of a switch+reboot. There must surely be some way to manually carry this out, and use the integrated graphics chip, I assume is a intel 945.

Should save a fre more minutes battery.

 

Yeah, the Sony SZ's have this feature. They have a GMA950 and a Geforce 7400.

 

Interesting suggestion ... I'll have a look tomorrow ..(too tired now!!) ... certainly would suit me if there was a simple integ. gfx/dedic. gfx "switch" for this. Though I don't have a "nice" machine like the Sony SZ (thats the one with the LED backlight & super dupa battery life to boot??).

Jules

 

i dont think this model has it. I have seen this model before and im pretty sure it doesnt.