Getting very low frame rate with battery

Hello,

On my computer, I get about 1 FPS for every game I play, while using battery. BF3, BF4, etc.

While I am plugged in I get 50+ frames for both of those games.

Specs:

GTX 880m
i7-4810mq
16 GB ram

Any advice would be nice.

 

Are you new to gaming laptops? Throttling when unplugged is normal to prevent battery damage. You might also look into the Battery Boost feature in GeForce Experience and see if it improves performance.

 

it's working as intended as the battery does not provide enough juice to power everything at full operational capacity. plus most of us seasoned gamers know that gaming on battery is useless and therefore we plug it into the mains with a 240W or 330W PSU.

 

I blame idiots like Linus etc for this, mis-educating and talking about battery life on gaming laptops as if it's an experience worth having while gaming.

 

Yep. CPU will downclock to about 800Mhz or 1200Mhz depending on CPU. GPU will downclock accordingly as well. Only way to actually game while on battery is to reduce resolution (usually 720p) and detail and limit FPS to 30 to limit battery drain. Gaming on battery is just a bad idea unless it's a basic 2D game like Peggle or an older game like Quake.

 

Well, I am confused by this then. I have tried playing BF4 and BF3 before using my battery. I got lower frame rates, but I just turned each down to about medium and I got about 60 FPS again. I actually get 1 FPS when I have just my battery now.

 

you're not supposed to game on the battery.

 

This. Only the newest GPUs from Maxwell even designed a feature around battery gaming, with a 30fps cap. You are not supposed to game on battery as a battery does not produce enough power for your system.

 

Just be happy you're getting 1 FPS instead of (literally) blowing up your battery.

 

the point of gaming laptops/notebooks is to not game on the battery but to have a system that's powerful enough but portable at the same time. people who are new to gaming notebooks seem to misunderstand what it means to "game on the go". It does not mean to game while in transit on a battery: that's just impractical for the sake of there being not enough power in the battery. it means that the device is portable but also quite powerful to play at the desktop level of performance or near it.

 

Alright, well thank you guys for the responses. It just seems strange to me, because I am positive I did play on battery in the past. Guess not. There is one thing I am curious about though...when I disabled the 880m and forced it to use integrated graphics, it actually had a much better frame rate (20ish).

 

Okay, thank you for that clarification. I had always known that you would get the best results by having the computer plugged in, but I never thought there would be that big of a difference.

 

Peak power consumption of 880m ~ 120W, CPU ~ 55W, rest of system ~ 30W. Imagine your battery trying to push out about 200W of power divided into 80 WHr = 24 minutes at best case if it could supply that kind of power. Your battery can at best provide 50-60W of power and it will get real hot then too. But yes, using integrated (Intel) GPU is your best option if the system supports Optimus.

 

Gaming on battery power.
The poor battery must be shiatin itself...

 

Doesn't the 880M support NVIDIA's battery boost tech? Should allow some level on gaming with NVIDIA GPU on battery...

 

Rofl

 

This is what I thought.

 

I have a 180w power supply though... D:

But yes, that makes sense.

 

All GPU's do because it's just a gimmick and more geared towards mid to lower end GPU's. It's just using a frame limiter which you can accomplish with NvidiaInspector or MSI Afterburner. Nvidia just gave it a coy marketing term and sold it as a feature.

You would be fine with a 950m or 940m or lower or just using Intel GPU on battery for gaming. But you will have to sacrifice resolution and detail. And if you do it often, expect to replace your battery in six months.

 

There is something wrong with your machine if your 880M is dropping to 1FPS on battery. I had an SLI machine and my 880Ms ran around 20-30FPS. Check your power settings for any anomalies for power saving settings. The card should drop to 500~700MHz clock range. It should definitely be faster than the iGPU. That's a red flag

 

Regardless of what happened, we should not be encouraging people to game on the battery, especially with otherwise high-power notebooks.

 

That's ridiculous. Sometimes you have no plug and you need to play a game. Obviously the performance hit would be rather large but I've had situations where I have had to run on battery and game all the way back to my Toshiba with an 8700M and my M17xR1 with 260M SLI. These batteries are designed to provide enough power to the system in power saving mode.

 

I swear I have played on BF3 before with the 880m on battery. I agree, my FPS dropped, but i adjusted the settings and it was playable. I never remember having 1 FPS before, i remember having FPS in the 40 ish range. Also, HTWingNut said that my PC would use about 200w, but I have a 180w PSU...

 

Get a tablet if you want to game without plugging in.

#getoffmylawn

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LOL 10 char...

 

test

 

10char limit doesn't exist anymore. ^See?

 

Gaming on battery is what peasants do!

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I guess you've never had the power go out in the middle of a game before... *eye roll*

 

If it goes out mid game then you stop and do something else.

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You missed my point entirely but I'm not in the mood to explain it. Stop tossing around insults like "peasant" though.