Results of battery life of T61 with X3100 and nvdia 140M

I have 2 new T61 with similar configuration and setting when tested. Both with wifi, bluetooth, fingerprint, etc all ON, battery stretcher mode on/off, 3GB SODIMM, Hitachi 7K200 100GB HDD The difference is

First T61 is T7500, 14" 4:3 standard size, 1400x1050 nvdia 140M 128MB, 9 cells brand new battery, XP Pro

Second T61 is T8100, 14" widescreen 1280x800, X3100, the 9 cells brand new battery. Vista Business

With battery stretcher mode off

T61 nvdia : 2 hours 30 minutes
T61 X3100 : 4 hours 30 minutes !!!!!!!

with battery stretcher mode on
T61 nvdia : +10 minutes for a total of 2 hours 40 minutes
T61 X3100 : +41 minutes for a total of 5 hours 15 minutes

These readings were taking while surfing with wifi inside a Macdonals and running simple business programs like Microsoft word. Power mode Energy Star 4.0 but I turned on brightness to max and turned on wifi and bluetooth to simulate my normal working condition.

Now, that is the reason why i ordered the 2nd T61 for it's Penryn, new 9 cells capability and X3100. Info just to share with those who are considering. The BIGGEST differentiator I believe is the X3100 because both 9 cells battery have the same capacity

 

Thanks for the comparison. I suspect, the 570M can only be worse (in terms of battery life).
It really makes X3100 my favorite!
On the other hand side - I realized you had spent c.a. 10h in MacDonalds?!
Rep to you!

 

It's useful to have this type of comparison. I had reached a similar conclusion by comparing the Samsung Q45 (12.1" with X3100) and Q70 (13.3" and 8400M G). Here it was a case of 5 hours vs 3 hours for what is the same hardware except for GPU and display size.

While the X3100 is much more power-hungry than the Intel GM950, it is still much better than the dedicated GPUs.

John

 

Thats good. I get about 4 hrs and 10 minutes out of my T61 14" WSXGA+ with a T7500 and XP with the 7 cell doing basics like web surfing, and business programs, but i do not use bluetooth.
other than the bluetooth not sure what the difference is in your test.

 

This is crazy, is it possible to have a HD-capable GPU and decent battery life? Or do we have to wait for new chips like the X4500?

 

nVidia NVS 140M adds extra 10W to the power consumption of a laptop, while Intel's X3100 was designed to be very power efficient. That explains the major difference in battery life.

The new X4500 should be out in June. It will support OpenGL 2.0, hardware acceleration for Blu-Ray and DisplayPort (to DVI, HDMI, VGA). It will consume less power than a discreet nVidia. So X4500 looks like a good bet for those ho don't need a laptop urgently.

 

Not on the same day!

The 2nd T61 arrived yesterday and i was setting it up by transfering my buisness stuff from the 1st T61. I had posted the results of the first T61 somewhere before....couldn't find that post so I started another one.

I did had a T61p with the 570 before, T7700, 9 cells, and the battery is only 1.5 hours to 2 hours at best.....so i quickly sold it off.

My business requires my battery to last at least a few hours, that was why I used X-series for the past few years till my eyes are too old to see the small fonts. That is why from Last July to now I have been experimenting with the T series.

My next trial will be to get one of those SSD sata and swap the current 7K200 out, I think I will squeeze another 30 minutes with the faster and lower power consumption drive

 

I have checked before I ordered the 2nd T61. The T8100 capability is above T7300 but below T7500 and it can goes into deeper sleep mode if not in use, so it does saves some power when I go to the loo, day dreaming etc.

On the LAST day before I pulled the trigger to order it, the new 9 cells came out at lenovo site and I took it over the 7 cells, so i get some more juice over yours.

 

Do you think Lenovo will offer X4500 with WUXGA (in order to have a real HD quality on a laptop screen)? If so, I will buy such a one!

I think I'm not the only one who waits for the outcome...
I'm going to order T61p or its Montevina-based successor this summer and also need the longest possible battery life (thus I think about a set comprising two 6-cell batteries, external charger and a 3-cell Ultrabay one, since I do not want the battery to stick out).

 

Are these X4500 notebooks going to be available at the beginning of June? Or will it be a slow launch with notebooks not shipping until July or August? And do you think there will be an initial price premium? I just don't know if I should buy a notebook now or wait.

 

It does not seem like we have any electrical engineers in the house.....

Now let me explain the situation with all my knowledge....

The Nvidia GPU is NOT the major cause in this battery life diff. The 140m consumes MAX 10watts and ONLY when under FULL load like when running 3D video games. When browsing the web or doing other 2D tasks like MS office or watching videos the GPU undervolts itself and sets its clocks to a mear 169mhz core and 100mhz mem. Its called PowerMizer in the nvidia driver and it will reduce the power consumption to about half.

So as we know the GPU does NOT consume 10 watts of power while browsing the internet or using MS office, watching videos ect...

Even IF it did the 9 cell battery is 84 watt hours and 10 watts of that is only 1/8 of the battery capacity and in reality it would only consume 1/16 of the total battery capacity due to PowerMizer on top of all that those ratings are only if the GPU is in constant processing AND on top of all that you need to subtract the power drain of the x3100 to get the diff between the two GPUs consumptions.

So why the difference? Well first off the two laptops are COMPELETLY different! Different CPU, Different screens, different motherboards, EVERYTHING is different. NOTHING is similar with the two units.

This still does not make up for the drastic diff in battery life. OP is obviously not running his "tests" correctly, or one of the batteries may be faulty.

Again the Nvidia GPU would NOT cause such a drastic battery drain as proven above. It would be electrically and physically impossible.

 

Very good point Grimster.

The list of differences I see are:
T7500 vs T8100 (less power)
14" 4:3 vs 14" 16:10 (less surface area = less back light = less power?)
XP vs vista (more gpu usage with Aero, more power)
NVS140m vs x3100 (less power)
Used 9 Cell vs New 9 Cell

And yeah it wasn't exactly scientific to just use both machines.

 

Good info, Grimster.


Ideasmiths, try swapping the battery at least...

 

Not so. You're forgetting the sizable cost of the on-board memory and fan, heat leakage triggering additional use of the CPU fan and inefficiencies in power delivery to the GPU itself.

Everything looks pretty on paper, but here in the real world things are more complex and such a dramatic battery life differential is reasonable.

 

As MaxGeek has pointed out, the gfx card is the least of differences powerconsumption-wise. This comparison is so totally flawed.
BUT tbh, im having a hard time believing that powermizer underVOLTS. Its a software, so it would be undervolting on driverlevel and if that were the case, id bet there wouldve been custom undervolting programmes out in no time.
Sadly, that isnt the case.
Only underclocking does NOT affect power consumption, same goes for overclocking.

 

RMClock is a software using driver level too and it can undervolt the CPU pretty well.

So I do believe PowerMixer can truly undervolt the GPU.

 

Thats exactly what i mean. CoolnQuiet and whatevr the Intel tehnology for undervolting is named can be manually controlled via software. The PowerMizer feature cant, so im having trouble believing that none of the millions of genius laptopusing "hackers" havent found a way to do what powermizer does, if it rly would undervolt and not just underclock.

 

Now I see your point. One easy way to find out is to test the battery with PowerMizer off and on to see if it actually makes a difference. I'm sure someone has done it already.

 

Only PowerMizer 8 will undervolt...read the tech specification.

NOT sure powermizer 8 is compatible with GeForce 8M, think it's only 9M.

Hoping someone will install the latest drivers (released july 1) for the 8400M and tell me what the case REALLY IS, since the spec sheet for powermizer 8 was only released in early june

 

It is true PowerMizer 8.0 will undervolt, but that has been true as long as I can remember for PowerMiser. Versions 7, 6, and 5 etc.. undervolt also.