Video card vs Battery life - laptop

MouldyOldDough

My MSI laptop has two different video choices - a lower spec Intel Iris XE and a high spec NVIDIA Geforce RTX 4060  - I have been running on the high spec until recently, when I noticed the battery was not lasting as long as I  expected

Running on the NVIDIA - Battery lasts 1 1/4 hours

Running on the INTEL - Battery lasts for 3 1/2 hours - 4 hours !!

Anybody offer any advice as to why the massive difference ?

TadleyBaggie

It's because the NVidiea graphics has much higher power consumption because it has faster processors.

Rodders53

The gaming graphics card is used to provide higher performance graphics in such game-playing use (and some applications can use the graphics card processors to crunch things, I believe) thus taking the load off the main processors... but using energy (battery or mains power) to do so.

The Intel card is on the same chip as the main processors and may show it's limitations with lower detail or jerkier graphics on image intensive operational use.

MouldyOldDough

TadleyBaggie said:

It's because the NVidiea graphics has much higher power consumption because it has faster processors.

Yes but I did not expect such a huge difference and surely, the Nvidia should only use the power when used at very high definition - rather than just web browsing ?

DullGreyGuy

MouldyOldDough said:

TadleyBaggie said:

It's because the NVidiea graphics has much higher power consumption because it has faster processors.

Yes but I did not expect such a huge difference and surely, the Nvidia should only use the power when used at very high definition - rather than just web browsing ?

Nvidia's site says the card takes between 35w and 115w of power depending on how hard it's being pushed whereas the Intel Iris varies a bit between processors but is somewhere between 7w-28w so it maxed out is less power drain than the minimum required to run the discrete graphics card. 

This is where I can happily run my laptop on a 20w charger for day to day use

facade

The NVIDIA cards use a lot of power.

There is a utility called HWINFO64 that you can download and run, that tells you everything about your computer.

The sensor option shows GPU (and CPU) power if you scroll down enough.

I only have a 2060, but it won't be far off the 4060, lower if anything.

The maximum was when it was rendering a video, the current is just surfing t'interweb, no videos or anything, so just the video is 20W!

No wonder my electric bill is that of a small city...

MouldyOldDough

DullGreyGuy said:

MouldyOldDough said:

TadleyBaggie said:

It's because the NVidiea graphics has much higher power consumption because it has faster processors.

Yes but I did not expect such a huge difference and surely, the Nvidia should only use the power when used at very high definition - rather than just web browsing ?

Nvidia's site says the card takes between 35w and 115w of power depending on how hard it's being pushed whereas the Intel Iris varies a bit between processors but is somewhere between 7w-28w so it maxed out is less power drain than the minimum required to run the discrete graphics card. 

This is where I can happily run my laptop on a 20w charger for day to day use

Thanks - that explains a lot

In future - I will only use Nvidia when running off the mains

bob2302

Personally I'd leave it off unless I actually needed it. Outside of games it probably isn't useful - just increasing your electricity bill.

Vitor

Launch MSI Center, go to the general setting and find GPU switch, where you can switch between Microsoft Hybrid Graphics mode or discrete graphics mode. Just select the mode you want and the system will ask you to reboot the laptop.