How to decrease power drain without significantly reducing performance (common solutions im aware of have not worked)

Question

I have just purchased a brand new lenovo legion pro 5 16IRX9 with an intel core i9 14900HX CPU for both gaming and school purposes. I am aware that gaming laptops do have lower battery lives, especially when gaming, but I have found that the battery drain is extremely detrimental to my experience. When playing very low-requirement games, I find that my laptop drains from 90 to 20 within less than an hour, and simply browsing tends to come out to 1-2 hours, though it sometimes fluctuates. The lifespan would be understandable if I were playing a game that demanded more, but it has been concerning me that these simpler games are draining so much power. Is this standard for Lenovo, or am I doing something wrong? Are there ways to decrease the amount of power drain while gaming in a way that doesn't significantly impact performance? I will add that I have run several diagnostic checks and all have passed, and I have also tried running the system on low power mode, a refresh rate of 60, and have lowered my brightness. If it does help to diagnose any problems I may be having, my bios is currently on version LENOVO N0CN24WW (6/6/2024) and my windows is up to date.

Answer 1

I've never used a laptop, and haven't looked up a review for this model, but have noticed reviews for various models

are marked down regarding battery charge life. How many hours total would vary a fair bit between machines (and their cost).

Setting up a highly restricted power saving plan may help battery life with general apps, but would impact game performance.

1-2 Hr with apps vs less than an hour sounds likely when running a game sounds about right.

When you run a game the power use runs up dynamically with the extra load put on the cpu\gpu by the games level of

graphics settings. If the power use didn't go up at various points while running a game and stayed at your desired

power saving minimum it would likely cause a sudden drop in game frame rates, and gameplay quality.

The difference in power use between games and desktop apps is apples and oranges. The gpu does very little processing when

not running games or other 3D graphics apps. The cpu also generally does more work in games than most other apps.

Answer 2

Thank you for replying.
I have followed most of these steps with little results. While I am highly satisfied with this laptop's performance overall, the battery has still been impacting my enjoyment of the laptop, so I would like to continue to get to the bottom of this if possible. I have been taking your advice and have been performing most of my heavier tasks (gaming, primarily) while plugged in, swapped just a few different processes from NVIDIA graphics to integrated graphics as needed, and etc. However, there are some processes which I do not have access to or do not know how to access, the most important one at the moment being the advanced power settings.

This does not come up for me. While I can go to power settings and tweak basic functions (power saving mode, screen brightness, etc), it does not give me an option to access advanced power settings. Is there a different way I should be trying to access this other than through the windows settings?
Also, I have checked my bios, however, it says that the latest is one from February of this year, while the version I have is from June. Despite this, it is still telling me the update is recommended, so it does leave me a bit confused.

In terms of my lower demand games, one such I am referring to is "rain world". It is a game I can run comfortably on integrated graphics and power saving mode, and yet it still drains my battery at a rather fast pace. Perhaps I could have misjudged how much the game demands, however, I wouldn't expect it to require so much.
And by browsing, I do refer to simple internet browsing. I have yet to watch any videos on this laptop, and the most I have done is search the web for solutions to my battery problem, and browse through steam on occasion. Even so, when I do this, the battery drain is only slightly less than if I were to play a low demand game like Rain World.

I have found that, on one occasion, I could manage to extend the battery life for a rather long time (up to 6 hours) while browsing, but only one occasion. After I came upon the fix by turning all of my settings to power efficiency, I temporarily reverted the settings back to overall balanced for gaming. Afterwards, I went back to the previous power efficiency settings, only to then find myself with a battery that went back to lasting 1-2 hours.

I hope I was clear in my explanation, though if there is other information you may need to help my situation I am happy to share.

Answer 3

Hello Jacob Rodriguez6,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

I understand your situation and will do my best to assist you. Based on your hardware information, the i9-14900HX itself has high power consumption: the i9-14900HX is a high-performance mobile processor, and even under non-high-load conditions, the base power consumption is not low. Coupled with the presence of a discrete graphics card, even low-demand games will call part of the graphics card's performance, leading to increased power consumption. The Legion series laptops are designed to provide powerful gaming performance, so battery life is usually not as optimized as ultrabooks. Although the above two points are facts, the described power consumption speed of "90% to 20% in less than an hour" is fast even for gaming laptops, so further investigation is needed. Each device's situation and usage will vary, so there is no fixed setting. This can only be limited to an acceptable range through trial and error, but it cannot be guaranteed to meet all needs. Because the relationship between power consumption and performance is such that it is difficult to balance both, it is generally not recommended to perform high-performance tasks away from the power source. The best situation is to use it connected to the power source for a long time, unless necessary, do not use the battery (especially when you need to extend battery life).

Suggested power-saving methods (these can only improve to a certain extent, the effect may not be significant, and are not fundamental solutions):

Lenovo's official app (specifically for Lenovo devices) also has different power modes to choose from, usually three options: performance, normal, and power-saving. You can set it to power-saving mode and enable all power suggestions in Windows settings, then run the game to see the situation (recommended first).

Discrete graphics card power management:

• Nvidia Optimus or AMD SmartShift: Confirm whether the laptop is correctly using the switching technology between integrated and discrete graphics. For tasks that do not require high-performance graphics processing, it should switch to integrated graphics to save power. You can check and set this through the Nvidia Control Panel or AMD Radeon Software. Ensure that the system uses integrated graphics when playing low-demand games.

CPU power management:

• Advanced power plan settings: In Windows power options, go to advanced settings, find "Processor power management," and adjust the "Minimum processor state" and "Maximum processor state." In battery mode, you can appropriately lower the maximum processor state, for example, set it to 80% or lower to limit the CPU's maximum frequency and power consumption.
• Intel Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU) and other tools: Third-party tools can more finely control the CPU's power consumption, frequency, and voltage. Through appropriate undervolting or power limit, you can significantly reduce CPU power consumption without noticeable performance loss. However, using these tools requires some expertise, and improper operation may lead to system instability, so proceed with caution (note that this may help extend battery life to some extent, but the effect may not be significant, and it is still recommended to use it connected to the power source).

Display settings:

• Dynamic refresh rate (if supported): If your laptop supports dynamic refresh rate (such as Nvidia G-Sync or AMD FreeSync), you can enable this feature to automatically lower the refresh rate in scenarios that do not require high refresh rates, thereby saving power.

BIOS settings:

• Check BIOS updates: Although your BIOS version is relatively new, it is still recommended to check Lenovo's official website for any new BIOS updates. BIOS updates sometimes include improvements in power management.
• Check power management options in BIOS: Some laptops' BIOS provide more advanced power management options, such as CPU C-states, SpeedStep, etc. You can adjust them as needed, but proceed with caution.

Disclaimer: Microsoft provides no assurances and/or warranties, implied or otherwise, and is not responsible for the information you receive from third-party linked sites or any support related to technology.

If you are going to modify BIOS settings, please back up all your personal files first to ensure you do not lose data.

Background programs and processes: Even if you are not playing games, background programs and services will consume power. Use Task Manager to carefully check for unnecessary programs running in the background and close them.

For your specific situation:

• What specific games are "low-demand games"? Please provide the specific game names so I can better judge the hardware requirements and possible power consumption of these games.
• What do you mean by "browsing"? Does it refer to simple web browsing, or does it include watching videos, using complex web applications, etc.? Different browsing behaviors have different impacts on power consumption.

Important tips:

• Monitor power consumption and temperature: Use tools to monitor the power consumption and temperature of the CPU, GPU, and battery to better understand the reasons for power consumption. I will pay extra attention to any potential advertising behavior, so I cannot directly mention any third-party application names. You can search for related content in search engines.
• Gradual testing: After making any changes, test to see if battery life improves. Do not make multiple changes at once to avoid difficulty in determining which change is effective.

By following these steps, you can confirm if there are different results in certain situations.

If you have any additional information, you can reply to me at any time. I look forward to your response.

Wishing you the best and a Merry Christmas!

Best wishes

Leo Z | Microsoft Community Support Specialist