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    Gaming with T400 Battery

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by whalefish, Dec 1, 2008.

  1. whalefish

    whalefish Notebook Enthusiast

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    Just a quick question:

    Anyone know why the performance in games and video intensive applications seems to be worse when running off of battery power versus AC? I have adjusted my power meter settings so that the CPU is running at it's highest setting, yet the frame rate seems to be much less.

    Also, in case anyone has been wondering, Fallout 3 runs great on medium settings on the t400 (better when plugged in though).

    -Matt
     
    whalefish, Dec 1, 2008
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  2. jjgoo

    jjgoo Notebook Deity

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    gaming on a battery will eat thru the juice fast.
     
    jjgoo, Dec 1, 2008
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  3. Hep!

    Hep! sees beauty in everything

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    Because it's also downclocking your video card, not just CPU. The T400 might even have hybrid graphics (I think it does but am not sure) and switch to integrated on battery. Check the video settings.
     
    Hep!, Dec 1, 2008
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  4. raxen

    raxen Notebook Guru

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    Make sure you have switched to "High Performance" mode. If you are using WinXP, you will need to reboot and make the change in the BIOS. If using vista, you should be able to make the switch on-the-fly using the power manager.

    Afterwards, open up ATI Catalyst Control Center and use "Advanced" mode. There should be an option called "Powerplay". You need to set it to Maximum Performance when using battery. Alternatively, just disable it since I think it is unnecessary with T400's hybrid graphics.

    Happy gaming
     
    raxen, Dec 1, 2008
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  5. whalefish

    whalefish Notebook Enthusiast

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    Awesome, thanks for the responses, very helpful :)
     
    whalefish, Dec 2, 2008
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