Y570 - Why do games run better off my battery and choppy when its plugged in? [ Edited ]

[M47R1X]

Happy fun picture time!

So I tried setting (in the Lenovo Energy Management) the laptop to Super Energy Star, and here was the result (plugged in):

It still feels a little bit choppy, but for the most part it's pretty smooth. Not sure why, even on regular Energy Star it runs choppy. What all is different? Why would LOWERING power settings keep it smooth? Thanks for all the help again, BTW! Major milestone, I feel!

--UPDATE--

I checked all of the advanced settings of Super Energy Star, and for the most part, it seemed to favor performance, and I mean computer performance, not battery performance. I don't know what setting was off, but I cranked CPU performance to max and set hard drive shutoff to 10/20min, rather than 1/1min, and it drastically shortened my load times and FPS went up by about 25-35%. Not bad, I'd say. It runs smoothly with no chop, so I'll jot this one down as a success. For now. Thanks for all of the help, guys!

[Duck3]

Weird. But if it helps for now, great.

Keep an eye out for updates for your laptop.
BIOS, drivers, etc.

A fairly new model, and hopefully Lenovo will
offer a resolution in the future???

[M47R1X]

I sure hope they do. Of course, mine might have been an odd case. I now know where to direct someone if they have a similar issue, so that's a positive. Thanks again for the help!

[defjam]

Hi I had exactly the same problem with gta 4 and slightly on dirt 3 ,it was driving me crazy, and the fix that I found was the nvidia driver the one  on lenovo download are well out of date, you need ver 275.33 from nvidia site and a modified inf file which you can find here: http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/drivers/win7x64/270.90/disclaimer

When you have downloaded the nvidia driver uncompress and it and it will be in c:nvidia if you have downloaded the modded inf copy and replace the original with this one in the display.driver folder, it is the folder with the setup.exe you will need to do this or the driver will not install. once installed i changed the global to high performance then on settings: features / power management mode to max.

not sure if the latter setting is needed but changed it anyway and all games run as they should.

Hope this helps.

def

[M47R1X]

Thanks for replying defjam, as the problem has reared it's ugly head again. I tried your advice (I had tried installing those drivers previously, and as you said they had failed), but even with your linked .inf file, it still wouldn't install. I then realized that your link was to driver v270.90 and typed in http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/drivers/win7x64/275.33/disclaimer, and it has started installing! Minor mistake, and I don't hold it against you at all. Thanks a bunch, and I'm installing it right now, I'll update with progress! Thanks again!!!

Hmmm.... nope, it's still doing it when it's running on AC power, even though the drivers updated. I found out that it does work okay whenever the Max CPU speed is set to low, but that kinda sucks for non-gaming purposes, not to mention that the game runs slower. Darn, I thought that would for sure fix it...

I tried setting the Power Management in the nVidia control panel to max performance like you said and the problem seems to have gone away, although it was still persistent for the first few seconds of gameplay. Odd... If this changes at all, I'll let you know. MORE TESTING!!!

Okay. So. I think I found out something kind of important. I closed the current game (Dragon Age: Origins is the one I've been testing this with, although all other games that used the GT 555M were giving me the same problem) and reopened it. The issue was there. I closed it, reopened it, and it wasn't. I alt+tab'd out, set it to high performance, and alt+tab'd in, and it still ran smooth. I closed the game, reopened it, and the problem was back. So it seems to be random then. I have no idea why it would be random like it is, but it most certainly is. I don't know if it's an issue with Steam (the game client I'm using) or with certain games, but for now it seems that if I close the game and reopen it, the game MAY run smoothly, or it may NOT. Why? I don't know. I'm confused as to why it would work just gravy one time, and then another play just HORRIBLY. No settings changed, and it runs like poo.

[defjam]

Hi so which version nvidia driver did you install and which windows are you using? I'm on win7 ultimate x64 and installed nvidia 275.33 with the modded inf and the games i'm playing are l4d2,cod4,mw2,blackops,dirt3 and gta4 and all working fine now, before dirt3 would just pause for a second randomly and gta 4 was just unplayable and I done the same as you and checked the gpu while game was running and it was spiking like crazy, but I know its to do with the optimus being buggy but with this latest official nvidia driver all seem well ver: 275.33

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/drivers

cheers

def

[M47R1X]

Yup, it was 275.33, like you said. Windows 7 Professional x64. Do you think I need a clean install? I followed your instructions pretty much exactly. I mean it's working now, so it might have been the driver, but it still sometimes effs up. Closing the game and reopening it seems to work. I think it may also be because of Steam. I dunno. I'm going to keep messing around and see if it works out. Last night I tried Mass Effect and Cysis, and both worked flawlessly (Crysis ran smoothly with all settings on High--heck yeah!).

[defjam]

That sounds great it could be steam as the optimus is finnicky with those types of games, but since this new driver all the games I play are without a hiccup. Also I set each game exe to high performance not auto and in the lenovo power management on high performance "change power scheme"  smart power saving  I deselected  smart power saving on cpu and harddisk, on detailed setting/system I made sure maxium cpu was set to high, So when I game I set lenovo power management to high and when watching movies/surfing the net i set to balance.

cheers

def

[defjam]

regarding clean install I just used the custom option when install this driver and checked the box where it said clean install.

[M47R1X]

I did a clean install and put her in high performance, and the game ran choppy for the first 30 seconds or so, but then it ran fine. Same with Crysis. I'll try again later with different games and see if I get different results.