Worth activating High Performance power plan for gaming?

[Fuzzball]

I've got a pretty decent gaming laptop (Intel Quad Core i7-3630QM @ 2.4GHz, 8GB RAM, GeForce GTX 675MX) which I do my gaming on when it's plugged into a power supply. It performs pretty well for most games, but as I'm now a PC gamer I'm always wanting to get more out of it.

I always have my laptop set on the Balanced power plan. I was wondering if it using the High Performance plan when gaming would improve things?

1) What exactly does the High Performance plan change? Does it allow you to get more out of the GPU, or is it using the cores of the CPU better? Are there particular games it might have more of an impact on? (I'm thinking maybe of games that use the CPU more, e.g. Total War series.)

2) Are there negative consequences when using High Performance? My laptop is often whirring away quite loudly; would High Performance increase that? Could components overheat and get damaged?

3) Has anyone here noticed any particular improvements when using the High Performance plan instead of Balanced?

I guess I'll test benchmarks in some games and compare the two power plans, but I'm just trying to find out what I'm getting into.

[Alienowl]

I have a setup pretty close to yours: i7-3720 @2.6GHz, 8 GB RAM and a GeForce 650. I've been experimenting between the balanced and the high performance plans. Honestly, I don't see much difference in gaming, but I do notice the fan seems to be on more with the high performance plan.

I've found this article [www.addictivetips.com] that lists some of the differences between the different modes.

In the article, the author says "'Balanced' is my personal favorite. With it, Windows changes the clock speed based on demand by your running applications, though it works like this only on supported hardware. On my PC, that means varying from 0.77GHz at minimal load to 2.9GHz under maximum load."

On high performance, the clock speed should be at maximum all the time.

Hope that helps some.

[Fuzzball]

Thanks for the info! If the CPU is going at its maximum speed all the time in High Performance, surely that would mean that performance in games would reamain consistent, instead of dropping occasionally in Balanced mode? I guess it depends how much the game is using the CPU and how well configured Windows is to giving it a good speed in Balanced mode.

I guess I'll have to compare some benchmark results myself and see what I find!

[Fuzzball]

Well, from my very brief testing of running benchmarks and using FRAPS in both Balanced and High Performance power plans, I didn't notice any change in game performance. Maybe though with more tweaking or in certain games people made find some improvements... Doesn't really seem worth it though.

[76561198106683314]

hello

[Ineffable Anathema]

Originally posted by Fuzzball:

2) Are there negative consequences when using High Performance? My laptop is often whirring away quite loudly; would High Performance increase that? Could components overheat and get damaged?

The chance of overheating and/or other issues is always greater with a higher graphics option than with a lower one, so yes it *could* result in damage. This is probably not likely as the machine would probably shut down before it got severe though. Maybe you could find something cool to sit your machine on while using it.

[Alienowl]

Originally posted by Fuzzball:

Well, from my very brief testing of running benchmarks and using FRAPS in both Balanced and High Performance power plans, I didn't notice any change in game performance. Maybe though with more tweaking or in certain games people made find some improvements... Doesn't really seem worth it though.

I think I've found pretty much the same thing. Although if you are running on battery the difference between the plans (power saving and high performance) should be quite noticeable in terms of battery life. As I AM SHODAN mentioned added heat can be a problem, but it seems that most of the current systems will throttle back on the performance or even shut down to avoid overheating.

I'm going to stick with balanced mode for now as the fan seems to be running less when I just using my laptop for web or office stuff, but I can still run my games at expected levels.

[VeilStrider]

Originally posted by Fuzzball:

Thanks for the info! If the CPU is going at its maximum speed all the time in High Performance, surely that would mean that performance in games would reamain consistent, instead of dropping occasionally in Balanced mode? I guess it depends how much the game is using the CPU and how well configured Windows is to giving it a good speed in Balanced mode.

I guess I'll have to compare some benchmark results myself and see what I find!

Yeah I noticed that also. In Balanced Mode, even a simple game like Dota 2 experiences occasional FPS drop (as low as 15 fps), as opposed to when I use High Performance - of which it's a constant 30 fps Vsync-ed.

But then again, High Performance gives my laptop more heat, so I use it sparingly only for Dota 2 on important matches. For normal pubs I just stick with Balanced.

[Fuzzball]

Originally posted by zeroxxx:

Yeah I noticed that also. In Balanced Mode, even a simple game like Dota 2 experiences occasional FPS drop (as low as 15 fps), as opposed to when I use High Performance - of which it's a constant 30 fps Vsync-ed.

Interesting that you said High Performance was able to give you a consistently better performance. I didn't notice any improvement at all on some games I have that get FPS dips. Is perhaps your laptop on the lower end of required specs to run Dota 2?

[VeilStrider]

Perhaps graphic card, yes. The other is pretty much more than enough.

i7 3517u, 6 GB RAM, 635m

[Conz]

ive noticed a really big difference between the power modes, if the game you are running is more cpu intensive, high mode can make a big difference in FPS, i had 100 on balanced and when running high it went to around 200-250