My laptop overheats when plugged in, but works fine on battery

[Yukiko ~Snow Child~]

It's weird. I can't play Cooking Simulator or other demanding non Steam games plugged in without overheating, but they play just fine when on battery. Anything I can do to make it so that I can play plugged in, too?

[Illusion of Progress]

Are you sure it's actually throttling, and not appearing to be due to reduced power use/performance when not plugged in?

If so, that's strange, unless performance is somehow being limited when plugged in.

[Carlsberg]

Compare power settings for batt vs mains, may be some differences in bios too for same.

[Yukiko ~Snow Child~]

Originally posted by Illusion of Progress:

Are you sure it's actually throttling, and not appearing to be due to reduced power use/performance when not plugged in?

If so, that's strange, unless performance is somehow being limited when plugged in.

The fans are full blast when plugged in and normal when on battery. I don't care if it's throttling, I want it like it's on battery for both.

[Illusion of Progress]

If it's throttling, it's overheating, and I thought you didn't want that? By the sounds of it, it's not throttling when on battery though if the fans aren't running as high.

I really wouldn't know what could cause that outside of strangely se up power profiles where it's allowed to run as fast as it can on battery, but severely limited when on power. Either way, when not limited, it sounds like your laptop is not able to sufficiently cool itself, which is a problem. The first place to check would be windows power plans when plugged in and on battery and see what differences there are.

Also, what are temperatures under each scenario so we can compare? Did you monitor them, or is the fan simply running higher when plugged in leading you to think it is? It may be that the active cooling system isn't limited when plugged in?

[Washell]

Since someone else already went through the effort:

Why are my games slower on battery power, even with the power plan set to High Performance?

High-performance mobile GPUs can require significant amounts of power to operate at full speed. The GTX 765M requires 75 W, while top-of-the-line mobile GPUs like the GTX 780M and GTX 980M can consume up to 122 W.

The GPU is not the only power-hungry part in a laptop. A modern Intel performance mobile CPU typically draws about 47 W at full power. In addition, you need to power other system components, such as the display, disk, and USB peripherals. When you add it all up, you might need anywhere from 140 W to 200 W to operate a gaming laptop under full load depending on your system configuration.

A typical battery in a gaming laptop can store about 60-80 Wh of energy. Most Li-ion batteries are not designed to be discharged faster than twice their Wh rating per hour (2C). In addition, sustained discharge at rates exceeding 1C can significantly reduce the overall service life of the battery. Continuously pulling 150 W or more from a typical 77 Wh battery is not a great idea and your battery could overheat and fail or even catch fire. While it's likely the battery's own protection circuitry would shut down the battery if overloaded or overheated, a device should never subject its battery to an unsafe load at any time during operation.

To avoid overloading the battery, the GPU will typically throttle to a lower clock speed. The GTX 780M on my personal laptop will not run faster than about 400 Mhz when on battery. Lower clock speeds reduce power consumption not only by having transistors switch less rapidly, but also by allowing lower core voltages—power consumption and heat dissipation scale with the square of voltage.

Source: https://superuser.com/questions/855372/why-are-my-games-slower-on-battery-power-even-with-the-power-plan-set-to-high-p

The fix wouldn't be to throttle your laptop when it's connected to the wall. It's to clean it (or have it cleaned), don't put it on soft/fabric surfaces while playing and maybe get a cooling pad. After all, performance on a laptop isn't cheap, and it would be a waste of the money you spent on it.