Hey everyone! I've been using Pop!_OS (NVIDIA version) along with Windows 11 on my dual-boot HP Victus laptop, and I'm looking to squeeze out more battery life from Pop!_OS than what I'm getting from Windows. Here's my setup: it's an HP Victus with an AMD Ryzen 5 8645HS CPU, a Radeon 760M integrated GPU, and an NVIDIA RTX 3050 dGPU.
Currently, I'm losing about 30% battery in roughly 30 minutes under light usage on Pop!_OS, while on Windows I lose around the same percentage but in one hour, which is frustrating. I've tried to switch to integrated graphics only, and I've adjusted power settings to help, but there's definitely more I can do.
Here's what I've done so far:
- Disabled the NVIDIA GPU using system76-power
- Turned off Bluetooth and other unnecessary services
- Set brightness lower and capped refresh rate to 60Hz
- Disabled Secure Boot
- Installed auto-cpufreq to manage CPU scaling
- Added amd_pstate=active to boot options via systemd-boot
I'm primarily engaged in coding, browsing, and light media consumption, and I don't really need the dGPU unless I'm plugged in. I'm hoping to get better battery life in idle and light-load scenarios than what I'm experiencing on Windows. Any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
2 Answers
Here are some tips based on my experience:
1. Make sure you fully disable the NVIDIA GPU, as sometimes just a software disable might not cut it. Look out for PCIe RTD3 settings to ensure power-saving mode is active.
2. I personally prefer using TLP over auto-cpufreq for fine-tuning battery settings, but there are other options like power-profiles-daemon you could explore as well. They can conflict, so try out the ones that suit your needs best.
3. Browsers can eat up battery; I’ve noticed Firefox drains more juice compared to Chrome, especially with animated content.
4. Keep an eye on any Electron-based applications, as they tend to be power-hungry even when idle.
5. Use powertop or check out [battop](https://github.com/w568w/battop) to monitor what's hogging your power.
Thanks for the tips!
I had similar issues with my laptop setup. One thing that really helped was ensuring my system is updated to the latest kernel; the newer versions often have better power management features. You should also try adjusting the CPU governor settings to 'powersave.' Also, consider reducing the number of background services running when you don’t need them!
Could you elaborate on how to set the CPU governor to 'powersave'? That sounds like a solid idea!
I tried using TLP too, and it made a noticeable difference! Definitely recommend!