Mikeh108

Estimable
Apr 25, 2015
5
0
4,510
Today I received my new laptop and I thought I would execute a benchmark on UserBenchmark before installing any apps. The results were great at first, but when I unplug the power adapter the results change drastically. I am already using the same power plan (high performance) in both occasions, the maximum processor state is already at 100%. I haven't changed anything except plugging and unplugging. I have done multiple benchmarks and tried restarting as well. I am not sure whether this is caused by UserBenchmark or my laptop. (I could try another benchmark program if anyone has a suggestion)
These are my results:
Plugged: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/12443419
Unplugged: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/12443479

Please let me know if you have an idea on what causes this problem.
Thanks in advance everyone!

Mike
 
Solution
That's right, it's impossible for the laptop to use its full CPU and GPU power while on battery.

According to the specs on this page, the laptop has a 62.41 Wh battery, and a 120 Watt AC adapter. Even if it were able to draw as much power from the battery as it gets from the AC adapter, it would only last 62.41 Watt-hours / 120 Watts = 0.52 hours = 31 minutes on battery. (The i7-8750H and 1050 GPU should be less than 100 Watts, so likely your laptop is not one of the ones which draws power from the battery while plugged in.)
https://www.medion.com/be/shop/gaming-laptops-medion-erazer-p6605-i7-gaming-laptop-30025287a1.html#specification

Pretty much all gaming laptops face the same problem. To get several hours of gaming on battery...
Gaming laptops draw more power (Watts) than the battery can provide, so they have to clock down when running on battery. Some of them even draw more power than the AC adapter can provide. Those will slowly drain the battery while you game on AC power. Once the battery is drained, they clock down until they're only using as much power as the AC adapter can provide.

So what you're seeing is normal.
 

Mikeh108

Estimable
Apr 25, 2015
5
0
4,510


Thank you for the quick reply.
I never knew, this means I will never be able to use my laptops full capabilities while it's unplugged right? Would you knew if certain laptops experience less change than this? It looks like a very extreme difference with this model.
 
That's right, it's impossible for the laptop to use its full CPU and GPU power while on battery.

According to the specs on this page, the laptop has a 62.41 Wh battery, and a 120 Watt AC adapter. Even if it were able to draw as much power from the battery as it gets from the AC adapter, it would only last 62.41 Watt-hours / 120 Watts = 0.52 hours = 31 minutes on battery. (The i7-8750H and 1050 GPU should be less than 100 Watts, so likely your laptop is not one of the ones which draws power from the battery while plugged in.)
https://www.medion.com/be/shop/gaming-laptops-medion-erazer-p6605-i7-gaming-laptop-30025287a1.html#specification

Pretty much all gaming laptops face the same problem. To get several hours of gaming on battery, the battery would have to be about the size of a car battery. So they don't even try. They just use a regular sized battery so you can get several hours when not gaming, then downclock when gaming so you can at least get 1-1.5 hours (typically) gaming on battery.

While it's impossible to know for sure which laptops suffer this less without testing them, batteries with more cells can put out more Watts. So if you see two gaming laptops with identical CPU and GPU, one advertised with an 8 cell battery, the other with a 4 cell battery, the 8 cell battery will usually suffer less performance drop. But it will also drain the battery faster when gaming, so you won't be able to game as long.

If you really want to game for extended periods away from a wall socket, you'll have to get a portable battery with an inverter so you can plug the AC adapter into the portable battery.Trojan (biggest name in golf cart batteries) makes a Li-ion 12V battery rated for 10 hours @ 11 A (132 Watts). So that battery would be sufficient to power your laptop for 11 hours. Unfortunately it weighs 13.6 kg and costs about $900.
https://www.trojanbattery.com/product/tr-12-8-110-li-ion/

But the battery puts out 12V DC. You need 120V AC to power your AC adapter, so you need an inverter to convert the 12V DC into 120V AC. Unfortunately this conversion is not very efficient, typically about 80%. So this would reduce your hours of gaming to just under 9 hours. (If you're handy with electronics, you could rig up a DC-to-DC transformer and drop the inverter and AC adapter, and get close to 100% of the power. It would have to be regulated though, since one of the roles of the AC adapter is to maintain constant voltage to the laptop.)
https://www.amazon.com/Foval-Power-Inverter-Converter-Charger/dp/B01H2XD2DY

There are smaller (and cheaper) jump start batteries. But the capacity of a battery tends to be lower the more Amps or Watts you draw from it. It's like using a bigger bucket to get water out of a barrel. Yes the bigger bucket gets water out more quickly, but it's less able to scrape out water at the bottom of the barrel. So you cannot use the battery's full capacity at high amperage. So you're unlikely to get more than about an hour from a jump start battery.

The vast majority of the increase in laptop battery life in the last 20 years has come from decreasing CPU power use when idle. For office apps and web browsing, the CPU is idle 95%-99% of the time. Unfortunately, the CPU and GPU are at close to full power all of the time when gaming, and power use under load has not decreased as dramatically. So you're stuck using really large (and expensive) batteries if you want to game for extended periods away from a wall socket.
 
Solution

Mikeh108

Estimable
Apr 25, 2015
5
0
4,510

Wow thanks for all the information, sucks to hear that this isn't possible at all (or out of my budget).
You've been a great help though, my question is answered.