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I'm using an Asus ROG GL552VX which has a GTX950M as well as an Intel HD graphics 530. The battery life of my laptop is barely an hour and half with normal use (Browsing, word, student stuff).

My laptop has a 48000MA while my friend's HP Specter has a 38000MA battery. His hardware is better than mine except the GPU which I think is what's eating my battery so much.

I wanted to know if I can switch between the two graphics options. If yes, then can I use the intel HD graphics for work and gtx 950m for gaming?

Is that possible? The laptop is great, its just the battery that's very frustrating as a student. The laptop is already heavy enough and carrying its charger only adds to the weight.

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  • If you are using windows you can try disabling the graphics card via device manager. I have not tested so i'm not sure if it will actually help battery life.
    – Kevin
    Commented Mar 8, 2017 at 11:28
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    There should be an icon that indicates whenever Optimus is using the dedicated card or not. If it is, that's what's eating your battery. If it is not, your battery might be faulty. You can use the Nvidia Control Panel to setup preferences and I believe it's also possible using the context menu.
    – Seth
    Commented Mar 8, 2017 at 11:37

2 Answers 2

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Yes this is possible. You can set the laptop to use the intergrated GPU in the Nvidia Control Panel.

  1. Right-click the blank space of the desktop.
  2. Select NVIDIA Control Panel to switch between two graphics manually under Manage 3D Settings > Preferred Graphics Processor.

nvidia control panel

Your intergrated GPU will perfectly work for your work.

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  • If Optimus is working correctly the option "Auto-select" should swap between the dedicated and the integrated cards transparently to the user.
    – Arehandoro
    Commented Mar 8, 2017 at 13:29
  • @Karasu-O-Matic I know but just in case someone doesn't want to use optimus but completely only use the intel graphics temporarily.
    – rrobben
    Commented Mar 8, 2017 at 14:02
  • oh I see, that's an option too of course :)
    – Arehandoro
    Commented Mar 8, 2017 at 14:07
  • So auto select switches between the two? and does the integrated gpu use less battery power? do i get more life out of my batter using the integrated gpu?
    – User561237
    Commented Mar 28, 2017 at 7:49
  • @MahanNoorbahr I think when you are at school you can use the Intergrated graphics to get the most out of your battery. If you feel like getting performance issues use the Auto-Select it will sometimes enable the external gpu and use a little bit more power.
    – rrobben
    Commented Mar 28, 2017 at 9:42
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Did some testing on a laptop with Intel 630 graphics paired with a GTX 1050 Ti. Using the Nvidia control panel to select which programs utilize it seems like it could help, I also found a big difference in idle power consumption.

Sitting doing nothing but background processes, having the Nvidia chip enabled almost doubled my battery drain from ~13W to ~22W according to AIDA64. Didn't do complete and comprehensive long-term tests, my sample size is small, but going to Device Manager and disabling the Nvidia display adapter almost doubled my battery life at idle. Probably a bit cumbersome to have to go disable / enable the hardware every time you want to play a game or edit video, but if you don't do those things particularly often you might try disabling the hardware and see if it improves your overall battery life for everyday desktop tasks.

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