Question Not Enough power voltage affects GPU performance?

[infever]

Hi, I have and old laptop which is Dell precision m6600, having a gpu Quadro 3000m. My power cable (250v) is not working and then I saw an old (125v) power cable, plug it in and it seems fine but I notice it's not generating enough power because it's charging my laptop very slow. Does this affect also the gpu performance? I know that this gpu is not for gaming but when i re install the drivers and play dota 2, my fps reach at a constant 150 fps. But when I turn off my laptop and open it again, the fps reach only 40. I don't know what seems to be the problem.

 

[Eximo]

I'm confused. You have 125V input and 250v input chargers?

Most are 100-250volt self adjusting power supplies. When it comes to power, literally power, that rating is independent of the input voltage. Amps x Voltage of the output. So your typical 20V 65W power adapter is going to be 3.25 Amps and the input is going to be whatever.

Yes, though, larger laptops with more power demand do require larger power bricks. So if yours is undersized you will want to consider finding a proper one.

As for the GPU, I would guess you are using the integrated graphics after a reboot. You may need to configure the Quadro to be the high performance GPU and set all your games to run only with the high performance GPU.

 

[infever]

I'm confused. You have 125V input and 250v input chargers?

Most are 100-250volt self adjusting power supplies. When it comes to power, literally power, that rating is independent of the input voltage. Amps x Voltage of the output. So your typical 20V 65W power adapter is going to be 3.25 Amps and the input is going to be whatever.

Yes, though, larger laptops with more power demand do require larger power bricks. So if yours is undersized you will want to consider finding a proper one.

As for the GPU, I would guess you are using the integrated graphics after a reboot. You may need to configure the Quadro to be the high performance GPU and set all your games to run only with the high performance GPU.

On my original power cable, there is a label 250v which im not using it anymore because it is not working. I am using now an old power cable where there is a label 150v (It's from my old laptop).

Im not really sure that it is running on integrated gpu since I did not even install intel hd graphics drivers. When I look on Device manager, only nvidia quadro 3000m driver is installed. I set also my GPU running to high performance and set dota 2 run on that gpu. I'm really confuse how come everytime i re install my gpu drivers, I can get higher fps on the first run and then when I close the game and run it again, I can't anymore play on high fps.

 

[Eximo]

Still confused on the power situation. Now you've listed a third voltage I have never heard of. As mentioned, the input voltage is not strictly important, you want to look at the output power rating. If the old one was higher than the one you are using, then you need to look at getting another larger one if you want the battery to charge at an appropriate speed. At a certain point, if your gaming is drawing more power than the charger can supply, it will drain the battery. You could be experiencing a low power mode that engages after you close the game.

You should have both drivers installed. And look up what I mentioned before. It is how most laptops with two graphics cards are handled. Also used to be something called Nvidia Optimus, but I am not sure if that has been maintained.

 

[infever]

Still confused on the power situation. Now you've listed a third voltage I have never heard of. As mentioned, the input voltage is not strictly important, you want to look at the output power rating. If the old one was higher than the one you are using, then you need to look at getting another larger one if you want the battery to charge at an appropriate speed. At a certain point, if your gaming is drawing more power than the charger can supply, it will drain the battery. You could be experiencing a low power mode that engages after you close the game.

You should have both drivers installed. And look up what I mentioned before. It is how most laptops with two graphics cards are handled. Also used to be something called Nvidia Optimus, but I am not sure if that has been maintained.

Another problem also is when I install the intel graphics driver, it says system does not meet the minimum requirements. I have Intel core i7-2720QM which has intel hd graphics 3000. But when I Install it the error appears. Some forums says motherboard disable intel graphics?

 

[Eximo]

On desktops that is typical. On laptops they usually want to use the integrated graphics most of the time to save power.

Though that was early days for Intel on chip graphics, maybe that one still has a discrete chip on the motherboard which is disabled by the quadro? I wouldn't think so.

 

[ElectrO_90]

I think he has some American cable which just says rated 10Amp @ 150V or something like that, compared to a 10Amp @ 250V cable.
Only way to really know is if the OP posts some photos of both cables.
It is possible a cable will go bad, but a 250V cable will work on a 150V line, but it gets risky when you reverse it, if you go over the rated cable limit.
10A @ 150V = 1,500 Watts
10A @ 250V = 2,500 Watts

 

[Eximo]

Oh, a new cable to the same power brick? Wouldn't explain the charging speed difference. It would take a very dainty AC wire to be the limiting factor. I assume he is just using the commonly incorrect term of cable to refer to the laptop's power supply / charger.

But you are right, mixing and matching wires with different breakdown voltages is a safety risk. Typically, wiring is not made to a regional standard though, but intended to be more universal. For example, the power cable I have sitting here is rated for 300V which would cover pretty much every country for domestic power delivery. 400V wiring is also fairly common.

Just not efficient to manufacture multiple grades for a wire of a certain size.