ThinkPad

1455 readers

1 users here now

IBM and Lenovo ThinkPad laptop enthusiasts!

founded 4 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

T490 with Ubuntu - battery optimisation (self.thinkpad)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by accod to c/[email protected]

3 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hi, I'm a Reddit refugee, mostly lurker there but one comment I made was useful to a few people so I don't want it lost if/when I delete all my reddit data. I'm really hoping Lemmy gets a lot more active users and more content so I'm trying to do my (small) part:

I found that I need to wait 5-10 minutes after booting for the battery usage to drop to 4W. That might just be because of all the stuff I have running such as zfs - that's another reason I originally thought 6-7W was the best I could do.

The key parts from my notes for the gpu:

Set Prime Nvidia profile to intel gpu.
Modify /etc/default/grub to have

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="acpi_osi="!Linux-Lenovo-NV-HDMI-Audio""

update-grub2 and obviously reboot

The kernel option I found whilst researching what was stopping the gpu from going into power saving mode. I don't have the link where I got it from right now. I had tried blacklisting the kernel modules for it but this made the power usage worse. It needs to be running, with intel gpu selected and the kernel option above.

BTW 3-4W is with screen brightness down (one up from darkest).

top 3 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] pglpm 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Great initiative sharing here too. I agree on the hope and strategy!

What you suggests makes the Nvidia unusable though, doesn't it? I noticed that tlp helped in my case (but on X1E4!). See the setting mentioned in this comment, and also this article. Maybe they can be of use – maybe not.

[–] accod 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Thanks but I don't use the nvidia gpu in Linux. In fact I hardly use it - occasionally dual boot and run Windows for a light game but I'm nearly always just using Linux with the intel gpu. I bought the dgpu version to get the dual heat pipes for better cooling of the cpu but then had to deal with lowering power usage caused by the dgpu hence the research and post to help others with that problem too.

[–] pglpm 2 points 2 years ago

Wow, that's the same reason I also chose the Nvidia gpu: for the vapour-chamber cooling (GeForce RTX 3060, lowest model that brought the vapour chamber). But I've noted a somewhat better performance with the Nvidia when watching videos. So now I have it on-demand. – But of course different people have different needs and preferences, so I totally get your settings.