Defiance VII 17.3" - Almost unusable on battery

[Ambassador Spock]

Hey everyone, I've had my Defiance VII 17.3" laptop for about a month now, and while I am generally extremely happy with it, the one issue I cannot seem to solve is the performance on battery. I completely get that this is a gaming laptop and is not designed with battery operation in mind, but the second I unplug this thing the whole system slows to a crawl. I'm talking early 90s-era lag. The only game I have running in the background is Eve Online (two clients, minimum graphics settings), which is not a graphically-intensive game in the slightest. Hell, my 3-year-old ASUS can run 3-4 Eve clients on battery (though the battery life is massively diminished of course). Am I missing something? A setting I haven't checked? In case it is relevant, I have it switched to "High Performance" power mode even on battery (though I had to add a custom power profile - my system only had "Balanced" as an option....). In the power settings I have minimum CPU state set to 50% on battery, but even that does nothing. As soon as I plug it back in the performance skyrockets back to normal. I don't use it on battery a huge amount, but I do have it on battery occasionally and this issue is seriously frustrating me.

EDIT: To anyone who has a similar issue in the future, I believe I solved it (with my system at least). I have Nvidia Geoforce Experience installed, and there is a "battery boost" option in the settings. Since I had tried everything else I could think of to this point, I turned that off and voila - my performance instantly went back to normal! It seems such a small thing but so far I'm back to max performance (and only an hour of life) on battery, so all seems to be as it should.

 

[ubuysa]

If you're not to fussed about battery life then set the 'on battery' options to match the 'plugged in' options. Certainly I'd set the min CPU to 100%.

The idea of the different 'on battery' options is to allow you to sacrifice some performance to extend battery life.

 

[Ambassador Spock]

If you're not to fussed about battery life then set the 'on battery' options to match the 'plugged in' options. Certainly I'd set the min CPU to 100%.

The idea of the different 'on battery' options is to allow you to sacrifice some performance to extend battery life.

Oh I've tried that - no difference. Even with 100% min CPU state the whole system bogs down to the point where it is almost unusable.

 

[ubuysa]

Are you sure it's not switching the dGPU out on battery?

 

[Ambassador Spock]

Are you sure it's not switching the dGPU out on battery?

That is possible, how would I check that? Here's my performance plugged in:

And here it is on battery:

Ok so that does look like the dGPU's use drops a lot... How do I change it so that doesn't happen? Also, the CPU dropped to 1 GHz, but I have the settings to be on 100% min cpu state...

 

[ubuysa]

What's your full spec?

It does look from those screenshots that the dGPU turned off and the iGPU maxed out. But something is throttling your CPU too.

Could this be something in Control Centre (or Gaming Center, or whatever they're calling it now)?

 

[Ambassador Spock]

On the Defiance the Control Center doesn't seem to do much. There are a few fan modes but that's it. Here's my spec:

Chassis & Display
Defiance Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor 10875H (2.3GHz, 5.1GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2070 Max-Q - 8.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB INTEL® 660p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 1800MB/sR | 1800MB/sW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated Micro-SD Memory Card Reader
AC Adaptor
1 x 180W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Battery
Defiance Series Integrated 3 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (73WH)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x THUNDERBOLT 3 PORT + 3 x USB 3.2 PORTS
Keyboard Language
17" DEFIANCE SERIES UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
Insurance
Simplesurance Purchase Protection inc. Accidental Damage. Excludes Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland
Price: £0.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/defianceVII-17/J4BGeQzv6f/

 

[ubuysa]

I'm not at all sure what battery saving mechanism they use to switch off the dGPU, it used to be Optimus but I think they've moved on since then. Hopefully someone else knows more about the dGPU battery saving modes on the Defiance and how to select them. I do't think that explains the CPU throttling though, but I would think it's some battery saving tool that's cutting your performance but I'm at a loss to know what to suggest now. Sorry.

 

[Ambassador Spock]

No worries, thanks for your help. I'd ask PCS, but honestly every time I bring even minor issues to them that response seems to be "RMA it and we'll take a look", and I just can't be without this for that long.

 

[Paddy Baxter]

I had the same issue on my recoil iv but I forced igpu in the bios and that sorted it. Different machine though

and got about 25 minutes on control lol

 

[ubuysa]

No worries, thanks for your help. I'd ask PCS, but honestly every time I bring even minor issues to them that response seems to be "RMA it and we'll take a look", and I just can't be without this for that long.

It is of course possible that it's a hardware problem and unless someone who knows the Defiance can point you to configuration options that control its performance on battery it may be worth your while RMAing it. If it is a hardware problem then getting it fixed early will save you a ton of messing about, research, and asking for help.

 

[Ambassador Spock]

To anyone who has a similar issue in the future, I believe I solved it (with my system at least). I have Nvidia Geoforce Experience installed, and there is a "battery boost" option in the settings. Since I had tried everything else I could think of to this point, I turned that off and voila - my performance instantly went back to normal! It seems such a small thing but so far I'm back to max performance (and only an hour of life) on battery, so all seems to be as it should.

 

[ubuysa]

To anyone who has a similar issue in the future, I believe I solved it (with my system at least). I have Nvidia Geoforce Experience installed, and there is a "battery boost" option in the settings. Since I had tried everything else I could think of to this point, I turned that off and voila - my performance instantly went back to normal! It seems such a small thing but so far I'm back to max performance (and only an hour of life) on battery, so all seems to be as it should.

Ah, there you go! That was exactly the 'battery saving' option I was hoping for.

 

[debiruman665]

If you're not to fussed about battery life then set the 'on battery' options to match the 'plugged in' options. Certainly I'd set the min CPU to 100%.

The idea of the different 'on battery' options is to allow you to sacrifice some performance to extend battery life.

Running the min state at 100% will prevent it from downclocking under low load. I'm curious why you suggested this.

 

[ubuysa]

Running the min state at 100% will prevent it from downclocking under low load. I'm curious why you suggested this.

Only because the OP was after max performance on battery. Now that the key control has been found I'd certainly agree that this can be reduced.

 

[debiruman665]

Only because the OP was after max performance on battery. Now that the key control has been found I'd certainly agree that this can be reduced.

I'm not joking when I say I read this post before I went to sleep last night and I woke up several times in the middle of the night thinking about it. 🙀

 

[Toarzo]

Hello,

May I ask you a short review about your Defiance ? How are the temps, how is the build ? ...
I m about to buy the bullet for a similar build and I lack of reviews about it

Thanks !

 

[superpc]

Hi.
I have the same model (2070 Max-Q).
After 3 days of mixed usage, I can tell you that:
- build seems, overall, good. Chassis not perfectly aligned with mic jack (but it works), good keyboard feeling. Screen is really nice. Laptop is wide, yet light and slim. Perceived quality is very good.
- temp can get very high whilst gaming, 1920x1080, quality set to Ultra and control center profile to "performance". Death stranded pushes the GPU temp up to 86 celsius and CPU's one to 98/99 (close to max operating temp according to Intel website).). Far Cry5 shows lower temp for CPU.
Older games (Elite Dangerous, for example) shows temp around 75 celsius for both CPU/GPU.
This means both fans run crazy and they are noisy, mate (can't tell how many decibels). If you wear a good headset (even without ANC) you don't hear any noise from the laptop, though.
I've started using a cooling pad and it has a positive effect. IMHO because it lets the laptop run inclined leaving air space under it, not thanks to the external fan.
Lately I've started playing with the preset entertainment profile and the cooling pad and the experience is good.
Temp and noise are very good in normal usage (browsing, office work etc).