6

I recently purchased a Lenovo IdeaPad Y580, and I'm trying to figure out the difference between the different power modes: Power Saver, Balanced, High Performance, and Lenovo Dynamic Graphics.

The first three are self-explanatory--the various options such as maximum CPU/idling parameters are unique and different, but as far as I can tell the Lenovo Dynamic Graphics is exactly the same as High Performance. Does anyone know the difference between High Performance vs Lenovo Dynamic Graphics?

Only one other person asked this question, which went unanswered Lenovo Forums.

4 Answers 4

5

I was curious just like the original poster, so I ran benchmarks on my Lenovo IdeaPad Y580 when I first got it back in November. My conclusion is that the GPU generates frame rates between 10 and 11% higher on Lenovo Dynamic than on High Performance. Additionally, and this is a useless data point, the system decrypts data encrypted with RC5-72 13% faster on Lenovo Dynamic than on High Performance.

TEST A: High Performance A benchmark app was run with the power management set to "High Performance". The benchmark was run after a cold boot. The system was literally at room temperature when the boot started.

Here are the results:

  • 3DMark Score P2346
  • Graphics Score 2150
  • Physics Score 6023
  • Combined Score 1906
  • Graphics Test 1 10.32 FPS
  • Graphics Test 2 9.89 FPS
  • Graphics Test 3 13.53 FPS
  • Graphics Test 4 6.42 FPS
  • Physics Test 1 9.12 FPS
  • Combined Test 8.87 FPS

Here were the temps in F at the end of the test: // CPU Pkg - 194.0 // GPU 149.0 // HDD 113.0 //

Test B: Lenovo Dynamic Graphics

  • 3DMark Score P2542
  • Graphics Score 2338
  • Physics Score 5888
  • Combined Score 2124
  • Graphics Test 1 11.55 FPS
  • Graphics Test 2 10.88 FPS
  • Graphics Test 3 14.62 FPS
  • Graphics Test 4 6.83 FPS
  • Physics Test 1 8.69 FPS
  • Combined Test 9.88 FPS

Here were the temps in F at the end of the test: // CPU Pkg 197.6 // GPU 161.6 // HDD 114.8 //

Appendix A: RC5-72 Results On the High Performance setting, the system's GPU solves 111,330,057 keys per second using the distributed.net client. On the Lenovo Dynamic Graphics setting, the GPU solves 126,623,174 keys per second using the distributed.net client.

3
  • 1
    Hi John, welcome to Superuser. You should understand that this is not a forum, it's a site where people ask a question and everybody tries to find an answer. You might want to edit your answer so it's not just a lot of data. Feb 19, 2013 at 7:20
  • John, thank you. I accepted your answer because you listed the key differences between the two modes: 11% faster GPU and 13% faster decryption.
    – Saad Malik
    Feb 19, 2013 at 16:11
  • 1
    Isaac, normally I wouldn't post that much data; I'd summarize and link to a citation for the conclusion. Because I'm the primary source, I wanted to 'show my work'. I realize I'm not the kind of famous authority people are going to just automatically trust. Feb 19, 2013 at 18:04
4

Dynamic Graphics is a Lenovo setting to automatically boost graphics performance for multimedia intensive applications. Lenovo's Dynamic Graphics technology can boost discrete graphics performance five to 10 percent by automatically adjusting chipset frequency depending on workload. The others are windows defaults.

2
  • I see, so CPU performance is the same between High Performance and Dynamic Graphics, but just the GPU is given more "juice". Is there a benchmark application to verify this?
    – Saad Malik
    Jan 10, 2013 at 18:08
  • No, I don't think there is. You could try using third party applications, though.
    – CalvT
    Jan 10, 2013 at 18:17
1

Also, you can also increase performance still further when running under Lenovo Dynamic Graphics by installing nVidia Inspector - allowing you to overclock the GPU and memory of the 660M chip. However, be cautious if doing so!

Note using the 3D Settings in nVidia Control Panel you can select which of the two graphics processors in the Y580 will be used by a given program (e.g., Intel or nVidia).

1

From help:

"Power Plan (A):

Power Saver: Click to select this plan. Your computer has the best power saving ability and the lowest performance in this plan.

Balanced: Click to select this plan. Your computer keeps a balance between performance and energy consumption.

High Performance: Click to select this plan. Your computer is in the best performance status in this plan.

Lenovo Dynamic Graphics: Click to select this plan. Your computer is in the super performance status in this plan. (The option is hidden automatically when the computer model does not support this function.)

Note: The Lenovo Dynamic Graphics plan is unavailable when the computer is running on battery power."

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .