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I am considering buying a new Laptop. I am not really much of a gamer, but occasionally dedicated graphics might be useful. But I am worried that it might affect battery life since I am planning on using it as a mobile workstation.
So I was wondering, even if I rarely ever use the dedicated GPU, will it still affect battery life?

Meaning that If I buy a laptop with only onboard graphics, will it last significantly longer on battery than one with otherwise equal specs but with dedicated graphics at tasks that don't use the GPU?

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All laptop CPU's have integrated graphics and your laptop will use it whenever possible to save battery. But some apps are using the dGPU by default while not needing it really a lot (I can't think of examples, but they do exist) and when that happens, your battery will drain faster with a dGPU.

Still the best option is to look at the two specific models you have in mind and look at review sites like Tweakers.net (Dutch only) or youtubers like LTT (English only).

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  • Yeah but I've read the dGPU will drain power even if not used
    – user2741831
    Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 17:28
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    Thats why you need to watch reviewers. I don't know the exact models so I can't really make a call on it...
    – Irsu85
    Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 19:15
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    @user2741831, It does depend on the laptop but the vast majority of the laptops with Intel + NVIDIA graphics have the display physically connected to the Intel graphics. This means the NVIDIA GPU can go into low power state and doesn't have to do anything at all if you can ensure absolutely no processes try to use it. It might even be possible to disable the secondary GPU in device manager on some laptops too.
    – Romen
    Commented Dec 16, 2021 at 15:25

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