Nowdays both ATI and NVIDIA have techniques for lowering the GPU power consumption in notebooks based on lower core and memory speeds in 2D modes or while running the notebook in battery mode. While NVIDIA uses their Powermizer integration in Windows Power schemes (2D mode in Power saver, Low power 3D in Balanced and High performance 3D in High performance), ATI have their PowerPlay running in any of the Windows power modes as user directs it. For us Power Play always seemed the smarter and more controllable function, yet it doesn’t always do what it has to. For example, if your notebook has Mobility Radeon HD4570, it may suffer from a bug in PowerPlay that can lead to lowered memory speed in both power saver and performance modes. There is a fix, though. …read on