On my brand new Lenovo W520 (with Sandy Bridge, 2820QM) and with default settings and on battery power, the "Power Manager" status shows that the GPU usage is constant at 100% or larger. Is this usual? The CPU usage goes down to 34% (798 MHz) when the laptop is idle, as expected.
This is also the case when no additional applications are running. If I understand correctly, the GPU in use is the i7 HD Graphics 3000, which is what I see in CPU-Z. It runs at 650 MHz in idle mode, matching the "Graphics Base Frequency" in Intel's CPU specs. In contrast, the CPU clock speed is 2.3 GHz, i.e., 3 times the idle frequency.
Is it expected that the GPU cannot switch down to a lower frequency for saving power? It would be nice if its power usage would go below 100%…
Best Answer
Although I do not specifically own a Sandy Bridge board, I recommend you try GPU-z for a more accurate GPU reading.
The next step i recommend is making sure you're up to date on the latest drivers, that generally hits the GPU performance the most.
If you are using Windows 7 or Vista, trying putting yourself onto the "Windows Classic" Theme in Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Personalization