Why Does My FPS Drop When I Unplug My Laptop? All You Need To Know About FPS

It’s pretty uncommon to hear about the frame rates. It’s only the techier type of gamers and designers who talk about frame rates. FPS has a considerable influence when it comes to designing and competitive play.

To casual gamers, the FPS is one of their most minor priorities. The frame rate, however, is quite crucial for advanced gaming. 

Be it competitive or non-competitive. You can identify advanced gaming using the triple-A titles (AAA). 

Several factors do affect the frame rate quality. Many people do ask why the FPS drops when they unplug their laptops.

I guess you are experiencing the same issue. In this article, we will answer this question and share a troubleshooting guide. So 

Why Does My FPS Drop When I Unplug My Laptop?

It’s a regular occurrence. When you unplug the laptop, it tries everything to save the battery power. It does this by throttling down both the GPU and CPU to save energy. 

In case you were using a dedicated CPU, it automatically switches to the integrated graphics processor. The dedicated CPU is known to be high-performance and power-hungry. 

The drop of FPS means performance has been reduced to save battery power because the laptop is no longer connected to a power source. 

The laptop does achieve a reasonable frame rate when plugged into a power adapter. It does receive sufficient power that enables the proper functioning of the hardware components. 

However, when you disconnect the laptop power plan tries to balance the system performance automatically. 

What Are Frame Rate And FPS?

The Frame is sometimes referred to as the burst rate or update rate. It’s the frequency in which a consecutive series of images and frames appear on the display panel. 

Frame rates do not only apply to video games computer graphics. It is evident in all other motion capture systems like video cameras and films. 

The frequency is measured by FPS, which stands for “Frames per Second.”  For example, at 40 FPS, 40 distinct images appear in succession with one second. But if the FPS is too low, the movement will appear to as jerky and jagged. 

If the FPS is high, it might also cause some complications. It creates synchronization errors that might overload your monitor. This might lead to monitor malfunction.

Additional Factors That Affect the FPS

Other than unplugging, other possible reasons might lower the FPS. However, they do affect the FPS when the laptop is still connected to the external power source.

• Internal hardware malfunction can drop the FPS. This happens when the system receives a higher voltage than usual from the charger. 
• Enabling the NVidia whisper mode is another cause. It is usually supported by the NVidia graphics card GTX 1060 and higher. This can either lower or limit the frame rate depending on the customized FPS settings. 
• Outdated BIOS and GPU drivers will also lower your FPS.
• Faulty cooling system, always check your ventilation and remove any dirt or dust. 
• The power management setting can affect your FPS in some laptops, even if the computer is plugged into a power source. Check on that. 

How To Fix The Frame Rate 

Here are some of the fixes that will help prevent the drop of FPS.

Power Management Settings 

Most laptops have been designed so that they switch to “power save” when disconnected from. If you do not want to drop the FPS, make sure you select the “high performance” setting. 

To enable this, click on the battery icon. In most laptops, it’s located at the bottom right corner of the computer screen. After clicking on the battery icon, shift the bar to “better performance.”

Disabling Whisper Mode Settings or Customizing FPS

As mentioned, the whisper mode does affect the FPS of your laptop. Therefore disabling it will undoubtedly help. Alternatively, you can also customize the FPS. 

Note that the whisper mode and customizing the FPS are two different things. Regardless, thea two options enable the fan to increase the speed limit. 

This, in turn, leads to better and higher FPS. Disabling the whisper mode will affect the FPS, and you will likely notice an improvement when gaming. 

However, this solution is only applicable to those using the NVidia GPU. The value of the GPU should be higher than 1060. Disabling the whisper mode will make your laptop overheat, and you might hear noises while gaming. 

By disabling the whisper mode, you will be forced to open the GeForce Experience. To disable the whisper mode, open settings and click on whisper mode. 

But if you cannot stand the noise, you can change the FPS settings. To access the FPS settings, go to the control panel. It might resolve the FPS drop issue. 

Update GPU Driver and BIOS

Updating the GPU driver and BIOS will not have a direct influence on gaming. Therefore gamers should not be worried about it. 

If the FPS drops each time you unplug the laptop from a power source, try updating the BIOS and GPU driver. 

Updating the GPU driver is relatively straightforward. You can use third-party apps like GeForce or Radeon. It depends on the type of video card. 

You can update the BIOS from the driver manager. Open the driver manager and go to system firmware. 

While on the system firmware, click on “update driver issue.” After the update, check the FPS to see if it’s optimized. 

Use AC

The AC connection will undoubtedly improve the FPS value. The AC connection certainly reduces the chance of power supply interruption. 

If you want to game, remove the battery from the laptop and connect it to the AC game. It might improve the FPS. 

If the above tips fail to increase your FPS, manually change the frame rate. To manually change the settings, go to display settings and check if anything has been altered. 

When everything else does not work, you’ll be forced to invest in a great quality monitor. This will undoubtedly make your game run faster.  

Why Is The Frame Rate Important?

The minimum frame rate that you need is 24 FPS. With this FPS, you will have a clear view of images, whether watching a movie or gaming. 

However, an increase in FPS means the display quality will be much smoother and faster. Your viewing experience will be perfect. 

Professional gamers need to have quality monitors with a uniquely optimized FPS. Otherwise, your competitors will outshine you because they’ll be able to see more clearly and quickly. 

The frustrating tears and glitches will indeed separate defeat and victory. If your monitor can’t support the game graphics, it might triple or double specific frames in the video feed. This will create a slow visual effect on your screen. 

It might be a minor issue for low-key gamers. But if you are a professional gamer, you should be so warry. 

It only takes one glitch to send your team to the bottom. Back then, during StarCraft or Unreal Tournament, the gamers knew and did value high frame rates. 

Low frame rate speed hugely affects your watching experience. The video quality will be choppy, and you’ll also experience significant lags when streaming. 

The Impacts of High Frame Rate on Video Quality and Performance

Both still and moving cameras operate under the same principle. The lens is open for a particular time; the light is exposed, leading to image capture, thus creating a frame. 

In the case of motion pictures, the film is digitally captured or recorded.  For a smooth transition, the film is converted between 24 to 60 FPS. The flipbook animation frame rate is always around 12 FPS. 

Performing a Frame Rate Test

I’m sure you now know how the frame rate affects gaming. The great thing is that there are several ways in which you can check your frame rate speed. This will help you know the amount of performance your system offers. 

Gamers who love and use steam are so lucky. The popular gaming platform has a frame rate counter overlay. It’s situated in the bottom right-hand corner of the display screen. 

It allows you to check the frame rate speed at any time. You can only do the check if no game is launched. The gamers who play using the NVidia graphics, which supports Shadow Play, can enable the in-game FPS counter.  

Conclusion 

The Frame Rate is a crucial thing in your laptop. It determines the type of gaming experience you get. Great FPS guarantees great gaming since the visuals will be of good excellent quality and vice versa. 

Unplugging the laptop from the power source will undoubtedly affect the FPS. In this article, we have given various solutions for the issue. If you have comprehensively read the article, you will fix your frame rate issue and enjoy gaming and movies. 

The great thing is that the solution is relatively straightforward. So you won’t need a professional to actualize any of them. 

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