Thinkpads Forum

Hi everyone,

I recently got the Lenovo P1 Gen 7 (Intel Core Ultra 7 165H, Nvidia RTX 1000) and I’ve noticed something very strange — and very positive — when running the machine on battery.

When I’m on battery, the P1 becomes almost silent. I can run my full developer workload:

• Multiple Visual Studio solutions and other developer tools

• Countless of browser tabs

• 4K YouTube video

• Debugging + Postman

…and the average CPU temperature stays around 44°C, with the fans barely audible. The system also feels extremely snappy and responsive.

To make it even more confusing, I ran Cinebench on battery and consistently scored 11,000+, which is surprisingly close to the full-power AC score (~14,000).

However, the moment I plug in any charger, with the exact same workload, temperatures immediately shoot up into the 90–100°C range and the fans turn into a jet engine. It becomes almost impossible to work next to it. The only way to use the computer when plugged is to enable energy saver, but that has a hard impact on the overall performance. It gets really sluggish.

I’ve tried everything I can think of with ThrottleStop, power plans, EPP values, PL1/PL2 adjustments — nothing can replicate the incredibly cool and quiet behavior that the P1 has when running on battery.

My question is simple:
Does anyone know exactly what Lenovo’s battery mode actually changes (governor, power limits, GPU behavior, DTT behavior, fan thresholds, etc.) to create this amazing low-temperature, low-noise performance mode?

I would really love to replicate this behavior on AC if possible.
Right now, the battery mode feels like the “perfect” performance profile — cool, quiet, responsive — and I’d like to understand what’s happening under the hood.

Thanks in advance!

For Intel graphics, the P1 Gen7 needs 135W power supply.
For nVidia graphics, the P1 Gen7 needs 170W power supply.
Maybe the one you use is too weak?

@RealBlackStuff

Thanks for the reply!

I’ve actually tried multiple power supplies — both 135W and 170W — with identical results, so I don’t think the PSU is the issue.

I also set the preferred GPU to Intel Arc, because I assumed the RTX 1000 might generate more heat. But I can still see the RTX being used in Task Manager (around 5–7% utilization), even when I’m not doing anything GPU-heavy.

I’m starting to wonder if I should disable the RTX completely? For my daily workflow (development, browsing, etc.) I don’t really need a powerful dGPU, and having two active GPUs seems unnecessary — especially if the RTX is contributing to the higher temperatures on AC power.

Go into BIOS->Config->Power and see what happens when:
Adaptive Thermal Management->Scheme for AC->Balanced
Energy Efficient Turbo->OFF
Cool & Quiet on Lap->ON