Why is my P1 Gen 7 so much better on battery? Cool, quiet, fast — but not on AC.

[Frippe]

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!

[RealBlackStuff]

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?

[Frippe]

@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.

[RealBlackStuff]

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