Linux on Razer Blade EARLY 2016
Linux on Razer Blade EARLY 2016
I've been thinking about switching back to Linux on my Razer Blade Early 2016 (GTX 970m) for a while now. The main hurdle is that my previous Linux installation caused serious battery problems, even when the GPU wasn't in use. It drained power so much it affected performance. After a frustrating experience, I went back to Windows 10 and things improved. I'm hoping someone familiar with Linux can offer advice or solutions, since I really like having a Linux machine. I've looked into it, but it seems no one has tried this setup on the early 2016 model before. Also, the last distribution I used was Arch. Thanks.
Battery performance in *nix has never been great (especially when compared to Windows), yet Arch tends to fall behind in driver updates and optimizations for power efficiency. The safest choice would be a popular distribution, though I doubt you’ll be completely satisfied...
Set up the NVIDIA graphics driver, your card is always connected
Unfortunately, achieving the best battery performance from a laptop usually demands detailed understanding of its hardware specifications—information Microsoft typically has access to, while Joe Linux Dev might not have. Unless you obtain a custom-built machine tailored for a Linux distribution (System76 is likely to do this), you won’t match Windows’ battery efficiency.
Based on my observations, this situation has caused Linux to rely more on the GPU for all tasks, which has actually reduced battery life even further than the built-in GPU setup. It seems the device would only last about an hour and a half on battery when using that method, making it nearly unusable without a power source. With the integrated GPU, I experienced better battery performance—roughly 3 to 3.5 hours—but still not as good as what I got on Windows.
Adjust the GPU in the options, and if the battery performance remains poor, add tlp.