Hacking How does running N3DS on higher CPU clock affect battery life?

[wurstpistole]

Hi,

just a question, with Luma we have the option to always run the N3DS on its higher clock (aka "N3DS mode", like Xenoblade uses) - how does this affect battery life when gaming? Is there a "number" anyone has, like you wil have 50% less battery life than running O3DS clock... or something like that?

Because I was playing DQ7 and after 3 hours the battery was already out. That seemed a bit short for my taste.

 

[Temarile]

Battery life also depends if you have volume and 3d max. But yes, overclocking does drain battery more than normal. I can't say by how much though, sorry.

 

[Maximilious]

That overclock is only for regular DS games so they don't get "downclocked" to what the NDS used to support them at. As far as I know, it shouldn't affect battery at all. I'm sure DQ7 is a pretty intensive game like Xenoblade, so battery life will in general be lower than other titles.

 

[Clydefrosch]

i think i remember a thread where someone tested battery life with and without overclock and l2, resulting in about 4:20 with and 4:40 without the option on.
so you dont really lose all that much during normal gameplay. it depends a lot on whether or not the game struggled on o3ds though i think. if the game has trouble hitting its 60 fps at all times, the n3ds will use its extra power to make it happen. but if it already runs perfect constant 60fps, its apparently not really putting its cpu into overdrive, at which point the additional L2 memory thing apparently even starts to save you some energy due to more efficient memory access.

or so i feel like i remember it. could all be misunderstood though

having noticed framedrops in DQ7 even on a n3ds, (specially in the first town) it wouldn't surprise me if it used more power than usual

 

[wurstpistole]

I have specifically noticed framedrops in DQ7 when I switch that option off, and when I only use the extra L2 cache they were gone. Before that I played on N3DS CPU Clock+L2