notebook battery life with GT 520m

[hakron]

'Sup guys.
Recently i got a LG notebook, with i3-2310M and Geforce GT520M.
I've noticed that while on battery no matter what power scheme i choose, the remaining battery time still the same and, with the info coming from GPU Meter gadget, the GT 520M doesn't turn off during power saving scheme.
Is this the normal behavior or do I have to change something to force the use of Intel HD graphics on power saving mode to get better battery life time?

This is the first portable with intel and nvidia i got, my last one a HP DM1 (AMD brazos) and the power schemes really made a difference on battery life time.

Any tips on how to improve the battery life are welcome.

[StuG]

Ensure you have proper drivers installed for your Laptop, and even if you have them installed make sure they are up to date. This can matter quite a bit with how the hardware acts with the OS for obvious reasons. Additionally, what is the batter life even with the gadget reporting that? Do you feel it is lower than it should be? If it is on target but that gadget is showing the GPU pegged, it may just be a faulty reading/software.

[hakron]

Thanks for your reply StuG.
All drivers are installed and everything is working.
The gadget is showing that on full charge, on power saving mode, it has 3 hours of charge available. Maybe i'm used to my former brazos laptop, showing more than 4 hours on power saving setting.
Is it normal for the GT 520M to always work on GPU clock of 740MHz? I hardly see the GPU working on 270MHz, specially on idle.

Thanks for your support.

Edit: running Nvidia Inspector I found out that the P0 state is to run on 740MHz and the P8 state is for 270MHz. Can i force the P8 state for power saving?