Techniques for degrading rendering performance to extend operating time of a computing platform includes determining a source and a level of power for the computing platform during receipt of the graphics data and rendering of the graphics data. Graphics data is rendered using settings received from the application if the computing platform is not operating from a limited power supply. The graphics data is rendered using one or more sets of graphics processing power conservation rendering settings if the computing platform is operating from a limited power supply and the remaining energy capacity of the limited power supply is less than one or more predetermined levels.