Incorrect RAM Showing and NVIDIA 980M Not Showing

[a_a786]

That's 5 mins playing The Witcher 3 on ultra settings. I get 60 frames then the fps will drop to about 30 - 40 frames then shoot back up again.
Sometimes it happens for a just a second, and sometimes longer, around 10 seconds.

The throttling has been flipping out, going from 0% to 100% for split second, and for the times when the frame rate drops are more than a couple of seconds long throttling is at 40% to 60%.

This does only happen in graphically intensive games like The Witcher 3 and GTA V. I've been playing Heroes of The Storm, Blizzards new moba, and that's never had any frame rate drops.

 

[a_a786]

Just rang up PC Specialist, and asked me to play around with the graphics settings for The Witcher 3, so I put everything on low and turned V-Sync off, was getting 90 frames, but would randomly drop to 40 frames.

If I max everything out and cap the game at 30 frames there would be no problems, the frame rate would not drop below 30 frames, but I didn't buy a laptop with a GTX 980M and a considerably powerful CPU to play games at 30 frames.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I would check the version of your on board graphics driver, if it's out of date then that would cause this kind of problem. Don't rely on Windows to tell you if it's in date, compare it to the latest on the Intel site.

 

[Jamie0202]

Looking at the screenshot on GPU-Z I agree that it's your GPU which is throttling.

I'd definitely try what SpyderTracks says but if that doesn't work could you run GPU-Z and play The Witcher again? This time hover your mouse over the green bars in the PerfCap Reason line and see what is causing the throttling. In the above screenshot it says 'util' which means your GPU has throttled due to lack of a demand being placed on it. This is normal because at the time of the screenshot you had stopped playing the game.

 

[a_a786]

In the process of updating the graphics drivers. Using Intel Driver Update Utility 2.0, which found intel hd 4600 driver update along with wireless and bluetooth drivers, once that's done. I'll report back.

Just one more thing, Hotkey is really annoying, when I hit capslock it alts out of the window I'm currently in and stops me from typing unless i re-click the comment box again, very annoying.

 

[a_a786]

So updating the drivers didn't solve the problem but interestingly on GPU-Z, I did as Jamie0202 said and PerfCap Reason was Pwr/Power (Limited by Total Power Unit), when the game was running at 60 frames the PerfCap Reason was blank, as soon as the frame drop occured it said Pwr, then when the frame rate returned to 60 frames the PerfCap Reason went blank again.

I'm play all games with charger connected always and I've made sure in the Nvidia control panel that its at max performance and using the GTX 980M graphics card.

Am I missing something else?

 

[a_a786]

I think I have identified the problem, it maybe GeForce Experience software that comes with driver. I did not have GeForce Experience installed and the frame rate drops seemed to have stopped but I was getting less performance, e.g on low settings and everything off i was just about hitting 60 frames, dropping down to 40 - 50 in the towns and villages. But with GeForce Experience I would get 60 frames rock solid in towns and villages on Ultra.

I'm not sure what GeForce Experience is doing that is making the game drop frames but with it installed it helps gain more frames on higher settings.

EDIT: Uninstalled GeForce Experience to see if it would resort back to not dropping frames, but it didn't work. The frame rate randomly drops again from 60 down to 30 - 40.

EDIT #2: I think I have found a kinda fix, by disabling windows 7 aero theme, the random frame drops stop occuring and the game runs but at a lower performance, couple of frames lower than normal.

EDIT #3: Disabling the aero theme doesn't actually work, I thought it did but the frame rate drops have started to happen. Dunno how it stopped before.

 

[Jamie0202]

I've done a bit of googling and the best I can find is the information in this thread.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/gtx-780m-gpuz-pwr.742929/

Looks like it could just be the design of the card and with certain games the GPU will not use its own boost function due to power limits coded within it.

I think you have the choice between living with it or flashing the GPU which will almost certainly invalidate your warranty. Not too sure I would reommend that. Now you have a better idea of what's happening under the hood maybe it would be best to phone PCS and explain the problem to see what they can suggest.

 

[amoshi]

In the process of updating the graphics drivers. Using Intel Driver Update Utility 2.0, which found intel hd 4600 driver update along with wireless and bluetooth drivers, once that's done. I'll report back.

Just one more thing, Hotkey is really annoying, when I hit capslock it alts out of the window I'm currently in and stops me from typing unless i re-click the comment box again, very annoying.

Right click the Hotkey icon (near the clock), and untick "K/B indicator"

 

[a_a786]

I've done a bit of googling and the best I can find is the information in this thread.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/gtx-780m-gpuz-pwr.742929/

Looks like it could just be the design of the card and with certain games the GPU will not use its own boost function due to power limits coded within it.

I think you have the choice between living with it or flashing the GPU which will almost certainly invalidate your warranty. Not too sure I would reommend that. Now you have a better idea of what's happening under the hood maybe it would be best to phone PCS and explain the problem to see what they can suggest.

I rang PCS this morning and told them the problem, the technician on the other end was saying it was because the laptop couldn't handle the games intensive graphics and I should cap the games at 30 frames to stop the stuttering. No thanks, if I can quite easily get 60 frames but cause of random frame drops I have to cut frame rate in half to make games playable I'd rather send the laptop back and get my money back. Its been 3 days with this laptop and its been pretty problematic. My first laptop from PCS worked flawlessly with the same CPU but a GTX 880M.

Although the link you posted is the exact same problem I am having. I'm not 100% sure if it's the design of the card, I dunno how many people on here have a GTX 980M, but I doubt they are also having this problem.

Right click the Hotkey icon (near the clock), and untick "K/B indicator"

Right clicking the icon does nothing, weird...

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

If your maxing out the witcher 3 then there is no chance of hitting 60 FPS.

If you check out the benchmark here http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-980M.126692.0.html it also states that the witcher 3 on ultra on the GTX 980m is about 32fps, if you drop settings to High and perhaps switch of the Nvidia Hair you might be able to hit that 60FPS sweet spot.

This video with a demo of the witcher 3 maxed out on GTX980m also confirms the same

[video=youtube;265YOO59bqo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=265YOO59bqo[/video]

I believe what the PCS engineer has told you is true and without getting an SLI laptop you aren't going to find a laptop around getting better performance than that at the moment im afraid.

 

[a_a786]

If your maxing out the witcher 3 then there is no chance of hitting 60 FPS.

If you check out the benchmark here http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-980M.126692.0.html it also states that the witcher 3 on ultra on the GTX 980m is about 32fps, if you drop settings to High and perhaps switch of the Nvidia Hair you might be able to hit that 60FPS sweet spot.

This video with a demo of the witcher 3 maxed out on GTX980m also confirms the same

[video=youtube;265YOO59bqo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=265YOO59bqo[/video]

I believe what the PCS engineer has told you is true and without getting an SLI laptop you aren't going to find a laptop around getting better performance than that at the moment im afraid.

I'm not dropping frames due to the graphics card not being able to handle the graphic settings, even on high or medium the frame will be smooth 60 frames then randomly drop to 30 to 40 maybe even sub 30 because it is throttling to save power or something, pretty much everyone in the Nvidia forums with a 980M are having the same problem. Although some people are not, and frame drops happen randomly, I could just be walking is open environment with no population and the frame rate would drop. I should probably upload a video to show what I mean.

Also it's not just the witcher 3 but I play that the most which is why I use it as an example

 

[Jamie0202]

Some users on the nvidia forums have reported that using older drivers have solved the issue for them so it's probably worth messing about with clean installs of older Geforce drivers.

Just remembered something. I was having stuttering issues with my 765m card about a year ago and what solved the issue for me was installing a Geforce desktop driver. I tried lots of differend versions of the mobile driver but still the stuttering would remain. You need to use a modded inf file so that the installer recognises your card. Downloads and information can be found here.

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/

It's worth a try.

 

[a_a786]

Some users on the nvidia forums have reported that using older drivers have solved the issue for them so it's probably worth messing about with clean installs of older Geforce drivers.

Just remembered something. I was having stuttering issues with my 765m card about a year ago and what solved the issue for me was installing a Geforce desktop driver. I tried lots of differend versions of the mobile driver but still the stuttering would remain. You need to use a modded inf file so that the installer recognises your card. Downloads and information can be found here.

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/

It's worth a try.

I'll give this a try.

I've tried using older graphics drivers, that didn't work for me, two main fixes I see are, flash a modded vbios and up the power cap or get the graphics card replaced by PCS.

EDIT: The link seems to only be for Windows 8 and 10 but I found a guide to mod .inf files myself, so will give it a go with the desktop driver for a GTX 980.

 

[a_a786]

This stuttering is too annoying for me, does anyone know if it's possible to return a laptop for a refund, rather than getting it repaired?

 

[micgup]

Any chance you could upload a video showing what's happening? You can use GeForce Experience for this, and record the video with MSI Afterburner stats on display, showing gpu temp and load, ram usage, cpu cores temp and load and fps.
I run Whitcher 3 with most settings maxed (not hair), and can maintain around 50fps with no stuttering, I'm not using the latest drivers either. I can record a video if you want to compare?
Oh and my laptop is the Octane model with i5-4690k.

Mick

Edit: also add a thermal throttling line to your XTU graph, to see if any cpu throttling is occurring while you game.

Ta.

Couldn't help myself, a 3 min video of Witcher 3 running on the Octane :
https://youtu.be/EqRBEAfMwgM

 

[a_a786]

Any chance you could upload a video showing what's happening? You can use GeForce Experience for this, and record the video with MSI Afterburner stats on display, showing gpu temp and load, ram usage, cpu cores temp and load and fps.
I run Whitcher 3 with most settings maxed (not hair), and can maintain around 50fps with no stuttering, I'm not using the latest drivers either. I can record a video if you want to compare?
Oh and my laptop is the Octane model with i5-4690k.

Mick

Edit: also add a thermal throttling line to your XTU graph, to see if any cpu throttling is occurring while you game.

Ta.

Couldn't help myself, a 3 min video of Witcher 3 running on the Octane :
https://youtu.be/EqRBEAfMwgM

Yeah, I'm also playing on Ultra with Hairworks off and couple of things on High.

Here's XTU graph:

As you can see, there's something really obviously wrong with that graph... can't quite put my finger on it.

 

[micgup]

Yeah that ain't right! Each time the cpu load goes up it thermal throttles! By comparison my XTU throttle plot is a flat line.
Think you need to see what PCS recommend, it might need a bios update, as the temperature don't show over heating.

 

[Jamie0202]

Is the laptop a Defiance? Have a look at this thread.

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/foru...Drop-Fox-Official-Bios-Fix-Thermal-Throttling

 

[a_a786]

It's a Vortex IV laptop, I'm sending it back to PCS today.