Laptop can’t run most games despite being within spec.

[Tetlow]

I got my laptop a few months ago and even since then I can’t figure out why most of my games don’t work. They’ll run, but even with the poorest quality it struggles. Some games or surprisingly okay, Hat in Time can run fine and look good, but sometimes chug if my laptop isn’t plugged in, I can live with that. Most other games won’t work despite me being well within the minimum and recommended specs.

I have already changed the preferred graphics processor and updated drivers etc, with no results.

I’d appreciate any help!

I’ll drop an image of the specs I have.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I got my laptop a few months ago and even since then I can’t figure out why most of my games don’t work. They’ll run, but even with the poorest quality it struggles. Some games or surprisingly okay, Hat in Time can run fine and look good, but sometimes chug if my laptop isn’t plugged in, I can live with that. Most other games won’t work despite me being well within the minimum and recommended specs.

I have already changed the preferred graphics processor and updated drivers etc, with no results.

I’d appreciate any help!

I’ll drop an image of the specs I have.
View attachment 17190

If the laptop isn't plugged in it's likely applying a reduced power profile, if you want to game while on battery you'll need to adjust your power settings.

How have you updated graphics drivers? What method?

When you say games won't work, what exactly do you mean, be quite to the point.

 

[Tetlow]

If the laptop isn't plugged in it's likely applying a reduced power profile, if you want to game while on battery you'll need to adjust your power settings.

How have you updated graphics drivers? What method?

When you say games won't work, what exactly do you mean, be quite to the point.

I always have my laptop plugged in anyway since I have no reason to unplug, I can just tell when something has pulled it out because the game chugs a bit.

I think I made a mistake about the updating, the drivers were up to date, it’s just Nvidia Experience updated - my bad.

The games can run, but even on the lowest quality, pretty much all of my library is extremely laggy.

 

[SpyderTracks]

The games can run, but even on the lowest quality, pretty much all of my library is extremely laggy.

What games are you referring to, are they online games? As specific as you can be please, I'm not sure what you mean by "laggy".

 

[Tetlow]

What games are you referring to, are they online games? As specific as you can be please, I'm not sure what you mean by "laggy".

One game is online, although other online games like League play fine. The online aspect isn’t an issue at all, I don’t think.
I mean “laggy” as in the frame rate is extremely low so everything moves slowly.

A game like Slime Rancher for example, I am well within the specs but the game is so slow it’s unplayable.

 

[SpyderTracks]

One game is online, although other online games like League play fine. The online aspect isn’t an issue at all, I don’t think.
I mean “laggy” as in the frame rate is extremely low so everything moves slowly.

A game like Slime Rancher for example, I am well within the specs but the game is so slow it’s unplayable.

If you bring up the nvidia framerate overlay you can see what fps you're doing. You can do this in GeForce experience.

That card won't run games at full settings, you'd have to reduce settings quite a bit to maintain 60fps.

 

[SlimCini]

If you bring up the nvidia framerate overlay you can see what fps you're doing. You can do this in GeForce experience.

That card won't run games at full settings, you'd have to reduce settings quite a bit to maintain 60fps.

Whole I sort of agree that the 1650 is not the strongest card in the selection, I use a 1650 and can play games at default settings on 1080p and they play fine. Gta5 and Witcher 3 looked sweet and played beautifully with a 1650.

 

[Tetlow]

If you bring up the nvidia framerate overlay you can see what fps you're doing. You can do this in GeForce experience.

That card won't run games at full settings, you'd have to reduce settings quite a bit to maintain 60fps.

That’s what I’m saying though, I don’t run games at full settings, I run them all the lowest they go but they still have major lag.

 

[Tetlow]

Whole I sort of agree that the 1650 is not the strongest card in the selection, I use a 1650 and can play games at default settings on 1080p and they play fine. Gta5 and Witcher 3 looked sweet and played beautifully with a 1650.

Exactly! I wasn’t expecting a high frame rate because the friend who recommended it told me it won’t be the best of the best, but I should be able to play games in a decent quality. It just is confusing when everything is set as low as it can go but it still has major lag :/

 

[ubuysa]

Exactly! I wasn’t expecting a high frame rate because the friend who recommended it told me it won’t be the best of the best, but I should be able to play games in a decent quality. It just is confusing when everything is set as low as it can go but it still has major lag :/

IMO the best place to start would to ensure that your Windows system and driver base is clean and stable. That means a clean install of the current version of Windows (2004) from bootable media, deleting existing system partitions. Allow Windows Update to install all drivers and then install the latest NVIDIA driver for your build. Once Windows and drivers are installed just install one game, whichever one caused the worst lag, and see how it performs in a pristine Windows (and driver) system.

If you still get lag issues then the next step would be to see whether you have some resource being overutilised, and the easiest way to see that is to open Task Manager and click the Performance tab. You'll see graphs on the left reporting on the major resources. Click the Options menu entry and select Always On Top so you can always see these counters.

Obviously you're looking for some resource that's overutilised, if you can see one then switch to the Details tab.

On the Details tab right-click anywhere on the column header line and choose Select Columns, select the GPU entry and a GPU column will be added to the display. Also ensure that the columns CPU, Working Set and I/O Reads are also selected, then you can see which processes are using whichever resource is overutilised..

 

[SlimCini]

WHile the 1650 is a very low level GPU, games should run on minimum settings, or above depending on the game. Sounds to me like something is amiss but whether it's hardware, Windows or Driver related is a different matter.

@ubuysa post above is a good place to start as, if you still get it with a clean Windows install (and correct drivers) then it would likely indicate hardware but, if it's fine with a clean Windows install, then something has been added/changed somewhere to cause the issue.

Again, minimum settings is a myth. It runs shadow of the tomb raider and far cry 5 on high at 1080p at 50fps.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I think the first thing to try is monitor temps post when under load and idle. It could be the CPU is thermal throttling which would lead to poor performance.

You can use HWMonitor for this:

HWMONITOR | Softwares | CPUID

HWMonitor for Windows® x86/x64 is a hardware monitoring program that reads PC systems main health sensors : voltages, temperatures, powers, currents, fans speed, utilizations, clock speeds ... The program handles : CPU and GPU-level hardware monitoring...

www.cpuid.com

 

[DeeHants]

I would also double check task manager, to ensure it's using the GPUs correctly (and not sticking to the onboard one).
I'm not sure how it determines which to use automatically.

 

[barlew]

Have you gone into the nvidia control panel and checked that the games are defaulting to the nvidia GPU. It is possible the games are using the on board Intel graphics instead.

Steps to default to the nvidia GPU can be found here: https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to/pc-components/how-set-default-graphics-card-3612668/