FPS drops even when hardware exceeds the recommended spec for games

[12kurtl]

Hi All,

I was hoping someone might have some answers as to why I might be struggling to run games on my gaming laptop even when my specs exceed the recommended specs for some games like Red Dead 2, Elden Ring etc. I have a cooling pad which I use for my laptop but still experience drops in fps and gittering in game far to often to make it an enjoyable experience. Even tried lowering quality, closing all background apps, ensuring graphics card is being used for the game etc but no avail. Any ideas about what might be causing this and any recommendations would be a great help! Have upgraded to windows 11 in the last few months to. Specs below:

Chassis & Display
Defiance Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD 240Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor 10870H (2.2GHz, 5.0GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 3060 - 6.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 665p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 2000MB/sR | 1925MB/sW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated Micro-SD Memory Card Reader
AC Adaptor
1 x 180W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Battery
Defiance Series Integrated 3 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (73WH)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless Network Card
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x THUNDERBOLT 3 PORT + 3 x USB 3.2 PORTS
Keyboard Language
15" DEFIANCE SERIES UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Google Chrome™
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 7 working days
Promotional Item
Get 6 Months Founders Membership to GeForce Now w/ select RTX 30 Series Laptops
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland

 

[Martinr36]

What type of temperatures are you see when gaming, how old is the laptop, and when did you last service it

 

[12kurtl]

Temps getting as high as 87*. Laptop is 2 years old and never had it serviced.

 

[Martinr36]

Temps getting as high as 87*. Laptop is 2 years old and never had it serviced.

In that case I'd suggest having the bottom off, give it a good blow out and repaste

 

[SpyderTracks]

Temps getting as high as 87*. Laptop is 2 years old and never had it serviced.

Can you try monitoring temps with HWMonitor (interested in CPU package and each core), then take a screenshot of the temps readout after about 10 minutes WHILE Prime95 is running?

Download Prime95 version 30.19 Build 14

Download Prime95 - a handy tool for overclockers and system stability checkers, Prime95 has a feature called "Torture Test" that allows maximum stress testing on the CPU and RAM. There are several options allowing the stress test to focus on the memory, processor, or a balance of both.

www.guru3d.com

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

If it's not been serviced at all it's almost certainly thermal throttling, it needs to be repasted once a year to maintain good thermals.

 

[12kurtl]

See the results attached

 

[SpyderTracks]

See the results attached

Nothing attached?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Can I ask? What fps are we talking about and what graphics levels have you tried? Has it always had issues or only just recently?

I only ask as the 12GB 3060 will do, according to techRadar, RDR2 53fps on Ultra High at 1080p....your 3060 is half the VRAM of it so will be considerably lower. Of course, if this is only a recent issue, then those figures mean nothing

It's not just VRAM, mobile GPUs are lower tier silicon to desktop counterparts. So a laptop 3060 is nowhere near a desktop card.

 

[12kurtl]

Nothing attac

hed?

 

[12kurtl]

Can I ask? What fps are we talking about and what graphics levels have you tried? Has it always had issues or only just recently?

I only ask as the 12GB 3060 will do, according to techRadar, RDR2 53fps on Ultra High at 1080p....your 3060 is half the VRAM of it so will be considerably lower. Of course, if this is only a recent issue, then those figures mean nothing

I think its historically underperformed and had issues (particularly with short moments of lag and responsiveness) on for example RDR2 on medium graphics. I think however it was gotten worse in the last few weeks/months.

I know Fifa 23 is super buggy but encounter lots of lagging and stuttering even when playing on Low for example.

Would this just be down to thermal throttling or perhaps another issue? Thanks!

 

[SpyderTracks]

View attachment 36022
View attachment 36023

Sorry, I meant a screenshot of the program as it gives a lot more detail than this.

 

[12kurtl]

Sorry, I meant a screenshot of the program as it gives a lot more detail than this.

 

[SpyderTracks]

View attachment 36024View attachment 36026View attachment 36025

Yep, that's hitting the 100c ceiling.

I would suggest a proper clean out and repaste and then we can do some troubleshooting if the problem remains.

 

[Scott]

Just to highlight for the OP. The red temperature values show that the temperatures are going too high. Even with Prime95 you would want this inside 95 at the maximum. Anything sub 90 is fairly good in my experience (My desktop was around 92 maxed out, laptop was 95.... but I was pushing things).

The impact of this can be seen under your current CPU frequency. They are all 2692 which is a result of the thermal throttling. Given it's a 4.5Ghz+ CPU you can imagine the impact of the CPU suddenly being limited to 2692Mhz when gaming. The power falls off a cliff and this will introduce stutters etc.

As suggested, a good clean out and re-paste will likely sort this issue. Potentially not with Prime95 but I expect it definitely should with the gaming results.

Once cleaned out, if you install 3DMark and run some benchmarks (I'm very familiar with Firestrike/TimeSpy) then we can assess where your performance lies in line with the mean.

 

[12kurtl]

Just to highlight for the OP. The red temperature values show that the temperatures are going too high. Even with Prime95 you would want this inside 95 at the maximum. Anything sub 90 is fairly good in my experience (My desktop was around 92 maxed out, laptop was 95.... but I was pushing things).

The impact of this can be seen under your current CPU frequency. They are all 2692 which is a result of the thermal throttling. Given it's a 4.5Ghz+ CPU you can imagine the impact of the CPU suddenly being limited to 2692Mhz when gaming. The power falls off a cliff and this will introduce stutters etc.

As suggested, a good clean out and re-paste will likely sort this issue. Potentially not with Prime95 but I expect it definitely should with the gaming results.

Once cleaned out, if you install 3DMark and run some benchmarks (I'm very familiar with Firestrike/TimeSpy) then we can assess where your performance lies in line with the me

Thanks everyone! Will give it a clean out and a repaste and let you know the results soon

 

[12kurtl]

So clean out and repaste done, first time doing it but not as daunting taking it apart as first thought! Here are the results from Firestrike:

 

[Steveyg]

CPU temp spiking during the physics test is strange, usually that's GPU heavy but I'm honestly not super familiar with the ins and out of laptop chips maybe they spread the load a little better?

Interesting note at a glance just

 

[sck451]

CPU temp spiking during the physics test is strange, usually that's GPU heavy but I'm honestly not super familiar with the ins and out of laptop chips maybe they spread the load a little better?

Interesting note at a glance just

Physics is a CPU test.

Fire Strike Physics Test

The 3DMark Fire Strike Physics Test benchmarks CPU performance by running physics simulations on the CPU. The GPU load is kept as low as possible to ensure that only the CPU is stressed. The Bullet Open Source Physics Library is used as the physi...

support.benchmarks.ul.com

 

[Scott]

Do you have a link to the results? It seems a little low on the GPU front (CPU is running well) but its difficult to hone in on the correct GPU, I could only search for the 3060 Notebook, which may be different.

How are the temps on Prime95? It all seems to be running OK thermally now. Anything inside 100C on prime would be a success I think (make sure you use max fans).