Question Laptop has low GPU usage in games, but not benchmarks - manufacturer is no help

[Clout Man]

Hey guys,

I got a laptop a few months ago - an Eluktronics MECH-17 G1R. I'm getting heavily fluctuating GPU usage in intensive games, going from 50% to 97%, which results in fluctuating FPS. CPU usage seems to fluctuate too, in the 20%-80% area, although FPS seems to correlate more with GPU usage than CPU usage. Generally, both of them are well below 100. For example, at any given time the CPU might be staying at 30% while GPU is staying at 70%. Yes, I turn Vsync and framelock off in every game. GPU temp stays at 60 to 75c while gaming, CPU at 70 to 80c. I use a cooling pad.

In Unigine Superposition and Heaven benchmarks, GPU stays at ~97%, CPU in low 10s. UserBenchmark doesn't show anything wrong either.

I had a pretty long correspondence with Eluktronics about this. Eventually they asked me to send the laptop to them and I did. I have it back now and they said they updated the BIOS and EC and adjusted the settings on Battlefield 5, but I think that's it. The problem still remains. I don't really think they understood there was a problem in the first place. In their own words, "The GPU utilizing 80 % is a good thing this means it is handling the game while only using 80%" . I don't think that's true unless there is a frame cap, which there is not.

Games I have tested and have this problem with:
Battlefield 5
Far Cry 5 and New Dawn
XCom 2
Fallout 4


I have used a variety of different GPU driver versions, done a full system reset several times, uninstalled drivers with DDU and reinstalled, and played with power settings. Nothing has worked.

Specs:
CPU: Intel Core i7-8750H
GPU: Nvidia Geforce RTX 2070, with Intel UHD Graphics 630 integrated graphics
RAM: ADATA 16 GB 2666 MHz DDR4
Motherboard: Mech-17 G1Rx, Coffee Lake Chipset
SSD: 512GB ADATA SX8200PNP

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Also, I noticed some weird things when I first got the computer which may or may not be important:

First, there was already a windows account on the computer, called Admin. The computer was already logged into it.

Second, there was a program open, a very small window with maybe two lines of text. I don't remember what it was called (win-something?), but when I googled it I think it was for developers or manufacturers to test or set up Windows 10. I clicked a button on the window (dumb idea) and then the computer restarted and let me set up Windows normally.

Third, I ordered a computer with a RTX 2060, but it came with an RTX 2070. I didn't mention this to the manufacturer because I figured this was a good thing.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Honestly, it could just be throttling. It doesn't have to be due to temps, either, it could be due to power usage. Maybe the CPU and GPU thrashing wildly in usage, is related to both of them try to stay under some BIOS-controlled combined power limit.

Bottom line is, does it play games acceptably for you or not? If not, try using a frame- or CPU usage-limiter for the game, and if that doesn't smooth out the dips and stutters, then consider returning it or re-selling it.

 

[Clout Man]

Honestly, it could just be throttling. It doesn't have to be due to temps, either, it could be due to power usage. Maybe the CPU and GPU thrashing wildly in usage, is related to both of them try to stay under some BIOS-controlled combined power limit.

Bottom line is, does it play games acceptably for you or not? If not, try using a frame- or CPU usage-limiter for the game, and if that doesn't smooth out the dips and stutters, then consider returning it or re-selling it.

Thanks for the response. Do you have a suggestion for how to fix this?
never mind, for some reason it didn't let me see your full comment

 

[VirtualLarry]

Maybe someone else has some suggestions too, I wouldn't be super-quick to return it, I'm not really an expert on gaming laptops.

Maybe use Intel XTU to change Power Limit 1 and 2 for the CPU, and adjust it's working TDP / power limit that way, and possibly, see if there's a program that will let you set fan profiles for your chassis fan and GPU cooling too.

Edit: The basic idea is to get the laptop to play games at a stable framerate, without horrendous dips in the middle of gameplay, due to hitting throttling limits, and the BIOS / drivers having to make a decision to share more or less of the power limit with the CPU or GPU at that moment. Once you get the frame-rate stable, then you can dial in the game's settings and / or set frame-limiting to get your game to play well within those limits.

Or use a software tool (or go extreme, and use a patched BIOS), to change those power limits (increase them), with the knowledge that the cooling and power-delivery may be impacted negatively, and use a cooling pad, etc., to cope.

Once apon a time, I was at a LAN party, and they had a P4 laptop that needed a fan aimed at the vents to keep it running and not locking up while playing games.

 

[abufrejoval]

I've used somewhat similar (a generation older) laptops both for gaming on Windows and for CUDA accelerated machine learning on Linux. In my case it's a couple of Gigabyte P35X v6 with Skylake i7 45W, GTX 1070m and 32GB of DDR4-2400 RAM.

Those machine are even worse off, because they also try to be thin and light, while they need to get rid of 200Watts of heat. Consequently under such loads their fans turbo to a wine that precludes using them in an office: We actually had to lock them into a cabinet, because nobody could work next to four of them whining on a desk for days in a row on ML training jobs.

CPU/GPU fluctations in real games vs. benchmarks are actually quite normal. First of all graphics benchmarks try to test CPUs and GPUs separately, to help isolate performance issues, while games follow their need to display different scenes. Now these scenes can have vastly different complexities, with an character staring at a wall or across a valley from the mountaintops.

Gaming laptops need to compromise on power, the smaller the more. And the smallish premium laptops go to ridiculous ends exploiting turbo capacities, which are transient and available only until the thermal budget has been exhausted. So you need to watch and conserve your thermals if you want consistent performance, every simple scene may allow enough of a cooldown to allow a short but far more complex scene without a speed bump. I add a second screen and use the HWinfo monitor (also works remotely) to see what's going on.

The Gigabytes btw. have 4k 15.4" screens: Ridiculous for most eyes and quite overwhelming a GTX 1070m at that resolution. At least the GTX 1070m and a desktop GTX 1070 really seemed to perform identically within a single percent, even if the mobile part uses additional cores (2048) but lower clocks to lower the electrical power required.

So while I didn't actually use my Gigabyte a lot for gaming (got fat desktops for that) to achieve consistent gaming (or VR) performance with it, I lowered resolutions and graphics settings until the FPS stayed where I wanted them.

And there again, moderation or rather limiting the FPS may actually be beneficial, because it saves heat and allows the GPU clocks to remain higher in more challenging scenes. If the driver or game doesn't offer FPS limiting, vsync can at least fix it at panel speeds (faster makes no sense anyway). On a desktop you may not care, on a laptop thermals are important, because they may impose more of a performance limit than the silicon resources available.

If you see your CPUs at constant high utilization in a game, that is a rather bad sign of mismatch: I wouldn't expect that in your case, because the hardware is pretty close to mainstream.