Horrible FPS with Optimus tech laptops

[Joriaan]

Hi everyone, I'll cut to the chase. I know there's already a thread about this floating around here somewhere but I wanted to bring this back to attention.

My ASUS laptop has Nvidia Optimus technology, which for the unitiated means that the system automatically switches from integrated Intel graphics to the Nvidia GPU depending on necessity. Normally this happens without problems, some games however seem to have trouble with this. Notable examples include Binary Domain and Path of Exile, though the latter has been patched for it (it still refuses to work properly at sometimes, but whatever). Result is either the game not working at all (BD) or having horrible performance (PoE).

Van Helsing seems to have the same problem: horrible performance, because it's using integrated graphics. I've tried a few things to get around this, both tips mentioned here and on the NeoCore forums:
- ran game manually via x64 executable in install folder, didn't improve things.
- ran game through x64 .exe, ticked 'Sync CPU to GPU' option, didn't work.
- ran game with right click -> use Nvidia GPU on x64 .exe, negative.
- verified game cache through steam, no dice.
- tried setting the program to use GPU through Nvidia Control Panel, nope.
- removed, redownloaded the game, still nothing.
- removed, cleaned up, reinstalled Nvidia drivers (ASUS-made drivers were not available), nay nay.
- lowered graphical settings, this improved performance but even on lowest settings the framerate is still not optimal - and it shouldn't be necessary, I refuse to play the game this way.

Worthy of note: I never made it past the main menu, considering that the performance there was atrocious enough to make navigating slow and unwieldy. I can't comment on performance in-game, but like I said before: I refuse to play a game with lesser quality than my hardware can deliver. Other games that are graphically heavier run buttersmooth with my system, so it's not my hardware.

I already sent an email with dxdiag attached to the support email as a Neocore employee suggested elsewhere on the Steam forums, but I don't know if something is gonna be done with that. I have good faith, though! :) Some feedback would be nice, though, and maybe there are things that I overlooked. Thank you for your time, dear reader.

EDIT: also made a topic on the official forums, cause why not. Dxdiag available there too, for the interested parties. http://forum.neocoregames.com/index.php?/topic/1039-horrible-fps-with-optimus-tech-laptops/

[RYZS]

Sorry for your unpleasantness, I can assure you the developers are working on the performance issues and a fix will be released in an upcoming patch.

[Joriaan]

Ah, thanks for the reply Rizs! I'll keep waiting patiently then, I've done all I can for now at least :)

[Licalia]

Have you tried downloading Nvidia INspector? You would have to set the game to use your Nvidia card in your normal panel ( I actually just set it for all 3 exe's, the normal, x86 and x64. Just ... because :P).
Then you'd open Nvidia Inspector, click on the button next to your driver version, choose your Van Helsing Profile (by clicking the little House symbol) .
Under "Other" (way down) there is an option called "enable for optimus". This is set to "auto select" even if you force the game to use your nvidia card in the normal panel. (At least that happened to me...) Set that to "enable".

I can't promise that will work but I can run the game jsut fine :)


Another (temporary) option. Try forcing your Nvidia card in your global options and change it back after playing. I did that for anoher game for quite some time :/

[ThoRenSseN]

Same for me, the game is running pretty bad even with the lowest resolution available and low graphics :/ (ATI graphic card)

[Pvt_Rinzler]

When i cant play game with decent FPS using 690gtx do you rlly think you vill be able. Game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ coded thats the prob. I rlly love the game , much better then Diablo but this will make me wonder one or 2 times if i buy game from Neocore. Srry guys you made rlly gd thinking game but you would get more creed if you looked into performence with ATI and Nvidia. When i play BF3 or some other game my cards are screaming of how much they have been used. I wonder if game rlly uses SLI. Have not checked but it doesent feel like it.

[Joriaan]

Hi Elenglynn, tried downloading Inspector but there's no profile for Van Helsing yet, tried to make it myself but, well, I have no clue how to go about it so that sadly didn't work. I'll keep checking back for new updates to the Inspector though, who knows. Forcing it globally didn't work either.

[legathy]

I was browsing the forum to find out whether i should buy this game... now this is bad :(

BTW I had a similar problem with Neocore's 'King Arthur' game. Unusually bad performance regardless of settings, with both an ATI mobile as well as a Nvidia mobile graphics card. I have never been able to fix it.

[Joriaan]

Problem is, it's not necessarily something on the developer's end, it's a combination of software/developer and hardware problem. I find it hard to blame Neocore considering they're at least being open about it and actively trying to fix it. Not so with Binary Domain, where SEGA almost laughed in my face about it and did ♥♥♥♥-all. Props to Neocore for that.

[Pvt_Rinzler]

New patch seem too fix the stuttering for me atleast. But game runs even better if i go into steam map and go into game from x64 file.

[φιλα_δελφία]

Same problem for me. Won`t reach 30FPS on my 3740qm / GTX680m rig?!

[Jim655321]

My crappy Acer laptop has Optimus and a GT540. The way I got most things to work is to go in and change it to always use the "high-performance" graphics processor in global settings. Not for an individual program, but for everything. That's worked for me when individual applications refuse to use the Nvidia GPU.

[φιλα_δελφία]

Thank you, Jim, for the hint - unfortunately I have allready changed this setting to "best performance" some time ago. So this is not the problem.

Even with ultra low settings I won`t top 45 FPS, and I certainly will not want to play with this setting, as the look... er... don`t suite me ;-)

Best regards

phila

P.S. Actually - I forced the game to use nVidia graphics - and the control window tells me, that the card is used, yet to no effect. My 680m won´t even warm up. But I am greatful to hear that the Devs are working on the problem!

EDIT: Some issues were resolved by disabeling Dxtory for me... I first thought this changed it all - yet, there are still some unexpected FPS drops.

[Jim655321]

For future reference, "best performance" and "use high performance Nvidia GPU" aren't the same thing...

[φιλα_δελφία]

Publicado originalmente por Jim655321:

For future reference, "best performance" and "use high performance Nvidia GPU" aren't the same thing...

Nice one ;-) Of course the very first thing i tried - even before I changed "best performance" - was to enable the high-performance GPU.

Sorry I got you wrong though... Still it´s cool that it worked for you.

Best regards

phila

[Joriaan]

OP here, if you check the link to the forum in the first post, you'll see I found a workaround that, eh, works. I don't know if a patch fixed things anyway, but at least I got to play the game for realsies.