I cannot have solid lock 60 FPS 1080p - GTX 1060 6GB (Laptop)

[FelixSG]

Using my ASUS ROG GU501 gaming laptop which is equipped with

i7-8750H
16GB RAM
GTX 1060 6GB
no overclocking or undervolting.

I cannot have solid lock 60 FPS even with low graphics settings.


All BIOS/drivers/Windows updates are up-to-date, and I set my cooler to work maximum (Overboost mode) when playing a game.

I expected solid lock 60 FPS with medium graphics, but now this is disappointing.

Is this normal or something wrong with mine?

[tramper]

Check this out, watch the settings selection, see how you go, no reason you can't get a steady framerate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqCoTVrPcVE

[FelixSG]

Originally posted by tramper:

Check this out, watch the settings selection, see how you go, no reason you can't get a steady framerate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqCoTVrPcVE

I guess that video is made on desktop 1060 6GB, and as I know laptop version has lower performance than the desktop one. (FYI, mine is not Max Q)

But I still believe something must be wrong with my laptop that I cannot have solid lock 60 FPS even with lowest graphics settings.

Even using Nvidia control panel settings instead of in-game ones do not help.

[tramper]

There are a couple that show playing on a laptop with a GTX 1060, you would expect to run at what those are showing.

I've never bothered with nvidia settings in any of my games, i always use the ingame settings, personal choice though.

Are you able to play other games at decent frame rates ?.

[FelixSG]

Originally posted by tramper:

There are a couple that show playing on a laptop with a GTX 1060, you would expect to run at what those are showing.

I've never bothered with nvidia settings in any of my games, i always use the ingame settings, personal choice though.

Are you able to play other games at decent frame rates ?.

No.

On the contrary I often feel that my laptop does not show its own performance well enough with its own specification.

[tramper]

So i found a review with these specs on performance from laptopmag.com

Asus armed the GU501 with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU with 6GB of VRAM, so it's VR-ready and can play most games at high settings. In fact, I cranked Middle-earth: Shadow of War up to ultra at 1080p, and it ran between 45 and 53 frames per second


On the Rise of the Tomb Raider (1080p, very high) benchmark, the GU501 ran the game at 36 fps, beating the mainstream-gaming category average (34 fps) and the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming (31 fps, GTX 1060)

ROTTR is pretty graphic intensive, even on a GTX 1080 Ti running at highest settings, so theoretically i would think you should be able to get a decent framerate.

The review mentioned the laptop gets very hot, i see you set the cooler to work at maximum, sometimes though with gaming laptops it also pays to have a cooler pad, check out techradar.com for their reviews on the best for 2020.

How old is your laptop ?, it may pay to contact Asus support.

[JWGaming]

@FelixSG, I have the same laptop as you -- the ASUS ROG GU501GM except I have made some upgrades to maximize it's performance. I upgraded the RAM from the stock 1x16GB to 2x16GB (Crucial RAM) for a total of 32GB (getting 2 chips will give you added, dual-channel performance, both are at 2666Mhz (Max) -- BTW this laptop doesn't allow for overclocking the RAM using XMP in the BIOS, there's no option for it, I've already looked into this -- so getting anything over 2666Mhz I believe will not be of any benefit). I also replaced the stock and inadequate Kingston NVME with a larger, faster 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus and there's a noticeable difference -- I mean, you might as well upgrade it for the added increase in r/w speeds. I completely ditched the secondary platter HD.

When I play games I always make sure to the set the fan speed to OVERBOOST. It's true -- like most gaming laptops they naturally get VERY hot when playing certain games, the CPU especially from what I'm noticing on this laptop. If you're not using OVERBOOST you'll notice some frame drops and some frame skipping = performance will be bad. The key is to make sure all that heat is being properly blown out of the laptop without anything preventing the hardware to do so, ie. have the laptop in open area, the living space be at cool temps, have the laptop plugged into the wall and not be on battery. Mine is always plugged in the wall. At some point in time, you can also look into re-applying thermal paste to the GPU and CPU to help lower temps. I've done this to mine, it's pretty easy but it didn't seem to really help all that much, not significantly anyways. There is a great YT video that shows how to do it on this laptop model -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDe3Q8exfm0. Maybe once a month open up the laptop and use compressed air to dust out the laptop's fans and vents from time to time because dust=bad. I also use a laptop cooling pad which may help just a little but. It's better than nothing I think - I'm using the KLIM Cyclone and it doesn't really seem to do much in terms of lowering the temps significantly while playing Far Cry.

Now in regards to FC5, I'm not even playing it on the internal NVME SSD but have it installed on an external NVME using the ASUS Strix Arion and with normal to high settings @ 1080p. Without an external monitor, I'm getting a very stable 70-90fps with VSync turned on. When using my monitor, which is 75Hz, and with VS=on I'm getting a VERY stable 75fps with hardly any frame dropping, maybe a few frame drops to 65 here and then but it's absolutely playable and looks great. While using MSI Afterburner's overlay for reading the temps and speeds of things, the CPU does get pretty toasty -- on average the CPU package can get in the low to mid 90s (C) during gameplay and the GPU stays around the mid-high 70s to low 80s -- that's with the fans set to OVERBOOST.

Here are my NVIDIA CP settings:

Global Settings
Preferred GP=High-performance NVIDIA processor

Image Sharpening=Sharpening off, scaling disabled
Ambient Occlusion=Quality
Anisotopic filtering=App-controlled
Antialiasing - FXAA=off
Antialiasing - gamma correction=on
Antialiasing - Mode=App-controlled
Antialiasing - Setting=App-controlled
Antialiasing - Transparency=off
CUDA - GPUs=all
DSR - Factors=off
DSR - Smoothness=off
Low Latency Mode=off
Max Frame Rate=off
Multi-Frame Sampled AA (MFAA)=off
OpenGL rendering GPU=GeForce GTX 1060
Power management mode=adaptive
Shader Cache=on
Texture Filtering - Anisotropic sample optimization=off
Texture Filtering - Negative LOD bias=allow
Texture Filtering - Quality=Quality
Texture Filtering - Trilinear optimization=on
Threaded optimization=auto
Triple Buffering=off
Vertical Sync=use the 3D application setting
Virtual Reality pre-rendered frames=1

Far Cry 5 Video Settings (using external 75Hz monitor via HDMI)
Monitor
Display=1
Menu Display=1
Window Mode=Fullscreen
Aspect Ratio=Native 16x9
Display Res=1920x1080p
Refresh Rate=75
Enable HDR=N/A (I'm not using an HDR-capable monitor)

Quality
Graphics Quality=Custom
Texture Filtering=HIGH
Shadows=Normal
Geometry & Veg=HIGH
Enviroment=HIGH
Water=Normal
Terrain=Normal
Volumetric Fog=Normal
HD Textures=On
Anti-aliasing=SMAA
Motion Blur=On

Advanced Settings
V-Sync=On
Enable Framerate Lock=off
Framerate Lock=60 (greyed out)
Field of View Scaling=75
Dynamic Res=off
Resolution Scale=1

On Windows, I have everything updated to the latest.
In Graphics Settings I have "Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling" turned on.

I hope this helps!

[JWGaming]

BTW I have Rise of the Tomb Raider and ran the benchmark there, here are the results:

I'm using the same NVIDIA CP settings that I mentioned above, and fan speed set to OVERBOOST:

Display
DX12=off
Fullscreen=on
Monitor=Nvidia GTX 1060(1)
Resolution=1920x1080
Resolution Modifier=not used
Refresh Rate=75hz (while monitor, 120 Hz while using laptop display)

Anti-Aliasing=SMAA
VSync=off

Video Settings are set to Very High, no custom changes

Benchmark Results with DX12=off (DX11)
Mountain Peak: 90.39 FPS (min 37.93, max 148.73)
Syria: 68.44 FPS (min 23.25, max 91.55)
Geothermal Valley: 64.10 FPS (min 29.17, max 131.19)
Overall Score: 74.65 FPS

Benchmark Results with DX12=on
Mountain Peak: 85.63 FPS (min 48.17, max 144.55)
Syria: 65.33 FPS (min 29.74, max 88.19)
Geothermal Valley: 62.45 FPS (min 45.83, max 73.33)
Overall Score: 71.47 FPS

So I don't know if the benchmarks that laptopmag.com is providing for ROTTR is because they are using the vanilla hardware and or they didn't have OVERBOOST turned on. I don't know if upgrading the RAM to dual-channel (from 1x16 to 2x16) and using a larger-sized, faster NVME SSD will significantly boost performance -- it seems to have for me and my GU501. On the same laptop with my upgrades I'm getting just over double -- on the highest settings possible -- their frame rates for ROTTR. So I don't know, probably wouldn't hurt to make sure you're system is using the right GPU and not the Intel integrated POS and maybe upgrade your RAM and your NVME SSD. Try using the NVIDIA settings I provided (global) and maybe make sure Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling is set to ON (I honestly don't know how important this is) and see what happens. And clean out those vents from time to time.