Serious frame drop in EVERY large titles on my MX150 powered laptop

[Surprised Pikachu]

Hi guys, recently bought this Acer Swift 3. It's of great value for $4000 HKD when I bought it second hand, with 8th Gen i5-8250U and Nvidia MX150 on board.

However, as I tried to run some large titles, such as Battlefield 1, GTA V, or even Payday 2, gameplay gets laggy every few seconds, come back to normal for a few seconds, and repeat. Did a thermal test with AIDA64 and didn't find any thermal throttling. Latest driver installed with MX150 set as default graphics card. Other lighter titles like League of Legends and Minecraft worked perfectly.

I am wondering if it could be not sufficient power supply from the power strip that I was using. Any ideas of what could be the possible reason for such frame drop?

Thanks in advance!

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

ViscaCatalunya a écrit :

Thank you Sapph for the prompt reply. However MX150 benchmarks in various YouTube videos said otherwise. In those videos, GTA V can run at 90+ fps at lowest settings without any visible stuttering or lags. But in my case, no matter how much I lower the settings, I get lower fps in average as well as frequent frame drops for 2-3 seconds everytime it occurs. I've confirmed that my MX150 is in 1D10 rather than lower-powered 1D12 version, and the frequent frame drops and lags only happen in some AAA titles and that's why I began to wonder. The frame drop, or lag, takes place every few seconds, and that's not very normal for an MX150, as it doesn't even happen much on a mobile HD620 graphics.

Did you remember to lower the resolution too? I've looked at some of those youtube videos just now and almost all of them are running GTA-V at 720p (1280x720) at the very least. Some below that. That's how they get 90 FPS in that title on lowest settings. I looked it up and the Acer Swift 3 is a 1080p model that comes with a 1080p screen. So if you're trying to play these games at 1080p, then that's your problem right there. Drop your resolution in-game and it'll be fine.

[stuntzwerg]

I know about this issue, however, i checked my GPU unit and the one inside the acer swift 3 is the 25W version. So that should not be the issue...

[ni6hant]

Actually it is an issue that I have actually seen. I used to play BFBC2 above 90fps on the same config, but after probably an update or something that happened, I can't play it more than 30fps.
Interesting thing is, this also happened with the CPU intensive game, CS:GO which means the recent windows update might have tinkered with the battery settings somehow, I still can't find it but I am looking, will keep you updated.

Here is one solution:
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/1026556/geforce-mobile-gpus/geforce-mx150-performance-throttling-issues/

[ni6hant]

No, MX150 is actually capable of playing the AAA titles. I have played them and I know. Battlefield 1 plays just fine around 50-60fps, same with GTA and battlefield 4.
There is something that actually has happened in the past few weeks that has massively degraded the performance.


Try this, because it did improve performance in some games. FIrst try the first option and then restart and try any game on lowest settings 1080p. If no fix then move to the next.
1) Stop Superfetch services. Win+R: Services.msc. Find Superfetch and stop it completely.
2) Uninstall the Nvidia Software completely.
3) Remove the Nvidia Folder located at C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\ completely. It will say file in use and open up Task Manager and close the Nvidia Apps and services and then try again immediately.

[nullable]

Rnaf a écrit :

It seems that MX150 comes in two "hidden" shapes: 10W and 25W.
Check this post[www.windowscentral.com]. But I expected that a GeForce would at least perform better than an integrated Intel graphics. Indeed, I have no idea why they put an MX150 in this laptop, if the integrated graphics clearly ourperforms it.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/UHD-Graphics-620-vs-GeForce-MX150_8098_8000.247598.0.html based on what I am seeing here, your one test with Don't Starve may be a little lacking. Even if you want to lop off 25% of the MX150's performance it's still way better than the UHD 620 included on your CPU most of the time.

So that's why...

And there could be other issues, like heat throttling that could be affecting your performance. I mean this is a cross between entry level hardware, optimistic expectations, and all sorts of device specific variables.

[Calvin]

I have the Asus Ux430UN, which sports the MX150 as well. After researching the stutters I learned that it most likely comes from the card thermal throttling. It looks like a lot but not all manufactures let the MX150 thermal throttling at somewhere between 73C or even 63C. so whenever the card gets hot, it throttles abruplty, creating stutters. these throttling settings are extremely conservative and could be higher, i have no idea why they choose to keep them so low. the only way for me to try and keep the card from throttling in AAA games is to cap the performance of the card via MSI afterburner, where I stop it from ever going over 1450Hz. I still have to experiment more and see where it goes, but my first tests removed stuttering, but lowered overall performance somewhat. I also cap the CPU at 2,5Hz via Throttlestop, to try and keep the overall temps down. Like I said, first tries were positive, with no stutters, but I haven't experimented enough yet. Sadly, I don't know of a way of simple increasing the thermal throttle threshold, that would be ideal. I saw that on the HP13, there is a setting that allows it to be put up to 93C. So technically, it should be possible on all laptops, but not all manufactures give us this option... gosh, i like my laptop, for work and all, but i wish i had known how restrictive the GPU is configured before I bought it...

[Calvin]

so, using throttlestop with "disable turbo" enabled and lowering the Hz on my MX150 via Msi afterburner I have eliminated all sudden lags... i play mostly R6 Siege with the laptop. sadly I had to curb it all down to the lowest setting and resolution possible, which means the MX150 is really performing well under my expectations, but maybe the Gpu was simply too hyped when releasing? anyways, I can now play Siege at around 55-71fps smoothly... without those game breaking hiccups. in case anyone else wants to try it as well. it worked for me.

[The Brown Hornet]

Try optimization in GeForce experience, and check the temps, also a Windows update killed performance in some Batlefield games recently, could be affecting other titles as well.

[Monk]

It's not something g as simple as you are only using 4 or 8GB of RAM in single channel is it? As running out of ram in these titles would explain it, same gir vram on the gpu, as I'm pretty sure there are multiple versions of the mx150 with varying amounts of vram.

Edit.

Just noticed the dates, oops this is an old thread, didn't spot it was from 2018 heh.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

First off its a laptop.

Download all latest for...
Intel Chipset INF
Intel UHD graphics 620
Nvidia GeForce mobile (mx150)
...for Win10 64bit

Then wipe out all the current for Intel and Nvidia using the DDU app and select safe mode and reboot options. Once in safee mode click intel and click clean but do not restart. Then do the same for nvidia. When finished reboot and install the drivers.... chipset, graphics, then nvidia gpu. Reboot after installing each one.

When done this far, set the Nvidia gpu as the default via nvidia control panel, manage 3d settings. Then apply.

Set Windows Power Options to High Performance prior to launching a game.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Bad 💀 Motha a écrit :

First off its a laptop.

Download all latest for...
Intel Chipset INF
Intel UHD graphics 620
Nvidia GeForce mobile (mx150)
...for Win10 64bit

Then wipe out all the current for Intel and Nvidia using the DDU app and select safe mode and reboot options. Once in safee mode click intel and click clean but do not restart. Then do the same for nvidia. When finished reboot and install the drivers.... chipset, graphics, then nvidia gpu. Reboot after installing each one.

When done this far, set the Nvidia gpu as the default via nvidia control panel, manage 3d settings. Then apply.

Set Windows Power Options to High Performance prior to launching a game.

Remember to read the dates. The original post in this thread was over a year ago. Thread necro is bad.

[mujtabai028]

No Sapph what you are saying is wrong. My MX 150 used to give me 90 or 100+ fps before. Now my Mx 150 started badly underperforming. I discovered that when ever I play GTA 5 or any other game my clock speed of Nvidia Geforce MX 150 starts dropping from 1532 or 1481 Mhz to 139 Mhz. Thats the thing that is causing lag. Thats definately not normal at all. It should not happen. While gaming clock speed should not be below base clock speed. Ok , so thats what is discovered so far. Even tho my laptop doesn't over heat. My temprature is below 60 digrees celcius. You guys should use any software like msi after burner to display your temprature or gpu clock speeds while gaming. Have a look at it.

[_I_]

its throttling
due to temps (poor cooling),
power delivery (battery or overheating vrms, or low battery without beign plugged in),
or windows power management

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

mujtabai028 a écrit :

No Sapph what you are saying is wrong. My MX 150 used to give me 90 or 100+ fps before. Now my Mx 150 started badly underperforming. I discovered that when ever I play GTA 5 or any other game my clock speed of Nvidia Geforce MX 150 starts dropping from 1532 or 1481 Mhz to 139 Mhz. Thats the thing that is causing lag. Thats definately not normal at all. It should not happen. While gaming clock speed should not be below base clock speed. Ok , so thats what is discovered so far. Even tho my laptop doesn't over heat. My temprature is below 60 digrees celcius. You guys should use any software like msi after burner to display your temprature or gpu clock speeds while gaming. Have a look at it.

You forgot to read the dates of the forum thread. This is now TWO YEARS old since the original post. The original poster probably doesn't even play this game any more or may not even be around to respond.

[xSOSxHawkens]

Aquafawks a écrit :

mujtabai028 a écrit :

No Sapph what you are saying is wrong. My MX 150 used to give me 90 or 100+ fps before. Now my Mx 150 started badly underperforming. I discovered that when ever I play GTA 5 or any other game my clock speed of Nvidia Geforce MX 150 starts dropping from 1532 or 1481 Mhz to 139 Mhz. Thats the thing that is causing lag. Thats definately not normal at all. It should not happen. While gaming clock speed should not be below base clock speed. Ok , so thats what is discovered so far. Even tho my laptop doesn't over heat. My temprature is below 60 digrees celcius. You guys should use any software like msi after burner to display your temprature or gpu clock speeds while gaming. Have a look at it.

You forgot to read the dates of the forum thread. This is now TWO YEARS old since the original post. The original poster probably doesn't even play this game any more or may not even be around to respond.

He used search ffs.

Quit bashing on necros when they are on topic.

On topic necro > new topic clutter

But yeh. To both OP and the new post. Thermals.