Geforce GTX970m underperforming

[PEGGIE]

Hello there,

I'm unsure about the specifics but i'm quite certain that my specs are supposed to have little to no issue running games like Rocket League and World of Warcraft on lowest settings.

However, my FPS seems to cap at around 55-60 in both games, cpu and gpu temperatures even out around 70c and I have done clean installations on both drivers.

I outruled temperature, drivers, RAM issues, battery settings to max performance, vsyncing, faulty settings, games not running on the designated gpu instead of integrated (hd intel graphics), unparked all cpu cores, overclocked the card slightly to see if there are any changes, thermal paste, cleaned out the vents of the laptop, original adapter so no lack of voltage, running windows 7 so no xbox settings to disable.




My specs:

Operating System
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core i7 4720HQ @ 2.60GHz 53 °C
Haswell 22nm Technology
RAM
16,0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz (11-11-11-28)
Motherboard
Notebook P65_P67SE (SOCKET 0) 56 °C
Graphics
Algemeen PnP-beeldscherm (1920x1080@60Hz)
S22D300 (1920x1080@60Hz)
Intel HD Graphics 4600 (CLEVO/KAPOK Computer)
3072MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M (CLEVO/KAPOK Computer) 59 °C
ForceWare version: 344.00
SLI Disabled
Storage
111GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO M.2 120GB ATA Device (SATA (SSD)) 37 °C
Optical Drives
No optical disk drives detected
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/FkUd2wq.jpg

Benchmark results (afterburner): https://i.imgur.com/wzhE8Tk.jpg


Any advice would help/suffice, or am I simply dealing with outdated hardware here?

Much love,

Roy

[End0fDayz]

You have a 60hz screen so if v-sync is on, then it won't go above 60.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

DDU wipe all the Drivers via the Safe Mode option.
Then download and install all of the latest for:
> Intel Chipset INF
> Intel HD Graphics 4000 series
> NVIDIA Geforce Mobile Series 398.xx

Reboot after installing each one.
Then go into NVIDIA Control Panel and set the NVIDIA High Performance GPU as the Global Default and Apply.

[PEGGIE]

Originally posted by End0fDayz:

You have a 60hz screen so if v-sync is on, then it won't go above 60.

Yes, I disabled vsync and it isn't stable at 60 when enabled. It can go over 60 occasionally but rarely does.

Yes I installed an old driver to see if it changed anything, it didn't. I was on the latest Nvidia version before this one.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Still; DDU Wipe everything (Intel + AMD + NVIDIA) don't just change driver version.
Once all 3 are wiped, then reboot back into normal mode and install those 3 driver suite/packs.

[PEGGIE]

Originally posted by Bad_Motha:

DDU wipe all the Drivers via the Safe Mode option.
Then download and install all of the latest for:
> Intel Chipset INF
> Intel HD Graphics 4000 series
> NVIDIA Geforce Mobile Series 398.xx

Reboot after installing each one.
Then go into NVIDIA Control Panel and set the NVIDIA High Performance GPU as the Global Default and Apply.

Did this, even though I heard setting the global setting to Intel HD graphics and specifically setting game executables to the High Performance GPU will save the designated gpu some strain. Both options failed to give me any results. (I made sure that games run on the proper GPU)

DDU wiped everything in safe mode and looked for the latest drivers specifically.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Overall, your performance you see is about all you can ever expect.
If this is just about FPS, then I don't really see the point of this thread really.

[PEGGIE]

I've seen people running these games smoothly with the very same graphic card, settings on ultra even. I have settings set to the absolute lowest and barely get 60 fps. I get fps stutters very often.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Win7 has become garbage in relation to overall performance also after all these months of useless hotfixes; many systems I've laid hands on with Win7 in about the last year or so also saw many issues arise simply because of these ridiculous updates the OS doesn't really even need. Also there are a few other KB# Updates that may also be responsible for various system wide performance issues as well.

Overall, the FPS differences between Low vs High visual presets is not a big issue really; those will often not differ much at all, if the GPU is decent enough. As you generally will simply not gain a huge FPS boost from choosing a Low Visual Preset within most games. Best bet is always pick the Native Resolution and then the highest visual preset; and apply. Then from there, tweak the settings down slightly in various areas which can help boost performance, at very little visual losses overall, such as perhaps if a game has a very high draw distance available, turn that down some. Turn down useless needs like shadow distance and quality, as well as anti-aliasing; since gaining the visuals from anti-aliasing is much more suited for higher end GPUs typically.

If were me, I'd wipe the OS and start over.
Ensuring to block many of those useless OS updates via Windows Update that are those Monthly Hotfix variants for starters. Also ensuring you go get all latest Drivers for everything, not just your GPU. Then, disable any useless background items the system simply doesn't need, or that you don't need while Gaming.

And test the system fully using benchmarks rather than games. Games can change performance over-time depending on what they patched/updated, etc.

You also have a very small SSD, so where are your games being installed to?

Best bet with regards to NVIDIA Control Panel is making the NVIDIA GPU the global default. It's not going to generally utilize that outside of DX/OGL Games. Also many games or system specs might see performance losses when NVIDIA Shader Cache is enabled; best to just disable that.

[Sapph]

Originally posted by why:

I've seen people running these games smoothly with the very same graphic card, settings on ultra even. I have settings set to the absolute lowest and barely get 60 fps. I get fps stutters very often.

Are you sure you have compared to other GTX 970M? And not to GTX 970.
They are 2 completely different gpus.
970 is quite strong and do what you described. However, 970M is barely the same performance as GTX 960. Which can't really do that.

[PEGGIE]

Originally posted by Bad_Motha:

Win7 has become garbage in relation to overall performance also after all these months of useless hotfixes; many systems I've laid hands on with Win7 in about the last year or so also saw many issues arise simply because of these ridiculous updates the OS doesn't really even need. Also there are a few other KB# Updates that may also be responsible for various system wide performance issues as well.

Overall, the FPS differences between Low vs High visual presets is not a big issue really; those will often not differ much at all, if the GPU is decent enough. As you generally will simply not gain a huge FPS boost from choosing a Low Visual Preset within most games. Best bet is always pick the Native Resolution and then the highest visual preset; and apply. Then from there, tweak the settings down slightly in various areas which can help boost performance, at very little visual losses overall, such as perhaps if a game has a very high draw distance available, turn that down some. Turn down useless needs like shadow distance and quality, as well as anti-aliasing; since gaining the visuals from anti-aliasing is much more suited for higher end GPUs typically.

If were me, I'd wipe the OS and start over.
Ensuring to block many of those useless OS updates via Windows Update that are those Monthly Hotfix variants for starters. Also ensuring you go get all latest Drivers for everything, not just your GPU. Then, disable any useless background items the system simply doesn't need, or that you don't need while Gaming.

And test the system fully using benchmarks rather than games. Games can change performance over-time depending on what they patched/updated, etc.

You also have a very small SSD, so where are your games being installed to?

Best bet with regards to NVIDIA Control Panel is making the NVIDIA GPU the global default. It's not going to generally utilize that outside of DX/OGL Games. Also many games or system specs might see performance losses when NVIDIA Shader Cache is enabled; best to just disable that.

First of all, thank you for your elaborate response; I will indeed perform a clean OS install now. I am considering to swap to Win10. I'll then move on to install everything I got from the manufacturer with the latest drivers and check back in. I have everything installed on the SSD, I don't have any other harddisk.

I will post back with results.

Originally posted by Sapph:

Originally posted by why:

I've seen people running these games smoothly with the very same graphic card, settings on ultra even. I have settings set to the absolute lowest and barely get 60 fps. I get fps stutters very often.

Are you sure you have compared to other GTX 970M? And not to GTX 970.
They are 2 completely different gpus.
970 is quite strong and do what you described. However, 970M is barely the same performance as GTX 960. Which can't really do that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHJ7_bMNCRY
Shows maxed out settings on the same card, WoW shouldn't be an issue.
I have everything set to the absolute lowest settings, barely get 55-60 fps.
Here's another example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heVDZ5dh3jE&t=35s

[76561198848642519]

Are you sure the game is running using your GTX 970m? From your description it sounds like its running from your Intel integrated graphics instead.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

^ This

To better test this scenario; use GPU-Z app
You will be able to switch between present GPUs for Info & Monitoring.
Then view the Sensor tab while Benchmark/Game is running to actually see it being used and how.

[PEGGIE]

I am absolutely sure as I am using the GPU-Z app, it shows only the Rocket league and Wow applications running. Also if I swap and set it to intel graphics it's even worse so yeah. Also using afterburner and it shows the gpu 1 and gpu 2 usage in % and gpu 2 (integrated gpu) is on 0%.

[76561198848642519]

Run some benchmarks and post your graphics scores. That way we can see if they are much lower than they should be.

[PEGGIE]

Here are some results from userbenchmark.com

https://i.imgur.com/Q76b0cG.jpg

Here's a 2nd benchmark I ran using Heaven Benchmark 2.1 from nVidia itself:

https://i.imgur.com/wIcwHmk.jpg

These results aren't too shabby?

This is the result of absolute lowest settings in WoW running dx11 with the proper GPU assigned to the game.

https://i.imgur.com/9VSBJ7c.jpg

53 Fps, I could get similar results running the built in HD Intel Graphics...

it makes zero sense.

--

update

IN fact; if I swap to the integrated HD Intel Graphics my fps goes to about 61, it's actually HIGHER than running the GTX970m lmao

--

update 2

Did a fresh install of all drivers and OS, running latest drivers on everything now.
Nothing has changed.

It appears my Main GPU GTX970m is throttling at 55 degrees already giving an output of 45-50 FPS whereas my integrated GPU intel hd graphics give me 65 to 70 fps with the occasional drop/spike.

I am quite confused, I will apply some thermal paste soon and hope that will fix things. It almost seems like the graphic card is burned out or something. I am lost.

Setting the ingame settings to "Automatic detection of GPU" allows my game to be sortwhat stable at 55 fps, selecting either of the two GPU seperately/specifically will lower it back to 40 fps. How is this even possible? Is it splitting workload?