DPC latencies? Should I worry?

[Str3lok]

I just bought new laptop, Lenovo Legion 5 16IRX9 (i5-13450HX, RTX4050). Whilst reading reviews for this laptop and laptops in general I stumbled upon latencymon benchmark. I never heard of it before. So I did the test myself and got bad result, it shows red warning.

https://tinypic.host/image/Untitled.3Cbkd1

I used high performance mode for the test, only browser and HWiNFO were running. Now, I really worry. I still have 2 days to return laptop and try to ask money back. Should I do it? Personally I do not notice any problem with functioning. I'm even recording guitar in DAW and still haven't noticed any problems. Audio doesn't pop, youtube plays fine without dropped frames, games play great. But researching on internet people with milder results than mine complain that their PC is unusable. What am I missing? Why I do not notice problems despite bad latencymon results? Should I worry that it'll get worse in time? I am extremely paranoid now. I paid 1050 € for this laptop and it needs to work next 5-7 years as this is tons of money for me I saved many years. I do not want to have faulty laptop.

Is latencymon really something I should take seriously or is it another snake oil? Test sometimes runs 10 minutes in green, perfectly than has 1 spike than runs good for 5 minutes than again spike. Sometimes I get spike inside 20 seconds, sometimes not for 10 minutes. No rules. Test results vary from test to test. Please advise as I still have time to file request for refund/exchange, because I do not want to spend 5-7 years with broken laptop.

Thank you all for answers!

[Rod]

You need to understand its not a hardware problem but likely software and bloat. You would likely find bad dpc latency on a lot of modern systems.


If you want good dpc latency, install windows yourself and tweak the system. I used to have a system that idled at 7us maximum and would hit 55us when gaming it never went above this because i tweaked the entire system turning off every little thing i even disabled unused usb ports.

Its not snake oil anymore than presentmon is snake oil its a read out of your systems latency and driver calls. It even gives details on the process doing it...

[Bad 💀 Motha]

OK before I read all of that.

WHY would you buy a Laptop w/ RTX 4050? Let's look at that first. It's hot garbage.

[Str3lok]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

OK before I read all of that.

WHY would you buy a Laptop w/ RTX 4050? Let's look at that first. It's hot garbage.

Why? Because it is more than powerful for what I need it for? I play occasionally and it's mostly strategy games...

@Rod In fact I did install myself and what I installed is Windows 11 LTSC which can't be more bloatware free. I didn't even bloated it myself as I do not use much software aside VLC, Firefox, Steam, Audacity and Tracktion Waveform. Some tools I use are portable, like Free Office. That's why I am not sure what optimizations I could do aside what I already did.

Still, I don't understand what issues I should be having with this bad latencies as I really can't say that something is lagging or glitching. I already watched couple of movies, listened to quite some songs, payed some games and I really can't say I noticed some odd behaviour. Battery is kinda crap, I get 4 hours, but it's gaming laptop after all. Tho I must say that red text in latencymon does freak me out. Something should be wrong, but I can't tell it right now. So many modern systems have this problem? What are they experiencing? Should I return laptop? Ask replacement? Refund? We have policy of 15 days returns if not satisfied.

There are some optimizations, but most revolve around killing all power saving features essentially turning laptop into desktop. I don't wanna battery to last even shorter than this paltry 4 hours.

[A&A]

I would ask how did you test the latencymon?
The highest DPC is caused by the Windows Driver Framework, so as long as the rest drivers are low then you will be fine.

The main tasks of the WDF are the plug and play support and power management of the devices. Such components are often set to use cpu 0 (the first P thread) by default, but with these hybrid processors and the default power plans that allows all P cores to park and may be causing this issue.

[_I_]

4050 mobile gpu is better than amd or intel igpus
but not very good for games

might as well be the battery drainer and heater in the laptop

[Str3lok]

This is the best result after 15 minutes I got today with performance mode activated and firefox browser in use only. Is it okay or should I return my laptop. Today is last day I can ask for the refund or replacement of laptop. Again, I got better result but I really do not know what should I experience with bad result when it says I may experience drop puts, clicks, pops. I pay close attention and I can't hear any dropouts, cracks and pops.

If this latency problem is an issue on so many systems wouldn't people complain and make a big fuss?

https://tinypic.host/image/Screenshot-%2814%29.3Cpfo4

[Rod]

Originally posted by Str3lok:

This is the best result after 15 minutes I got today with performance mode activated and firefox browser in use only. Is it okay or should I return my laptop. Today is last day I can ask for the refund or replacement of laptop. Again, I got better result but I really do not know what should I experience with bad result when it says I may experience drop puts, clicks, pops. I pay close attention and I can't hear any dropouts, cracks and pops.

If this latency problem is an issue on so many systems wouldn't people complain and make a big fuss?

https://tinypic.host/image/Screenshot-%2814%29.3Cpfo4

No because people are stupid and ignorant of whats under the hood. Its likely the latency is fine the audio has no pop but its just not ideal. Why? Because of the os windows sucks past windows 7 for latency. It could be the drivers or a bios setting. It could be windows settings until you go down the rabbit hole you wont know.


You dont return laptops over bad dpc latency, Ill bet you find bad dpc latency in a pre build too.

[_I_]

or that the laptops ram is poor, its impossible to find high performance laptop ram that the oems put in their laptops

its literally nothing to put in the marketing for them, but does make performance differences

[HIVEmind]

if you want speed a desktop PC is best. a laptop is light mobile and (battery) energy efficient. if you build your own PC, you get the parts you want and speed but uses more electricity.

something to mull over.