system process keeps dedicated GPU from turning off

[poljpocket]

Hi forum,

 

maybe this is the wrong category, but I have a problem, which has been bugging me for quite some time now. I have a MSI GS43VR 7RE Laptop (7700HQ, GTX 1060), which I wouldn't trade in for anything else at the moment. Warranty just ran out, I have never ever had any problems with it. Apart from a software annoyance ever since the April Windows update. I do not use any bloat from MSI on this machine (no Dragon Center or things like that). The problem is with NVIDIA Optimus and Windows system processes. Bear with me, I have done a lot of research which I want to supply here too for everyone else.

 

I will state the problem first:

Optimus and Windows 10 seem to work quite well since Windows has it's own "run this program on this GPU" functionality. There are some rough edges though. My main concern is battery life, AND I use external displays at home (keep this in mind for later). Some of my scenarios throw the igpu/dgpu waggon over and the dgpu just keeps running and draining battery. For me, this has HUGE battery life consequences. See those ThrottleStop screenshots:

 

GPU inactive:

 

GPU active:

 

In terms of battery life, this means if I do not notice the "problem", I get 1.5-2 hours of battery when using Word/Chrome on the go. On the other hand, I get 5-7 hours for the same scenario without the "problem".

 

Now, for the question and the research:

 

Note: The external display thing is central since on this machine, the miniDP and HDMI outputs are connected to the dgpu, whereas the internal display and the TB3 port connect to the igpu. This would be the normal case, I assume.

 

First, if you have external displays connected and you allow UWP background apps, there is absolutely no hope. Windows will, after you disconnected the external display, never turn the dgpu off again unless you restart without any external displays connected. This is because there are at least 5 background apps running on the dgpu at all times (Skype, Netflix, Search, Cortana, ...). I think, starting Windows with a display connected lets the system think it's a desktop and turn off the battery saving measures. So far so good, I can manage to never start my laptop from power off or hibernate with an external display connected. Turning off background apps was also an easy fix, I even completely removed these annoying UWP apps outright.

 

Nevertheless, sometimes (from my experience after either long sessions with external displays or the internal display being off for some time [screen sleep or external display only mode]) the system falls back into this "desktop" mode again and without a restart, the dgpu never shuts off after disconnecting the display even though the activity indicator shows no apps running. Looking into Task Manager, I can see that the "System" process uses the dgpu for about half a second copying something ("GPU1 - copy" using 1% of the gpu) just about whenever the dgpu tries to shut off (I can see a red flicker on the power button which is red when the gpu is off and orange when it's on).

 

So, TL:DR I can keep my system in check as long as: I never start up with external displays connected and the internal display never goes to sleep when external displays are connected. This is not the end of the story as Windows seems to be inconsistent and I regularly have to reboot after I go mobile.

 

Has anyone sort of similar or different experiences concerning this? I would love to exchange more stuff with you as I want to fix this to get a literally perfectly running system.

 

Thanks for your time,

Julian

[xAcid9]

Can you confirm those processes actually using dGPU? AFAIK, package power is only on CPU. 

 

I don't know if newer Optimus laptop changed how display is connected but on the old one they all connected thru iGPU.

[poljpocket]

Sort of, yes. The instant the indicator light switches from yellow to red (e.g. dGPU on --> off), the power stated right there on the ThrottleStop panel goes down to 3-5W from 12-15W.

[xAcid9]

On 4/20/2019 at 11:18 PM, poljpocket said:

Sort of, yes. The instant the indicator light switches from yellow to red (e.g. dGPU on --> off), the power stated right there on the ThrottleStop panel goes down to 3-5W from 12-15W.

You should be able to force all process to use iGPU and only whitelisted process to use dGPU in Nvidia CP no?