Performance issue with Gigabyte Aero 15X

[llIllIIIIIlI]

So the story is quite long.

 

I got my Aero 15X a few days ago from my local retailer, the box came perfectly without any sign of opening, however, it came with Windows 10 Home installed, I found this stupid so upgraded it to Windows 10 Pro for Workstations with a legit key I bought and an image file directly from Microsoft. The laptop's hardware is not changed, but even with GTX1070 Max-Q and i7-8750H I am only getting below 30 FPS in all the games, the performance in graphics intense software is poor as well, the only game I can run smoothly is Minecraft for Windows 10 (LOL and WTF?).

I tried to re-install the system but it did not help, I also did a stress test with Intel XTU and surprisingly found that the processor cannot go over 2.68GHz which is way lower than it is capable of, it was running at 70°C and 20W which means it was not thermal throttling or power limit throttling.

In addition, all the drivers are up-to-date and no anti-virus software is installed, I have checked things like power plan and set the prefered GPU to GTX1070 but none of these helped. The computer can manage files and browse internet normally, I cannot feel any lag while doing these tasks.

Could the reason be the single channel memory? I am planning to upgrade to dual channel but I don't want to touch the hardware before the problem is confirmed.

 

Thanks a lot for the attention, please contact me if you know the possible solution for this case.

By the way, I have attached the dxdiag file down below, hope it can help.

DxDiag.txt

 

Edit:

Just found that the laptop also lags really a lot while Task Manager is running (WTF?).

Edited June 20, 2018 by Root1999

[pcguy0000]

Have you properly configured your laptop to use your dedicated gpu?
 

If not, go to nvidia control panel, 3D settings and click on program settings and then add your program, and tell it to use the 1070 max q.

[TLCH723]

Using the smart manager, set the profile to high performance and the fan to gaming

[llIllIIIIIlI]

5 hours ago, pcguy0000 said:

Have you properly configured your laptop to use your dedicated gpu?
 

If not, go to nvidia control panel, 3D settings and click on program settings and then add your program, and tell it to use the 1070 max q.

Yes I have done that, but the performance is still the same after I changed this.

[genexis_x]

10 hours ago, Root1999 said:

it was running at 70°C and 20W which means it was not thermal throttling or power limit throttling

It could be firmware throttling

 

Is the laptop plugged in? Have you updated BIOS? Try CPU and GPU undervolting too

[llIllIIIIIlI]

27 minutes ago, ZM Fong said:

It could be firmware throttling

 

Is the laptop plugged in? Have you updated BIOS? Try CPU and GPU undervolting too

I used gaming laptops before and therefore I have a habit of using the laptop while plugged in as much as possible.

I have updated the BIOS firmware to V6, which is the latest one I can get from Gigabyte, the CPU is -0.16 undervolted and has no issue running at that voltage.

[genexis_x]

15 minutes ago, Root1999 said:

-0.16 undervolted

Cache or core voltage? sometimes it will not boost if the core voltage is undervolted too low

[TLCH723]

Did you change the profile in the smart manager?

[llIllIIIIIlI]

5 hours ago, TLCH723 said:

Did you change the profile in the smart manager?

Sorry for the late reply.

Yes, I tried to set everything to max performance as much as I can but it just doesn't want to perform well.

[llIllIIIIIlI]

So I have sent a email to Gigabyte asking for help, I will keep this post updated in case if anyone has similar issues.

[llIllIIIIIlI]

So after two months of research and testing, I came out with this conclusion:

 

The laptop's hardware is running properly for sure, this can be told from:

1. Games like StarCraft 2, Overwatch, GMod, Sniper Elite 4 run flawlessly, they use different engines like Havok, Source etc. but none of them is Unity;

2. Adobe Premiere Pro renders videos perfectly;

 

Then I noticed all the games with performance issues are build with Unity Engine, for example, Endless Space 2, The Long Dark, Poly Bridge, Layers of Fear, ShellShock Live;

The detailed problems while running these games are:

1. They all run with a frame rate below 60FPS, some are even lower;

2. No matter what graphics settings and resolutions I use, they still perform poorly;

 

The following methods are tried but none of them solved the issue:

1. Updating both the Nvidia and Intel graphics driver;

2. Updating BIOS and chipset driver;

3. Disabling functions like power saving;

4. Turning off VSync (the display on this laptop is 4K@60Hz, even if VSync is on, FPS still should not be capped at 30 or lower);

5. Running the games in windowed mode;

 

I used "games with Unity low FPS" as the keyword to search on Google, and found this video:

By adding -force-opengl, it fixed my issue with Endless Space 2 but other games refuse to lunch or having trouble display items correctly, Ploy Bridge displays a pink screen by using this command line, however, the FPS showed are around 160, which at least means the game is not struggling with FPS anymore.

 

Now I guess if the games run correctly with OpenGL, maybe it's Unity does not like DirectX very much, but I need more testing to confirm this theory.

I will keep looking on the internet, your suggestions will be much appreciated.

[Ragsan]

You're not alone, I have the "same" issue, I cant get over 20/24 fps in Games no matter how low i Set the Graphic Settings. 

[Fizzik Graves]

I have the same issues... Following some of the recommendations above, I have decent performance in game  (though I'm still having some issues), but has anyone figured out the task manager issue? I use task manager quite a bit to monitor some software I use and the lagging is killing me.

[ZiaMan24]

You just have to turn off the battery saving feature in Nvidia Geforce Experience. It caps fps to 30 on battery power.

 

[2bitmarksman]

Your CPU needs more watts. On battery wattage is capped at 20 watts. When plugged in you can increase wattage limit go 60 or so and be able to hit 3.9Ghz on all cores through Intel XTU or ThrottleStop.

[genexis_x]

8 hours ago, 2bitmarksman said:

able to hit 3.9Ghz on all cores through Intel XTU or ThrottleStop.

But thermal throttled

[Chompy0067]

And now? What's new? 

[SpaceHunter]

Hello mate,

It seems i met the same problem recently.

Especially when I am playing csgo and LOL

My aero some times shows my bluescreen error message like "DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE", doest this happen to you from time to time also?

 

The thing is I have sent my laptop back to repair last december because of this, they said they have changed my faulty motherboard, but it keeps happening in a lower frequency...