Poor gaming performance with lid closed.

[Drexl]

I have an  ROG GU501GM. I've dealt with this problem for a long time, and I'm finally fed up with it. When the laptop lid is closed my gaming performance absolutely tanks to an unplayable level. The reported fps is the same, but in practice is obviously isn't. Performance will immediately return to normal as soon as I lift the lid.

 

I have power settings set to do nothing when the laptop lid is closed, and I've set the NVidia GPU to the preferred processor, even going so far as to specifically white-list games to only use the discreet GPU. None of this has had an effect. I also can't find any relevant settings in UEFI. In fact, there are hardly any settings to change which is quite frustrating.

 

Does anyone have an idea what might be causing this?

[Spakes]

Can you check what frequencies does CPU and GPU run at when lid is closed and when it is open?

[PokeCatz]

So at least for my laptops, they seem to intake a lot of their air from through the keyboard. I would use MSI afterburner or similar to log the temperatures and monitor thermal throttling. 

[Drexl]

22 minutes ago, PokeCatz said:

So at least for my laptops, they seem to intake a lot of their air from through the keyboard. I would use MSI afterburner or similar to log the temperatures and monitor thermal throttling. 

GPU temp remains exactly the same regardless.

 

22 minutes ago, Spakes said:

Can you check what frequencies does CPU and GPU run at when lid is closed and when it is open?

CPU clock speed starts jumping all over the place once the lid closes. GPU is not effected in any way. The temps are higher on the CPU when the lid is open, because it's actually performing the way it's supposed to and running my game. When it is closed and the frequencies start jumping to below 1ghz and 3.8 then it gets cooler obviously.

 

Quote

laptop is probably taking in cool air from around the keyboard or hinge. By closing the lid you are limiting airflow to the laptop which is making it thermal throttle.

I know you posted before my replies to the above, but just for completion sake, it's definitely not throttling with the lid closed. Temps remain the same across the board.

 

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Strangely enough, one of the times of alt-tabbing in and out of the game multiple times to check monitors it actually worked smoothly with the lid closed. Only once though.

Edited January 24, 2020 by Drexl
Grammar, additional information.

[Drexl]

New discovery: Based on something I read on another forum for a different laptop I decided to restart windows with the lid closed such that the system boots with only the external display activated. Everything works fine. I even very carefully lifted the lid slightly to make sure the primary display was in fact turned off as this doesn't trigger a change, and it is indeed turned off. Once I lift the lid and close it again the problem returns.

[Spakes]

6 hours ago, Drexl said:

New discovery: Based on something I read on another forum for a different laptop I decided to restart windows with the lid closed such that the system boots with only the external display activated. Everything works fine. I even very carefully lifted the lid slightly to make sure the primary display was in fact turned off as this doesn't trigger a change, and it is indeed turned off. Once I lift the lid and close it again the problem returns.

That's a nice catch, but it's still weird that CPU clock decides to jump all over the place for no real reason. My bet is on "OS bug".