GPU Usage dropping, help would be kindly appreciated!

[Light888]

I've been having this problem with my AMD GPU to which I've been trying to find a solution to all over the internet to no avail. I know this is a long read but I would be grateful if you have the time to read this to the end and maybe offer some solutions.

 

So right off the bat, I have an old laptop which is 5 years old. Please don't read this and instantly start typing a reply to just upgrade my laptop because I would love to and am saving up to get a good upgrade eventually but I have to make the best out of my current one for now.

 

SPECS:

System Model: HP ProBook 450 G3

BIOS: N78 Ver. 01.05 (type: UEFI)

Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (10.0, Build 19042) (19041.vb_release.191206-1406)

GPU: Hybrid of Intel(R) HD Graphics 520 and AMD Radeon R7 M340

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6500U CPU @ 2.50GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.6GHz

RAM: 8GB

PSU: 65W

 

The AMD GPU is the one with the problem. I could upload my DxDiag or give any other information necessary if needed.

 

Anyways, for the amount of time I've had this laptop I have not run into any issues with it when playing games which my AMD GPU can handle. I play this one game a lot: Rocket League. My GPU is good enough to run the game at 50-ish fps on low settings and has done so since I started playing the game in 2016.

 

A few weeks ago though someone carelessly handled my laptop and it fell down from a distance big enough to crack the screen. I had it sent to be fixed and took the opportunity to have it serviced as well since I hadn't had the fan cleaned in a while. I had the HDD changed as well and with that came some loss of data unfortunately so I had to reinstall the drivers. The laptop essentially came back "brand new."

 

So when I ran Rocket League it ran fine at the usual consistent 50ish fps but about 4 mins into a match I had severe fps drops down to 15-20 fps from 55 fps to the point where even the audio was lagging and crackling in my earphones. It was unplayable. Then it returned to normal after about 15-20 secs before it started happening again after a min or 30 secs. After every consecutive match I played though, the fps drops seemed to get more frequent. I tried another game Far Cry 4 and again, normal fps then massive fps drops.

 

With AMD Radeon Software's metric overlay and MSI Afterburner I noticed that the GPU usage was dropping to 0 and fluctuating back up causing the fps drops as shown in the pics below.

 

Also, the GPU gets pretty hot. It's always gotten pretty hot though and it's been fine for years. It is overclocked by default I think. I have never tried messing with overclocking or underclocking it as I've never felt the need to since the games ran fine. The fan was actually clogged with dust before the laptop got dropped. Now after being serviced, the fan's clean.

 

https://imgur.com/vq7iEPn

https://imgur.com/agrm5qZ

 

The GPU memory clock also becomes static when the fps drops happen if that indicates something too.

https://imgur.com/MHC6a7g

 

The fan seems to be running fine.

https://imgur.com/p3LFN4L

 

What I've tried so far:

- Uninstall and reinstall drivers manually from the AMD website numerous times using AMD's cleanup utility

- Update windows 10, it's up to date now.

- Update BIOS

- Try older drivers

- Set Unified GPU Usage Monitoring in MSI Afterburner

- Check power options, I play on High Performance anyway

- Run a a memory diagnostics test, there were no memory problems detected

 

I'm hoping this is just a software related issue cuz I have had stuttering or fps drop problems before but not this bad and I've usually resolved them by just updating my driver. Windows updates have been notorious for me for messing with the drivers. I don't think Windows updates is the culprit this time. Could it be malware? Windows Defender has detected nothing and all the files got removed anyway when I had the laptop serviced and the hard drive changed.

 

My worst fear is that something could be wrong related with the hardware. Especially when my laptop got dropped, or it could be something related to the heat. The GPU gets pretty hot when it starts working intensively so maybe the GPU usage goes to 0 to cool down? But again, this has never been an issue before for the 5 years I've had this laptop. Not to mention my fan was very dirty before and there were no problems. Now the fan's completely clean. I've read online that the thermal paste on the GPU can dry up cuz of running at high temperatures? I hope that's not the case.

 

Sorry for such a long post but I wanted to make the situation clear. I hope someone will be able to give me a solution to this problem or any advice as I feel like I've pretty much run out of options from the ones I found after searching on the net.

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

Take the laptop apart and inspect the cooling, and reapply thermal compound.

9 minutes ago, Light888 said:

So I thought maybe the kind denizens of reddit could assist me!

ehemmm.

[Light888]

18 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

Take the laptop apart and inspect the cooling, and reapply thermal compound.

I don't trust myself to do that. I would have to send the laptop back to the guy who serviced it. I'm kinda ignorant on this so do you mind if I ask what you mean by cooling? I know the laptop takes in air from the shafts underneath and then it circulates out through the fan. What more is there to it? I was wondering if an active cooling pad might be of some help? 

 

Thermal compound meaning the thermal paste on the gpu? Isn't that difficult to do on a laptop's gpu? I've also heard that there could be a "gap" somewhere which might be preventing the heat of the gpu from spreading whatever that means...

18 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

ehemmm.

You never saw anything 

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

1 minute ago, Light888 said:

I don't trust myself to do that.

Then you'll need to pay a professional to do it.

2 minutes ago, Light888 said:

I'm kinda ignorant on this so do you mind if I ask what you mean by cooling?

Inspect the cold plates, heat pipes, fins, and fans for damage. Check for proper thermal pad and thermal compound contact.

 

3 minutes ago, Light888 said:

I was wondering if an active cooling pad might be of some help? 

No, if this is a thermal issue, a cooling pad will not help. Most likely the drop cracked the aging thermal compound, and so you only have partial cooling of your GPU/CPU. The compound can be easily replaced if this is the case, and so it is the first thing, aside from an inspection, that you should try next.

5 minutes ago, Light888 said:

Isn't that difficult to do on a laptop's gpu?

It depends on the design of the laptop. It's more difficult than doing the same on a desktop, but overall not that difficult. As I've said, it's the next easiest thing to try, and so it is the first thing you should do next.

 

6 minutes ago, Light888 said:

I've also heard that there could be a "gap"

Yup.

[Light888]

9 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

Then you'll need to pay a professional to do it.

21 minutes ago, Light888 said:

Yeah that's what I'll have to do, but if it means fixing the issue then I am fine with it.

9 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

Inspect the cold plates, heat pipes, fins, and fans for damage. Check for proper thermal pad and thermal compound contact.

 

I'll keep all this in mind when I talk to the professional I send the laptop to.

 

15 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

No, if this is a thermal issue, a cooling pad will not help. Most likely the drop cracked the aging thermal compound, and so you only have partial cooling of your GPU/CPU. The compound can be easily replaced if this is the case, and so it is the first thing, aside from an inspection, that you should try next.

 

This would make sense, the drop was quite large. I'm honestly glad I still have my laptop in one piece and still working. Plus my AMD gpu has been running at high temps for 5 years now pretty much. The thermal compound had to be pretty beat up. Still I was hoping this was a software issue rather than a hardware issue like this...but I guess there's no running from it.

24 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

It depends on the design of the laptop. It's more difficult than doing the same on a desktop, but overall not that difficult. As I've said, it's the next easiest thing to try, and so it is the first thing you should do next.

Alright, I will do this next then. It does relieve to me hear though that the compound can be easily replaced. I was afraid this issue might be unsolvable apart from just getting a new laptop.

 

Thank you! You've helped me more than anyone on reddit has done so far  

[mikeyw64]

If you're having to keep paying a professional to repair it you might want to consider at which point does it become economically more viable to treat yourself to a new laptop/PC

[Light888]

1 hour ago, mikeyw64 said:

If you're having to keep paying a professional to repair it you might want to consider at which point does it become economically more viable to treat yourself to a new laptop/PC

Well it's a professional I know so hopefully it won't cost too much.