FPS Drops to 14-18 fps after few minutes every time | Low CPU Usage and 100% GPU Usage

[LogicalThinker]

Hi Techies,

 

I'm facing huge FPS Drop after few minutes every time. It will work normally with 45-55 FPS only after restarting the game. 

 

FPS Drops to exact 18 fps after few minutes every time on Cyberpunk 2077 and 14 fps on Grand Theft Auto V.

 

Used DDU to clean install Display Driver as well. GPU Temps were 71C and 66C for CP 2077 and GTA V resp. Not sure about CPU. But the issue starts too early.

 

Attached FPS Drop and settings screenshots. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

 

My Specs:

Laptop: Alienware M15 R3

Display: 3840 x 2160, 60 Hz

CPU: Intel Core i7-10750H

RAM: 16GB,  2667 Mhz

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070

 

[DarthBudgie]

Is your laptop plugged in while this happens

[LogicalThinker]

1 minute ago, DarthBudgie said:

Is your laptop plugged in while this happens

yes always

[LogicalThinker]

can anyone help me out please

[Mark Kaine]

9 minutes ago, LogicalThinker said:

can anyone help me out please

your gpu is far too weak for cyberpunk at 4k. assuming thats what you're playing at from the sparse info you gave. 

[LogicalThinker]

1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

your gpu is far too weak for cyberpunk at 4k. assuming thats what you're playing at from the sparse info you gave. 

I'm facing this issue in GTA V as well. Screenshots are attached. Please check that.

 

I usually get 45-55 fps in both of these games at 4k. But sometime in this year.. it seems like some bad GeForce drivers got updated after that I'm facing fps drops as mentioned above and clean installed both older version and newer version using DDU as well. But issue is still there.

 

As mentioned, when I restart the game again it gives 45-55 fps for few minutes and then drops to 14-18 fps.

 

Even Cyberpunk is running on DLSS performance mode as well.

 

I never had this issue in gta v until I checked when cyberpunk started having this issue. Even cyberpunk was working fine for first few weeks or months.

 

One doubt is on driver, not sure what else is the cause.

[Mark Kaine]

well, run 3DMark  firestrike benchmark,  free demo on Steam. post link to the results here.

 

 

 

 

[CPT_Ross]

Double check your storage space, Wasn't it like 20% free for SSDs to keep speed up?
And it would likely help to have a chart for CPU/GPU temps usage and power limits.

[LogicalThinker]

15 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

well, run 3DMark  firestrike benchmark,  free demo on Steam. post link to the results here.

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.3dmark.com/fs/26745356

 

13 hours ago, CPT_Ross said:

Double check your storage space, Wasn't it like 20% free for SSDs to keep speed up?
And it would likely help to have a chart for CPU/GPU temps usage and power limits.

 

I have two partition, total 57% free space, in that C drive has 18% free space. 

 

 

[Mister Woof]

1 hour ago, LogicalThinker said:

 

https://www.3dmark.com/fs/26745356

 

 

I have two partition, total 57% free space, in that C drive has 18% free space. 

 

 

Based on this your cpu keeps bouncing off of tjmax and is likely throttling. It's definitely throttling when it gets to the physics test.

 

Clean out the vents of your laptop

[Mark Kaine]

so the laptop does perform worse than it should...  youre losing about 20fps or so compared to number #100...  

 

to me looks like something wrong with the gpu, I'll look closer into it later, but i do think it probably needs a *good* cleaning including fresh thermal paste for gpu and cpu, but also clean out the vents etc...

 

33 minutes ago, Mister Woof said:

Based on this your cpu keeps bouncing off of tjmax and is likely throttling. It's definitely throttling when it gets to the physics test.

 

Clean out the vents of your laptop

agreed, but hes definitely not getting the fps he should so I'm thinking gpu, the physics score isnt great either though.  

 

 

 

[LogicalThinker]

 

9 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

so the laptop does perform worse than it should...  youre losing about 20fps or so compared to number #100...  

 

to me looks like something wrong with the gpu, I'll look closer into it later, but i do think it probably needs a *good* cleaning including fresh thermal paste for gpu and cpu, but alzo clean out the vents etc...

 

agreed, but hes definitely not getting the fps he should so I'm thinking gpu, the physics score isnt great either though.  

 

 

 

36 minutes ago, Mister Woof said:

Based on this your cpu keeps bouncing off of tjmax and is likely throttling. It's definitely throttling when it gets to the physics test.

 

Clean out the vents of your laptop

 

To be clear, I bought the laptop just one year ago. I keep my workplace and laptop clean. and around 3-4 days back I opened my laptop to install the second drive and it looked pretty clean.

[Mark Kaine]

2 minutes ago, LogicalThinker said:

 

 

 

To be clear, I bought the laptop just one year ago. I keep my laptop clean. and around 3-4 days back I opened my laptop to install the second drive and it looked pretty clean.

ok, well something is definitely off... temps seem to be ok, and frequencies dont drop much,  yet the fps seem to tank quickly and not recover, at least we have something to go off of now... 

 

Eh, actually, you could run a userbenchmark test too, im curious about hard-drives etc, i mean maybe it finds something.

[Mister Woof]

probably some kind of power limit throttling or something

[LogicalThinker]

14 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

ok, well something is definitely off... temps seem to be ok, and frequencies dont drop much,  yet the fps seem to tank quickly and not recover, at least we have something to go off of now... 

 

Eh, actually, you could run a userbenchmark test too, im curious about hard-drives etc, i mean maybe it finds something.

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/48490529

 

5 minutes ago, Mister Woof said:

probably some kind of power limit throttling or something

As it is a Alienware Laptop. It has Alienware Command Center where I select Thermal profile as Performance and Power profile as Ultimate performance while gaming.

[Mark Kaine]

20 minutes ago, LogicalThinker said:

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/48490529

 

it says u have no gpu. u need to turn off any overlays u might have, afterburner etc

[Mark Kaine]

24 minutes ago, Mister Woof said:

probably some kind of power limit throttling or something

i mean thats what im thinking,  but there's no real drops visible, except for fps maybe,  for physics score its normal it won't boost as high.

 

are we even sure this laptop can run cyberpunk at "high'ish" settings at *4k* at 55fps... i have my doubts,  but then again,  it is a bit underperforming for sure, around 12% ...

[Mister Woof]

9 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

i mean thats what im thinking,  but there's no real drops visible, except for fps maybe,  for physics score its normal it won't boost as high.

 

are we even sure this laptop can run cyberpunk at "high'ish" settings at *4k* at 55fps... i have my doubts,  but then again,  it is a bit underperforming for sure, around 12% ...

4k is def. a tall order, but i don't think 14fps is right either on GTA 5

[Mister Woof]

51 minutes ago, LogicalThinker said:

 

 

 

To be clear, I bought the laptop just one year ago. I keep my workplace and laptop clean. and around 3-4 days back I opened my laptop to install the second drive and it looked pretty clean.

Was it working fine prior to opening the laptop to install the drive?

[LogicalThinker]

30 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

i mean thats what im thinking,  but there's no real drops visible, except for fps maybe,  for physics score its normal it won't boost as high.

 

are we even sure this laptop can run cyberpunk at "high'ish" settings at *4k* at 55fps... i have my doubts,  but then again,  it is a bit underperforming for sure, around 12% ...

 

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/48491411

 

I uninstalled MSI After Burner (It was not running) and restarted the system. we can see some improvements in results from 58th to 63th percentile. But still GPU is missing in benchmark. not sure why.

 

19 hours ago, LogicalThinker said:

Even Cyberpunk is running on DLSS performance mode as well.

 

I never had this issue in gta v until I checked when cyberpunk started having this issue. Even cyberpunk was working fine for first few weeks or months.

 

Yes, My laptop can get around 45-55 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 at 4k.

 

 

19 minutes ago, Mister Woof said:

Was it working fine prior to opening the laptop to install the drive?

No. I'm facing this fps drop issue from quite long time. and I haven't opened my laptop before.

 

 

[Mark Kaine]

20 minutes ago, Mister Woof said:

4k is def. a tall order, but i don't think 14fps is right either on GTA 5

so i checked,  gtav desktop 2070 high settings (whatever that means) 41 fps, the 2070 mobile is 35% slower, which brings us to 26 fps, plus the ~12% that op's is slower than the top performing ones... i do kinda think theyre asking too much from this hardware,  a mobile 2070 is not a 4k card, 1440p maybe...

 

i suppose some settings shenanigans,  i mean maybe set everything to low and it would perform better at 4k... 

 

 

5 minutes ago, LogicalThinker said:

uninstalled MSI After Burner (It was not running) and restarted the system. we can see some improvements in results from 58th to 63th percentile. But still GPU is missing in benchmark. not sure why.

weird! i dont understand that either... in firestrike the results weren't that bad, i mean only 12% lower than the best... not great but still ok.

 

7 minutes ago, LogicalThinker said:

Yes, My laptop can get around 45-55 fps in Cyberpunk 2077.

i mean, it probably can, but at high'ish settings 4k? that is miraculous... for real you could try 4k , everything low and see if it improves,  because it definitely should,  looks like your gpu bound heavily  -- just something you can test.

 

1 hour ago, LogicalThinker said:

is a Alienware Laptop

not trying to be mean,  but are you aware that is part of the problem? alienware is specifically designed for degradation,  they want you to buy the next one as fast as possible... very low component quality (probably also paste etc) its very well known.

 

1 hour ago, LogicalThinker said:

It has Alienware Command Center

Another possible issue,  try to uninstall this, reboot and see if anything changes.

 

 

[LogicalThinker]

12 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

so i checked,  gtav desktop 2070 high settings (whatever that means) 41 fps, the 2070 mobile is 35% slower, which brings us to 26 fps, plus the ~12% that op's is slower than the top performing ones... i do kinda think theyre asking too much from this hardware,  a mobile 2070 is not a 4k card, 1440p maybe...

 

i suppose some settings shenanigans,  i mean maybe set everything to low and it would perform better at 4k... 

It's not actually pre-defined high settings. I have a custom settings, which helped my system to achieve that much fps, mainly the DLSS performance mode.  Otherwise, If I remember, I was getting around 30-40 fps.

 

Note: I have played the Cyberpunk for almost first 2-3 months of the release. I had no issue. Even I played for sometime after that without issue. that's why doubt on drivers. that too even tried clean install with DDU. Alienware Command Center might not be the problem

 

If I remember correctly, when this issue started, I had faced this huge fps drop issue even when the resolution is set to 1080p. Let me check once again.

 

Update: Yes, Even 1080p has a fps drop issue from 90-100+ fps to 48 fps.

 

 

and the real thing is why GTA V is acting same.. sudden huge fps drop after few mins that too 14 fps and never come back until I restart the game. isn't it too low fps for my specs.

 

Note: This issue happens in just 5 mins or max 10-15 mins.

 

@Mark Kaine @Mister Woof please check my points above. If this can give you some idea on the scenario.

[Mister Woof]

I think you should wipe windows and reinstall straight from a fresh windows USB image, and omit any Alienware software

[Mark Kaine]

On 12/7/2021 at 6:18 AM, Mister Woof said:

I think you should wipe windows and reinstall straight from a fresh windows USB image, and omit any Alienware software

yup!!!  

[LogicalThinker]

On 12/7/2021 at 10:48 AM, Mister Woof said:

I think you should wipe windows and reinstall straight from a fresh windows USB image, and omit any Alienware software

I'm afraid, reinstalling all my software's and configuring them again. It is quite tedious task for my current tight schedule.  

 

Even I doubt, Whether It will get resolved, as we are not sure what is causing this issue.