Jump to content

Framerate routinely dropping and stuttering while gaming

EmberSA
 Share
Go to solution Solved by Mark Kaine,
9 minutes ago, EmberSA said:

Thanks for the great suggestion! However, I would really like to figure out WHY the laptop has suddenly started throttling when I've been using it under exactly the same conditions for over a year with no issues.

well that *is* the most likely reason... the paste doesn't last forever,  and cleaning the vents etc is probably also needed.  

Posted

A few weeks ago my laptop started to get frame stutters while I am gaming. My FPS will be totally fine (around 60 fps) and then every few minutes will suddenly stutter and drop to 1 - 3 fps and then will go back to 60 fps.  This has never happened before and is now happening every few minutes on titles that I have spent hundreds of hours playing without a problem on.

My laptop is a Asus Vivobook Pro 14X OLED with the following specs:

- Intel i5-11300H

- 16 GB RAM

- Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050

- Windows 11 64bit 22h2

 

I have tried all the obvious fixes including:

- Restarting the laptop

- Updating drivers

- Setting game graphics to minimal

 

None of the above have solved the issue.

I could really use some advice on this one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
6 minutes ago, EmberSA said:

A few weeks ago my laptop started to get frame stutters while I am gaming. My FPS will be totally fine (around 60 fps) and then every few minutes will suddenly stutter and drop to 1 - 3 fps and then will go back to 60 fps.  This has never happened before and is now happening every few minutes on titles that I have spent hundreds of hours playing without a problem on.

My laptop is a Asus Vivobook Pro 14X OLED with the following specs:

- Intel i5-11300H

- 16 GB RAM

- Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050

 

I have tried all the obvious fixes including:

- Restarting the laptop

- Updating drivers

- Setting game graphics to minimal

 

None of the above have solved the issue.

I could really use some advice on this one.

To diagnose this issue we really need to see what your PC is doing when it starts stuttering.

 

Can you tell us what usage % and temps your CPU and GPU reach. Also, it would be useful to know how much of your RAM, VRAM, and storage space is in use.

I might be experienced, but I'm human and I do make mistakes. Expand for common PC building advice, a short bio and a list of my components and other tech. I edit my messages after sending them alot, please refresh before posting your reply. Please try to be clear and specific, you'll get a better answer. Please remember to mark solutions once you have the information you need.

 

Common build advice: 1) Buy the cheapest (well reviewed) motherboard that has the features you need. Paying more typically only gets you features you won’t use. 2) only get as much RAM as you need, getting more won’t (typically) make your PC faster. 3) While I recommend getting an NVMe drive, you don’t need to splurge for an expensive drive with DRam cache, DRamless drives are fine for gamers. 4) paying for looks is fine, just don’t break the bank. 5) Tower coolers are usually good enough, unless you go top tier Intel or plan on OCing. 6) OCing is a dead meme, you probably shouldn’t bother. 7) "Bottlenecks" rarely matter and "Future-proofing" is a myth. 8) AIOs don't noticably improve performance past 240mm.

 

useful websites: https://www.productchart.com - helps compare monitors, https://uk.pcpartpicker.com - makes designing a PC easier.

 

He/Him

 

I'm a PhD student working in the fields of reinforcement learning and traffic control. PCs are one of my hobbies and I've built many PCs and performed upgrades on a few laptops (for myself, friends and family). My personal computers include 3 windows (10/11) machines and a TrueNAS server (and I'm looking to move to dual booting Linux Mint on my main machine in future). While I believe I have an decent amount of experience in spec’ing, building and troubleshooting computers, keep in mind I'm not an expert or a professional and I make mistakes.

 

Favourite Games of all time: World of Tanks, Runescape, Subnautica, Metroid (Fusion and Dread), Spyro: Year of the Dragon (Original and Reignited Trilogy), Crash Bash, Mario Kart Wii

 

Main PC: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/NByp3C

 

Secondary PC: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/cc9K7P

 

TrueNAS Server: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/m37w3C

 

Laptop: 13.4" ASUS GZ301ZE ROG Flow Z13, WUXGA 120Hz, i9 12900H, 16GB DDR5, 1TB NVMe SSD, 4GB RTX 3050 Ti, TB4, Win11 Home, Used with: 2*ThinkPad Universal Thunderbolt 4 Dock, Logitech G603, Logitech G502 Hero, Logitech K120, Logitech G915 TKL, Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2, Logitech G PRO X Gaming-Headset (with Blue Icepop in Black), {specs to be updated: two monitors}

 

Other: LTT Screwdriver, LTT Stubby Screwdriver, IFIXIT Pro Tech Toolkit, Playstation 1 SCPH-102, Playstation 2 SCPH-30003, Gameboy Micro Silver OXY-001, Nintendo Wii U WUP-001(03), Playstation 4 CUH-1116A, Nintendo Switch OLED HEG-001, Yamaha RX-A4A Black AV Receiver, Monitor Audio Radius (4*90s, 1*200s, 2*270s, 1*380s), TP-Link TL-SG105-M2, Netgear GS308, IPhone 14 Pro Max 128GB Space Black, Secretlab TITAN Evo (Black SoftWeave Plus Fabric), 2*CyberPower BR1200ELCD-UK BRICs Series, Samsung 40" ES6800 Series 6 SMART 3D FHD LED TV, UGREEN USB 3.2 Gen 2 10Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure, SABRENT 3.5" SATA drive docking station

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author
6 minutes ago, will0hlep said:

To diagnose this issue we really need to see what your PC is doing when it starts stuttering.

 

Can you tell us what usage % and temps your CPU and GPU reach. Also, it would be useful to know how much of your RAM, VRAM, and storage space is in use.

Thanks for the response!
 

CPU usage is around 75%

GPU usage around 85%

Temperature (measured at GPU) approximately 84°C
RAM usage sits at 12 GB

VRAM usage at 2 GB

SSD at about 1% utilization (tested on Valheim, which is not a texture heavy game)

 

I've noticed that when the stuttering occurs, both the CPU and GPU usage drop significantly (to around 20 - 30%). Temperature also drops to 75°C. This makes me think that the laptop is thermal throttling but I'm not sure what would have suddenly caused it to start doing that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author
1 minute ago, Chapunna said:

Replace thermal paste and buy a laptop cooling stand, it will fix your issue i think.

Thanks for the great suggestion! However, I would really like to figure out WHY the laptop has suddenly started throttling when I've been using it under exactly the same conditions for over a year with no issues.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
8 minutes ago, EmberSA said:

Thanks for the great suggestion! However, I would really like to figure out WHY the laptop has suddenly started throttling when I've been using it under exactly the same conditions for over a year with no issues.

Try playing another game, maybe that game are you playing is resource hungry, and it loads your cpu so much and it throttles, also try turning on vsync 60fps and see if something changes

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Solution
9 minutes ago, EmberSA said:

Thanks for the great suggestion! However, I would really like to figure out WHY the laptop has suddenly started throttling when I've been using it under exactly the same conditions for over a year with no issues.

well that *is* the most likely reason... the paste doesn't last forever,  and cleaning the vents etc is probably also needed.  

The direction tells you... the direction. 

-Scott Manley, 2021

 

Softwares used:

Corsair Link (Anime Edition) 

MSI Afterburner 

OpenRGB

Lively Wallpaper 

OBS Studio

Shutter Encoder

Avidemux

FSResizer

Audacity 

VLC

WMP

GIMP

HWiNFO64

Paint

3D Paint

GitHub Desktop 

Superposition 

Prime95

Aida64

GPUZ

CPUZ

Generic Logviewer

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
1 hour ago, EmberSA said:

obvious fixes

Try running ThrottleStop 9.6 

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-throttlestop/

 

Post screenshots of the FIVR and TPL windows. Turn on the Log File option and play a game for 15 minutes. Attach the log file to your next post. This will help answer why?

 

Check the Nvidia GPU box in the Options window before you start logging data. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author
On 1/23/2024 at 6:52 PM, unclewebb said:

Try running ThrottleStop 9.6 

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-throttlestop/

 

Post screenshots of the FIVR and TPL windows. Turn on the Log File option and play a game for 15 minutes. Attach the log file to your next post. This will help answer why?

 

Check the Nvidia GPU box in the Options window before you start logging data. 

Apologies for taking so long to reply to this, I haven't had much of a chance to game over the last few days. Here are the log file and screenshots from ThrottleStop.

TPL.png

FIVR.png

2024-01-28.txt

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author
On 1/23/2024 at 6:19 PM, Mark Kaine said:

well that *is* the most likely reason... the paste doesn't last forever,  and cleaning the vents etc is probably also needed.  

So, I ended up opening up my laptop and lo and behold the dust within! Basically, I cleaned the dust out and cleaned the fans, and there are no more frame stutters. Thanks everyone for the help.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing Troubleshooting

×