GPU usage plummeting while gaming

[0_kieran]

A few months ago I took my laptop to HP for a simple fan replacement. Since then, I've been experiencing problems related to sudden lag spikes FPS trucks which I connected to the GPU usage falling suddenly. 

 

When playing a game, after a few minutes the GPU usage might drop from 70 to 80% down to 30% or lower, causing the game to stutter and the FPS to drop dramatically for about a minute.

I've checked for any bottlenecks that might cause this, and can confirm that the device isn't thermal throttling but I can't find any other related symptoms. 

 

The weirdest part is that this only happens in certain games. (Namely it takes two and split fiction and recently started happening on sifu, regardless of the graphics settings), and the situation has been getting worse over time to the point that now my whole system freezes for a while. I've tried everything solution I've found, but the only temporary fix was slightly increasing the GPU clock speed by 100 MHz in afterburner. Yes I've reinstalled all drivers, tried a system reboot etc.

 

Would really appreciate any advice, GPU is a 1065 mobile.

 

***TLDR: Random periodic GPU usage drops make gaming/using my laptop impossible 

[The K-Man89]

You can try testing your battery or a different/new power supply. Sounds like when power demand rises it's saying "nope" so this could all be caused by a power delivery issue possibly a new battery or supply is needed or when they were replacing the fan they inadvertently did something that's interfering with power delivery. 

[0_kieran]

56 minutes ago, The K-Man89 said:

You can try testing your battery or a different/new power supply. Sounds like when power demand rises it's saying "nope" so this could all be caused by a power delivery issue possibly a new battery or supply is needed or when they were replacing the fan they inadvertently did something that's interfering with power delivery. 

Hey, thanks for the reply! Any tips on how to do this? I'm kinda new to troubleshooting.

[The K-Man89]

Just now, 0_kieran said:

Hey, thanks for the reply! Any tips on how to do this? I'm kinda new to troubleshooting.

No problem! Testing the battery is best with a multimeter to make sure the correct power is being output but it's not exactly beginner friends so what I would recommend is taking the battery out of the system, then test with the power supply you currently have and if the problem persists then pick up a new power supply and plug it in and test it. I had to do this with an old ROG laptop awhile back and luckily it was just the power supply.

This should give you a good starting point. Let me know how it goes and I can help troubleshoot it with you some more of you'd like!

[0_kieran]

Sorry for taking so long. Battery health and performance seems ok, I've been playing around with settings and even dowlnloaded HW Info. Tried Gaming on battery and the voltage output was ~10.6 V, while with my charger it is ~12.7. The other day I played on all low settings and the lag spikes didnt't  happen, but  its back. I realised that whenever the gpu usage is high for a while (around 85-90%) it throttles performance even though temps are relatively low (<70 C). It's even happening when writing this message where the game is in the background.

 

I'm at a loss and really don't want to reset my system again cause I have a lot of uni stuff that's annoying to set up. Maybe I can try starting the laptop in safe mode but I dont know if I can enable a single 3rd party app. 

[0_kieran]

18 hours ago, 0_kieran said:

Sorry for taking so long. Battery health and performance seems ok, I've been playing around with settings and even dowlnloaded HW Info. Tried Gaming on battery and the voltage output was ~10.6 V, while with my charger it is ~12.7. The other day I played on all low settings and the lag spikes didnt't  happen, but  its back. I realised that whenever the gpu usage is high for a while (around 85-90%) it throttles performance even though temps are relatively low (<70 C). It's even happening when writing this message where the game is in the background.

 

I'm at a loss and really don't want to reset my system again cause I have a lot of uni stuff that's annoying to set up. Maybe I can try starting the laptop in safe mode but I dont know if I can enable a single 3rd party app.