Gaming sudden decrease in Performance

[_JohnB330ci]

Hey, sorry currently I'm at my dads on my laptop (Inspiron 15-7559, i7-6700HQ, 960M 4G, 8GB Ram etc.) Anyway, so last night I was playing Overwatch completely fine, maxed out, 80-90fps, now, this morning, when starting up the game, it kept crashing my GPU drivers, and now I can't get above 30fps? I have no idea whats going on? Any suggestions?

 

I also have these errors in event viewer:

[Starelementpoke]

9 minutes ago, SherifsDog22 said:

Hey, sorry currently I'm at my dads on my laptop (Inspiron 15-7559, i7-6700HQ, 960M 4G, 8GB Ram etc.) Anyway, so last night I was playing Overwatch completely fine, maxed out, 80-90fps, now, this morning, when starting up the game, it kept crashing my GPU drivers, and now I can't get above 30fps? I have no idea whats going on? Any suggestions?

 

I also have these errors in event viewer:

Did you try reinstalling drivers?

[_JohnB330ci]

2 minutes ago, Starelementpoke said:

Did you try reinstalling drivers?

Well, it was doing this, and then I got notified of a driver update, so I installed new ones, which didn't fix it?

[JMaio]

With that decrease it's probably disabling the discrete GPU and using the integrated iGPU (NVIDIA Optimus does this to save power when not running intensive applications).

Best would probably be to update drivers and restart, maybe check NVIDIA control panel and make sure it's set to use the 960M when running GPU-intensive applications like Overwatch (or other games).

Good luck

[Starelementpoke]

3 minutes ago, SherifsDog22 said:

Well, it was doing this, and then I got notified of a driver update, so I installed new ones, which didn't fix it?

To be honest, I'm willing to bet it was the driver update.

[_JohnB330ci]

1 minute ago, JMaio said:

With that decrease it's probably disabling the discrete GPU and using the integrated iGPU (NVIDIA Optimus does this to save power when not running intensive applications).

Best would probably be to update drivers and restart, maybe check NVIDIA control panel and make sure it's set to use the 960M when running GPU-intensive applications like Overwatch (or other games).

Good luck

I've done the update and restarted multiple times, I'm guessing it is this, as games are running as if on battery power, where would I go in the control panel to change this? there is a section for PhysX configuration to select the processor which is set to Auto-select, but when in Overwatch, the game says it is using the 960M

[_JohnB330ci]

1 minute ago, Starelementpoke said:

To be honest, I'm willing to bet it was the driver update.

It was doing it before and after though, the driver update fixed part of the problem, because before it, whenever I would launch the game, the drivers would crash, the new drivers stopped that.

[Starelementpoke]

1 minute ago, SherifsDog22 said:

It was doing it before and after though, the driver update fixed part of the problem, because before it, whenever I would launch the game, the drivers would crash, the new drivers stopped that.

Ah, misunderstanding things then, my bad.

[_JohnB330ci]

1 minute ago, Starelementpoke said:

Ah, misunderstanding things then, my bad.

I feel like its something to do with the PC not realising its charging, cause its performing like it would on battery power, but I don't know what could cause this?

[_JohnB330ci]

9 minutes ago, JMaio said:

With that decrease it's probably disabling the discrete GPU and using the integrated iGPU (NVIDIA Optimus does this to save power when not running intensive applications).

Best would probably be to update drivers and restart, maybe check NVIDIA control panel and make sure it's set to use the 960M when running GPU-intensive applications like Overwatch (or other games).

Good luck

Okay I'm fairly sure its this problem, as the GPU fan is spinning up at all, and is staying at 50oc, but how do I fix it to use the 960M? Cause I've set it to do so already

[JMaio]

5 minutes ago, SherifsDog22 said:

I've done the update and restarted multiple times, I'm guessing it is this, as games are running as if on battery power, where would I go in the control panel to change this? there is a section for PhysX configuration to select the processor which is set to Auto-select, but when in Overwatch, the game says it is using the 960M

If it says it's using the 960M, then you're likely right about it thinking it's on battery power.

Have you tried the Windows Power settings? Right-click on the battery in taskbar -> Power options -> High Performance.

Alternatively, make sure your power cable is plugged in securely at both ends, and make sure you have power

Also, maybe you have some kind of "eco utility" that reduces performance at hardware level (maybe a dedicated button, or an "FN + F-key" combo, maybe a program?).

[_JohnB330ci]

4 minutes ago, JMaio said:

If it says it's using the 960M, then you're likely right about it thinking it's on battery power.

Have you tried the Windows Power settings? Right-click on the battery in taskbar -> Power options -> High Performance.

Alternatively, make sure your power cable is plugged in securely at both ends, and make sure you have power

Also, maybe you have some kind of "eco utility" that reduces performance at hardware level (maybe a dedicated button, or an "FN + F-key" combo, maybe a program?).

I've checked the power settings, and its on Dell's Balancing, but I'm tried Performance as well, with no difference, I've made sure its plugged in and Windows recognises that it is charging, and as far as I'm aware I don't, but I will have a check through.

[_JohnB330ci]

Right, well I did all this, restarted, went into OW, and bam, high fps, then I joined a game, and the drivers crashed, new sggestions? @JMaio @Starelementpoke

 

Overwatch threwback the error: " 

[_JohnB330ci]

Right, well I did all this, restarted, went into OW, and bam, high fps, then I joined a game, and the drivers crashed, new sggestions? @JMaio @Starelementpoke

 

 

Overwatch threwback the error: "Your rendering device has been lost! Application Closing!"

[Starelementpoke]

2 minutes ago, SherifsDog22 said:

Right, well I did all this, restarted, went into OW, and bam, high fps, then I joined a game, and the drivers crashed, new sggestions? @JMaio @Starelementpoke

@don_svetlio What did you say Nvidia's last stable driver was?

[don_svetlio]

1 minute ago, Starelementpoke said:

@don_svetlio What did you say Nvidia's last stable driver was?

361.75

[_JohnB330ci]

1 minute ago, don_svetlio said:

361.75

How do I backdate to this?

[Starelementpoke]

1 minute ago, don_svetlio said:

361.75

Try rolling back to that driver.

[don_svetlio]

1 minute ago, SherifsDog22 said:

How do I backdate to this?

DDU and download it manually. Then never update again.

[Starelementpoke]

1 minute ago, SherifsDog22 said:

How do I backdate to this?

Go to the website, find the driver page, look for the download/page for that driver.

[JMaio]

1 minute ago, SherifsDog22 said:

Right, well I did all this, restarted, went into OW, and bam, high fps, then I joined a game, and the drivers crashed, new sggestions? @JMaio @Starelementpoke

 

 

Overwatch threwback the error: "Your rendering device has been lost! Application Closing!"

That message makes it sound like Optimus disabled the 960M

Try disabling Optimus altogether to keep the 960M as your main GPU, then when you're done remember to switch it back to default: this should keep the GPU on and the fps high and steady (setting is probably in NVIDIA control panel), keep in mind this will drain battery quickly if you don't set it back to normal afterwards.

[_JohnB330ci]

1 minute ago, don_svetlio said:

DDU and download it manually. Then never update again.

DDU?

[don_svetlio]

1 minute ago, JMaio said:

That message makes it sound like Optimus disabled the 960M

Try disabling Optimus altogether to keep the 960M as your main GPU, then when you're done remember to switch it back to default: this should keep the GPU on and the fps high and steady (setting is probably in NVIDIA control panel), keep in mind this will drain battery quickly if you don't set it back to normal afterwards.

If he disables Optimus it won't boot at all.

[_JohnB330ci]

2 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

If he disables Optimus it won't boot at all.

Should I uninstall the 3D Driver? Or just the main driver?

[don_svetlio]

2 minutes ago, SherifsDog22 said:

Should I uninstall the 3D Driver? Or just the main driver?

All of them. Also, remove GFE. It's cancer on laptops