11 replies to this topic

[Oni74]

Hi fellow Mechfans,

I recently bought a laptop equipped with Nvidia 750m graphics, and am seeing obnoxiously poor performance (mid-20s fps on 1280x720 Low settings). I recently tried playing MWO on a Lenovo IdeaPad Y410p with an Nvidia GT755m, and had no problems (30+ fps, 1366x768 on medium settings).

I suspect the new laptop (A Dell Inspiron 15 7000) may be using the built-in Intel graphics rather than the nVidia 750m.

If you happen to be running MWO on a laptop with Nvidia 750m graphics, can you share your performance information?

Thanks in advance!

[Sen]

From the hip, I'm gonna say it's a CPU/heat issue. This game is more CPU dependent currently, and I've seen several notebooks with GPUs faster than the GTX750m drop the ball on it.

[Oni74]

thanks for the info.

I've made some progress on this, and am posting my results in case others may find this useful in the future.

upon digging, i found that:

• This particular laptop (Dell Inspiron 15 7000 with Core i7, 16GB RAM, nvidia 750m 2GB GDDR5) was configured with a lower TDP setting for turbo boost. It was set for 10.5w TDP rather than the 15w TDP the CPU is rated for. I changed it back to 15w using Intel Extreme Tuning Utility
  
• In Nvidia Control Panel, it was set to use Recommended settings/Auto select for various 3D, PhysX settings. I changed them all to specify the 750m GPU, and changed the default settings for Mechwarrioronline.exe to use performance settings rather than auto select
  
• In Windows 8 power management settings, I changed all values to use performance when plugged in

once these changes were made, I tweaked MWO settings to use a balance of LOW and Medium values at 1280x720 resolution.

Once these changes were made, I am consistently achieving 25-40fps during matches.

Overall, these performance numbers did not match the results obtained from a similarly configured Lenovo Ideapad y410p, MWO was playable enough.

I hope this helps anyone who run into similar issues with laptops running discrete Nvidia graphics.

[Durant Carlyle]

Yeah, laptops are configured by default for power saving over performance. Just changing the Power options to High Performance usually fixes any issues.

[Navid A1]

if your laptop has 2 GPUs, maybe you are actually using the weaker one (the one that handles windows desktop and such).
instruct the game to use the 750M. (the switchable graphics options and default GPU for each application can be reached normally in the right click menu)

[Altisaire]

Sen, on 10 January 2014 - 01:52 PM, said:

From the hip, I'm gonna say it's a CPU/heat issue. This game is more CPU dependent currently, and I've seen several notebooks with GPUs faster than the GTX750m drop the ball on it.

+1
I googled ur laptop model and its running a i7-4500U, hopefully its not. To my experience 'U' processors aren't cut out for these games. MQ, HQ, or QM chips are stable on Med settings and run hot on High. I dont dare to run on Very High if theres no adequate cooling to the laptops.

Edit: I'm referring to low-end to mid range laptops.
My bros' Asus n750jv i7-4700mq, 16gb, 750m
1366x768 30+fps on high on cold boot the drops to about 24~ a few games in. All other settings untouched(out of the box). Hope that helps

Edited by Dranzeer, 12 January 2014 - 05:49 AM.

[Oni74]

Dranzeer, on 11 January 2014 - 06:30 AM, said:

+1
I googled ur laptop model and its running a i7-4500U, hopefully its not. To my experience 'U' processors aren't cut out for these games. MQ, HQ, or QM chips are stable on Med settings and run hot on High. I dont dare to run on Very High if theres no adequate cooling to the laptops.

Edit: I'm referring to low-end to mid range laptops.
My bros' Asus n750jv i7-4700mq, 16gb, 750m
1366x768 30+fps on high on cold boot the drops to about 24~ a few games in. All other settings untouched(out of the box). Hope that helps

Yeah, I did note the ultrabook-friendly nature of the i7-4500U CPU before purchase. Despite the lower clock speeds, it can still handle MWO well. CPU utilization hangs around 60% during MWO matches which isn't too bad for this thin laptop. The problem with the higher voltage mobile CPUs are significantly higher heat. The Lenovo ideapad y410p I tried got quite toasty during MWO.

[Reighotwe]

As of the latest patch there seems to be a gpu usage problem on GTM GPUs.
I have 2 gaming laptops (GT540m / SLI GT650m) and have noticed huge FPS drops introduced by the recent patch.

I could run MWO at steady 40-90 fps at 100% GPU usage on my SLI 650m, now my best FPS is ~60 and it goes down to 12 on certain spots on maps. I also noticed MWO is now using only part of my GPU power! It uses only ~60-65% of each GPU, which would explain this fps drop.

I think this is caused by their "fix" for the "running hot on mechlab/menu" problem, but this also affects overall gpu performance..

[The Gunman]

Onij74, on 10 January 2014 - 01:25 PM, said:

... OP Words about poor laptop performance....

I'm sorry, but no matter how high spec'ed your laptop is: its still a laptop. Laptops are designed with 2 things in mind; 1, long battery life, achieved buy low performance/power consumption, 2, low heat output, achieved buy low performance/power consumption.
Unless your using a dedicated gaming laptop (eg Alienware) that is designed for prolonged high performance (high heat/power consumption) then your essentially complaining about a go-kart that isn't as fast as a F1 car.

EDIT: I have learn't this the hard way personally.

Edited by The Gunman, 19 January 2014 - 07:15 AM.

[Altisaire]

Best way to solve the heat issue is to buy a good cooling pad / fan / air con or in your local deli coolroom

[Firewuff]

This is not a heat issue OR a mobile CPU issue. i'm seeing exactly the same behavior with the sudden frame drops. running 60+FPS and then suddenly drops to 4-8 FPS.

Doing some basic monitoring you see this

CPU is less than 50% across all cores, so the game is graphics bound not CPU bound.

Prior to the glitch the GPU is only running at 80% of usage and 1.2GB of memory uses which indicates its likely memory bandwidth starved but thats fine as I'm getting >60FPS. When the Glitch occurs the GPU is pegged at 99%

Heat at idle is 42deg, in game it rises but stays below 65deg. when the glitch occurs it rises as its now pegged at 99% This is not a heat issue


For ref I havea brand new XPS15 with latest i7 and GT 750M. The only real difference between it and the AlienWare laptops is they have a slower i& and the GT760M.

I bet some one will see this with an AlienWare laptop.

[Sen]

Didn't anyone ever tell you, NEVER advertise you own a Dell, ESPECIALLY not in a hardware forum where enthusiasts are present! [no, I'm not kidding]

that aside, just because you're not utilizing 80%+ cpu DO NOT make the mistake of thinking the game is not CPU bound. The current unoptimized code is a complete piece of . . unoptimized code. You're not the ONLY one with low performance and lower CPU utilization.

Also, bear in mind, I've run this game on last year's MSI GT70 W/ GTX765m. MOST of the time it stayed in the low 20s in heavy action, but it DID still dip down to 15-18 on occasion, and you could feel the slowdown. This is with an ivy i7 and with max fan enabled for maximum heat dissipationn [around 72c hottest between CPU/GPU]

The simple fact of the matter is that, while there ARE gaming notebooks out there, the XPS line is NOT one of them. Many modern consumer notebooks use low voltage or Ultra low voltage processors, which also helps contribute to sagging CPU performance.

That, however, is not NECESSARILY your problem. Is this happening when you're making sudden sharp turns, like jump turning around to face someone shooting you in the back? If so, you could facing a GPU memory issue, where the client is having to slow down to dump the GPU memory and reload it with new info. The only cure for this is to . . . buy a notebook with a more robust video card or invest in a desktop machine.

As a last thought, I'd also double check and find out if your 750m has GDDR3 or GDDR5. If it has GDDR3, this is most likely a HUGE culprit in the performance loss, especially if that lenovo had a 755m with GDDR5 [the speed difference alone would most likely explain the issue you're experiencing]

I don't know a heck of a lot about either card, so I'm just throwing that out there.