15 replies to this topic

[Night Thastus]

Hello.

I'm running MechWarrior Online on my Lenovo y510p.

Specs:
4th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-4700MQ (2.4GHz 1600MHz 6MB)

NVIDIA® GeForce® GT755M 2GB

8GB PC3-12800 DDR3L SDRAM 1600 MHz
1TB (5400 RPM) + 8GB Hybrid Driv

Current Settings:
Screen Resolution: 1920x1080
Fullscreen
DirectX11
64-bit enabled
Motion Blur Low
Damage Glow On
All other settings on "Medium" except Object Detail and Texturing (Very High) and particles (Low).
Anti-aliasing is OFF

With these settings, I'm getting 40FPS normally. However, at random times, the FPS spikes to a aweful 12 FPS.
It makes the game unplayable, and I'd love some help.
This issue has persisted after getting a new hard drive and completely reinstalling all drivers and the game itself.

My only lead is that MWO might be defaulting mid-game to my Intel HD 4600 integrated card. However, in the Geforce settings, I have the Nvidia card set as the default for all games in the global settings.

Other high-intensity games such as Shadow of Mordor and others run just fine, and don't have FPS drops like this. Only this game.

Also, if I remember right, this issue came after the update that added Community Warfare. Before that, I don't recall it happening.

Would love some help, thanks!

Edited by Night Wind, 22 February 2015 - 03:04 PM.

[Goose]

OK: You've got the VRAM for Very High Textures …

But with Hz that low, nothing else should be higher then Medium. And turn on PostAA, but turn off Glow.

Put a

sys_MaxFPS = 42

in your user.cfg, too …

Edited by Goose, 22 February 2015 - 07:56 PM.

[Night Thastus]

By the way, I should mention that with all my settings on the lowest possible, this still happens. Thoughts?

[Not a Pilot]

More than likely the geforce card is going into power saving mode. You need to turn that off.

http://nvidia.custhe...mum-performance

[Night Thastus]

Already set that, and the single-display performance mode. Thanks though. Still having this issue. Some days it doesn't show up at all, some days every match is 12 FPS spikes every few seconds.

[Silme]

Given the fact that MWO is very bad about correctly distributing across multiple CPU cores and the rather low clock speed on the 4700MQ, it's possibly a background task that is eating up CPU cycles. Look into turning off any programs you don't need (skype, web browser, etc.) and ensure that anything like antivirus or windows update isn't running in the background.

[Tarl Cabot]

In the Nvidia panel, set Power Management mode to Best Performance for AC power connection.

Download and run Speedfan to take control of fan settings.

MSI Afterburner to handle fan control for GPU. Many have reported fans not ramping up fast enough.

Set laptop power options to Full Performance.

Can of compressed air to clear out dust build up on heatsinks.

Disable windows programs like Windows Media networking sharing program in Windows Services.

Download and run Malwarebytes.

*************************
Disable turbo boost, set to 98%. Increase in CPU speed, like a cheap mans OC but to fewer/fewer cores, which also increases heat output.

Disabling Intel Turbo Boost - Tautvidas Sipavičius

[Night Thastus]

Power management was already set to best performance,as well as Lenovo's energy management software.

Speedfan + Afterburner don't work on this laptop due to the fact that Lenovo's system for controlling the fans is completely incompatible with all third-party software. :/

No dust, just got it cleaned out.

No malware, just reinstalled windows.

Is turbo boost on by default? If so, should I turn it off? Should I turn it on?

[Goose]

My google-fu is weak, but IIRC, Turbo Boost on a laptop disables cores so it can find thermal-/ power-budget to rev the one remaining core; Since CryEngine is multithreaded, and loves core count, this is bad.

I believe you can turn off Turbo Boost in the BIOS, but there might be a setting, or a tool, to shut it off in the OS, or software …

[Tarl Cabot]

Disable Turbo boost is listed in the link provided. The article says to use 99% Maximum Power State but based on feedback from MWO, setting it 98% is the mark.

http://www.cpu-world...0processor.html

Quote

Turbo frequency
3400 MHz (1 core)
3300 MHz (2 cores)
3200 MHz (3 or 4 cores)

Once even one core exceeds a set threshold, the entire CPU speed drops to 50% to reduce the heat being generated, so you can end up with a yo-yo effect.

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 08 March 2015 - 12:00 PM.

[TacoTurtle]

http://www.ehow.com/...h-priority.html

[Night Thastus]

Hey guys, thanks for all the suggestions, but I actually recently found out what was causing this. My Lenovo Y510P has a **** cooling system and doesn't do a good enough job. The CPU was at 100 degrees celcius and the GPU was at 97 (where both throttle).

This was causing the sudden FPS drops.
After cutting a bit of the uneccesary plastic away from the fans, and lowering the settings to the absolute minimum, I've fixed the issue. If the Y510P had a better cooling system, the Nvidia 755M should be able to run this game on high no problem, or at the least medium.

In any case, thank's for all the help. I might consider repasting the GPU/CPU thermal paste, and perhaps getting a laptop cooling stand. The only issue with the stand is that every one I look at, even the highest reviewed ones, tend to get plenty of reviews stating that they fell apart relatively quickly. I'd like something durable. (15.6 inch as well)

[Tarl Cabot]

Depending on the age of the laptop, many used thermal pads instead of thermal paste.

Looking at some before pictures someone else posted, you may want to consider doing the repasting sooner than later.

http://tinypic.com/v...=8#.VP0FxfnF98E

http://tinypic.com/v...=8#.VP0F_vnF98E

Googling, you are correct about the lack of fan control for that laptop and the horrible heat/fan control/exhaust (shudders).

I would add a small desktop fan blowing over the laptop, pointed under and the backside.

Quote

So to sum it up, before repaste, unshroud, removing filter, cooling pad temps were:
CPU idle 60+, playing BF4 100+ (saw it peak 107C once and nearly pooped my pants) this was 2,4ghz 4 cores + a lot of throttling all the time
GPU idle 60+ playing BF4 95+
GPU ultrabay 65+ playing BF4 ~100

After:
CPU idle 45-50, playing BF4 85-90 @ 3ghz 4 cores -92mV undervolt
GPU idle 50, playing BF4 85-90 (+100mhz core & memory)
GPU ultrabay idle 50, playing BF4 80-88 (+100mhz core & memory)

I hope my info helps. Here are also some pictures I took of the factory paste job.
http://i57.tinypic.com/2j6a9ev.jpg
http://i62.tinypic.com/28bwozk.jpg

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 08 March 2015 - 06:38 PM.

[Night Thastus]

I just unshrouded the fans and propped up a the back of the laptop with some wood blocks. With min settings, MWO now gets my CPU to 85 - 90, and my GPU around the same. (much, much better, mind you, no more FPS drops)

While thermal repasting might be a good idea, I have no experience in it, this is an expensive laptop, and that's a huge job to take the whole thing apart and put it back without damaging anything. (Even with great guides)

I'd really, really rather not. If I need to buy a cooling pad, fine. I just can't afford to **** up this computer.

[TacoTurtle]

Two of us playing last night experienced fps drops on certain maps.

[TacoTurtle]

This helped my other games as well:

http://www.tomshardw...ng-lag-fix.html