[SOLVED] 2070 Underpreforming in VR

Nov 16, 2019
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Hi Everyone,

I've been having some trouble with the laptop I bought for school recently. Given I'm a uni student, I needed power and mobility so I went with a gaming laptop as my current desktop is terrible. Given my universities component requirements my PC consists of

CPU: i7 9750H
GPU: RTX 2070 8GB
RAM: 16 GB 2666 hz
SSD: 512GB Samsung NVMe

Given its stats, my laptop should be easily able to handle running an HTC Vive with beat saber. However, the frames are almost never a solid 90 hz. Frequent frame drops are seen across the board on all games, but they are most prevalent in beat saber when the computer is rendering more then just a couple boxes. I've done everything I can think of to fix this issue as it was working fine earlier in the year, however after a couple months, the performance drop was significant. I have reverted any changes made to the laptop during the period between mid September and November, namely reverting a BIOS update which had no effect.

I want to know why my PC sucks at running VR. It handles anything else I throw at it like a champ, however it always falters when trying to do VR.

Side Note: I run beat saber off of an external hard drive and whenever it gets to a particularly laggy part, the GPU usage plummets.
 
Solution
For a laptop the things you can do are pretty limited.
You might need to put new thermal paste, if you know how and are comfortable doing it. If not, go to a repair shop and ask them to do it for you.
You already have a cooling pad, so maybe get a better one? Having lower ambient temperature also helps (I know it's not easy if it's summer).
I can not recommend having the bottom of the laptop open constantly as it is not safe for the components.
Keep it as clean as possible from dust and also place it somewhere that has plenty of airflow available (not on top of the bed, or on your lap).
Nov 16, 2019
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That has certainly something to do with the problem for sure. The HDD might not provide the necessary data fast enough through the usb??? port.
How are your temps though? Idle and while gaming. I am suspecting thermal throttling.
I thought it was thermal throttling too until I looked at the temps. Typically while idle my PC has temps of around 45 degrees, which I don't think is too bad for a laptop.

I actually took some screenshots of Armoury Crate while gaming and this was the result

Under Normal Load

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FPS drops

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The CPU might be running a bit hot, but it shouldn't thermal throttle until around 100 degrees. Playing MHW for upwards of 3 hours at 90 degrees had no effect on it so I don't think the CPU is the issue
 
That's a definite thermal throttling. Anything above 80-82 would and should thermal throttle your laptop. At 100 the components would downclock to cooldown or even shutdown completely.
My laptop starts thermal throttling way below that actually.
 
Nov 16, 2019
4
0
10
That's a definite thermal throttling. Anything above 80-82 would and should thermal throttle your laptop. At 100 the components would downclock to cooldown or even shutdown completely.
My laptop starts thermal throttling way below that actually.
Usually if its hovering in those temps, it goes back to its base clock of 2.6 GHz. So its interesting that its turboing up to 3.2 GHz while above 80. If the CPU is the issue, how can I cool it down? I have a cooling pad and unless I want to open my PC up, I don't know what else I can do.
 
For a laptop the things you can do are pretty limited.
You might need to put new thermal paste, if you know how and are comfortable doing it. If not, go to a repair shop and ask them to do it for you.
You already have a cooling pad, so maybe get a better one? Having lower ambient temperature also helps (I know it's not easy if it's summer).
I can not recommend having the bottom of the laptop open constantly as it is not safe for the components.
Keep it as clean as possible from dust and also place it somewhere that has plenty of airflow available (not on top of the bed, or on your lap).
 
Solution
Nov 16, 2019
4
0
10
For a laptop the things you can do are pretty limited.
You might need to put new thermal paste, if you know how and are comfortable doing it. If not, go to a repair shop and ask them to do it for you.
You already have a cooling pad, so maybe get a better one? Having lower ambient temperature also helps (I know it's not easy if it's summer).
I can not recommend having the bottom of the laptop open constantly as it is not safe for the components.
Keep it as clean as possible from dust and also place it somewhere that has plenty of airflow available (not on top of the bed, or on your lap).
Well, given its almost winter in canada, I should be fine for ambient temps. I've heard this chip runs a bit hot just because it takes so much power, and that undervolting might be a possible solution.
 
Undervolting does help but I know for sure that it can for desktop GPUs, I am unsure for laptop GPUs (mobile versions). They usually tend to be already underpowered/undervolted so they can run cooler and not consume too much energy. You can try ofcourse and tell us the results.