[SOLVED] ASUS Vivobook Low Performance

[mdeodarari]

So I just bought a new laptop; an ASUS Vivobook S14 S433EQ and here's the spec:

CPU: Intel i5-1135G7 @ 2.40 Ghz, 4 cores 8 threads
Onboard GPU: Intel IrisXe 80EU
Dedicated GPU: Nvidia MX350
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 512GB NVME SSD
OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit. Version: 20H2. Build: 19042.928

Mainly I'm using this laptop for work (basic usage like browsing, Ms Excel, PDF reader, and Adobe Illustrator at max), and also games casually when I'm on my day off, and it's only Valorant, DotA 2, and sometimes Warframe. But I'm really really disappointed on how my laptop performs on games, even tho I lowered all of the games setting graphics to lowest setting that my eye could compensate. All of the games I played, despite of its graphic settings, my laptop shows a similar performance.

Tested on DotA 2 with a low to medium gameplay scenario (no 5v5 fights).

Graphics settings: Everything's off. Render at 100%. Texture and Effects at High. Shadow at Medium.

https://imgur.com/ku1FkkD

View: https://imgur.com/ku1FkkD
- Graphics settings

• On initial login and the actual gameplay, it shows a fantastic FPS count between 90-120 fps. CPU could clock to 3,9~ish Ghz, while showing 75-100% utilization. This, only lasted for like 30 secs, max.
• After that, my laptop's performance decreases. FPS count drops to 70-80, and at first, I thought this is still in a comfy zone to game, and thought that this isn't a problem. CPU clock drops to 1,9 Ghz to 2,0 Ghz
• Same, but lower. FPS count drops to 50-60, while CPU clock drops to 1,6 Ghz to 1,8 Ghz. Utilization sits around 36%
• Drops even lower. FPS count drops to 30-40, CPU clock drops to 1,3 Ghz to 1,5 Ghz. Utilization sits around 20%
• EVEN lower. FPS drops to 16-20, CPU clock drops to 0,80 Ghz to 1,1 Ghz. Utilization around 18-21%.
• For every once in a while, the performance could jump to the 50-60 FPS, and lasted only around 10 seconds before dropping back to the 16-20 FPS zone. And this happens randomly. Not caring when it's in a demanding graphics scene (like teamfights) or non-demanding graphics scene (solo farming in the jungle).

CPU temperature are stable around 60-70 °C. Set it on Performance Mode on MyAsus, and also Best Performance on the battery setting.

Scenario said above, happens in a span of 2 minutes period.
Note: Scenario said above also happens if I set it to the Highest graphic settings, and ALSO, on the Lowest graphic settings. It shows a same behavior despite of the graphics settings. And it shows the same behavior and all the games that I played; Valorant (which I think is the lowest demand game), and Warframe.

Before I went to post this thread. I've done a few research and everyone's showing to tweak the Processor Power Management that isn't there in my laptop's power plan. While some other says that this issue came with the Windows 20H2 update.

https://imgur.com/Z9dYU2d

View: https://imgur.com/Z9dYU2d

While some suggested that I could tweak it directly from Registry Editor, it still shows no improvement or change.

All drivers are up to date.
And as I said, this is a brand new laptop that I bought like 5 days ago. Which it doesn't have a heating problem or dirty interior or dirty fan.
So far, all I can assume that this is not a GPU-related-issue, but rather the CPU. But I'm not so sure myself. For me, it's like its performance is being limited (or throttled), maybe from ASUS itself. But isn't this kind of throttling is too far?

I know this laptop isn't intended to be used on games, but, really? My previous ASUS laptop (A456UQ) that is in its last breath could do better than this one that I just bought 🙁

 

[EyyMunchian]

This is just the unfortunate issue of laptops, cooling. Being it a non gaming specific model it really hinders a lot of things. Clearly we see a cooling issue causing issues. I can say to improve it attempt to cleaning your laptop, the interior of it. Maybe a repaste of the thermal paste as well. But laptops work with batteries (even when on charger) and their CPUs are designed for low and light load applications. Your CPU tdp (power draw) is 28 watts max. Comparing that to a i5 11600k (same generation and same i5 class) of 125 Watts. You can only get so much juice out of 28 watts even if its 4 cores/8threads. The CPU base clock is 2.4ghz which to be frank today that's quite low for games. 4.2ghz is the boost clock and due to power and thermal issues, you cannot boost for long. Initially on bootup your system boosts and all works fine, giving you frames, but as your system heats up the CPU gets throttled. Sometimes manufacturers put limiters and hardware throttles to extend the life of your system?, I really don't know to well. Even most "gaming" laptops are limited by power and thermal issues. But try the cleaning and repasting. Check to see if you have any background apps running that hogs resources?