[SOLVED] Confussion on FPS drops with my laptop

[Ibex]

I have a MSI GE72 Apache pro. I have had it for over two years, it has been doing really well. But over the past few months I have been having a lot of issues. The CPU fan broke was the first issue I had but I sorted that out easy and replaced it. It was only till after then I have been having annoying FPS drops in games.

CSGO plays at around 200-250 FPS (Medium settings) but since then it has been dropping frames for 1 second down to 20-40. I have been monitoring temps and usage and I can’t see any bottleneck. My GPU will go from 75% to 92% but not really higher . With the CPU not really moving from about 80% with each core around 65%-80%. Temps are usually around 80c after a long time playing.

One slight fix which has made it less frequent disabling “Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery” in device manager under batteries as what I was seeing one MSI afterburner OSD was that power from going up and down to much. But it has just made it alot less frequent and in fact what was more confusing is that after I did that, I played a game of CS to check it and it did not drop the while game. Which gave me false hope that it was fixed. Then when I come back to play the next day it happened once or twice. Now is more often again.

I have been trying to fix it now for months and I am getting nowhere. Any help?


To add info that might help:

The components are a i7-7700HQ (not over clocked, just default boost clock). GTX 1050 Ti (not over clocked, just default boost clock). 16GB RAM (default), 250GB M.2 (default) , 1TB SSD (upgraded from HDD).

When i replaced the fans i also replaced the thermal paste on the CPU and GPU heat sink.

I have also scanned my laptop with anti malware and virus.

 

[Ibex]

funny that you mention thermal paste, i was going to suggest replacing it but to also suggest caution. if even the tiniest amount isn't applied correctly, it could cause heat issues that aren't detected by the sensors. it is a real pain to clean thermal paste, but it might be worth a shot to go back at that.

BEFORE that... i would run FurMark or MSI Kombustor while playing your game. this way you can see if the issue is system-wide, or just in the game.

i don't really know what to suggest on a fix, so hopefully someone else can help too ^_^

Ok i still have spare thermal paste and wipes so i can give it another shot.

I have just run MSI Kombustor along with the game. i get "less FPS" around 100 but it is still dropping alot. What does that show?

 

[Ibex]

is Kombuster also dropping too? if Kombuster is remained unaffected, then it isn't system-wide. something with the game. i WOULD suggest the OS, but you suggest the issue is relatively recent.

personally... i run Windows 10, and there a few games that drop/stutter at exact intervals of time. i have tried to fix it for nearly a year now, and can only fix it by running Windows 8.1. but that doesn't seem like something that would fit your situation.

something i forgot to mention along with the thermal paste, is thermal pads for the other stuff in the laptop. after looking at a disassembly video for that laptop, i see there are many thermal pads. something else could be overheating and not be reported by the sensors. it could be worth replacing the thermal pads.

Yea Kombuster was not droping, it was low but not dropping like the game.

When i saw the a disassembly video the guy in the vid did say the pads were not that great so i bought new ones aswell. So they are fresh.

I just replaced the thermal paste as i did notice that i put alot of paste on there so i lowered the amount this time to see if that may help. i didnt think about that, so maybe the system was reading a decent temp and then it was throttling.

i will test this out and get back to you. apreciate the help!

 

[Ibex]

well, while putting too much thermal paste can be bad... if Kombustor wasn't exhibiting the issue, then it isn't system-wide. which means it isn't a throttle, because that would have a system-wide effect.

i am not to sure what else to suggest.

make sure everything is up-to-date. drivers & windows.
see if CS:GO can verify the integrity of its files, or try re-installing.

could try checking the drive for errors with > chkdsk ?: /f /r /x at a command prompt. replace ? with the drive letter.


when the FPS drops... is it just a slow down, or a freeze? a slow down might suggest something about resource utilization, something on the system might be hogging something. whereas a freeze might suggest something related to drivers, installed devices and/or the OS, or even a program you have that is injecting to the game like an overlay software.

Sorry to reply so late, i was at work all day.

All my drivers and windows is up-to-date, i have verifyed my files for csgo and reinstalled CS on a SSD from a hard drive.

I already checked for drive errors that is why i swapped out my hard drive to a SSD as the other one was not performing as it should.

When the FPS drops it slows down to the low 20s. I have been monitoring task manager and other programs to see if somthing was hogging resources but cant seem to find anything that is spiking. I dont have any overlays injected apart from the default steam one of course.

Thermals seem to be more resposive now i have swapped out the paste for a smaller amount. The readings would jump in chunks of numbers but now it steadily goes up. I have not had much time to see if that has fixed it.

Unsure if i should wipe all my drivers and do a fresh install of windows. I have flashed the BOIS to the latest aswell thinking that might help.

 

[Ibex]

it certainly sounds like GPU throttle. and after having another look... 80c appears too high for a gtx 1050 ti. i don't know why, but could have sworn i seen somewhere before that 80c is a normal high for gtx 10-series, or would have had given overheating more consideration sooner.

it is hard to believe the GPU may be dying after only 2 years. it doesn't seem like you would have caused damage when having it open, or it probably wouldn't work at all.

i don't know much about thermal paste, and buy the cheaper stuff. usually the silver stuff, and it has always worked good. it is always possible the paste you got was either particularly bad, or just the wrong kind altogether.

but what you could do... grab a small fan and place your laptop directly on top of it. with the fan blowing directly on the laptop. this should work, because the GPU is overheating.


as of to why? i don't know. either thermal paste application, or maybe an overclock. you would know if you overclocked. you would do it with either software or from the BIOS. oh... are the fans running? maybe you knock a wire loose. do you apply thermal paste with a dab, or spread manually? i have personally never trusted the dab method enough.

i suppose it is always possible the GPU is actually failing, i doubt it but possible. it could be that removing the brace was the final straw that broke camels back.



AT ANY RATE... the GPU certainly seems to be overheating.

The thermal paste i used was from Noctua, it was highly rated and ok with CPU and GPU aplications. I also used their wipes to remove the old paste.

I also now see i did a typo.. the CPU climbs to around 80c max (when i say max that us under alot of load for hours and hours in a hot room, that is max it has ever hit) but the GPU never really goes about 65, In FUR mark for a 10 min stress test it was stable at 58c.

One thing i have noticed is that when the drop happens my GPU usage goes down to 20% from where it was. not sure if that is a thing