Core speed slow in games

[urnotmega]

Hi all,

I'm trying to troubleshoot poor gaming performance on the following laptop:

Acer Aspire 7750g-6645
i5 2450M (2.5ghz with turbo boost up to 3.1ghz)
Switchable graphics (between Intel 3000 and Radeon 7670M)
4gb ram
Windows 7 64bit

I'm testing on Firefall beta but have also tried tribes ascend and starcraft 2, all with poor performance. At first I thought it was the video card. I went through a lot of trouble even getting the 7670M to work, and I think I have it working correctly with a modded bios, so now I'm looking at the CPU as being the culprit.

Running CPU-Z while in firefall, I'm noticing something odd. One would expect with a game open the cpu should be "turbo boosted" up to 3.1, at least most of the time. Instead, it will occasionally it'll jump up to the mid 2ghz range, and normally sit around 700mhz!

I tested this on my desktop as well (i5 3570k 3.4ghz with boosting to 3.8ghz, geforce 560, 8gb ram, windows 7 64bit) which I can max out firefall with, and CPU-Z is showing 3.8ghz pretty consistently. Only occasionally does it drop down to 1.6ghz, and then right back up to max.

My desktop is working as I would expect the dynamic boosting technology (whatever the correct terminology is) to work while the laptop isn't.

I also have a work laptop with an i7 Q720 (1.6ghz), geforce 230m, 8gb ram, and win 7 64bit which runs firefall perfectly (not maxed, but high) as well. I haven't tried looking at cpu-z on it yet but I imagine it's probably doing the same thing as my desktop, just running max when it should.

How can I go about troubleshooting this? I'm downloading whatever the latest drivers are from the acer website but is this going to be a driver thing or a bios thing, or do you think it might just be broken (guessing not)?

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

Try the High Performance power profile in Windows, if you haven't already.

 

[WR2]

Are you testing while gaming on your battery?

 

[urnotmega]

It was on balanced, I changed it to high performance but it's still the same.

I have it plugged in.

 

[WR2]

One would expect with a game open the cpu should be "turbo boosted" up to 3.1, at least most of the time.

Most of the time? Unrealistic expectation.
Turbo @ 3.1Ghz would be using 1 core and doing that only for a very short time.

 

[WR2]

Are you monitoring your temps? If they are hotter than they should be the CPU might be dropping down to a lower power state to cool itself off.

 

[urnotmega]

Most of the time? Unrealistic expectation.
Turbo @ 3.1Ghz would be using 1 core and doing that only for a very short time.

Let me rephrase. "as much as it should" - which in the case of gaming should be the majority of the time, I would expect (and regardless of my expectations, I don't care if it EVER jumps to 3.1ghz as long as my gaming is smooth , which in this case it's not ).

The cpu temp seems to hover around 50C. I did see it jump up to 60C at one point but that was max.

Here are a couple snapshots of cpu-z, gpu-z, and coretemp. Maybe it'll be useful to someone?

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/4808/stats1mg.jpg - running slow
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/952/stats2l.jpg - running fast (only happens for a moment here and there)

As a note, I don't notice any difference in game when the cpu jumps to 2.8ghz.

 

[WR2]

How long have you had the notebook? Is this a new problem, or has it always been that way?
Was the notebook working normally before you added the modded BIOS?

 

[WR2]

As a note, I don't notice any difference in game when the cpu jumps to 2.8ghz.

This is Turbo[strike]Core[/strike]Boost working normally with 2 cores active.
It's not likely anyone would notice a difference with only a 0.3Ghz bump in CPU speed.

 

[urnotmega]

We've had it for 1 week now.

The original issue was that the switchable graphics weren't allowing the 7670m to even run. I followed the instructions here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/647283-acer-aspire-7750g-switchable-graphics-problem.html#post8441945 and also read another thread on the issue before jumping into the modded bios. This allowed me to switch which graphics card I was using in the catalyst control center.

I can't say if the cpu was sitting at 800mhz before in games because I wasn't testing games at that point, I was just trying to get the gpu to work.

 

[urnotmega]

This is TurboCore working normally with 2 cores active.
It's not likely anyone would notice a difference with only a 0.3Ghz bump in CPU speed.

Sorry I'm a bit confused with this statement. Where is the .3ghz bump? Image 1 has it at ~800mhz while image 2 has it at ~2.9ghz. That's a 2.1ghz bump, right? Or is there something behind the scenes that I'm missing.

 

[WR2]

Your temps are under control. Even 60C isn't anything to get excited about.

Have you seen any other reports of the same bad behavior with that model notebook?
It's something I think would have been noticed (obviously)

 

[WR2]

2.5ghz to 2.8Ghz = 0.3Ghz

 

[urnotmega]

Most of the issues I've read about this laptop have to do with the switchable graphics and some crashing issues in game. I haven't read anything about performance. I'm not even sure if the performance issue has to do with the cpu but I found it odd that it sits at 800mhz 95% of the time in game when my desktop is pushing 3.8 95% of the time in game.

Also sorry again but where do you see 2.5ghz in the images? I see ~800mhz jump to ~2.9ghz in cpu-z.

 

[WR2]

Intel Turbo Boost Technology Monitor
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=19105

 

[WR2]

I didn't look at the images. TurboBoost would be anything above 2.5Ghz - the CPUs rated speed.
Anything below 2.5Ghz is probably EIST working.

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

Are you sure that the High Performance setting was set at a minimum of 100%? That would take EIST out of the equation.

 

[urnotmega]

Turbo boost monitor shows it dipping down to no bar, up to 3.0ghz, back down to no bar, sometimes floating in the middle at 2.5ghz for a bit. Is it natural for it to dip down to nothing (sometimes for a few seconds at a time) while in a game?

In High Performance advanced settings, I have Processor power management -> minimum processor state -> plugged in -> 100%. Is that what you're referring to? Battery min was at 0% so I've bumped it to 100% and will test next (though it IS plugged in right now).

While idling on the desktop, turbo boost monitor shows 0 bar. It seems like you're suggesting it should be sitting at 2.5ghz instead?

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

Turbo boost monitor shows it dipping down to no bar, up to 3.0ghz, back down to no bar, sometimes floating in the middle at 2.5ghz for a bit. Is it natural for it to dip down to nothing (sometimes for a few seconds at a time) while in a game?

In High Performance advanced settings, I have Processor power management -> minimum processor state -> plugged in -> 100%. Is that what you're referring to? Battery min was at 0% so I've bumped it to 100% and will test next (though it IS plugged in right now).

Yeah, that's what I'm referring to, and with that, it shouldn't go any lower than 2.5.

 

[urnotmega]

Yeah, that's what I'm referring to, and with that, it shouldn't go any lower than 2.5.

I added this as an edit to my last reply, but just to clarify, you're saying that the turbo boost monitor shouldn't ever dip below 2.5? Right now it's sitting at no bar idle on the desktop.

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

I've never used the Turbo monitor myself (never really had a reason to), so I don't honestly know if it would show the right thing or not, but check CPU-Z to see what it says. It should be at 2.5 right now, just sitting idle.

 

[urnotmega]

I've never used the Turbo monitor myself (never really had a reason to), so I don't honestly know if it would show the right thing or not, but check CPU-Z to see what it says. It should be at 2.5 right now, just sitting idle.

cpu-z says 798mhz idle on the desktop (and also in game).

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/4808/stats1mg.jpg - shows cpu-z @ 798mhz

 

[WR2]

Have you rebooted since you changed the Power Plan?

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

That was your earlier screenshot though, correct? With High Performance at 100%, there's no way it should be showing 800Mhz.

 

[WR2]

Right now it's sitting at no bar idle on the desktop.

I think that 'no bar' condition just means that TurboBoost is not active. I don't think you can take anything more out of that.
I mean it has nothing to do with dropping to 800Mhz.