Question Fortnite doesn't run on 950M but runs on 740M??? The older is better mystery.

[pufadtkavics]

I am very curious about your opinion on the following situation. My partner has a 2 yo laptop with the following specs:
CPU: i5-6300HQ @2,3GHz (3,2GHz)
GPU: GeForce GTX 950M 2GB DDR5
RAM: 4GB DDR4

I have a 5 yo laptop with the following specs:
CPU: i5-3337U @1,8GHz (2,7GHz)
GPU: GeForce GT 740M 2GB DDR3
RAM: 4GB DDR3

We tried to play many games and usually her performance is somewhat better compared to mine, but sometimes this is not the case. When playing Fortnite my game experience is better. We tried several different settings for her, but nothing helped. Setting everything to lowest specs she gets 30-60 fps but major stattering happens when action is happening (being shot, shooting, etc.). Game freezes for 2-3 seconds at times. During the game CPU usage is around 40-60% equally on all 4 cores, GPU usage is 50-70%, but gets down to 5-20% when stattering happenes and game freezes. RAM is at constant 90% useage. GPU memory usage never goes above 60%.

The strange thing is that with the same settings I get a constant 30 fps with minor stattering while my CPU and GPU usage is about 60-80%, RAM usage is 95%.

So the game experience altogether is much better for me since at critical moments I can still handle the game while she cannot. We did windows reinstall, tried DDU and reinstalled drivers, etc. CPU temerature is usually higher for her, but within the accepted limits: 85-90 °C

Can anybody give an explanation, what is the bottleneck for her? Would extra RAM help her? Am I really lucky to have this performance or is she unlucky? Thanks for the insights

 

[Barty1884]

CPU temps seem 'fine', not great, but it's a laptop afterall.

Are you monitoring GPU temperatures?

What resolution are you playing at? A ~5yo laptop with a 740M is a little more likely to sport a 1366x768 display, although some did ship with 1080p panels.
On the flip side, a pretty modern 6300HQ + 950M will almost certainly have a 1080p display.


While increasing RAM would probably be a better all-round experience, if it's never maxing out (even temporarily), then it's probably not going to change anything.
Certainly wouldn't hurt though...

 

[pufadtkavics]

CPU temps seem 'fine', not great, but it's a laptop afterall.

Are you monitoring GPU temperatures?

What resolution are you playing at? A ~5yo laptop with a 740M is a little more likely to sport a 1366x768 display, although some did ship with 1080p panels.
On the flip side, a pretty modern 6300HQ + 950M will almost certainly have a 1080p display.


While increasing RAM would probably be a better all-round experience, if it's never maxing out (even temporarily), then it's probably not going to change anything.
Certainly wouldn't hurt though...

Thanks for the quick answer Her CPU temp. is not great, not terrible
I did monitor GPU temp and it was low compared to CPU, at around 60 °C.
And you are right: my laptop has 1366x768 display with the 740M, and hers is 1080p. I tried running the game on 720p, but it was actually a bit worse than running it at 1080p.

Would RAM really ever reach 100% usage tho? Doesn't the system hold back some of it in order to prevent crashing?

 

[Barty1884]

Yeah, if you're comparing different resolutions, you're comparible apples & oranges.

Memory certainly can max out - and you'll be utilizing more at higher resolutions.

 

[pufadtkavics]

Yeah, you are right about the resolution, since, hers has double amount of pixels compared to mine, although our own passmark scores show that her card is more than twice as strong as mine.
But anyway, lets forget about the comparison, and focus only on her machine. Why is it that nothing maxs out while performance is rubbish. Is it bad design or resource managment of the game? Is there anything I can do about it? Or maybe I have a different bottleneck that I haven' monitored yet?