Games using 100% CPU usage and lagging.

[PDHawkeye]

I know this topic has already been raised but my problem is a bit tougher.Look, this was not the case a couple of months ago, Every game worked fine then, but since, I've nearly tried everything from Game Boosters to Malware Bytes for cleanup. I know that the game I play takes up the near 100% usage ,from Task Manager, so its useless to stop other processes. They usually took about 40-60% usage before the problem started, now the same games are lagging very bad. The condition worsens as I play a game for a prolonged time.
I also know my Laptop is capable of running these games fluidly as I've played them before but they just start lagging 5-7 mins. after they start. I mean the relatively big games such as - FIFA 13, Arkham City, DMC4, AC3 and such. Could anyone please suggest anything?

 

[rgd1101]

for laptop, it usually overheating.

 

[burdenbound]

Confirm that your laptop is in high performance mode, otherwise it will throttle your CPU which will really affect your performance. Might want to also run something like cpuZ to monitor your CPU core clock to ensure it's not being throttle by something other than the selected performance mode in windows.

 

[PDHawkeye]

I've seen the normal temp. ranges and I think that this is the problem. I used HWMonitor, and without any app. running, it was at about 60 C , but with an game it goes up to about 80 C , is that the main cause? Oh and would also add that I used Razor's Game Booster Power plan so there is no chance of not using High Performance mode, coz that plan maxes out everything for games.

 

[PDHawkeye]

Confirm that your laptop is in high performance mode, otherwise it will throttle your CPU which will really affect your performance. Might want to also run something like cpuZ to monitor your CPU core clock to ensure it's not being throttle by something other than the selected performance mode in windows.

I installed CPU-Z but how do you find out which application is using how much clock speed?

 

[burdenbound]

Confirm that your laptop is in high performance mode, otherwise it will throttle your CPU which will really affect your performance. Might want to also run something like cpuZ to monitor your CPU core clock to ensure it's not being throttle by something other than the selected performance mode in windows.

I installed CPU-Z but how do you find out which application is using how much clock speed?

That's not how it works, the clock speed is the rate at which your CPU is operating. I don't know what CPU you have but it should have had an advertised speed like 3.4GHz when you bought it. cpuZ should tell you what it's actual rate is. If it is below what was advertised more than likely some software is telling it to stay in an 'eco' mode to save energy. It won't tell you a specific program but you can at least find out if it's being throttled or working like it should be.

 

[PDHawkeye]

Confirm that your laptop is in high performance mode, otherwise it will throttle your CPU which will really affect your performance. Might want to also run something like cpuZ to monitor your CPU core clock to ensure it's not being throttle by something other than the selected performance mode in windows.

I installed CPU-Z but how do you find out which application is using how much clock speed?

That's not how it works, the clock speed is the rate at which your CPU is operating. I don't know what CPU you have but it should have had an advertised speed like 3.4GHz when you bought it. cpuZ should tell you what it's actual rate is. If it is below what was advertised more than likely some software is telling it to stay in an 'eco' mode to save energy. It won't tell you a specific program but you can at least find out if it's being throttled or working like it should be.

Look my laptop's a 2.2 GHz Intel Core i3 2330M, 4GB RAM, Processor clock - 1147 Mhz and Graphics clock - 573 Mhz. When I run a game, initially for the part when it runs smooth, the Core Speed (from CPU-Z) is 1600 - 2000 MHz with 18-20x multiplier but then it slowly and increasingly starts lagging, and then I read Core Speed of about 800 Mhz with a 8x multiplier. Its interesting that it suddenly spikes to 1600 - 1900 Mhz with 18-20x multiplier when I minimize the game. Also ,when idle, the Core Speed is fluctuating between 800 Mhz to 1700 MHz to 2000 MHz.
So do you have an idea why the clock slows down mid-game? Thank you.

 

[burdenbound]

It's normal for the core clock to drop when you are at idle on the desktop, and that is to save energy which is normal. But since it's clearly doing it mid game which we don't want we need to find the software which is telling it to do that. It can be one of two reasons I think, the first could be that it is over heating so it's dropping the core clock in order to stay cool. I would try and blow out any built up dust from the system, you stated that it would peak at around 80 degrees Celsius, look online and see what the safe operating temperature is for your system.

Secondly it can be an 'eco' feature which I mentioned earlier, usually the manufacturer will add a ton of bloatware on the computer that is unnecessary making this part hard to find. I tend to clean all this off on my personal machines so I know exactly what is running. You may need to poke around the manual for your system and see if there is any mention of eco, power saving, cool mode, anything that sounds like it's trying to alter the fan speeds, system clock rates etc... You might even want to try disabling the razor game booster (sounds like a load of crock to me personally)

 

[PDHawkeye]

It's normal for the core clock to drop when you are at idle on the desktop, and that is to save energy which is normal. But since it's clearly doing it mid game which we don't want we need to find the software which is telling it to do that. It can be one of two reasons I think, the first could be that it is over heating so it's dropping the core clock in order to stay cool. I would try and blow out any built up dust from the system, you stated that it would peak at around 80 degrees Celsius, look online and see what the safe operating temperature is for your system.

Secondly it can be an 'eco' feature which I mentioned earlier, usually the manufacturer will add a ton of bloatware on the computer that is unnecessary making this part hard to find. I tend to clean all this off on my personal machines so I know exactly what is running. You may need to poke around the manual for your system and see if there is any mention of eco, power saving, cool mode, anything that sounds like it's trying to alter the fan speeds, system clock rates etc... You might even want to try disabling the razor game booster (sounds like a load of crock to me personally)

I tried to find that 'eco' setting but I don't think any such thing is there on my laptop. The reason for the lag is definitely that Clock drop but I am not sure if the reason for this drop is overheating (safe temp. for the system is about 45-55 C and a maximum of 80 C) . Till a couple months back it ran perfectly well, then why not now?
I tried to deal with the overheating issue by taking out the battery and also, under NVIDIA Control Panel's 3D settings, chose Prefer Maximum Performance for each of my games, all of this yielded a marginal 1-2 min. increase in the high Clock rate time. I also tried a "throttle stop 400" software which removes Clock barriers due to overheating but the only difference it made was that the temp. readings were now climbing over 80 C without any improved Clock speed, so I stopped it.
I'll maybe try a vacuum cleaning of air vents as I saw in in a couple youtube vids. I've read that Vaio's Control Center is considered bloatware. Should I remove it? (its safe to do that as I read from a site) If you have any more advice then please help. Thank you.
P.S. Razor Game Booster doesn't affect performance much, though it displays the fps which is also clearly wrong as compared to the performance. I usually don't use it.

 

[PDHawkeye]

Okay, so after a decent vacuum cleaning, I'm seeing improved results in CPU performance but not in Core temp. The temp. still raises to 80 C (83 C max till now) but then just hovers between 78-82 C. The CPU doesn't go all the way up to 100% now, but it stays near 85%, making the game playable. The Clock Speed also reduces from 2000 MHz to 1000-1300 MHz. If possible, I would like more improvement. I'll try one final vacuum cleaning after which, if I don't get required results, I'll take it to the service centre. That's all I can think of now, an more suggestions?