[SOLVED] HP Omen 15 EK series laptop with i7-10750H/RTX 2070 Max Q/16GB of DDR4 performs terribly in games but perfectly in sustained workloads/stress tests.

[Coleh_Broleh]

Hello everyone, hope you're well and someone can help me. I recently acquired a Refurbished A grade HP Omen 15 2020 model with an i7-10750H/RTX 2070 8GB Max Q 2020 Refresh and 16GB of DDR4 RAM running 2933MHz CL21. I have undervolted the CPU and overclocked the GPU using a custom voltage frequency curve, generally targeting between 1590MHz and 1660MHz on the GPU core, with memory on a +800 for 6300MHz effective on the memory. Both the CPU and GPU under sustained load will pull 80w continuous on the CPU(locking it at 4.2GHz all core) and GPU at 90w(with prior boost frequencies). I tested this with realbench and ThrottleStop's benchmark alongside Unigine Heaven and Firestrike Ultra looping in the background. The CPU at times thermal throttles with BD Prochot appearing intermittently but the system's thermals, especially on the GPU, remain absolutely rock solid.

The issue begins when I actually begin to play games. The experience is infuriating, i'm currently running into odd micro-stuttering and what seems like non-deployment of the GPU and CPU in terms of usage. The CPU and GPU generally do not get fully loaded, and when they are they frequently hold their power limit(largely only the GPU) with the CPU often struggling to need to pull more than 30-50w but the performance is TERRIBLE. And yet both the CPU and GPU remain consistently far away from thermal throttling. The GPU has PWR as a limit reason in GPU-Z but any and all Max-Q graphics cards even at stock always run like this, and the CPU itself has never thermal throttles or appeared with BD PROCHOT on limit reasons whilst gaming. For short periods of time the system is put under proper load with the CPU drawing 60-80w and the GPU pegged to 90w, sometimes above 95w when the CPU isn't under full power draw in some games such as F1 2020 and Battlefield 4. But more modern titles like Call of Duty Cold War/Warzone/Modern Warfare, Need For Speed 2015/Payback and Heat exhibit these issues and it's infuriating. I can't seem to pinpoint an issue.

I've tried enabling and disabling things like battery conservation, i've tried the system bone stock with no undervolt or GPU overclock, I've ensured Optimus is turned off and I'm only using dedicated graphics, and the system is always on performance mode. Yet nothing seems to fix my issues. I've even DDU'd the drivers and have currently installed 471.41 which isn't the latest but the best recommended driver at the moment. Nothing seems to fix the issue. Anyone have any idea what I need to do/should do to fix my performance issue? Thanks guys.

 

[JWNoctis]

If nothing else is taking too much CPU or GPU time, and if your GPU is already drawing maximum power, then there's probably little left to do but adjust expectations or reduce graphic settings, especially on a power-limited Max Q mobile GPU.

Try to compare benchmarks and ingame framerate results with online sources.

 

[Coleh_Broleh]

If nothing else is taking too much CPU or GPU time, and if your GPU is already drawing maximum power, then there's probably little left to do but adjust expectations or reduce graphic settings, especially on a power-limited Max Q mobile GPU.

Try to compare benchmarks and ingame framerate results with online sources.

The issue is that the GPU is not under full power draw properly and bounces erratically from 90w where it performs as it should with high framerates in line with benchmarks and recorded videos I've seen then suddenly drops 15-30w of power draw when there's no throttle or power limitations to explain the behaviour.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

What power plan are you set at

 

[Coleh_Broleh]

What power plan are you set at

High performance and i've even adjusted to make sure there's no power draw or clock speed limitations.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Have you contacted HP support and told them what’s going on? Maybe they could help but all that hardware in a laptop usually means high heat

 

[Coleh_Broleh]

In case anyone else ever has this issue, I managed to finally fix it. MSI Afterburner was the issue, I had left on force constant voltage alongside voltage monitoring and other settings off, a fresh reinstall of MSI Afterburner fixed the issue. Just incase anyone is as stupid as me and remakes this error, ha. Performance is right back to normal with everything running full tilt.

 

[pablisspower]

In case anyone else ever has this issue, I managed to finally fix it. MSI Afterburner was the issue, I had left on force constant voltage alongside voltage monitoring and other settings off, a fresh reinstall of MSI Afterburner fixed the issue. Just incase anyone is as stupid as me and remakes this error, ha. Performance is right back to normal with everything running full tilt.

Hi, if it's not a problem, would you help me with my gpu? I have the same as you, 2070 max-q TU-106 A1 (supposedly refreshed) but I search the internet and find nothing. Is it 80w TDP? No dynamic boost? Any difference with the non-A1 ones? I only have information about the SUPER, or the common ones, Thank you!