Question Laptop not performing at it's supposed maximum capabilities ?

[Tiskik]

Just tried using the razer optimizer after once again having consistent FPS issues in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. It says that it predicts 320 FPS. I launched the game, tried playing for no more than 5 minutes, and was greeted with probably the same thing I've been dealing with for the past few months. I play with a monitor, keyboard, mouse, headset, as well as ethernet connected to the laptop, and before anyone, assumes it's just the sheer amount of accessories connected, I've tried playing just on the laptop to see if that was the case, and was met with the same exact issue and the same exact FPS. Below is a doc link to the FPS report from those 5 minutes. Please help! I've had this same issue since 2019! I'm not sure if paying 3000$ for a laptop to run on 100fps and periodically blue-screen is really worth it.
Quick little update I just tried playing and am getting between 30-140 FPS maximum, and the frames seemingly drop when there is a new input on the screen (for example, an enemy player running around a corner into my FOV, or me moving my mouse.
I've installed throttle stop but that also doesn't seem to help.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...4TT93yXiUQjSzuSSBN0ec1Ujo/edit#gid=1772245018

Specs:
Overview
Computer model: Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model (Early 2020) - RZ09-033
Operating system: Microsoft Windows 11 Home (10.0, Build 22000)
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-10875H CPU @ 2.30GHz 8/16
Motherboard: Razer CH551
RAM: 16 GB
Hard disk: NVMe CA5-8D1024 (953.9 GB/Fixed hard disk media)
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super with Max-Q Design (8 GB)
Monitor1: AU Optronics AUODE8E (1920x1080 / 15.3 Inch)
Monitor2: BenQ Corporation ZOWIE XL LCD (1920x1080 / 24.3 Inch)
Sound card1: (Generic USB Audio) USB Audio Device
Sound card2: Realtek High Definition Audio
Sound card3: (Generic USB Audio) USB Audio Device
Sound card4: NVIDIA Virtual Audio Device (Wave Extensible) (WDM)
Sound card5: NVIDIA High Definition Audio
Sound card6: SteelSeries ApS SteelSeries Sonar Virtual Audio Device
Keyboard1: HID Keyboard Device
Keyboard2: HID Keyboard Device
Keyboard3: HID Keyboard Device
Keyboard4: Razer Blade
Mice: HID-compliant mouse
Audio1: Arctis 5 Chat
Audio2: abramtek E600
Audio3: LSTN Marquee Hands-Free
Audio4: AKG N60NC Wireless
Audio5: LSTN Marquee
Audio6: Realtek® Audio
Audio7: Arctis 5 Game
Audio8: NVIDIA Virtual Audio Device (Wave Extensible) (WDM)
Audio9: NVIDIA High Definition Audio
Audio10: LSTN Marquee A2DP SNK
Audio11: SteelSeries Sonar Virtual Audio Device
Audio12: AKG N60NC Wireless Hands-Free
Camera1: Integrated Camera
Camera2: Integrated IR Camera

Processor:
Name: Intel® Core™ i7-10875H CPU @ 2.30GHz
Frequency: 2.304 GHz
Number of cores: 8
Threads: 16
L1 cache: 512 KB
L2 cache: 2 MB
L3 cache: 16 MB
Bit width: 64
Voltage: 0.7 V
Clock multiplier: 23
FSB: 100

 

[Aeacus]

It says that it predicts 320 FPS.

According the prediction, it falls a bit short. What your report shows, is that you got up to 389 FPS. So, more than prediction.

Below is a doc link to the FPS report from those 5 minutes.

Why do you play on 4K when you only have 1080p monitor(s)?

I'm not sure if paying 3000$ for a laptop to run on 100fps and periodically blue-screen is really worth it.

That kind of money would bring in solid desktop PC, that you can upgrade as needed. With laptop, no such convenience, other than it being portable.
So, IMO, that's extreme waste of money, for a laptop, which isn't designed for gaming in the first place. (Laptops were designed and meant for business use, folks who travel around a lot and can't have desktop PC as their work PC.)

 

[Tiskik]

I did reach 389 but for a second at most, it was in the loading screen of the game so essentially during a period of time where the screen was still.


The exact monitor I am using is the. In game I actually play on a 4:3 resolution and stretch it to fit my screen, I play on a 1280x960 resolution.
BenQ ZOWIE XL2740 27-inch 240Hz Gaming Monitor
https://www.google.com/search?gs_ss...3l2j0i512l2.4376j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

The laptop itself is advertised as a "gaming laptop" that is meant to outperform certain desktops, and initially, I didn't see many problems with it, I had a stable FPS of around 200-250 but now on certain days, it's amazing with around a 300 stable fps, to today where it peaks at around 130 and drops to 40-60.

 

[Aeacus]

In game I actually play on a 4:3 resolution and stretch it to fit my screen, I play on a 1280x960 resolution.

Yet, your telemetry shows you playing on 4K (3759x2160).

The laptop itself is advertised as a "gaming laptop" that is meant to outperform certain desktops

Advertisement is marketing, which is supposed to sell the product. As far as outperforming goes, i3 with GTX 1060, perhaps, but it will not outperform desktop with exact hardware. Instead it will fall far short since laptop GPUs are always weaker than their desktop counterparts.

E.g comparison between your RTX 2080 Super Max-Q vs RTX 2080 Super (desktop version),
link: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compa...ax-Q-vs-Nvidia-RTX-2080S-Super/m1114823vs4050

Yours is about half what desktop GPU is capable of. Your GPU is equal to GTX 1070 Ti/ RTX 2060.

and initially, I didn't see many problems with it, I had a stable FPS of around 200-250

Initially? I thought you had this problem since start. At least, this is as much you've said:

I've had this same issue since 2019!

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to today where it peaks at around 130 and drops to 40-60.

CS:GO is online game. Have you talked with your ISP? Perhaps increase your package to faster one, or ask when the peak times are, so you can avoid peak usage. Since when there's peak usage, the connection speed does drop quite a bit, resulting higher ping and less FPS.

Also, when you do solo play, do you still have your FPS issues? Or does it happen only in multiplayer?

and before anyone, assumes it's just the sheer amount of accessories connected, I've tried playing just on the laptop to see if that was the case, and was met with the same exact issue and the same exact FPS.

I'm not interested about the peripherals which you've hooked up, but instead the bloatware (or even malware). Since bloatware (malware) will slow down your system, resulting less performance.

So, what kind of OS/software maintenance you've done? Other than "razer optimizer" and "throttle stop".

 

[Tiskik]

I'm not interested about the peripherals which you've hooked up, but instead the bloatware (or even malware). Since bloatware (malware) will slow down your system, resulting less performance.

So, what kind of OS/software maintenance you've done? Other than "razer optimizer" and "throttle stop".

So I'm not actually sure how to do maintenance properly I guess? I've been updating my graphics drivers regularly and ensuring to keep up with my windows updates, I have it set to high performance when plugged in rather than a balanced one. I suppose if I could be led in the correct direction on how to do maintenance/optimization it could help. I make sure to close all background processes and when I'm having these issues with the computer being slow I also open task manager to try and see what's being used too much and everything tends to be normal.

CS:GO is online game. Have you talked with your ISP? Perhaps increase your package to faster one, or ask when the peak times are, so you can avoid peak usage. Since when there's peak usage, the connection speed does drop quite a bit, resulting higher ping and less FPS.

Also, when you do solo play, do you still have your FPS issues? Or does it happen only in multiplayer?

I'm currently playing from a University, so I am connected to their ethernet directly, however, the legginess issue persists whether I am at my university or at home, and at home we have a commercial ISP because of my father's work. Ping has never been an issue, for example when playing on a NY server my ping is around 5, exactly the same as everyone else who is also playing with me from my University

Yours is about half what desktop GPU is capable of. Your GPU is equal to GTX 1070 Ti/ RTX 2060.

Even with an RTX 2060, it shouldn't be skipping frames though right? I feel like that's the biggest issue beyond the frame drop, it literally feels like frames are almost skipped.

When I play solo these issues persist as well, even in offline servers which can be accessed entirely with no internet connection.

Yet, your telemetry shows you playing on 4K (3759x2160).

That's strange, could it possibly be looking at the telemetry of the laptop monitor? I do have a secondary monitor connected after all. If that isn't the case what could this mean?

Initially? I thought you had this problem since start. At least, this is as much you've said:

Id like to clarify, Ive had 2 of this laptop, the first one's battery bloated and I was sent a new one as a replacement due to the warranty. Each time for the first month of usage of the laptop it worked fine and dandy but then started working at this rate once more. It literally feels like on some days it decides to work and some it doesn't, just 4 days back i was having an amazing day in reference to performance where it was maintaining between 250-400 FPS for the entire day, and today it kept 200-250 for the first minute of me playing and then dropped to its usual 80-120 fps range with random sudden drops to 10-30 fps for a second every id say about 20 seconds (I play for my collegiate team, so optimization is very important for us especially in a tactical FPS where each second matter, the 1 second drops of FPS that makes the game unplayable tend to be the difference between a loss or a win of a round as absurd as that sounds) -- Also, thank you for helping

 

[Aeacus]

I suppose if I could be led in the correct direction on how to do maintenance/optimization it could help.

Here, you have 2 choices on what to do:

1. Wipe (format) your OS drive and install new, fresh Windows on it.
2. Dig in and start finding all those needles in a haystack, if even possible.

1st option is best and fastest, since that will clear all software issues you may have, including bloatware and malware (except rootkits). After which, system should behave as it was brand new. A butter smooth experience. And when you start getting FPS drops again, make a note what happened with system, since when game is able to play at proper FPS, it won't start dropping FPS just out of the blue. Instead, some software change happened.

2nd option is far more tedious and time consuming, where all the efforts could be in vain. Since Win as an OS, is one messy OS and trying to find those needles in a haystack, is one big ordeal.

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Moving forwards, OS/software maintenance/optimization would include (following is what i do with my system):
(Pick Free versions of all the following, since some offer payed plans.)

Temperature monitoring
HWinfo64 (detailed + has logging feature),
link: https://www.hwinfo.com/download.php

Application monitoring
Process Explorer (to see which programs hog the system resources),
link: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

Guide on how to understand it,
link: https://www.howtogeek.com/school/sysinternals-pro/lesson2/

Application fine-tuning
Autoruns (to configure which programs automatically start when PC boots into OS),
link: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns

CCleaner (to clean your PC from temporary files, including registry cleaning),
link: https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/download

Malware protection
MalwareBytes Premium (also protects during web browsing by blocking infected sites),
link: https://www.malwarebytes.com/

MalwareBytes has 3 versions:
Standard (after 14 day trial has ended) - good for manual scans of your system.
Trial (14 days free Premium) - adds all Premium features over Standard version (Browser Guard, scheduled scans, real-time protection etc).
Premium (costs money) - complete package (everything that was in 14 day free Trial). There's even VPN package if you're into that.

Web browser
Besides those stand-alone programs, i also use web browser plug-ins to protect my PC further. What i use with my FireFox, are:

• HTTPS Everywhere (Firefox plug-in)
• Decentraleyes (Firefox plug-in)
• uBlock Origin (Firefox plug-in)
• MalwareBytes Browser Guard (Firefox plug-in, part of MalwareBytes Premium)
• NoScript (Firefox plug-in)

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Here, i'd classify all what i use, into 3 levels of complexity:

1. Casual user - HWinfo64, MalwareBytes (including Browser Guard), HTTPS Everywhere
2. Power user - Process Explorer, Decentraleyes, uBlock Origin
3. Super user - Autoruns, CCleaner, NoScript

You can start with Casual User level applications, which include temperature monitoring, malware scan and simple web browser protection.

• MalwareBytes Trial gives you 14 day free Premium subscription, so you can test it out fully for 2 weeks, and see all the goodies it offers. Once the Trial ends, you still can do manual system scans, but Browser Guard, Scheduled Scans etc are disabled, since these are part of Premium suite. I have Premium suite in use, with my main PC (Skylake), on my missus'es PC (Haswell) and also in my smart phone.
• HWinfo64 is great for monitoring temperatures and you having a laptop, most likely means you have high temps, probably even thermal throttle, that can affect your FPS within your games.
• And HTTPS Everywhere is nice browser plug-in, to force every site you visit, to use far more secure HTTPS connection, over the old and vulnerable HTTP protocol.

I also suggest that you look into Power User level of software.

• Process Explorer would be the 1st thing i'd start learning on how to use. Since this is 10x times better than the Task Manager that comes with Win. Also, while Task Manager shows you "select few" running applications, Process Explorer shows them all. I also linked you a guide on how to understand it.
• Decentraleyes and uBlock Origin, both, essentially remove the ads you see when browsing (almost all malware can come through the ads placed on websites). For the most part, they work without any user input. But some sites may detect you using them and if you want access to a webpage, you need to temporaly disable them. Hence why i put them under this category.

But what i do not suggest you to use, are Super User level of software.

• Autoruns and CCleaner can corrupt your OS, if you don't know what you're doing. There are guides out there to understand how to use them, but i suggest that you 1st make sense on how to use Process Explorer.
• And NoScript will tank your web browser, by automatically blocking all scripts running on all websites. Though, while it does break websites from operating properly, with it, you also have an option to manually allow every single script to run. With it you'd have absolute control over each and every website and it's you who decides if the script on that website is safe to run or not. While most complex to learn, it also offers the most power over your web browsing.

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So, on software optimization standpoint, i suggest that you:

1. Make clean Win install.
2. Start using Process Explorer, HWinfo64, MalwareBytes to keep the OS running smooth. And once you've come to a level of maintaining healthy OS, you can look into Autoruns, CCleaner and perhaps even NoScript to fine tune your PC, software wise.

Even with an RTX 2060, it shouldn't be skipping frames though right? I feel like that's the biggest issue beyond the frame drop, it literally feels like frames are almost skipped.

Once you've done clean Win install and you still get FPS issues, with fresh windows, then we can safely assume that issue isn't with software but instead with hardware. E.g thermal throttle (hence why use HWinfo64).

Though, i currently suspect software issue, since there have been times when game worked fine, but not anymore. This indicates something changed with software, and i doubt that you changed the hardware within your laptop.

That's strange, could it possibly be looking at the telemetry of the laptop monitor? I do have a secondary monitor connected after all. If that isn't the case what could this mean?

You did list your specs and according to those, your laptop screen is 1080p screen:

Monitor1: AU Optronics AUODE8E (1920x1080 / 15.3 Inch)

Based on your telemetry program, you do play at 4K resolution. If so, then it would explain the FPS drops, since your GPU is nowhere near powerful enough to be gaming on 4K. Oh, might want to check in-game resolution as well. Btw, CS:GO does support 1080p resolution (gives you better FOV), so you could try gaming with 1080p. Even some pro players use 1080p on CS:GO,
a bit further reading: https://afkgaming.com/csgo/guide/71...-ratio-for-csgo-perfect-display-settings-2021

Each time for the first month of usage of the laptop it worked fine and dandy but then started working at this rate once more.

So, something did happen to result in FPS drop. I suspect software change, so do look into formatting your OS drive and then making a clean Win install.