Question Laptop performing way below expectations

[Aniket2905]

I have an HP Envy x360 Convertible with a Ryzen 5 2500U processor and 8 GB RAM that I bought back in 2018.
Overall, I'm satisfied with my purchase, but I'm quite disappointed in the gaming performance on this device. It should be able to do some light gaming at low settings, which it was able to do when I bought this laptop. I've seen FPS test in games with the exact same model and specifications, but my device doesn't even come close to the performance that people benchmarking the games are getting.
So I ran a benchmark test today on userbenchmark, and got the following results: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/53978631
It says my PC is performing way below expectations.

I've already tried deleting unnecessary apps and bloatware from my system.
However, I haven't updated this PC in quite a while because my Windows version reached the end of service, and I was unable to fix the problem until recently - after which I updated Windows to the latest version, but was forced to revert back due to the low performance and stutters I was getting in the new version, even though I was just on the desktop without any application open.

I tried to update my drivers using the HP website, but it couldn't identify my drivers. I had a look at the all drivers section though, and found a BIOS update. But I'm afraid to install it due to the fear of bricking my PC and causing problems.

I would really appreciate if someone could please identify the problem.

 

[KyaraM]

I have an HP Envy x360 Convertible with a Ryzen 5 2500U processor and 8 GB RAM that I bought back in 2018.
Overall, I'm satisfied with my purchase, but I'm quite disappointed in the gaming performance on this device. It should be able to do some light gaming at low settings, which it was able to do when I bought this laptop. I've seen FPS test in games with the exact same model and specifications, but my device doesn't even come close to the performance that people benchmarking the games are getting.
So I ran a benchmark test today on userbenchmark, and got the following results: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/53978631
It says my PC is performing way below expectations.

I've already tried deleting unnecessary apps and bloatware from my system.
However, I haven't updated this PC in quite a while because my Windows version reached the end of service, and I was unable to fix the problem until recently - after which I updated Windows to the latest version, but was forced to revert back due to the low performance and stutters I was getting in the new version, even though I was just on the desktop without any application open.

I tried to update my drivers using the HP website, but it couldn't identify my drivers. I had a look at the all drivers section though, and found a BIOS update. But I'm afraid to install it due to the fear of bricking my PC and causing problems.

I would really appreciate if someone could please identify the problem.

If you are heaving such big issues, I'm afraid you won't get around a BIOS update. That's a good indicator that it is needed. Backup all your data to an external drive before doing so. Also, read instructions on the HP website carefully before doing so. See if they offer a program that allows you automated BIOS updates from Windows.

Btw, what Windows version are we talking here? If it's older than Windows 10, I would consider upgrading completely.

 

[Aniket2905]

If you are heaving such big issues, I'm afraid you won't get around a BIOS update. That's a good indicator that it is needed. Backup all your data to an external drive before doing so. Also, read instructions on the HP website carefully before doing so. See if they offer a program that allows you automated BIOS updates from Windows.

Btw, what Windows version are we talking here? If it's older than Windows 10, I would consider upgrading completely.

I had a look at the BIOS updates and the latest supported version for my laptop is dated April 22. I'm currently running a BIOS from May 2019.
Another doubt I have is that is it possible for my version of Windows to be incompatible with the latest BIOS? Is that such a thing?

My OS is Windows 10 Home Build 17134.

 

[Aniket2905]

Okay, so I upgraded my BIOS, and it seems to have made a MAJOR difference.

Before: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/53978631
After: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/53985991

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

Sadly, there is very little you will be able to do to improve performance in games. Whilst your laptop is not horrendously specced, it's an entry level CPU, with a hardly decent iGPU to play games with.

The laptop is just not designed for that. One way you could improve performance a little bit is sticking more ram in there, to bring it to 16gb. The reason why this could be the best way (and only real way to improve ) would be that currently you have 8gb of ram. It's probably a single stick, which means it's running in single channel mode. By getting another 8gb to make 16gb in total, you will then have dual channel performance which can bring a leap of about 20% in games and most other apps. Ryzen CPUs really like dual channel and fast ram. And so does the IGPU.

From what I can see, your laptop has an additional memory slot available.

 

[kerberos_20]

Hey there,

Sadly, there is very little you will be able to do to improve performance in games. Whilst your laptop is not horrendously specced, it's an entry level CPU, with a hardly decent iGPU to play games with.

The laptop is just not designed for that. One way you could improve performance a little bit is sticking more ram in there, to bring it to 16gb. The reason why this could be the best way (and only real way to improve ) would be that currently you have 8gb of ram. It's probably a single stick, which means it's running in single channel mode. By getting another 8gb to make 16gb in total, you will then have dual channel performance which can bring a leap of about 20% in games and most other apps. Ryzen CPUs really like dual channel and fast ram. And so does the IGPU.

From what I can see, your laptop has an additional memory slot available.

he has two 4GB sticks, before bios update his ram latency was 200ms with 7GB/s bandwith, thats way too low for igpu, bios update either fixed it or reseted some user settings there

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

he has two 4GB sticks, before bios update his ram latency was 200ms with 7GB/s bandwith, thats way too low for igpu, bios update either fixed it or reseted some user settings there

You're absolutely right, I missed that in the UB breakdown. Thanks

 

[Aniket2905]

he has two 4GB sticks, before bios update his ram latency was 200ms with 7GB/s bandwith, thats way too low for igpu, bios update either fixed it or reseted some user settings there

Could you please tell me where you got those numbers from in the User benchmark, and what exactly do those mean? I'm not very good at PC jargon.

Hey there,

Sadly, there is very little you will be able to do to improve performance in games. Whilst your laptop is not horrendously specced, it's an entry level CPU, with a hardly decent iGPU to play games with.

The laptop is just not designed for that. One way you could improve performance a little bit is sticking more ram in there, to bring it to 16gb.

Yes, I know my PC isn't really made for gaming, but I was able to get decent frames when I first purchased the laptop, which I now don't.
I saw a YT video of a guy testing games on the exact same model that I have, and he was getting a lot more FPS than I was, so I wanted to know what the problem was.
And like kerberos said, my RAM slots are full; I have 2x4GB sticks.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Could you please tell me where you got those numbers from in the User benchmark, and what exactly do those mean? I'm not very good at PC jargon.


Yes, I know my PC isn't really made for gaming, but I was able to get decent frames when I first purchased the laptop, which I now don't.
I saw a YT video of a guy testing games on the exact same model that I have, and he was getting a lot more FPS than I was, so I wanted to know what the problem was.
And like kerberos said, my RAM slots are full; I have 2x4GB sticks.

Yes, my bad, re: Ram.

What power profile are you running? It should be on Ryzen balanced! Is there a chipset driver on the download page you mentioned? If so, make sure it's up to date as it will have the most recent Ryzen Balance power plan.

You could also try High performance profile by typing the following into powershell: powercfg -duplicatescheme 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c

See if one or the other profiles gives you more peformance.

 

[Aniket2905]

Yes, my bad, re: Ram.

What power profile are you running? It should be on Ryzen balanced! Is there a chipset driver on the download page you mentioned? If so, make sure it's up to date as it will have the most recent Ryzen Balance power plan.

You could also try High performance profile by typing the following into powershell: powercfg -duplicatescheme 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c

See if one or the other profiles gives you more peformance.

How do I check the profile? In what software? I don't have a Ryzen software on my laptop pre-installed, and the only one I have (AMD Radeon settings) is basically useless.
Do you mean the power plans in Windows itself? (Balanced, power saver, high performance)

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

How do I check the profile? In what software? I don't have a Ryzen software on my laptop pre-installed, and the only one I have (AMD Radeon settings) is basically useless.
Do you mean the power plans in Windows itself? (Balanced, power saver, high performance)

Yes, power plans in Windows. Exactly. If you have the latest chipset driver, it installs the Ryzen balance plan to the power plan selection. Ideally you choose/run Ryzen balanced profile which will give best performance.

 

[Aniket2905]

Okay, I just installed Tomb Raider and tried playing it, which I should be able to do quite smoothly as I have the minimum as well as recommended specs for it.

Yes, power plans in Windows. Exactly. If you have the latest chipset driver, it installs the Ryzen balance plan to the power plan selection. Ideally you choose/run Ryzen balanced profile which will give best performance.

By chipset driver do you mean latest graphics card update? I do have the latest version, but I think might be be a bit glitchy because I used Driver Booster to update instead of using the HP official website.

This is the version I have:

https://imgur.com/0byrsru

View: https://i.imgur.com/0byrsru.png

These are the graphics drivers from the HP website:

https://imgur.com/coQb50z

View: https://i.imgur.com/coQb50z.png


Should I download one of these?

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

No, it's not the GPU drivers. It's a chipset driver.

Would look similar to this:

https://imgur.com/b1SrYxP

View: https://imgur.com/b1SrYxP

 

[Aniket2905]

I ran Tomb Raider, which I should be able to do smoothly because I have both the minimum and recommended specs.
The problem is that the GPU core clock stays at about 200 Mhz while it's usage goes to 100% - This is a thermal throttling issue right?

https://imgur.com/5CJFRIR

View: https://i.imgur.com/5CJFRIR.png


I saw a video on how to fix this, and it worked for a bit, but then my GPU clock started going down to 200 Mhz

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2h4Zdf-BXU

 

[Aniket2905]

No, it's not the GPU drivers. It's a chipset driver.

Would look similar to this:

https://imgur.com/b1SrYxP

View: https://imgur.com/b1SrYxP

I'm not able to find it for my device.

https://imgur.com/Zlpc6hE

View: https://i.imgur.com/Zlpc6hE.png


Also, what about the GPU driver? Should I downgrade it to the latest version listed on the HP website?

 

[kerberos_20]

I'm not able to find it for my device.

https://imgur.com/Zlpc6hE

View: https://i.imgur.com/Zlpc6hE.png


Also, what about the GPU driver? Should I downgrade it to the latest version listed on the HP website?

yes, use driver from HP
as for your gpu clock, its either thermal throtling or have hit TDP power limit