Question Low GPU and CPU usage, and lower than usual framerate on Lenovo laptop ?

Oct 31, 2023
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Hello,

Laptop model: Lenovo Legion 5 Pro 16ACH6H

Recently my gaming laptop has started running at a lower framrate (about 10-20fps lower) with occasional frame drops of about 40fps. Usually I'm able to maintain a stable framerate in games like valorant and dead by daylight without any drops below my fps caps (144 and 120) bar 1 or 2 fps. My cpu and gpu usage is quite low as well (cpu @ 30% and gpu @ 50-60%), and the thermals are also sitting in the 70's where they are usually pushing into the mid 80's for the cpu and high 70's for the gpu. I have tried reinstalling my drivers and changing power settings but they don't help at all. If anyone could help me that would be great.

Thanks.
 
Sounds like a thermal throttling issue to me, which would explain the lower frame rates AND the lower temperatures. Seems I've seen quite a few people complaining about throttling issues on this particular series of laptop. I'd recommend you download and install HWinfo, run it, choose "Sensors only" and then browse through the sensors while running your game to see if anything stands out OR if either "core thermal throttling" is indicated under the sensor section for your CPU (Will simply say yes or no) or if anything seems amiss in the GPU section thermally or with any of the clocks.

Certainly it might be something else though, but I'd check those things first. How old is this unit? Any chance it's still under warranty?
 
Hi thanks for your reply. I just got finished with HWinfo and I didn't notice anything unusual. All of the thermal throttling sensors say no next to them, the cpu is reaching max boost clock, and the temps are the same. Still the cpu only reached 46% usage though. The gpu looks fine. The only thing I noticed is some of the performance limiters in the gpu section say yes but I think that's normal?

Also, It's about two years old and the warranty has expired I'm pretty sure.
 
So, I'd say do this. Run HWinfo, run your game, take screenshots of all the sensor readings in HWinfo while in the condition that is concerning you. You will probably need to take several screenshots and scroll down between shots to capture all the sensors.

Post the image to imgur and link to it here as outlined in this guide.

 
Hi. So I started up my laptop today and launched my game, and it's working fine again. I have no idea what happened, although I did uninstall riot vanguard so maybe that evil rootkit was causing my fps drops lol. But yeah, it's performing as it used to now. Thanks for all your help Darkbreeze.