Question Sudden permanent framerate drops in games

May 23, 2022
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Hello,


Before I start, I want to give my Laptop specs


CPU
i7-10750H

GPU
gtx 1660 Ti

RAM
16 Gb

STORAGE
SSD: Samsung MZVLB256HBHQ-000H1
HDD: WDC WD10SPSX-60A6WTO


So to start, I have not had any issues running the games I have wanted to play on my computer until now. Most of these games are strategy games like Factorio, Stellaris, Hearts of Iron 4, Divinity Original Sin 2, etc. I do play other games on it though, such as Planetside 2 and a game called Foxhole. Foxhole is not graphically demanding but its from there that my problems started. I've had Foxhole for about a year and have not had any issues running it until recently. These last few days, when playing Foxhole, everything will be running fine, ill be getting a solid and consistent 60 fps. However, randomly the framerate will drop to about 20, but then it will stay at that fps until I restart the game, and sometimes even that doesn't work. Even changing the graphics settings in game will not fox it. These drops will be completely random. I could be playing for 3 hours and then it'll happen or I could be playing for 5 and it'll happen.

I thought to check my CPU and GPU usage before and after the drop and here is what I found. Before the drop, my GPU usage is at about 70-80% but after the fps drop, it maxes out at 100% and hovers around 95-100% until I restart the game. The CPU usage never changes. The game is not demanding on my SSD either, so the problem doesn't stem from that. But, when I change the graphics settings to the lowest they'll go, my GPU usage will decrease to around 20-30% but the framerate will not improve. This is extremely frustrating because it makes the game practically unplayable. Another thing is that after the FPS drop my computer as a whole is slower when I try and do something else and it stays this way until I restart it.

I had never had this issue with any other game before and until today it was only with Foxhole. However, while playing Divinity Original Sin 2, a game which is more graphically demanding than Foxhole but one that I can run at a solid 60 fps, my fps suddenly tanked to around 20 and would not improve no matter what. When I checked my usage, the same thing that was happening with Foxhole was happening in this game too. I've tried so many things to try and resolve this issue. I made sure my graphics drivers were updated, I uninstalled and reinstalled my graphics drivers, I made sure windows was up to date, I verified the game files of the two games, I went into Nvidia's control panel and made some changes to prefer performance over anything else. I went into Window's graphics settings and turned on Accelerated GPU Scheduling. None of it has worked.

I know it's not an issue with the optimization of Foxhole because I have friends that I play with who have worse specs than I do and don't have this issue. No one I have talked to within the community has experienced this issue and I don't know what to do at this point.
 
May 23, 2022
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Are you monitoring temps on this laptop? What kind of surface are you playing on?

Have you ever cleaned the dust out of the machine?

Did you recently install any new hardware or perhaps a new driver, etc?


Looking at the temperature, for the CPU and GPU its stable at about 135-140 degrees Fahrenheit.

I play on a large wood desk and have my laptop connected to a monitor. I leave plenty of space open for the fans to blow out.

As for dusting, its a pre-built laptop and I don't want to get into it and potentially break something. But I can try if you think I should.

I have not installed any new hardware on the computer, and I only installed/updated my drivers one this started.
 

punkncat

Champion
Ambassador
Looking at the temperature, for the CPU and GPU its stable at about 135-140 degrees Fahrenheit.

I play on a large wood desk and have my laptop connected to a monitor. I leave plenty of space open for the fans to blow out.

As for dusting, its a pre-built laptop and I don't want to get into it and potentially break something. But I can try if you think I should.

I have not installed any new hardware on the computer, and I only installed/updated my drivers one this started.

Temps don't appear to be an issue in this case.

It might be worthwhile to consider checking with game specific forums in regard to the sudden onset of the issue.
 
May 23, 2022
3
0
10
Temps don't appear to be an issue in this case.

It might be worthwhile to consider checking with game specific forums in regard to the sudden onset of the issue.


I have made posts on the specific subreddits, discords and steam forums about this issue but the only responses I have gotten have been to make sure I have the right drivers and windows updates and such.
 
May 23, 2022
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I have the exact same issue on fortnite and valorant. I found out what causes it to happen: whenever i tab out on fullscreen mode there is a slight chance my frames will drop from 240 constant to hover around 60-70. Whenever this happens, my gpu skyrockets from 40% usage at 240 frames to 100% at 60 frames. A temporary fix would be me changing the resolution, but If i wanna play on native resolution again without the frame bug I have to restart my game. Weird thing is, I sometimes gotta try different resolutions for the temporary fix, and some resolutions make my frames go up to only 110 and hover there. None of this makes sense and it is the weirdest bug I have ever gotten in my experience of using a computer, and I've tried countless solutions and none work.