[SOLVED] Weird FPS problem on my gaming laptop

[constantine_99]

EDIT 2: ok after some research, i found out that regardless of the situation, the R7 would always be used since the display's only connected to the APU, however, during intensive task like games, the RX 460 supposedly would "come and help" with the rendering task [basically, it's not "switchable graphic", it's more of an "add-on graphic"], however, this still doesn't explain the low fps and weird stats on the task manager, and also the fact that games still runs horribly, regardless of the settings

CSGO: ~10-50 fps (depends on what happened) during the freeze time it's usually around 60-70, as the game starts, FPS would start to decline too
Dota 2: 10-32 fps (regardless of setting, I ran it on DX11) starts out on 60-70, as the game progresses, the FPS declines
Far Cry 5: 8-19 fps (and 0.97 VRAM usage) FPS just plain tanks out during the whole benchmark

as bad as this FX-9830p + RX 460 combo is, I doubt that it's supposed to perform worse than an i5 4200u + R5 M335 combo (coz that's what my friends had and he ran games way smoother than my laptop did) or even a G850 + GT630 (my old rig) for that matter...

TL;DR: very low fps and unstable overall performance, despite the hardware that it packs, many reviews shows how this laptop supposedly able to at least play AAA titles on low-med, well I'd say FC5 with 12 avg FPS on the lowest setting is not by all means, PLAYABLE...

here's the gist:

• I tried to run CSGO, noticed low fps overall and highly erratic fps drop
• I tried finding the cause, notice that the RX 460 on Task Manager's Performance Tab only had 1GB of VRAM
• I confirmed that's the case in MSI Afterburner since, on that app, the only VRAM stat that exists belongs to the GPU7 (which is the integrated R7's VRAM)
• I mean, yeah the GPU would probably also throttle and the CPU is holding it back, but I mean, come on, fps drop to the single digit on CSGO regardless of the setting? something weird's definitely happening
• also, RX 460 usage seems to be pretty sporadic too, spiking up and down

also while we're at it, I notice that there are 7 GPU on my afterburner's list: GPU 1 being the "master" RX460, GPU 2-6 being another RX 460s, GPU7 being the integrated R7

i hope one of you guys have encountered this problem and/or know the solution to this problem

Laptop specs: F X550IU
FX-9830p
16 GB DDR4 2133mhz
1 TB 5400 RPM
R7 Graphic (1GB VRAM)
RX 460 (supposedly 4GB VRAM according to Radeon driver and GPU-Z) listed as 1GB in games and Task Manager

Things I've tried (and doesn't seem to solve the problem):
1 reinstalling driver
2 DDU and then reinstalling the driver again
3 disabling integrated GPU the display's only connected to the APU so disabling it = no graphic card at all [stuck with window's basic adapter basically]
4 update the driver from Device Manager
5 switching every possible switch to high performance (power plan and switchable graphics settings)
6 Installing driver from ASUS's website

EDIT 1:
1) shows how the RX 460 only had 1 GB of VRAM at its disposal

https://imgur.com/a/Gz6zlcj

View: https://imgur.com/a/Gz6zlcj

2) the real spec of the RX 460, clearly listed 4GB GDDR5

https://imgur.com/a/f6tgP0U

View: https://imgur.com/a/f6tgP0U

EDIT 3:
3) FC5 benchmark result

https://imgur.com/veITReMh

View: https://i.imgur.com/veITReMh.jpg

 

[Aashirbad Thapa]

Might be that your system is utilizing the APU graphics rather than the dedicated memory. Try going in to the Radeon graphics setting and change the graphics preference to dedicated graphics the RX 460 .
Here the link to the steps if you dont know how to switch it.

Ubisoft Help - Official Account & Game Support

Ubisoft Official Help Site. Support, rewards, troubleshooting, player safety, servers status and game tips. How can we help?

support.ubi.com

 

[constantine_99]

Might be that your system is utilizing the APU graphics rather than the dedicated memory. Try going into the Radeon graphics setting and change the graphics preference to dedicated graphics the RX 460.
Here the link to the steps if you don't know how to switch it.

Ubisoft Help - Official Account & Game Support

Ubisoft Official Help Site. Support, rewards, troubleshooting, player safety, servers status and game tips. How can we help?

support.ubi.com

As I've said before, I already did that (the switching to high-performance part)

Also, I've mentioned that the RX 460 is rendering the games (the fps can and does peak to 90-100s), however it's seems to not utilizing its own VRAM (the 4gb GDDR5) which might be the cause of the massive spikes (bcz of the memory bottleneck), if it was as you said and it is indeed the R7 at work then it would've been:

1. the R7 having higher usage than the RX 460 (it'll show up on afterburner)
2. the fps would most likely be pretty stable albeit lower because it's not a decent GPU by any means when compared to the RX
3. changing the game settings would've increased the fps and stability yet it didn't in my case

But, this is all merely a theory of mine, based on the stats that I saw, if anyone had any other solution (other than things like "buy a new laptop") feel free to leave a reply

during the gameplay:
GPU1 (RX 460) usage: peaked to 100% sometimes, but erratically went up and down, even went down as far as 0%
GPU7 (R7)usage: stayed pretty stable on ~10 - 14%
CPU: anywhere between ~30-70% depending on the scene, tried on 2 scenarios: 2.6GHz (underclocked with power plan) and 3Ghz (normal)

 

[constantine_99]

to update this post (since I don't want to keep editing the main post and make it even longer) and the current situation, I found a few things that do help me gain some extra performance (on certain cases)

1. iGPU usage must be as low as possible in order to draw more fps from the RX460, I managed to lower the IGPU usage by:

• closing every app that uses iGPU as its main renderer (things like browser, task manager, etc)
• changing the game from borderless to fullscreen

2. undervolt/underclock the CPU in order to prevent the GPU from thermal throttling (which sometimes do happen, and when it does, it's god-awful) because of the 75C thermal limit that Asus has set on their GPU BIOS, i did this using the power plan's advance setting option through lowering CPU power limit

without doing the steps
RX460 usage: sporadic
R7 usage: 10-25%
CPU usage: sporadic between 30-70%
CPU clocks: ~3.0-3.5 GHz
CSGO FPS: 10-50, avg around 30-40 mostly with LOTS of stutters
FC5 FPS: 8-19, avg around 12, R7's 1024mb VRAM is being maxed out (can't see the data on RX460's VRAM so no clue 'bout that, other than it's clocking just fine)
basically the same stat as my previous post

after doing the steps
RX 460 usage: still sporadic
R7 usage: 4-7%
CPU usage: ~50-90%
CPU clocks: ~2.6 GHz
CSGO FPS: 50-90, avg around ~60 without most of the stutters
FC5 FPS: 8-16, nothing changed, still shows the max out "1GB VRAM"
better overall performance and playability in some cases

I also found another clue:
RX460 memory clock does max out during gameplay, meaning that it is somehow used, perhaps the computer just can't see the full stat which is why it never shows up on MSI Afterburner, however, the laptop seems to also use the R7 memory as VRAM during gameplay (I mean, I've said it a couple of time already in my previous posts)
because of the finding above, I assume that the performance issue is caused by these things:

1. iGPU trying to intervene on the dGPU's works (causing the APU to reach power limit since it does share power between CPU & GPU)
2. on high temps, the RX460 simply just bail out, lowering the clocks to the extreme, causing the FPS to tank even more
3. somehow, apps seem to use both R7's and RX460's VRAM, causing problems when file-swapping is necessary (probably the reason why the stuttering can't be fully eliminated)
4. talking about file-swapping, I guess the 5400RPM HDD also makes everything even worse

at this point, I'd say it's just a combination of bad product and bad overall design, such a shame, the RX460 barely stretch its leg on this laptop, I wonder why didn't they just go with the traditional "switchable graphic" implementation rather than this monstrosity of a system...

Mad props to the guys who didn't encounter this problem and managed to play game just fine, if however, you've encountered this problem and managed to fix it, do leave a reply, as i am not giving up on it just yet.

 

[constantine_99]

FOUND THE SOLUTION!!!

apparently a guy has created a modified BIOS which unlocks most of the BIOS setting, giving us the flexibility to adjust things out, he also increases the thermal limit for the RX460 and also it's core/memory clocks

this is the link to his GitHub page: https://github.com/okitavera/bios-blob-x550iu
you can download the BIOS there

after some tweaking:
the right VRAM now shows up on the task manager (albeit I still can't find it on MSI Afterburner)
CSGO now ran smoother and had higher FPS ceiling (it hits 100 fps much more often)
FC5 over 2x the fps (granted it's from 12 to 25, but hey, that's a 110% improvement, max fps goes from 19 to 38 too)
Dota 2 apparently doesn't receive any improvement (since it is still CPU bottlenecked to the core based on the Afterburner's stat, only got ~20 fps avg on med & ~15 fps avg on high, dunno why)

Detailed Explanation:
as my previous theory suggest, the problem lies in how AMD DSG (dynamic switchable graphic) aka Enduro works, the iGPU acting as the main displayer and the dGPU having to pass through their data from the iGPU, while in theory this allows for better efficiency (since they don't need to switch GPU every time) the software seems to be left in shambles, causing problems, one of it being the one that I encountered.

Driver support for enduro has been stopped since 19.5.1 so that also explains the issue.
Source: https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-19-5-1
Check the important notes section

What I did instead is switching from Enduro to HybridGraphic, while the core design of the AMD system is still based on Enduro, meaning that I won't be able to disable the iGPU for good measure, the performance gain, as stated above, is nothing to scoff at

Enduro could've been great if they keep supporting it with the upcoming driver, but from what I found on my research, they didn't, and so, if you encountered the same problem, you only have 2 option:

• stick with Manufacturer's old, obsolete drivers, cause those are the one that had been tweaked and optimized by them (which in my case, doesn't really work)
• do what I did, find and install a modded BIOS, tweak the BIOS and use the hybrid graphic setting instead