Question Why is my laptop underperforming?

[Swooptyswoop]

Hello ! I am trying to run Valorant, and when looking up online on CanYouRunIt? it says my specs meet both the lowest and the recommended specs to be able to play the game.
My Geforce Experience app even wants me to play at some pretty mid range graphic settings... But when I play the game I have horrible lag spikes.
I can go from literally 200fps to 8fps and I don't get it. To be able to even remotely play the game without raging I play at the LOWEST POSSIBLE GRAPHICS you can imagine. I literally have the resolution set to the lowest that Valorant offers me to play the game at.
I am pretty tech smart, I have tried countless things to fix the issue, but it just seems like my computer just can't handle it.
I'm running on Windows 10.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060
3.0 GBVRAM
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700HQ CPU @ 2.80GHz
16GB Ram
Can anyone help me?
I run Razer Central to help me silence a lot of background programs/services/apps that are unnecessary to have running while I play... I just don't understand what the problem is.
I have even tried to just do a whole reinstall of Windows and redownloading the game to help improve fps but I get the same issue.
It is on my SSD drive so its running off that and not my HDD...
I am connected to ethernet and I have very good internet (the best in my area possible) What could possibly be wrong.

 

[boju]

Is this while laptop is powered by mains power? Or on battery? If former, try performance power plan in Windows and NvidiaCP as well. Battery would change how laptop behaves quite a bit so i wouldn't rely on this method playing.

Also check cpu temp with Core Temp and run a cpu benchmark. I like Core Temp because it's a small window and you can easily monitor cpu speed as well.

Use Gpuz to benchmark and monitor graphics card temp.

 

[Swooptyswoop]

Is this while laptop is powered by mains power? Or on battery? If former, try performance power plan in Windows and NvidiaCP as well. Battery would change how laptop behaves quite a bit so i wouldn't rely on this method playing.

Also check cpu temp with Core Temp and run a cpu benchmark. I like Core Temp because it's a small window and you can easily monitor cpu speed as well.

Use Gpuz to benchmark and monitor graphics card temp.

Hi thank you for your reply! I constantly have my laptop plugged into the charger and have high performance power plan in use for both Windows and NvidiaCP.
My CPU, GPU, and Mainboard temp all run at about 55-70 degrees C it seems. I have an external fan for my computer as well as run the laptop fan in Overboost mode so the laptop stays pretty well cooled.

 

[boju]

Hmm, those are usually the suspects for poor performance. Next would be to look at any utilities, anything that you install after a clean os install. Look in startup items in task manager.

Try a different Geforce driver too, latest isn't always best and can introduce bugs.

 

[Swooptyswoop]

i have all the background utilities and processes/services/apps shut off that can be shut off while i game so that doesnt even help me get a little more fps. the problem still occurs unfortunately. also it doesnt seem to matter what Geforce driver i use because ive had this problem on my pc across numerous updates. its a real bummer because my pc is expected to run this game at constant 144fps on medium settings and it is struggling to run a constant 60 fps on the absolute bottom of the barrel lowest settings

 

[geofelt]

I see many complaints about gaming laptops not performing well.
Usually gaming while plugged in.
One common cause is thermal throttling.
Laptop coolers must, of necessity be small and light.
The coolers are also relatively underpowered.
If you run an app such as HWMonitor or HWinfo, you will get the current, minimum, and maximum cpu temperatures.
For intel processors, if you see a max of 100c. it means you have throttled.
The cpu will lower it's multiplier and power draw to protect itself
until the situation reverses.
At a lower multiplier, your cpu usage may well be at 100%
What can you do?
First, see that your cooler airways are clear and that the cooler fan is spinning.
Use a windows balanced power profile, not the performance profile.
Set a minimum cpu performance to something like 20%

It is counter-intuitive, but, try changing the windows balanced power profile advanced functions to a max of 90% instead of the default of 100%
You may not notice the reduced cpu performance.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Have you tried any other games or benchmarks other than Valorant? And if so, do they perform more or less as expected?

 

[Swooptyswoop]

I see many complaints about gaming laptops not performing well.
Usually gaming while plugged in.
One common cause is thermal throttling.
Laptop coolers must, of necessity be small and light.
The coolers are also relatively underpowered.
If you run an app such as HWMonitor or HWinfo, you will get the current, minimum, and maximum cpu temperatures.
For intel processors, if you see a max of 100c. it means you have throttled.
The cpu will lower it's multiplier and power draw to protect itself
until the situation reverses.
At a lower multiplier, your cpu usage may well be at 100%
What can you do?
First, see that your cooler airways are clear and that the cooler fan is spinning.
Use a windows balanced power profile, not the performance profile.
Set a minimum cpu performance to something like 20%

It is counter-intuitive, but, try changing the windows balanced power profile advanced functions to a max of 90% instead of the default of 100%
You may not notice the reduced cpu performance.

I really appreciate this suggestion and I will try it out tonight ! im assuming that it must be the cpu temp despite doing everything i can to keep it cooled… i do play for hours at a time and notice my laptop gets hot so i think you guys are onto something here… im going to try to see if that helps any but from what im thinking it seems like laptop gaming is just really not that great and i should probably invest in an actual PC build

 

[boju]

Where abouts are the exhaust vents, out the rear/sides or bottom? If exhaust was sides or rear and intake only from bottom you could think about getting a cooling pad and diy insulate foam strips under the laptop to fill gaps around the border forcing as much air as possible through. Normally there'd be a few mm gap, too easy for air to escape.