Severe stuttering in all major games on new GE75... what now?

Alright, so in December I upgraded my old Asus ROG gaming laptop from 2014. Being that my last laptop made it over 5 years without an upgrade, I decided to go on the high end of things. I have no need for a compact laptop, but it seems like the bigger more "airy" models are more expensive now, so I ended up with a GE75 Raider 9SG with an i9-9880hk, 32 GB of DDR4, and an RTX 2080.

I don't play a ton of different games, just a ton of the same game. Destiny 2 is my main game. Stuttering was immediately apparent, which was chalked up to either bad optimization, or needing to undervolt. The game runs real smooth at 120-140hz with high settings, until the stuttering kicks in at which point it drops to single digits for a bit, and then recovers. Undervolting does help, but I'm at -85.9mv as going beyond that causes freezes, and I am still getting stuttering, just less often. Temperatures still peak out at 95 or above (as high as 98c) suggesting that throttling is the issue. I've tried emptystandbylist, it doesn't help.

I reached the point where I had run out of Destiny 2 content, at least until the new season, so I looked for another game to try. I couldn't decide between The Witcher 3 or The Division 2, so I bought both. Both games have the same problem. So this isn't a game optimization problem, all three of these are AAA titles. This is a laptop problem.

Where do I go from here? A service ticket with MSI at this point?

-BM

 

What do you know, new record tonight. Peak single core temp of 100c.

 

As this is a new laptop i would recommend to send it in for a replacement or at least to take a look at by the service department.

If you are feeling inclined, you could do a thermal paste job before you send it in (a lot of the times the factory thermal paste job is horrendous). Be careful though, as some places do enforce warranty void if tampered stickers and some countries dont

 

What utility did you use to obtain the temperature with? Have you tried updating the BIOS and EC to the latest?

 

In this case, Throttlestop.

I didn't even know that updating bios was a thing, nor do I know what EC is. I'm definitely not a computer expert by any stretch, but I'm learning as I go, as this laptop definitely didn't run well out of the box. Throttlestop is helping but it isn't enough.

 

They can be downloaded via the product page at MSI's website, but if you can provide the current version by obtaining the info from the BIOS then we can find the latest version for ya.
Newer version typically provides fixes, enhancement, security updates, etc so it's good idea to update them.

 

Alright, I check that out tonight.

Also worth noting- there was a period where I would use this laptop as a desktop from time to time, powering a 1440p monitor while sitting on top of a laptop cooler, with the on board monitor turned off. Realized heat during those sessions was generally in the 80's and stuttering was noticeably reduced. Is it possible that the 280w power supply isn't sufficient to power the i9, RTX 2080, and everything else?

 

Bios version: E17E2IMS.10E
Bios build: 3/28/19 16:30:26
EC Version 17E2EMS1.108
EC Build: 4/2/19 16:17:15

 

Time to update.

BIOS:
https://download.msi.com/bos_exe/nb/E17E2IMS.117.zip

EC:
https://download.msi.com/archive/frm_exe/nb/17E2EMS1.109.zip

 

Pretty self explanatory/low risk install?

 

It should be, just make sure you have all BIOS settings revert to factory defaults if the system is overclocked.

 

I recently bought one of these.

It has a the old school grey pad TIM.
you have to use it and let it melt and the temps will slowly go down.

though I'm not believing the 100C.
It thermal throttles at 95.

 

It should throttle at 90C instead of 95C, which tool did you use to monitor the temperature?
Also, if you upgrade the thermal compound you may be able to get more juice out of it.

 

Hey mate, did you manage to install them BIOS and EC? did you gain performance? was it stable?

planning to do mine but still afraid it might fck the system.

 

Intel Extreme Tuning Utility says it thermal throttles at 95C.
I did replace the TIM with MX4 and unvervolted 165mV.
I can play AAA games without throttling but it's still at 91C.

probably next weekend i'll do liquid metal.
90C is just too hot.

 

1. LM will help a lot if you also do undervolt mod
2. Last resort is to tune down the quality setting

 

I actually took it one step further. I shipped it back to MSI, who reinstalled the bios and re pasted it. I never got confirmation that they used the Thermal Grizzly that I sent them, but it didn't come back with the laptop, so I'd hope so.

Regardless, no, it didn't fix the issue. This is such a piece of trash, I can't believe I wasted over $3k USD on it. It constantly frame drops to single digit numbers, even on older titles like The Witcher 3. I've contacted MSI about replacing it with a different, more vented model and they aren't the least bit interested in helping.

 

Right click on your desktop then choose nVIDIA Control Panel. Go to Manage 3D Settings from the left pane, then scroll down a bit until you see power management. If you see it's set to OPTIMAL which is the default setting when you install a driver. That's your issue.

Optimal Power means when there is no draw on the screen, the GPU clock speeds is set 0 MHz to save power and then ramps up once it needs to. Sounds great on paper, works like crap. This is the number one reason why anyone might experience crappy performance from their nVIDIA GPU. What's worse, is that's the default setting in the nVIDIA Control Panel after you install a new driver often leading people to blame the driver for bad performance when it's just the fault of nVIDIA's clowns.

Set the power management to Adaptive which puts the GPU at lower clock speeds when no GPU intensive apps are in use and it would ramp the clocks up when needed. That actually works. It's the best balance between getting lower heat from the GPU and good performance in games.

When benchmarking, for the optimal results, it's best to set the power management to High Performance.

Mind you, after you change the power management to whatever you set it to, a reboot is mandatory for the new clock speeds to take effect.