Can you explain to me why this happens and how to fix it?

Specs:
Chassis: Clevo P771ZM
Motherboard: Intel Z97 Chipset
GPU: GeForce GTX 980M 8192MB (8GB) GDDR5
CPU: i7-4790K | Quad Core | 8 Threads | 4,0 GHz
RAM: 16GB (2x8192) SO-DIMM DDR3 RAM 1600MHz Crucial
SSD: 512GB SSD Samsung m.2 XP941
SSD2: 256GB Crucial C300
OS: Windows 8.1 64 Bit

Hey guys. You might remember me from some posts I made several weeks ago about my P771ZM underperforming in games and behaving erratically in Windows and in various programs.

It was discovered I had a malware mining for bitcoins that was eating a lot of CPU and driving the temperatures really high. That has been removed now and along with a few other system improvements (like a light undervolt you guys helped me doing), the whole computer performs much better now. No more Windows issues and I am able to reach 60 FPS in pretty much any game (including the ones that were giving me the most trouble before, namely GTA V).

However there is one last behaviour that I can't seem to figure out. It seems that when my system passes a certain threshold of load, it switches itself to a 30 FPS mode. It's like, if it feels it can't keep a steady 60 FPS anymore, it just goes back to 30 for a while, and eventually goes back to 60. Sometimes this goes back and forth and the frame rate seems to bounce in between 60 and 30. It wouldn't stay for example around 40 or 50 if 60 is too taxing, it just goes down to 30.

Another example would be, while playing certain games, if I record with FRAPS, the frame rate would drop from 60 to exactly 30 if the system decides it's having too much load to keep it at 60 (but not all the times, often I CAN record videos with FRAPS while keeping 60 FPS).

Furthermore, I have also noticed another quirky behaviour to this which I previously reported, in part.
Basically, I have noticed in various games now how I can stay perfectly still with my character and just tilt the camera angle a few degrees in a different direction (usually horizontally), and this would cause the frame rate to switch back and forth from 60 to 30. You can observe two examples of this behaviour in the videos below, in GTA V and Batman Arkham Origins.





I've noticed this in other games as well. For example, in The Evil Within, I have noticed sometimes how if I move a few meters away from a certain spot, frame rate would go down from 60 to 45 (strangely not 30, in this one), and back to 60 if I move back to the same previous spot.

So, since all of you are way more experienced than me, I wanted to know what's your opinion on this.
Have you ever experienced this? Or seen it happening before? Should the system act like this? It's the first time I see this happening in many years of PC gaming. How do I keep my system from going into "30 FPS" mode if it can't keep it at 60 consistently? I mean, I would rather play a game at 50-something FPS for a while than going all the way down to 30 only because it can't stay at 60...

Thanks a lot for the help!

 

That's how v-sync works. If it can't maintain the 60FPS then it drops to the next sustainable FPS which is some divisible fraction of your top frame rate. Turn off V-sync in game and turn on adaptive v-sync in your Nvidia control panel.

 

Yes if it stuck at 45hz you would get a tear in the same place constantly which defeats the point.

This is what G-sync resolves it is able to run at any fps without the tearing and input lag.

 

So that's just because of the v-sync? Interesting.. I mean, I always used v-sync before but I never saw this behaviour on previous computers...

But what about that instance in which I am in a room, still with my character and I just move the camera left and right a few degrees, and the frame rate changes sharply? Did you guys see the videos? Okay if that happens because of v-sync, but why would it not be able to stay at 60, just changing the camera angle a few degrees? I still can't explain that part...

 

If it's borerline 60FPS, and dips to 59 FPS with that slight movement, it will drop to 30. Every game manages v-sync differently. I'm sure if you enabled v-sync on that game (within the game and not in the drivers) it would exhibit the same behavior on another computer with same hardware.

But turn off in-game v-sync and enable adaptive v-sync in the Nvidia Control Panel and it shouldn't do that.

 

Okay, I'll try that, thanks a lot!

 

I have a hunch that Optimus forces the 980M to constantly run in Triple Buffered mode because I have personally never seen this type of behaviour in any game. Neither have you, until now. The only change is that your new notebook doesn't have Optimus. Coincidence? Perhaps, but that doesn't explain why I never see this kind of thing on any of my NVIDIA Optimus based laptops and yet I always have VSYNC enabled.

 

I don't think that optimus does that, it will add a tiny amount of input lag. But that would mostly impact VR.

 

Yes, I had never seen that happening in any game before using this new laptop.

I didn't know what the Optimus was so I looked it up. So, you think my laptop does not have the Optimus, or it does have it? How can I even check if I have it?

From what I could read, the Optimus switches automatically form main GPU to integrated GPU. At first I thought that what you were saying was that what could be happening is that my system is switching to the integrated graphic card instead than using the 980M... which could be a reasonable explanation but I don't think that the integrated GPU would be able to run those games at 30 FPS though... its performance would have to be much lower, I would guess.

 

Glad to hear that the support we gave you has made a difference to the performance of your laptop, the work we did with idle CPU usage %, finding the malware and looking at your log reports certainly paid off!

Your laptop does not have Optimus, as Cakefish confirmed in his post;-)

 

Yes, he says I don't have it, but it confused me since he said "I have a hunch that Optimus forces the 980M to constantly run in Triple Buffered mode because I have personally never seen this type of behaviour in any game", as in, this Triple Buffered mode is the reason as of why this behaviour is occurring. So that confused me a bit.

Yep, mySN did help me out throughout the whole process, but I was leaving out commenting on the tech support since we had a "rocky relationship" at times and I wasn't always satisfied with it. We know we don't see each other eye to eye on this subject so that's why I wasn't bringing it up at all. But yes, you guys did help me out, as I expressed my gratitude (as well as some dissatisfaction) in my last email to you guys.

Anyways. So I don't have Optimus, okay. I was just hoping some more light could be shed on this odd 30/60 FPS behaviour.

 

You misunderstand me, I mean that I think that Optimus somehow prevents the issue you're describing, not causes it

Remember, it's just a theory of mine, I haven't got any actual evidence beyond the fact that I have never seen the 30-60-30-60-30-60 behaviour on any of my Optimus-powered laptops in the many games I've played over the past few years (monitoring FPS with ShadowPlay).

 

I tend to agree that this isn't the place to discuss the tech support process. Perhaps we did have a bit of a "rocky relationship" but I think it is very unfair for anyone reading this to assume that it was in any way related to our service, support, professionalism or product knowledge and troubleshooting experience. I dealt with the case personally and spent a huge amount of time on it. Having read through the discussion in several threads on this forum I am 99% sure that all advice given here is equal to our suggestions and views. I think it's important for me to say this because other members will read these posts.

 

No it will still happen with optimus, there is no real way of getting around it.

 

It all depends on in-game v-sync. I disable it for anything I play and use V-sync in Nvidia control panel. A lot more effective.

 

Thank you for this tip HTWN... was completely unaware of this feature in the nvidia control panel. Switched to Adaptive Sync, turned off V-Sync in game and wow things are a lot smoother now.