New laptop graphics card problem.

Hi guys! I just bought an asus G74SX and it is the first gaming laptop that I have ever bought so I don't know what is wrong with it. First of all in the specifications of the graphics card (geforce gtx 560m) it says that it supports optimus and physx but I couldn't find any optimus options and gpu-z says that there's no hardware physx acceleration. Does that mean that the graphics card only supports physx and optimus but the computer it self should have those options?
The second thing is I installed GTA 4 on the computer and ran it at the lowest possible settings and in alot of places it lagged. I went to the graphics options and it couldn't even let me set it to higher graphics. At full power this graphics card should do a lot better than that. Why is this happening?
Can somebody please help me! Thank you very much!

 

do you have switchable graphics ? if so then your graphics card is not switching to GTX 560M...

and physx acceleration, you have to download physx driver from nvidia...

check for switchable graphics option, and if it is dynamic then they may be an be option to do manual switching in your bios... if it is not then check for BIOS update...

Hope it helps...

 

Does anybody research nowadays?

The G74 does not support optimus; the 560 might, but that doesnt mean the manufacture has to, and indeed in this case, ASUS didnt.

As for physx, make sure you have the latest drivers + physx installed.

And for GTA4, its likely not your GPU (since again, you only have one, and it cannot switch), its probably your CPU throttling (GTA is a cpu intensive game); here is the fix: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...3sw-owners-cpu-throttling-798mhz-how-fix.html

 

I didn't know that I still have to download some drivers, I thought they are all preinstalled . CrappyAlloy so if my computer doesn't support optimus does that mean that it is allways using the 560m or can I switch it in the bios?
I am going to check out the throttling link and see if it helps with the CPU. But while I was doing other stuff on the computer the turbo boost monitor was showing that it was going up to 2.9 Ghz. How can I check the clock rates with CPU-Z during gameplay so that I can make sure that it is throttling? What I mean is without minimizing the game window.
Thank you very much for replying guys!

 

Well not everyone uses physx

Yes it is using the 560 all of the time; however make sure your in high performance mode when you game, otherwise the GPU might be kept in a low power mode which keeps it from going to gaming clocks (but I still think its the throttling issue for GTA4)

Thats good that its showing that at least, but, it seems that those with the Sandy Bridge chipset, when the CPU and GPU are both fully loaded at the same time, that for what ever reason the CPU will throttle back; as I mean to say, its not being caused by heat or power draw issues (from what they can tell) so there should be no reason for it to throttle; but outside of intense games, just browsing, the CPU returns to acting normal, its this behavior that I believe you are seeing when playing GTA4 because there have been many reports of CPU issues with that game, in general. Anyways you can read all about it in that thread I linked you

 

Never mind the edit in my last post, I just made it windowed and lowered the resolution to see the cpu-z window .
Thanks for the information CrappyAlloy!

 

Well I suppose you could do that, but by lowering the resolution you're also lowering the strain on the computer, and therefore it might not throttle

I dont believe that CPU-Z can log info in the background for view later; download that throttlestop program mentioned in the other thread, as it can log into a file, in the background, what exactly your cpu is doing.

no problem

 

I downloaded and installed the latest driver for that card. When I started GTA 4 the graphics settings were automatically set to higher settings (1920x1080, graphics quality high, render quality high, and the rest were set to about half). But when I got out of the apartment the frame rate went right down to 1fps and 0. I think it's the graphics card because there was nothing cpu intensive there(no cars, no people), and it started only after the graphics were set to higher quality and stopped after I lowered them. The 560m should do better than that shouldn't it?
I didn't do the throttlestop thing yet because I am still trying to figure out how it works . But before during the game the cpu clock rate was at 2.6 ghz and went to 798 mhz every about 10 seconds. And now it doesn't go past 1.5 ghz (and usually is lower).

 

Ok. I have some things straitened out. The CPU didn't go past 1.5 hgz because I forgot to set it to high performance mode, it was in battery saving mode. embarrassing. That didn't make much difference with the graphics card though. The frame rate still goes down to 1 fps with those settings. However when I lower the resolution to 1600x1024 with everything else the same (texture quality high, render quality high, view distance 32, detail distance 70, vehicle density 51, shadow density 9) the frame rate averages around 35 fps. I didn't think resolution would make that much difference!
But when i press keys quickly the frame rate and cpu clock drop for a moment. Is that the cpu throttling?
Also does anybody know where the anti-aliasing option is? There's no anti-aliasing in the game right now. Thanks!

 

That sounds like some sort of I/O conflict, have you tried plugging in an external keyboard/mouse and seeing if it still happens?

 

I am using an external mouse right now. I will try an external keyboard and see if it helps. Thanks for the quick reply!

 

You don't always get an AA option in game. You can force it through the GPU settings, IIRC.

 

Meaker I tried using an external keyboard but the problem is still there. Thanks for the suggestion though!
DCx can you tell me how to do that please? I tried going to the nvidia control panel and for GTA 4 under Antialiasing-Settings putting different settings (I tried x4 and x2) and it didn't make a difference. I don't know what those mean though.

 

I guess changing the resolution to 1600x1024 only works for windowed mode because I tried it in full screen mode and the frame rate was at 1 fps even at 1366x768 with the rest of the settings the same. I don't get it though is gtx 560m really that bad? From what I have researched it seemed like it could handle Crysis 2 on medium-high settings.

 

may I ask which version of the G74 do you own, standard G74sx-a1,the bestbuy version or some other?

also, have you tried to remove all the memory and plug them back again, or leave just half of them, then the other half(in case one of them is damaged)

or, try format and reinstall the whole system?

 

Yes. I have the G74sx-a1. I haven't tried messing around with hardware yet, I guess I can check the memory, but why would system ram make a difference in rendering?

 

:-D you are right, they are probably not related, but well, I've got no better idea about how to fix this, so just suggest try anything might work.

 

Run Throttlestop before running games. You're prolly throttling to oblivion.

 

i would totaly uninstall everything and install a fresh copy of windows 7 (you dont need to buy it the serial number probably on the back of the laptop) and install the newst drivers

 

The frame rate still goes down when I am pressing keys and I think it's because of throttling. I don't understand how to use Throttlestop. I have read the throttlestop guide but didn't understand what I need to do. Can someone explain what to do please. Thanks!

 

Ehhhhhhhh, no offense, but you're probably better off finding someone who can look at your issues in person. The ability to resolve the issues you're describing and your level of knowledge are incompatible

 

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