s550-cb w8 ultrabook. horrible gaming performance

Hey Guys

Bought the above laptop in January and finds it runs games horribly. I tried a few games, skyrim for example, the laptp auto sets to lowest quality and runs like a slideshow, same with other more recent games such as far cry 3 and sims3. My midrange desktop pc from 2010 can run skyrim on ultra without noticeable framerate spikes, any suggestions why this laptop which is almost three times it's power doesn't?

 

Try updating the nvidia drivers, they might be old/buggy.

And still, an 2010 desktop with decent 2010 GPU will still have more GPU power than most middle class laptops today.

 

Your model has the GT 640M in it right? It should be running games much better. For gaming you should always be plugged into power so the computer is using the 640M, with many computers it only will run on the Intel HD video processor when on battery.

You can also check your power settings to make sure its set to "High Performance"

Also check Nvidia control panel and make sure the games are set to run of the Nvidia card.

 

Well it was the power settings. I knew it would be something dumb like that, considering I was troubleshooting myself like this was a desktop pc. Believe it or not this is my first laptop ever, I never would have considered it had an option on by default that only uses 25% of power. I am by no means computer illiterate but I guess my desktop mind couldn't relate to this laptop specific feature. Thank you for helping me, now I don't feel bad for buying this.

 

No problem glad you got it figured out. There are some slight differences between notebook and desktop options which you will to learn, or just ask here