670m not performing well

So basically I decided to get into my first gaming computer, and I really wanted it to be capable of handling games at the high details setting for a couple of years. But already I am noticing that I'm not getting the performance I should be getting. If you consult Notebookcheck.com on the frames I should be getting, my average for Skyrim should be around 56-57 fps. However, I'm getting a lot of 30's and lately even 20's. I don't know why the performance is that low. I'm also pretty upset by the lack of optimized drivers. The card has been out for like half a year now and still nothing promising. Seems like the 670m is the black sheep of the family too because it is just a re-branded 570m, which means that it's not really got too much capability. I was a little upset to see just how comparable the 660m is to the 670m. I'm getting sidetracked. The point is, I don't know if this framerate is average. Let's see, I get about 28 fps in Crysis two on Ultra, Borderlands is 60fps constant, and Tom Clancy's Ghost recon on what seems to be med-high performs at 40-60 fps. I really don't know why the card is so inconsistent and what's going on, but it does seem like I'm getting less than what I payed for. Any GT60 owners out there who can confirm my numbers or help me out? I'd appreciate it.

 

I don't know where you are getting these "should be" numbers but it is not from NBC. Your frame rates are very consistent with what NBC has. Skyrim on ultra is supposed to get between 27-33, which is what you are getting. I'm guessing you meant Future Soldier? Coz you shouldn't even be getting 40-60 on mid high which means your GPU is going beyond what NBC states. Again, Crysis 2 is 28 on NBC, which is what you are getting. The 670m is not the only rebrand. The 675m is too. They are both very capable GPUs. Also, the 660m does not have as much overclocking headroom as the 670m does. So if you feel that you cannot play some games then I would suggest you overclock. Hope this helps.

 

Yeah, actually the Future Soldier performance was rather surprising because I saw before I even purchased it that I shouldn't be able to go over medium with it. However, medium for that game is very sketchy because it doesn't have presets, it's just a bunch of different options, so you don't exactly know what their (notebookcheck's) medium is. And you're right actually, my frames are consistent with what NBC was reporting. I was actually simply looking at the page for the 675m, my mistake. Though I should clarify that the numbers I was getting for Skyrim was on high, not ultra settings, which is why I was disappointed. I mean it's a good card, I guess I just thought at the time that I was going to get something that could max everything for a few months at least. I guess I've learned my lesson though. And as for the whole re-branding, you're 100% correct, the 675m is a re-brand as well. Of the 580m I believe, which makes it rather beefy in comparison to the the 670m. The 660m is pretty impressive though too for its cost and power usage.
All of that aside, you've mentioned one thing that actually seems to be a problem though. I can't overclock this card. Or at least when I do, nothing happens. I have played around with everything and gotten no jump in FPS at all. I am on the manufacturer's driver because there aren't any out for this card yet, and I am using MSi Afterburner, and I have pushed the card to it's limit and gotten nothing. It's like it's not doing anything at all, and I don't know why that is at all. It's literally not effected by the overclock. If anyone knows anything about that, I would appreciate the help.

 

Wait so you overclock but your frame rates in game don't change? Do your clocks actually change? MSI AB has a plot with clocks on it. You can keep it open and start a game. Then minimize it after a few minutes of gameplay and see if your clocks had jumped to your OC values.

 

You have to be in turbo mode to overclock due to the extra P state MSI cards have.

 

Sir, I can not thank you enough for pointing this out to me. I had tried to overclock before and then go into turbo mode, but never the other way around. With this I have achieved 45-60 fps on ultra with Skyrim. I'm about to test some other games, but this is the performance I was looking for. Now with that in mind, what is a reasonable overclock. One that won't jeopardize system stability or fry my graphics card. I feel like this computer has an amazing ventilation system if anything because with the fan overclock the temps stay at about 65 Celsius even overclocked. But is the overclock back for the GPU? I've never OC'd before, so I'm not sure how this is for the system.
I've included some screenshots to show you what my current profiles are on Afterburner. The one with the lower clocks is obviously what it's standard speeds are - unaltered. And the second shot of Afterburner is what I pushed the card to, because I don't want to totally OC it and destroy it. Let me know what it is ready to handle with these temps and these frames. All this help is really appreciated guys. If you need any more info, just let me know.

 

Your GPU should be fine so long as your temps stay around the low 80s at the most and you don't see any artifacting. If you see artifacts, experience crashes or your temps start going into the 90s, I'd suggest lowering the clocks a bit.

 

I actually have seen artifacts and had one BSOD, but that was only with Saints Row the 3rd. And well, quite frankly I think it's safe to blame it on that game. So that's what I'll do.

 

The need to overclock arises when you cannot play your game on your stock clocks. Regardless of whether you get artifacts in one game or not, I'd suggest you lower your clocks if your games run smooth at stock.

 

There is a higher voltage bios (or rather svet's video bios editor that lets you change yours) that lets you reach the highest overclocks, so when you need extra performance that option is there.

Should be able to reach 800-850mhz core clocks with that bios.

 

There are no driver optimizations to be had. It's just a GTX 5700M, at the end of the day. Nvidia's changing the name in the inf did not unlock any capability.