Having problems with my RTX 2060 Mobile GPU

Hi all, a little backstory...bought a Sager laptop in October, i7 9750/rtx 2060. Only play Call of Duty/Warzone, at first it was great, then about a month ago started seeing huge random dips in FPS. Windows reinstall, drivers reinstalls, I couldn't solve the random drops in performance. I wasn't well versed in MSI Afterburner at the time but have since educated myself and came to realize that Sager actually over-overclocked my GPU from the factory. It was boosting up to 1900mhz even though it's rated at only 1400 or so. Needless to say what was happening is it was constantly power/volt limit throttling, which caused the FPS to drop all the time at random. Many people can get ~1550, so once I got the hang of Afterburner I landed on that and had no GPU power/volt throttle limits. BTW temps have always been fine. 72c is the hottest it ever got even when it was attempting to run at 1,900mhz. Now it maxes around 67c during play and FPS is 70+.

So the new problem started today. I played this morning no problem, then without doing anything to my computer, started playing a few hours later and MSI overlay shows the GPU won't go past about 65% utilization. FPS down in the low 50s. Temps on the GPU don't even go above 60c. No throttling on power/volt. V-sync turned off. I tried restarting several times, no fix. I'm also on the latest Nvidia driver. I ran Furmark and Heaven and it pushed my GPU to 100% load easily and consistently, which to me would suggest the GPU isn't dying. But why it's not cooperating with Call of Duty, I don't know. I don't have any other games to test with. With all the issues I've had with this card, at this point it seems like it could be anything. Really appreciate any help diagnosing this.

FYI no CPU throttling, and I tried to bring the clock of the GPU down to 1400 and it still had the same problem.

 

can anyone help me? i downloaded apex legends, gpu runs at near 100% with 110+ fps no problems. heaven and furmark 100% gpu look great. warzone plays at 60% gpu and 40-50 fps. no vsynce is on. i even reinstalled the game and it didn't do anything.

 

The GPU can boost much higher than it's rated. I don't think the GPU hitting its power limit is what causes a sharp drop in fps, as that's normal; the GPU will use however much power it can get.

I'd suggest you play a game for about 15 minutes and log with GPU-Z. Upload the log file here so we can review. https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

Charles

 

Thanks for your help. Here are two files, one for Warzone and one for Heaven. It looks like perf code 16 for utilization limit shows up constantly in Warzone (which is what I was seeing through MSI Afterburner), but it rarely shows up during Heaven (but it's still showing up, nonetheless). I wonder what that means is the problem? I'm stumped. Thanks again for help.

Warzone Log File:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=183VZDGSdCrGFGP_k3lXQB04eSfRHKNLX

Heaven Log File:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=183VZDGSdCrGFGP_k3lXQB04eSfRHKNLX

 

The GPU utilization is indeed low for Warzone (both links you posted look the same to me, BTW). But if it gets up to 100% in other games, this may not be hardware related. Perhaps the CPU isn't being utilized enough or is limiting your performance (e.g. the game is CPU bound, which seems unlikely). Track your CPU usage while playing.

I'd also check your Windows power plan, set it to High Performance.

As one last "normality" check - did you run 3DMark (Fire Strike/Time Spy) and check the results against similar hardware? Also use Cinebench R15 or R20 to gauge your CPU.

Charles

 

Is the RAM in dual channel?

 

It actually did have problems in another game after all. I am trying to reinstall Windows, and I'm going to forgo Afterburner and Throttlestop installation and see if maybe it starts working again properly. I'll report back when the (incredibly long) game download concludes.

 

Actually, you might be on to something. I just reinstalled Windows, and it's showing Single in CPU-Z. I haven't checked this before, but it certainly should be dual. What's going on here?

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1M6tTE0FO6YxwIIvfcOGMs7oYHHq3T-O2

 

Did you buy the laptop with 16GB or 32GB RAM total?

 

Looking at my invoice right now and it says "RAM: 16GB DDR4 SDRAM at 2666MHz - 1 X"

Also I just want to remind, the game has been running fine the last several weeks and just started acting funny on Tuesday.

 

No, you purchased the laptop with single channel memory. Add another 16GB 2666MHz module for dual channel and you'll get the proper performance.

 

Why then would it have worked properly with no issues before?

 

I don't know, I just know that you're leaving a lot of performance on the table in Warzone because of single channel memory.

 

I am not/was not getting those FPS numbers granted, but those are very similar comparisons to me gaming on Monday and me gaming today. Now I'm curious how this is even possible I was able to game at a normal level prior to today, which makes me question this a little bit. I'm not questioning you, I believe you. But now I'm wondering if the way it was operating on Monday was normal, and dual channel would have simply made it better. Meaning that still, what's going on today is not right.

I guess it's a starting point. Can I just buy any 16gb stick of DDR4 SDRAM at 2666MHz with 19 19 19 43, or should I just buy two identical sticks and not use the one I have now?

 

Could be a patch that reduced performance, I don't know. I don't play CoD much but I did notice there were two patches this week.

 

looks like this might be the ticket

https://www.microcenter.com/product/503200/crucial-16gb-ddr4-2666-mhz-sodimm-memory-module

there was, in fact, 2 different patches and 1 was quite major. i don't think it was immediately after, but soon after i started noticing this incredible drag on performance. it all seems reasonable.

 

Sorry to drag this on, but now that I think about it, Apex Legends was the first game I played on this laptop when I got it in October. I dropped it for COD and only today played it to see if I was getting the same performance issues as COD, and I was. But when I first got the computer, I wasn't having problems with Apex Legends. Hrmm. Very curious situation.

 

Try the 3DMark benchmarks as I suggested to establish a baseline. 3DMark basic edition is free. It's important to isolate whether this is related to Warzone or is something bigger.

Charles

 

I benchmarked Firestrike at 14,415...but GPUZ showed Perf 16/utilization almost the entire log.

You think trying the memory stick might be the next best option, or could this be something else?

 

Are the scores you received from the benchmarks in line with notebooks with similar hardware? I think it's important to establish if there's something wrong with the machine as a whole, or if it's isolated to a particular game.

Charles

 

It seems they are quite close to others I've seen. But still, the perf 16 shows up in the log. It's like everything I do the performance is capper by low you utilization. Dual channel RAM was the other recommended option, but is there anything else it could be? Especially weird because it wasn't acting up just as soon as Monday. And FWIW I did run Firestrike back before all this and the score was the same as today.

 

A lack of dual-channel memory may be holding back your performance, but if you haven't changed your notebook's hardware since the problems occurred, it's doubtful it's the source of the problem.

The GPU being capped by its power limit ...is not abnormal.

That said, if your 3DMark scores are normal, then I think an overall problem with the notebook can be ruled out. It's probably related to software at this point. Play with your in-game settings in Warzone (especially if you're using ray tracing; you might want to turn it off), and double-check the Nvidia Control Panel doesn't have special settings for Warzone that might be causing problems.

Charles

 

I've tried all of the settings issues and nothing has helped. I don't know why my GPU ranks similar to others with 3dmark if I'm getting the utilization is restricting performance error either. As for Warzone, I think the other poster may have been on to something that the new patch

Added another 16gb today, solved the problem.

Question, the GPU log file showed an occasional voltage limit, and I mean like 2-3 times and that's it. Otherwise it always just said 1 which is power limit. Should I be worried about that?

Thanks so much for your help! Of course, let's see if in 2 weeks it starts acting up again. This thing has been doing that to me lately...but this does seem like the basis for all those issues. So hopefully now all fixed!!

Thanks to Charles also for the assistance!

 

I'm inclined to agree that signs point to a game patch or software change. Your option might be to wait it out; there's bound to be another patch.

Charles

 

Could easily just be windows updates. I have had that problem many times before.

 

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.

Let me know if that fixes it

 

Just adding my 2c, but I got a few situations like this in the past, and often the weird behavior was related to graphics driver being ahead of windows updates or simply windows updates not installed. Some really weird stuff if I think about it - throttling system performance until updates are installed, but anyway, windows update resolved my issues.