Nvidia 1050 and Overwatch

Hey everyone, had a quick question on how a 1050 should be running Overwatch.

Currently running it on the "optimal" settings per Nvidia GeForce Experience but after just one game, part of the laptop gets pretty hot. There's some lag/audio&visual discord as well.

I'm wondering if the laptop is failing to use the dedicated graphics card or if this is just what is supposed to happen.

Using a fairly decked out Lenovo Yoga 720 including a i7 processor, Nvidia 1050 Graphics Card, 16 gigs of RAM, and a 4k monitor (though I reduced it to the standard 20xx by 10xx as suggested by Nvidia)

 

I never use GF experience so I dunno what settings it applies, but when I play Overwatch on ULTRA and 1080p resolution with framerate locked at 60 fps it makes my GPU pull 85-100 watts consistently with 1.5-2 gigs of vRam utilization.

Overwatch might not seem like a very demanding game but with max settings it tends to be quite resource intensive and could easily push a system to overheating.

Download HWinfo64 and let it run in the background and let it record temperatures of GPU and CPU and report your findings back.

 

I'd suggest manually tweaking the settings - the only good thing about GFE is that uninstall works. Seriously, get rid of that bloatware.

 

don't know how to read this, what's going on here? is it just the nvidia card not switching on? i've followed lenovo's instructions online of going to device manager and "preferring" the dedicated graphics card but i'm at a loss for what to do now

 

Use the sensors tab, this one is useless.

 

this is after 10 mins of overwatch on default settings

 

Yeah, this is what happens when you play games on a machine that is not designed with heavy load in mind. Extremely high thermals (95*C), thermal throttling and low clockspeeds.

 

this isn't what should be happening with a 1050 and an i7 though, is it?

 

If the cooling solution was good enough to handle them under heavy load, no. But in this case, this is exactly what happens. This is why you research before buying.

"The CPU is hit hard and aggressively throttles. Average clock speeds are a measly 800 MHz. This result is very surprising, as temperatures remain relatively cool at about 75º C. However, looking at the measurements over time, we see that the CPU isn't able to hold even its base clock without temperatures quickly approaching 100º C, which is the rated thermal limit for the i7-7700HQ. Lenovo seems to have tuned the system this way to control heat. This is sensible, as the device may be put under stress when in tablet mode. This aggressive underclocking may be an attempt to keep temperatures and noise down while the device is in users' hands." - NoteBookCheck (NBC)

Pic taken from NBC's Review

 

i did do research, and i'm pretty sure that the picture that you linked was using stress tests a lot more potent than casual overwatch. i wouldn't expect this to fare well for witcher 3 at ultra but there's no foreseeable universe where you can argue that an i7 + 1050 shouldn't be able to play overwatch.

furthermore, that picture shows the nvidia GPU used at least, at least now i can see that the intel integrated graphics usage is a bug; i can't even figure out how to get mine to switch to the nvidia graphics, which is what i'm trying to get help with right now.

 

Enter the nVIDIA Control Panel > Manage 3D Settings > Program Settings > Select the Program/Game/Executable and set it to use the nVIDIA GPU.

 

If you haven't figured it out yet, Overwatch puts more load on your CPU since it requires more draw calls due to the higher frame-rate that the game pumps out. In addition, there is no bug and you are, in fact, running off the dGPU as evident by the absurdly high thermals. The laptop overheats under heavy load (gaming) because it was never meant to handle such load. It was intended to be used as a productivity device with CUDA acceleration. Lasty, running the device above 90*C will have a negative impact on its life expectancy. There's a reason it throttles to 800MHz on the CPU side (which i why you have horrible performance after some time) - it does that so as to not melt itself.

EDIT: TL: DR - you are using the 1050 and the machine is overheating because the cooling is insufficient.

 

Yeah Overwatch is crazy in utilizing resources. You most certainly need a repaste.

 

Not sure that would help, but it may void warranty. (since Lenovo usually have warranty stickers on the cooling assembly)

What I'd suggest is using Intel XTU to undervolt the CPU by about 100mV. Doing a similar thing with MSI Afterburner - limiting clocks on the 1050 a bit and going down with the voltage curve. If that still doesn't help, disabling turbo boost on the CPU (effectively lowering clocks to 2.75GHz) and undervolting further is the next logical step.

 

Or Throttlestop, undervolting does wonders.

 

It does help but I'm wouldn't oversell it - it's not a miracle

Looking at the internal layout, it's an old design reminiscent of the G550/N550 - even back then with a less power-hungry 850M, it ran pretty hot. The CPU is quite far away from the heatsinks and that's likely part of the reason for the higher thermals

 

Here is the G550/N550 for reference - notice that Asus used 2 pipes on the CPU and a single pipe for the GPU - even that didn't produce magical results as the CPU ran in the 90s (though didn't throttle at least) under stress tests. It also had thicker heatsinks and larger fans - so that probably also helped.

 

It sadness me to see that people now have to underclock to use their machines.

 

That's cause the machine was never marketed or designed as a gaming machine. When using the hardware for say video editing or photoshop - you won't encounter heat issues since using the 1050 as a CUDA accelerator for editing or rendering is far less stressful when compared to high-frame-rate gaming. If the OP wanted a gaming machine, there are cheaper and better solutions that are designed around the idea that the hardware will get pushed hard.

 

Try these settings.

 

Also, this visual guide is great for adjusting OW settings.