P170HM unusually low performance, could use advice

Hello,

So after buying Crysis 2 and it being unplayable for me, I decided to leave it the alone. However it has been recently braught to my attention that I should be performing better.

Specs are 2760QM, 6990M at 800/960, 8 gigs of 1600RAM, Windows 7 64 bit, 7200RPM HDD and I'm playing at 1080p. I get around 50-55 FPS in Crysis 2 on the lowest settings but strangely Crysis 3 alpha seems to be running better.
Same for Planetside 2, around 50 FPS with everything set to low and on Battlefield 3, with everything on medium except shadows and effects which are low I'm getting around 60 FPS.
I clean the laptop with compressed air monthly and have a Zalman NC-3000S cooler.
After a Crysis 2 MP session my maximum temps are 81 degrees on core and 88 on RAM for the GPU and 93 for the CPU.
Is something wrong here?

Thanks in advance.

 

Yea 50-55 fps is definitely unplayable, you might even get dizzy or nauseous. You can crank up a lot of settings to high until you get 25-30 fps which is the perfect range for the human eye. But even if you've set everything to high and still get above 30 fps you should turn on supersampling AA in your driver.

 

have a feeling hes trying to show off how good his laptop is or something...maybe he should look at a light bulb and notice its only at 60hz, and if he cant see it flashing, he should think "oh geez, maybe 55 frames is playable after all..."

 

is this a serious post

 

Yes this is a serious post. I would expect a gaming forum to know better to be honest. For games, ESPECIALLY shooters, the human eye can register up to 60 FPS. 60 FPS is the sweet spot. Anything below 50 is unplayable for me. 50-59 is alright, but still annoying.
Also seeing as all games are played on LOW, I would expect a year old graphics card to do better.

http://boallen.com/fps-compare.html

Check that out please.

Also, I'm worried about about processor throttling, 93 degrees seems a tad high. Can someone provide some insight?

 

GPU temp doesn't seem high, cpu temp is high, it wont turbo if the temps are like that.

Could try changing the thermal paste on the CPU. Might as well do the GPU at the same time.

You've got the latest GPU driver?

 

not sure why you got a laptop, sounds like you need a 690 SLI

i agree you can see difference between 30 and 60, but 50 and 60? seriously?

 

you will only play at 60fps?! and between 50-59fps you will have to make due. im sorry but i honestly think your taking the ****. while the difference between 30 and 60 is massive i think you will be ok at 50. if your not that impressed with your laptop or the 6990m then why did you buy it.

 

I think the OP is justified to be concerned.. I played Crysis 2 with my old Sager (see sig) which sported a pair of 9800M GTX from 2008. I used medium-ish settings and I believe my gaming experience was entirely fluid (I'm guessing at least 40 FPS). Doesn't sound right to me that 6990M should only do 50 at low settings!

To the OP, try running some benchmarks and report back. 3DMark 11 and/or vantage would be a good start. While you're doing it, be sure to monitor the temperatures and frequencies with MSI Afterburner, Intel XTU, OCCT etc, or a combination of those which can produce a graph of recent data. Check for signs of throttling (sudden dip in frequency for e.g.).

 

Thanks, never really thought of a benchmark. Apparantly you're one of the couple of guys actually trying to be of help.
Tried 3DMark11, came up with a 3884 score, 7222 physics and 3602 combined score.
EDIT: Basic 3DMark Vantage, 15952 overall with 14985 GPU and 19780 CPU. GPU temps are fine, CPU was at 88/95/96/86. Ouch, and I just cleared it up with compressed air as well.

I got the free version so it's the performance 720p preset.

I've got the 12.10 WHQL driver. That 93 was on one of the cores, others were at around 89-90.

 

Benchmark scores are actually above average. The temperatures of 90+ are a tad high but it should not affect performance just yet. Hardware throttling only takes place at 105 degrees C so anything below is only of concern if you want your computer to last forever.

On a second thought, the performance is not that implausible since I played my Crysis 2 on 1280 x 800 You mentioned that you have the 12.10 driver but what of CAP? 12.10 CAP1 installed?

I would also look into testing Crysis 2 at different image quality levels AND resolutions. Does your FPS decrease appreciably with higher image quality? Or does it stay stagnant even if you use low settings and res? The first scenario would suggest that you've simply milked the 6990m dry whereas the second might imply there is indeed some kind of bottleneck.

For your reference, the boys at notebookcheck have gotten an FPS of 34 running 1080p with presumably max details. Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards - Notebookcheck.net Tech (fill in your card's name and choose the game)

 

I don't get it. My old rig on 1280x800 and Gamer setting played Crysis 2 well over 60fps...