P670RS-G can't run an External monitor at more than 85hz

Hello, this is the first time I have a high refresh rate monitor. I have Sager np8173, or P670RS-G with GTX 1070 and IPS monitor with 75hz refresh rate, so after an year I thought, "I really wanna try a high refresh rate monitor". I saw that I should buy a DP cable and that was it, so now I have Acer Predator XB271HU bmiprz which I can not run at more than 85hz. These are the options in Nvidia CP - 24hz,60hz, 85hz, 100hz, 120hz, 144hz (or 165 if I OC it). If I to run it at 100hz or more, it just goes black and I have to wait for Nvidia CP to go back to the previous 85hz setting. It seems that it doesn't matter what resolution it is, if the refresh rate is 100hz or higher, the issue is there. I really need help from you guys, I really don't know what to do, the monitor is a big investment and I have to know if I have to return it in the next days(I really don't want to, it is beautiful, but yeah the whole idea was behind the high refresh rate...). I even paid the basic license for Obsidian Tools and downloaded latest Geforce drivers which is 24.21.13.9907. If anyone have suggestions or if you need more information, please let me know. Thank you.

A little update, actually when I change the resolution the monitor shows some images and then turns black few times with no signal after and in gaming mode on the monitor with fps counter, I can see that it goes to the right refresh rate, but somehow it goes black until the refresh rate goes back to 85hz...

 

Verify the cable revision and also the DP port on the machine though I would be surprised if your laptop port couldnt output the refresh you are looking for.

 

This is the first time I'm using display port, also I'm not sure how to check. I looked in the internet, the monitor should be version 1.2, but for the laptop, I searched a lot but only found a P670RS-G by Eluktronics, which I hope is the same as my Sager and there it is written, that the mini DP is 1.3.
If there is something that I need to know about the cable itself, please let me know.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort#Resolution_and_refresh_frequency_limits

Shouldnt be an issue for 1080p120hz-144hz but keep in mind IIRC this is for 2 meter long cables, longer cables lose signal strength.

 

Yeah, I know, I'm thinking it should be a software thing, because I always had these problems, since I had this laptop - Sager never posted new drivers, If I update to the Official Nvidia drivers, I was getting stutters,
so I understood that I had to find compatible drivers somewhere else and I found the Obsidian Tool. Some time before I was trying to OC my laptop monitor(from 75Hz to 90hz) and it was working with UFO frame test and just browsing, but when playing games
for example Dota 2, the fullscreen mode was locking on 75hz, I just want to point out that with a lot of struggles I couldn't make the laptop running the OC monitor with G-sync on 90Hz, when the actual OC was ok. It was strange and after many tries and going back to old settings
I had to reinstall Windows and use the original drivers to run things smoothly on 75hz.

I'm going now to a friend of mine with an old PC that should have a g-sync capable GPU and I want to see how does the monitor perform. Also I was thinking, could it be that the shop I bought the monitor gave me a poorly made DP cable (I have to use a DP to Mini DP cable ofc), could that be a reason?

 

I just came back from my friend's house. He has a gtx 670, so as I checked in the web, there is a restriction on 1440p to 120hz, that was the maximum refresh rate allowed by Nvidia control center, but it was working alright. On low settings dota 2 and CS:GO, both are working in between 60 - 100 fps smoothly. The monitor has signal all the time and it's working as intended. Something is wrong with my laptop...

 

Not sure that it's related, but is your BIOS up to speed? And have you been testing in MSHYBRID, or DISCRETE?

 

I thought G-sync laptops didnt have optimus? If so that could be an easy red flag, though I am not up to speed on the inner details of the recent machines.

 

G-sync models in this series have two modes:

Hybrid (optimus) - IGP controlled internal display and dGPU external outputs.
Dedicated - dGPU controller internal display and external outputs, G-sync on internal panel included on the -G models.

Check the monitor itself does not have a refresh select option in its menu.

 

This is my current BIOS https://ibb.co/kjxn09(I updated it once from someone working for Sager support). And I'm only using my DISCRETE graphics card from the beginning of using this laptop, because there was always that problem, that when on MSHYBRID, the laptop was laggy and stuttering all the time.

 

I am really not sure what exactly you wanted me to search for, as I said - That's my first monitor with high refresh rate, until now I had only this experience with monitors - VGA, DVI or HDMI, plug it and it does it's job at 60hz, but I made pictures of the menu of my monitor, if you want me to try something, please, just say it( https://ibb.co/i6vRSp). I am really thankful that I have attention about that situation.

 

What's in the overclock menu?

 

There is an option to switch OC on or off, the 2nd option - you can only click it if the OC is On (default 150hz, oc 165hz) and the 3rd option is to restart the monitor. I tried the both options, nothing changes. The only thing that is strange to me is that there are 2 mini DPs and when I'm using the one on the back near the charger and hdmi, if I put the resolution at more than 85 Hz the screen goes black with no signls message, but if it is on the other DP port, on the left side of the laptop, then when you push the resolutions refresh rate, the screen goes black, but then again I can see normally for a fraction of a second (I can even see the monitors integrated fps counter, that the refresh rate is correct) and then I can see the no signal message and this thing continues, until the previupr resolution comes back. I mean it is a strange behaviour and even there is a difference between the DP ports. One more thing is that I tried to play DOOM 3 on 85hz and the resolution wasn't right and when I fixed it from the menu, the fps and the refresh rate were at 60... Thank you again for working on the case, (I'm even considering buying a PC) but it's too late here and I will have to sleep now.

 

Did you use the same cable at your friends house?

 

That was my concern, because the monitor comes with a normal DP to DP cable, which we used at my friend's house, but as the laptop is with a mini DP, I ordered a mini DP to DP from the shop, that sold me the monitor. I was wondering, could be that the cable is bad(it's normal in my country people to sell low quality stuff). The thing is that I have to order a new one, because I'm in a small town and it isn't a cheap one.

 

It could be that it's just not up to spec (the adapter)

 

I'm sorry, English is not my native language as you can tell and I don't know much about technology, but what do you mean by the adapter, the cable itself or some part of the laptop?

 

Sounds like the cable is bad.

Good Mini-DP -> DP cables are hard to find. I'm running a 2560x1080p@72hz with daisy-chained 1080p@144hz on a single mini-DP port on my P650.

 

So the only option is for me to try the monitor on my other friends Asus Rog laptop with 1050ti and mini DP, the only downside is that I have to drive for 2 hours in total to go there and come back... Considering how much I paid and my temptation to buy a PC(everything will cost me too much) it should be worthy.

 

I do use a white generic one for 1440p 144z do good cables are out there.

 

Now, when I look at the package of the cable it looks like the cable is vcom cg681 there is a small sticker and there it is written that the cable is version 1.2. I asked the guy who sold me that cable and he said that he did sell those cables before and never had any any complaints from the buyers(there is still a chance that the cable is bad). Tonight I'm still going to my friend's house and I will try on his laptop. Thank you again.

 

Accel cables are the only cables you need. They are VESA certified meaning they will work. VESA owns displayport.org.

 

Thank you very much for the information, if I have a reason to be sure that the cable is the problem, I will try to find a cable from this company. The thing is that when you're living in the Balkans, or especially in my country, there is no way you can find a specific thing, for the peripherals, or maybe cables adapters, there is no way you can find something good, there are only cheap Chinese ones. Even when I'm looking for memory for some motherboard that every shop offers you cannot find any of the QVL ones. So if the cable is the problem I will try to find an Accel cable on eBay and wait a month for it probably... I really hope that the cable is the problem, because then I will have to buy PC parts and put together a PC. Thank you for your post.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0731GNYCN

I use this one to output to my [email protected] monitor.

 

I haven't updated the situation, but I'm still waiting for a better cable to arrive, some model from Hama. As expected, it wasn't issue with my laptop, I tried the monitor and the questioned cable on Asus ROG with a DP (some model, it isn't that important IMO), and it was working well on it's Intel HD graphics, clicked on the control panel, then I tried more than 85 hz and guess what, the same story, screen goes black, no signal... The same story with its GTX 1050ti, more than 85hz = black screen. After all that, I ordered a cable and I'm still waiting for it, I will update the thread, if someone have the same issue, it will be so easy, if he can just see that he must buy a new cable. Thanks to all that have helped and tried to help me!

 

The external outputs are always DGPU but good luck

 

I'm not sure, because I don't have much technical knowledge, but when I put the DP in the Asus with right click on the desktop, there was only the Intel HD graphics control panel and when I clicked on the resokresol settings, it was changing it, so I thought I was on the integrated GPU as I was on desktop, not in some heavy application, then I started a game and in the in-game menu I changed the resolution to 144hz and the problem occurred again. Doesn't matter which GPU I was using at that time, the problem occurred on totally different laptop so the cable should be primary suspect. Thank you for the reply.

 

Ah I was meaning the clevo model, the asus may be different.

 

Alright, people that live in a first world country may have any cables available, but unfortunately in my country, there aren't many people that are using Display ports, most of the people probably are using 60hz hdmi, vga or dvi, so if there is a demand for DP cables, they are DP to DP (not mini DP). As I was having conversation the shop that sold the monitor, they told me they don't have any other option that the questioned HAMA cable, for which yesterday they said that on the back it was written version 1.1a... I was pretty angry, but what other option do I have, if not to try it. And voala, today I received it and everything is working fine I think (except that I only tried it for 20 minutes on CS:GO on low setting 1440p, 165 hz and the laptop couldn't handle stable 165 fps, which is strange for me). I ordered a cable from China (I bought a lot of stuff from Aliexpress and I have a good opinion about the Chinese tech), which description was version 1.2, with the theoretical bandwidth of 21.6Gbps and as I don't have any other reasonable store to buy from (I can only order on Ebay uk or Amazon uk, but nobody ships to Bulgaria and if they do, the cable will cost more than 50-60 USD), this is a good deal when they sell it with profit and shipping for about 10 USD. I will check the new cable when it arrives, if it's better or the same and will resell it here (there should be atleast one poor soul struggling like me). So final words, the whole deal was the cable, I'm sorry that I thought it was my laptop's fault and thank you to everyone that tried to help me!

 

CS:GO has weird bottlenecks at different points.

 

I tried Paladins and Dota 2, after a while I'll have a conclusion, but the only thing that I saw is that the some CPU cores, sometimes reach 100%, but I'll have to check further if there is a slight cpu bottleneck (6700hq and gtx 1070). All that matters is that now I can use the monitor and it's running smoother than ever.

 

If the CPU is running above 3ghz and it's at 100% on a core and not so much the others it suggests poor threading for the game (badly coded)