splinter cell blacklist working slowly suddenly

it used to work on 60+ FPS ALL the time. ALL the time. stopped playing about a month ago, fired it up now, i get less than 30 on my regular settings instead of 60+ as usual. the only thing that migh cause this is the fact that i updated to 14.6 beta driver.
please help!

sager NP9150
7970m 2gb 14.6 beta drivers
i7-3160QM
8GB ram
windows 8.1

 

What's the thermals of your CPU and GPU while running the game.

The first thing I'd do is make sure it's not overheating and underclocking itself.

Then, roll back the driver (as you stated) it could be driver related.

Those are the only two things off the top of my head I can think of, short of maybe having existing running software like antivirus/antispyware or actual spyware on the laptop.

 

Do as ashen-shugar suggest.
Check temps first and make sure you are mains power connected.

From memory I tried this game with 14.6 beta on alienware. No issues with frame drops.

 

ok. the problem with heat tests is that i can't fnd a software that monitors my 7970m. everything shows the temps of my intel 4000

 

Try open hardware monitor. Open Hardware Monitor - Core temp, fan speed and voltages in a free software gadget

 

View attachment OpenHardwareMonitor.Report.txt ok here's the report i'm getting, for some reason it doen't show GPU temps:
thanks for the help so far

 

i installed the old 14.4 driver again and the performance is still low

 

Right click the game and make sure the AMD is running the game.

I've had some games when I farted with drivers no longer auto-recognize the GPU for applications/games.

Also, keep open hardware running in the background as you run a game.

For Enduro/Optimus technology it won't necessarilly pick up the GPU if it's doing common desktop processes.

 

how do i make sure AMD is runnng the game? there's no option for that when right clicking on the games .exe.
as for the last thingyou said about enduro/optimus, i have no dea whatyo said.
sorry to be sch a noob, i reall appreciate yor patiance

 

No problem. Since you have ATI (not AMD, my bad, AMD owns ATI, had a memory fart moment).

Anyway, here's a web page on how to force selection of the ATI card.

Switchable Graphics on Notebooks Configured with Intel and ATI GPUs | HP® Support

 

Uninstall your amd drivers reboot use driver sweeper to clean further and then install latest amd drivers. Something software related is stuffing your video card.

 

ohhhh i get what you mean... yeah it's on high performance
tron2 i've already done that...

 

Then at this point best you can do is check the thermals after playing a game for a while.

Also, strange as it sounds, make sure the outlet you have the laptop plugged into is getting enough amperage.

For example, if it's on a power strip that is distributing the power across multiple devices, your laptop may actually not be getting enough juice to power everything properly. ATI cards are plenty thirsty.

 

again, how do i check thermals? the software you showd me shows everything *but* thermals

 

is there a way to disable the intel 4000 card? i found out my card is working on 70-75% usage!

EDIT
nothing's at 100% usage. opened control panel: CPU usage is below 45% on blacklist. it is as if my PC just decided he's not trying. i kept checking: blacklist's affinity has only core 0,2,4,6 checked. whenever i check them all there's no performance increase and it resets itself to 0,2,4,6 whenever i relaunch the game. priority is on normal, and something calleuallizaiond UAC virtuallizaion is marked.
checked my CPU temps: the avarage for all the cores is about 66% at the value tab and theres a tab saying MAX that staits around 80%. are these stats OK or is my PC overheatng? my GPU fan is accoording to open hardware monitor is at 20% at the MAX tab.
that's all i got for now. thanks for the help so far!

 

The thermals (temperatures) for the GPU shouldn't get much above 86c. Spikes above 90 (like 90/91) is ok if it's for a short burst until the fans kick up and lower it.

But generally the GPU shouldn't be in the 80's except under extreme duress.

The CPU should stay in the 70's at the highest.

Again, this is in celsius.

The temperatures should be listed along with the %-utilization and Mhz of the core itself.

 

wherever the thermals for the GPU are supposed to be shown there's a little " - " mark. the "max" tab is static no matter what the situation is. i can't view the GPU's temp in real time is what i'm saying. i think i need to disable the intel 4000 before i can check my temps on the 7970m. the CPU is 65 degrees on the highest as i stated abve (i accidentaly markde everything with " % ").

 

That is.. strange.

Granted, I have the Nvidia card in my optimus mode (similar to the ATI enduro) with the Intel chipset for the other video.

It recognizes both fine. But I did find I had to start up the application after I started a game or something to engage the Nvidia card for it to first recognizeit.

You may have to do similar. Start up a game, minimize it, start up open hardware monitor, and see what happens.

If the thermal temperatures are still not marked properly, then it's likely something is ... really wrong.. with your GPU since it can not read the thermal sensors on it.

I'm, unfortunately, not overly familiar with ATI cards so I can't give you a conclusive answer, so someone else will have to step up to the plate and give you the reasons why the thermal sensors are not showing up for the ATI card.

Sorry, but I'm at the limit of being able to help you at this point

 

temps are shown! but at 0.0c -_- cpu temps are at around 80c when playing bf4 but it works ok. i mean it works different since the i upgraded to the 14.6 beta but it didn't work different on the 14.4 one and i checked.
gonana go on a little interwebz investigation to see why my AMD ain't showing temps!
btw, wether or not you're an intel/nVidia/AMD/ATI/IBM you hav done above and beyond to help me so far. thanks you very very much!
borderlands 2 works worse, might be because of the driver.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/701531-can-t-check-7970m-temperature.html
i did what they said here, still can't check temps :/
gonna send it to repair shop to end w=this sharade.
thanks for the help!

 

You need to disable the Intel on board gpu.
How you do this I am not sure but some say you can do it via bios or software in amd.
Hopefully someone with experience can chip in.

 

I'll look it up, thanks. In the meantime, i checked my charger: on the side that connects to the laptop there are some open wires and some of them are torn. It still works but could that be it?

 

If your charging cable is frayed and some wires are showing, all bets are off.

The charger is now in question and is highly likely the culprit. If it is shorting out or not delivering a constant charge, then your GPU is going to under-clock itself because it's not going to get sufficient wattage.

Worse, if the short and/or fray in the cord is bad enough, you could potentially get surges and damage the laptop.

It also becomes a possible fire hazard.

Look to replace the charger asap.

 

Yeah what ashen said.
If your plug is not supplying the current forget 3d gaming.
It's like running of your battery.

:thumbsup:

 

got it! my god i'm kinda scared now


heres how it looks like. again, this is from the side that CONNECTS TO THE COMPUTER, NOT TO THE WALL.
gonna search ebay for a new one. hope it's not too expansive
what should i look for? like stats?

 

Yeoch! Yea that's a fire hazard.

You can get another power adapter from Sager direct. custom gaming laptops - Welcome to Sager Notebooks


http://www.amazon.com/UpBright%C2%AE-Adapter-NP9150-Notebook-Charger/dp/B00FACP5EO/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1403190759&sr=8-5&keywords=np9150

Amazon may carry it as well, and likely a fair deal cheaper but please PLEASE verify the connector is the right one, and it likely will be made cheaper than the Sager one.

I'd ask around here and see what people suggest for a good power brick for your NP9150.


I believe that's your model?

 

yes, my model is NP9150 thanks for the offer. but i don't understand those stats... where can i check to see what is the right adapter for me? the amazon looks good, how can i check to see if it's good?
thakns a lot for the help BTW, i've been posting some posts about this problem at tom's hardware for a while and got nothing. i'm really enjoying this community

 

Based on some of the reviews of the amazon one, it would work, but apparently the materials is fairly shabby and the rubber tends to sheer a bit and show the wires (like your existing one apparently did).

The Sager one appears to be of better quality, but it is about 35% more expensive as well.

The amazon one should work though if you don't yank the cable or don't require a long-distance to the outlet.

The prices tend to run between $70-$100. I'd personally probably just get the sager one. With shipping amazon would probably save you only $25 or so. Depends how much you need to save.

 

well i do travel a lot... but i can always put some duct tape on it.
do sager ship worldwide?

 

Not sure if they do world wide, can't hurt to email them and find out.

 

email sent

 

Never use that power supply again.
Order a new one asap from your local sager-clevo dealer.

Good luck

 

Buying one now. Thanks a lot for everyone that helped and a special thanks to Ashen for answering every question i had!! You're the best

 

hello people! i got my new AC adapter today, and i started doing some benchmarks: nothing changed in performance.
HOWEVER, msi afterburner wanted to update and i said "why not, sure" i was lucky to do so, 'cause when it launched up i saw that every slider was set to the ;owest setting possible: core clock speed was at 425Mhz and memory clock was at 600Mhz.
exactly half of what it should be. that was probably due to the faulty AC adapter. i've put them all to 850 and 1200 but nothing changed. i'm doiing a computer restart now.

 

hello people! i got my new AC adapter today, and i started doing some benchmarks: nothing changed in performance.
HOWEVER, msi afterburner wanted to update and i said "why not, sure" i was lucky to do so, 'cause when it launched up i saw that every slider was set to the ;owest setting possible: core clock speed was at 425Mhz and memory clock was at 600Mhz.
exactly half of what it should be. that was probably due to the faulty AC adapter. i've put them all to 850 and 1200 but nothing changed. nothng changed after restart aswell.
MSI afterburner showed me a few more things:
1. GPU1 ussage was never 100%. always at the 60%.
2. GPU2 ussage was around 9-10%.
i think GPU1 was the 7970m. i still think it's because it's downclocked, but i don't know how to tweak it back to defults since in MSI nothing happend

**EDIT**
ok i downclocked the settings to the lowest possible 425Mhz-600MHz and the performance diid go down. meaning MSI afternurner's sliders work. IDK what might be the cause now.

 

Have you tried to handle with energy configuration in catalyst control center?? You may have energy savings options enabled.
It happened to me long time ago, and reinstall driver doesn´t change these options, It drove me mad until I found it.
Good luck.

 

i've made a few tweaks, upclocked it again, i've put everythng on maximize battery, launched blacklist, put it on max performance, and bam! 60 FPS on blacklist. playing borderlands 2, i see 57% utalization, and dips in FPS. appearantly changing the graphics settings from ultra to low changes nothing. that's some strange .
also updated my drivers to 14.7