G-Sync Randomly Slows to ~60fps from 144Hz on Predator Helios 500

Hi,

For a few months now, my Predator Helios 500 with Nvidia 1070 randomly changes to a kind of 60 FPS 'mode' in games etc. The refresh actually looks worse than 60 FPS with judder and slow response time from mouse etc. Its also not exactly 60 FPS, but oscillates around that figure by a few FPS. If I go into Nvidia Control Panel app, then disable and re-enable G-Sync everything works fine again - straight back up to 144 FPS /144 Hz etc. I may have to do this a couple of times a day.

Its possibly triggered after tabbing into and out-of a game on some occasions, but mostly fine when doing the exact same.

Has anyone experienced similar? Solutions appreciated.

//Edited the content to add model name.

Accepted answers

AlexE

I've been looking into this some more and it seems to be a known Nvidia issue with some high-refresh screen laptops. It seems Nvidia haven't made any progress fixing this, and they may not given device age and that they seem to have ignored a previous issue in their bug-tracking system.

For reference here are some links to others having the same issue. One solution is to roll back to a very old driver. Some say to reboot your PC, though my 'solution' to disable, then re-enable G-Sync in Nvidia Control Panel is a bit quicker and easier.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/geforce-graphics-cards/5/393325/refresh-rate-drop-known-issue/?topicPage=25/

Nvidia have previously registered this issue as #3009452

It also seems this has been raised as an issue on this forum too -

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/586691/helios-500-ph517-51-randomly-drops-refresh-rate-from-144-to-60/p1

All comments

GAMING6698

@AlexE
Try step no. 19
Windows 10 optimization guide for gaming — Acer Community

AlexE

GAMING6698 said:

@AlexE
Try step no. 19
Windows 10 optimization guide for gaming — Acer Community

Thanks! That's a useful resource. It reminded me I have game bar enabled, so I've disabled that in case it helps. I'll try some of the others over time too. Cheers

GAMING6698

@AlexE
Click on yes in that post which help you and don't forget to comment/Share your results here↓
Windows 10 optimization guide for gaming — Acer Community

AlexE

I've been looking into this some more and it seems to be a known Nvidia issue with some high-refresh screen laptops. It seems Nvidia haven't made any progress fixing this, and they may not given device age and that they seem to have ignored a previous issue in their bug-tracking system.

For reference here are some links to others having the same issue. One solution is to roll back to a very old driver. Some say to reboot your PC, though my 'solution' to disable, then re-enable G-Sync in Nvidia Control Panel is a bit quicker and easier.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/geforce-graphics-cards/5/393325/refresh-rate-drop-known-issue/?topicPage=25/

Nvidia have previously registered this issue as #3009452

It also seems this has been raised as an issue on this forum too -

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/586691/helios-500-ph517-51-randomly-drops-refresh-rate-from-144-to-60/p1

Fisher_P

It can be workaround with setting 60hz and then144hz in nvidia controll panel, even if it says that 144hz is already set. The problem persist even with Windows reinstallation, so the source of problem are drivers. Nvidia and Acer don't care :v I have quicker workaround. There is program, called Display Changer by 12noon. Download it, extract to folder you like. Then, create a .bat file, like this: @echo off cd "" start dc64cmd.exe -quiet -depth=max -width=1920 -height=1080 -refresh=60 start dc64cmd.exe -quiet -depth=max -width=1920 -height=1080 -refresh=144 exit Then, I created shortcut in Predator software and binded this .bat file to one of buttons (number 5 in my case). Basically this instantly changes your framerate to 60hz, then144hz. Program works in command line. It's the least annoying method which I could figured out.

Fisher_P

Goddamit, sorry, but my preview post looks like mess.

It can be workaround with setting 60hz and then144hz in nvidia controll panel, even if it says that 144hz is already set. The problem persist even with Windows reinstallation, so the source of problem are drivers. Nvidia and Acer don't care :v I have quicker workaround. There is program, called Display Changer by 12noon. Download it, extract to folder you like. Then, create a .bat file, like this:

@echo off

cd "path to dc64cmd.exe"
start dc64cmd.exe -quiet -depth=max -width=1920 -height=1080 -refresh=60

start dc64cmd.exe -quiet -depth=max -width=1920 -height=1080 -refresh=144

exit

Then, I created shortcut in Predator software and binded this .bat file to one of buttons (number 5 in my case). Basically this instantly changes your framerate to 60hz, then144hz. Program works in command line. It's the least annoying method which I could figured out.

AlexE

Fisher_P said:

Thanks very much! I'll check out Display Changer - though I don't know 12noon software, but seems to be used around. I see QRes and Nirsoft have some other command line utilities which might do a similar job too. QRes is open source, so a little safer to try out perhaps. I found a PowerShell script that possibly does the job too - but then you have to enable PowerShell scripts across your PC making it possibly weaker than just trusting a .EXE.

I tried turning off G-Sync, in case that helped. Strangely, it kind of did - but instead of dropping to 60Hz, instead the display would stick at 144Hz, but go very 'laggy', still needing to be 'reset'.

I'll try out a screen-reset script as you suggest

Fisher_P

AlexE said:

Fisher_P said:

Thanks very much! I'll check out Display Changer - though I don't know 12noon software, but seems to be used around. I see QRes and Nirsoft have some other command line utilities which might do a similar job too. QRes is open source, so a little safer to try out perhaps. I found a PowerShell script that possibly does the job too - but then you have to enable PowerShell scripts across your PC making it possibly weaker than just trusting a .EXE.

I tried turning off G-Sync, in case that helped. Strangely, it kind of did - but instead of dropping to 60Hz, instead the display would stick at 144Hz, but go very 'laggy', still needing to be 'reset'.

I'll try out a screen-reset script as you suggest

Yes, I tried turning-off G-sync, but it didn't solve problem for me. Strange thing is, when I'm realizing refreshrate dropped (this laggy feeling) in all settings is visible 144 hz - but when I run some test, for example https://www.testufo.com/ it detects 60hz mode. Something is wrong, maybe not only with firmware. Anyway, I'm using Display Changer for a long time, scanned multiple times with BitDefender - it' safe a far as I know and was reliable all the time. I attach somewhat better bat script, if you would like to try this method.

@echo off

cd "C:\Programy i narzędzia\Display Changer"

start /wait dc64cmd.exe -quiet -depth=max -width=1920 -height=1080 -refresh=60

start /wait dc64cmd.exe -quiet -depth=max -width=1920 -height=1080 -refresh=144

exit

If you want another program, make sure you know commands for it, probably they will differ.
And second thing, maybe if we make some more noise, Acer or Nvidia will finally do something about this issue?

Fisher_P

AlexE said:

Fisher_P said:

Thanks very much! I'll check out Display Changer - though I don't know 12noon software, but seems to be used around. I see QRes and Nirsoft have some other command line utilities which might do a similar job too. QRes is open source, so a little safer to try out perhaps. I found a PowerShell script that possibly does the job too - but then you have to enable PowerShell scripts across your PC making it possibly weaker than just trusting a .EXE.

I tried turning off G-Sync, in case that helped. Strangely, it kind of did - but instead of dropping to 60Hz, instead the display would stick at 144Hz, but go very 'laggy', still needing to be 'reset'.

I'll try out a screen-reset script as you suggest

Yes, I tried turning-off G-sync, but it didn't solve problem for me. Strange thing is, when I'm realizing refreshrate dropped (this laggy feeling) in all settings is visible 144 hz - but when I run some test, for example https://www.testufo.com/ it detects 60hz mode. Something is wrong, maybe not only with firmware. Anyway, I'm using Display Changer for a long time, scanned multiple times with BitDefender - it' safe a far as I know and was reliable all the time. I attach somewhat better bat script, if you would like to try this method.

@echo off

cd "C:\Programy i narzędzia\Display Changer"

start /wait dc64cmd.exe -quiet -depth=max -width=1920 -height=1080 -refresh=60

start /wait dc64cmd.exe -quiet -depth=max -width=1920 -height=1080 -refresh=144

exit

If you want another program, make sure you know commands for it, probably they will differ.
And second thing, maybe if we make some more noise, Acer or Nvidia will finally do something about this issue?

Emodz

I had the same laptop and same issue since the beginning of 2020. However! Now that I upgraded to windows 11 with the newest nvidia drivers so far this issue has not returned since.

AlexE

Emodz said:

I had the same laptop and same issue since the beginning of 2020. However! Now that I upgraded to windows 11 with the newest nvidia drivers so far this issue has not returned since.

Ah, you're lucky! I upgraded to Windows 11 and its actually been worse/more frequent for me :-/ I also seem to get this 'limbo' effect where the FPS seems somewhere inbetween 60 and 144 with a very laggy mouse. Oh, I also disabled Windows 11 virtual-machine security, and the laptop runs the same or better than Windows 10. Having the virtual machine security enabled meant the laptop couldn't undervolt (as it does by default), and meant it ran hotter and slower.

I'm on recent Nvidia drivers, but not the one that came out a day or 2 ago - so will update in case that helps

Emodz

I spoke too soon. The games I normally play weren't triggering it anymore but today I fired up microsoft flight sim and that game tiggers the refresh drop 100% of the time. I think we can just consider this not fixable/abandoned. Only options are to use old drivers from 2019 forever or just get rid of the laptop.

Emodz

I tried your display changer tool but it sadly does not seem to work, the screen goes black then comes back still at 60. The only work around so far is either to reboot or turn gsync on and back off again.

AlexE

Emodz said:

I tried your display changer tool but it sadly does not seem to work, the screen goes black then comes back still at 60. The only work around so far is either to reboot or turn gsync on and back off again.

Sorry to hear your problem is back too. I find using Windows 11's "View Advanced Display Info" page to then change refresh rate to 60Hz, then quickly 'Revert' fixes the problem .. for a while.

This bad effect possibly seems to happen most using Alt-Tab to swap between a full-screen game and back to Windows etc.

AlexE

I wonder if Nvidia seems to have fixed this? My Acer Predator Helios 500 with 1070 seems perfectly stable recently (fingers crossed, touch wood), though has been a real pain with this problem for months (years?). I'm not sure since when it got better, I'm on 511.65

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