I have had the acer aspire 5 a514-54 for 2 years, I am facing multiple performance issues

Hi

I have owned this laptop for 2 years now, I used to have a account earlier in acer in which I was talking about the same issue where my gpu the nvidia mx350 wont run well and downgrade its speed from minimum clock speed same goes for my cpu intel i5 10th gen also goes below glock speed of 1.00ghz, which causes my whole system to lag and stutter. I bought this laptop to do my school work along side have a pretty decent gpu for running AAA games and decent frames. Quite disappointed cause I can't change my laptop and now I am stuck with this. Something I have found is that the bios my default installed in this 1.16version but the site only has till 1.13version, I have tried to downgrade but it never worked. Indeed I have tried to clean reset my laptop countless number of times just to be faced with the same issue. From day one I wasn't able to play my favourite esport titles, keep in mind esport titles are not that demanding titles. If anyone has any clue to fix this please help me out.

Thank you

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Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/685005/i-have-had-the-acer-aspire-5-a514-54-for-2-years-i-am-facing-multiple-performance-issues

I have the lager a515-54G, 15" with an i7 CPU and 2 GPU cards; it will play some light games but is no way designed as a gaming laptop. I believe your model is the 54G: "A solid and affordable workday choice" (ITPro review). Steam and AAA games require a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 GPU or bigger and much larger cooling (2 fans with a heat sink for the GPU).

Your BIOS version is 2 years out of date, there is a brand-new version available on Acer Support:

2023/03/20 Version: 1.33, Vendor: Acer Size:7.46 MB, download it here: https://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/BIOS/BIOS/BIOS_Acer_1.33_A_A.zip?acerid=638148952441362484&Step1=&Step2=&Step3=ASPIRE%20A514-54G&OS=ALL&LC=en&BC=ACER&SC=PA_6

You should be on Windows11 version 22H2 build 22621.1702 if not click on Check for Updates and make sure Windows, Defender and drivers are always up-to-date (Update every second Tuesday of the month (Wednesdays in Pacific-Asia)

Ed_

Yes I do know that I won't be able to run modern AAA games at great frames, but from what I have researched is that nvidia mx350 is the counterpart for gtx1050 for laptops. AAA games I am talking about is csgo and valorant as they are easy to run in any device with decent igpu, I own another laptop hp to be exact it is ryzen 5 5500u which is not great but performs better than my acer laptop. It runs the following games at 100- 80 frames.

I will try the new bios ty :d

Ed_

This is my acer I am sorry it is 53G

Ed_

Also something I have to mention is that I have actually send it Acer center at my nearest one all they have done is tell me no issues and they sent it back with the exact same issue. This didn't happen once or twice but 3 times.

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1200968#Comment_1200968

You are not telling us what version and build of Windows11 you have at the moment, if your drivers are not updated regularly and your UEFI firmware is 2 years old the performance of your laptop will be detrimentally affected. Again, your laptop is not a gaming laptop but an all-round mid-range laptop, the fact it has a "G" behind the model number only means it has a graphics driver for artists and designers instead of an Intel UHD driver for the business community, it does not imply that you can play Esports Games with it, while talking about under and overclocking of a locked Intel CPU is moot. Throttling is caused by the power plan settings, if the power adapter is plugged in or not and by the temperature of the MOBO/CPU, when you overload the system while on battery it will throttle so you need to keep your power adapter plugged in when playing games. I have 2 GPUs the Intel UHD is my integrated GPU and working 100% of the time, the dedicated NIVIDIA GeForce GPU was sometimes active when I used Edge but I disabled that option in the controller (only use Integtated GPU).

I don't know what more can be said about your laptop, you are obviously not very happy with it, so I advise that you look for a top range gaming laptop and keep this one for your daily chores. If you feel I answered your question, please click on Yes.

Ed, if you are replying to me type @Puraw at the top of your reply or click on "Quote" when you reply, but if you prefer to debate this topic with the whole group, continue the way you are doing now😉

Ed_

@Puraw

My windows it is currently 11 home,22H2, yes I know it is a mid range all in all laptop but the worst part is that it even throttles for no reason when I am browsing, attending online meetings or during watching videos I have no clue why this occurs I will update my laptop to the latest drivers through oem page.

Can I know how my bios v1.16 but the latest one on driver page is v1.13?

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1201261#Comment_1201261

I don't know how you type but my name should be in bold green, wait after the @ sign and click on the name on the list, I am still not getting any alerts when you reply.

I already explained that throttling is controlled by your Power Plan setting if you change your current Power Plan to Ultimate or High Performance there will be little or no throttling if you keep your power adapter plugged in but if you play UHD videos, or games the CPU and GPU will run hot and GPU-CPU will be throttled to cool off. Most gamers use cooling pads under their laptop with powerful fans (up to 5) for that reason.

Probably Acer retracted BIOS version 1.16 that happens sometimes. There are also no W11 drivers on the Acer site for your model and W10 is pre-installed by Acer, how or who upgraded your laptop from W10 to W11 22H2?

Ed_

@Puraw

I know about the power plan things I have it defaulted to high performance and I have park control, I use the device on plugged in while playing anything. See the issue is the very second I run any game be it demanding or not it throttles(cpu). I have no clue why cpu throttles to 0.60ghz or even lower

Ed_

this is my cpu while running osu a very not demanding game

Ed_

@Puraw

Something I have to say is that when I am fullscreen on the specific game the cpu clock speeds throttles but once I come back to desktop the clock speed increases.

Ed_

I don't think it is the gpu's fault as when I run any game for the first few second it runs well but as soon as the cpu clock speed falls the game as a whole starts to stutter and my frames deteriorate

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1201423#Comment_1201423

Ed, you are not telling me who installed W11 on your W10 laptop, I believe that your BIOS is not Acer but from a 3rd party source (Insyde?). Same with all your drivers (GPU) did some shop installed it with an ISO image? The a514-53G is on Acer's approved W11 list so it has been tested but I am not sure about the drivers. If your W11 version was upgraded online with Windows10 update 1 year ago (May 2022) the drivers should be OK, but if someone did a Clean Install and downloaded the drivers from 3rd party vendors you may have issues. Have you ever checked your Event Viewer for issues (errors, warnings and info)?

Ed_

@Puraw

My bad, I installed by myself when the windows 11 option to upgrade was available to me. I upgraded thinking that it could solve my issues. My Bios I am unable to roll back to previous version (1.13)

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1201438#Comment_1201438

No worries Ed,

You cannot flash-back Acer's UEFIs (BIOS). Now you have Widows 11 BIOS for the a514-54G in your Windows10 a514-53G laptop and probably a mishmash of W10 and W11 GPU and Intel drivers. I am surprised you are even able to boot😀

How to resolve this situation: You say the laptop is only 2 years old so bring it to Acer Services in your country, remind Acer that your laptop is the a514-53G and NOT 54G model and ask Acer Services to reinstall OEM Windows10, BIOS version 1.13 and all Acer drivers, and reset your laptop to factory defaults. In the Philippines Acer charges $25 service fee for that. Don't push for Windows 11; The Intel Core i5-10210U with Intel UHD GPU are compatible with Widows 11 but as you already found out not ideal for even light games. With the Windows10 drivers you will get far better performance, even when playing games.