Predator Helios 300 - 20FPS only at Ultra setting

Zner · July 2017

Based on the reviews that I've saw on Youtube, the average fps when playing Overwatch is 70-80 at Ultra setting using 1060 vcard.

However, I am only getting 15-20 fps while playing Overwatch with the same settings (Ultra, 1920x1080, Vsync-off). I have also tried playing Dota2 and the max fps that I am getting is 20fps only.

Nvidia card was updated to the latest version. Bios was updated to 1.05v. I have disabled the Xbox DVR which can affect / reduce my fps and also turned-off the Battery Boost setting on GeForce Experience software.

Anyone knows what could be the problem or is there something that I need to do to be able to increase the fps?

angomy · July 2017

1) How's your temps? Is your laptop throttling from high temps?

2) Sounds like a stupid q, but are you plugged in while playing? Is your laptop fully charged? (If your laptop doesn't have a charger with appropriate wattage, it could be trying to conserve power while charging the battery -- I'm not familiar with the Helios line).

3) Digging a bit deeper into power options:

- What power setting are you running?

- If balanced or high performance already, go to "change advanced power settings"

- PCI Express -> Link State Power Management --> Plugged in: change this setting to "off"

Are you running any sort of temp / performance monitor, like HWinfo + RTSS (Rivatuner Server) while gaming? If you are, aside from the temps question I asked, what's the load % on your CPU and GPU and the clock speeds while you're in Overwatch?

Zner · July 2017

1. Temp runs at ave of 70+° CPU and 60+° GPU with 4600 RPM for both cpu and gpu. Doesn't feel throttling at all. (Based on what I've read from the other discussions, this temp is normal / acceptable, right?)
2. Yes, my charger is plugged in while playing the game and it came to a point that the battery is already fully charged. I'm not sure about the wattage but the charger that I'm using is the one that comes from Acer Predator Helios 300.
3. Power setting was set to "High performance" and "Plugged in" set to off / never.

Lastly, I dont think that my laptop is running any sort of temp / performance monitor as I am not familiar with this. Just got this helios 300 a couple of days ago and I have just updated the Nvidia driver and Bios as mentioned above.

angomy · July 2017

Yes, those temps are well within normal range, so I don't think throttling is an issue here. Re: hardware monitoring software, that's something that Acer doesn't supply but I was curious to know if you had HWinfo or something similar running so you could see if your cpu/gpu were running at full clock speeds or not (and temps).

Does the Helios have Optimus (integrated graphics + discrete gpu switching)? If so, have you checked to make sure that Overwatch and the other games are running off the 1060 and not via the IGP? (Right click the game icon, Use Nvidia GPU or whatever the selection is).

Edit: I looked up the Helios line and it looks like it does run Optimus since the specs show both the 1060 and integrated intel 630 graphics. From your symptoms it sounds like your laptop is running Overwatch and Dota using the integrated graphics. Try forcing it to swap using the step I mentioned above.

I think if you do that (go to the game directory, right click the game.exe, choose the Nvidia gpu manually) it sets that preference permanently for that application. Not sure why it wouldn't be swapping automatically, maybe try clean reinstalling your Nvidia driver?

FWIW I played a quick match in Overwatch (I don't have the same laptop, I have a Predator 15, but same video card and ~approx same CPU (last gen 6700 vs 7700 so ~5-10% difference). I was getting a steady 70 fps with CPU @ 53C, 25-30% load and GPU @ 60C, 45-55% load, not even clocking at max (1550-1600, but I wasn't running in turbo mode since it was unnecessary). You should be seeing around the same performance for sure.

Zner · July 2017

Re: hardware monitoring software, could you recommend a good one that is not so complicated to use, as I am no expert here. Smiley Happy

For the GPU, I believe that the 1060 is being detected accordingly when running Overwatch because it is being shown under video settings.

On the other hand, I still tried and followed the steps that you have mentioned regarding forcing and setting the 1060 as the default GPU when running Overwatch. However, the FPS is still not really good (29fps)

Btw, thank you for taking time to respond.

hiteshgavini171 · July 2017

First of all have you connected the charger,i think you are trying to play without charger connected

Flx · July 2017

Your laptop should have a program called PredatorSense which you can use to monitor the temperatures for CPU/GPU. If you don't have it installed it can be downloaded from the Acer website. Also it does sound like your laptop is unplugged or there is a setting wrong somewhere, you should be able to max out OW easily.

angomy · July 2017

Sorry for the late answer (weekend). Regarding hardware monitoring software, there's a lot of free options out there but I would go with one that most of the community uses, such as HWinfo or GPU-Z. I myself use HWinfo in conjunction with RTSS (RivaTunerStatisticsServer) to have an on-screen display of stats while in any game.

However, you can run HWInfo separately and it will (for that session) record low/high/average readings for stuff like CPU/GPU usage, temperature, clock speeds, voltages, etc.

It is, IMHO, indispensable for figuring out any hardware-related issues. While it's a bit complicated to set up for on-screen display, if you run it you can just see information it is reading from your computer (sensors section).

In your case, I'm kind of stumped as to why you're still only getting 30 fps even while running on the 1060 without seeing more info regarding the hardware readings above. I can only think something is limiting your performance, such as a driver or a setting somewhere. Are you using an external monitor hooked up to your laptop? If you are, have you checked to see what resolution/refresh rate it's running at?

TDK1044 · July 2017

When you updated your video drivers, where did you get them from.....the Acer site or Nvidia? I would download the drivers from the site that you didn't visit and see if there's a performance improvement.

Flx · July 2017

TDK1044 wrote:
When you updated your video drivers, where did you get them from.....the Acer site or Nvidia? I would download the drivers from the site that you didn't visit and see if there's a performance improvement.

Good advice, definitely would get the driver from Acer if you got it from Nvidia and vice versa. It almost sounds like a program or something somewhere is locking you at 20 fps, what do your Nvidia control panel settings look like?

Zner · July 2017

Sorry for my late reply. I have been very busy for the past few days.

Anyway, I have tried to reinstall the GPU driver from NVIDIA and tested playing Overwatch again. Now my fps seems working very fine. Stable / consistent at 70fps.

Many thanks for all your support and responses, really appreciate it!

Flx · July 2017

Zner wrote:
Sorry for my late reply. I have been very busy for the past few days.

Anyway, I have tried to reinstall the GPU driver from NVIDIA and tested playing Overwatch again. Now my fps seems working very fine. Stable / consistent at 70fps.

Many thanks for all your support and responses, really appreciate it!

Awesome man glad to hear it's working for you. Game on!

Zner · July 2017

Thanks Flx and Angomy!

Btw, I have one last question -- when playing Overwatch my CPU is at 86C and GPU at 77C. Also the RPM for CPU/GPU is ranging between 4600-5300, is this normal / acceptable?

Flx · July 2017

You're welcome! Yea that is normal for the Helios, I would suggest undervolting your CPU if you havent already it will really bring the temps down.

angomy · July 2017

Second that undervolt -- it's safe (won't do anything bad to your hardware), does not void your warranty, and will definitely help bring temps down even with a moderate undervolt of -80 to -100mV. I would start at -80mV, do some benchmarks/gaming, if it stays stable for an hour+, bring it down another 10-20mV. I wouldn't go past -150mV tops tbh, mine started having rare crashes over -125mV. At -125mV it's solid as a rock. Your silicon lottery may vary.

You can use either Intel Extreme Tuning Utility or Throttlestop to do so. (AFAIK both will default to regular voltage on a crash, though after a crash/reboot you're not doing anything to stress the system if just logging in and changing voltages to be less aggressive anyway). There are guides out there for XTU and Throttlestop.

Zner · July 2017

I am not yet familiar with undervolting but I'll do some research about it and will definitely follow your suggestions. I will let you know again if I have other questions.

Thanks Angomy for sharing a more detailed info re. undervolting.