RX 540 Laptop lower FPS than normal

Hi. I bought an Acer A515-41G-F2SH laptop and I'm getting much lower FPS than expected, about 2-3 times lower than my desktop with GT 1030 (should be similar as the GT has the same chip as the MX150, competitor of the RX 540). I installed some old games on it and I'm getting 35 FPS in Assassin's Creed 1 vs 90-100 FPS with the desktop, 25 FPS in Blur vs 60+ with the desktop. I tested 8 other old games and it's the same problem. I generally play them at 1080p max settings as these aren't too demanding games. I also installed a new game, League of Legends and I'm getting 2 times lower FPS. Temps are okay and CPU usage never hits 100% on any core so it shouldn't be a bottleneck, right? I already installed latest GPU driver, older GPU driver from the Acer website, activated "performance" setting to use the dedicated GPU, updated laptop BIOS, set Windows power options to "high performance". Is it a driver issue that is going to be fixed?

Laptop specs:

Windows 10 64 bit

FX 9800P Quad Core up to 3.60 Ghz

RX 540 2GB GDDR5

8GB DDR4

256 GB SSD

1080p display

Desktop Specs:

Windows 10 64 bit

i3-6100

GT 1030 2GB GDDR5

8GB DDR4

120 GB SSD

1080p display

I know the desktop CPU is much better but I'm not hitting anywhere near 100% CPU usage in the games.

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JackE

Are you trying to run these games on battery alone? If yes, try plugging it in to see what happens. Jack E/NJ

mihai_alex7

I did the tests plugged in. Oddly, I'm getting constant 60 FPS in PES 2014 up close with the detailed players with lower GPU usage than GT 1030 (V Sync forced on by the game if I'm not mistaken), that's the only game out of many tested that works well. Other games I tested are: Rayman Origins (60 FPS but high GPU usage), LEGO LoTR (drops to 45, depends on what I'm looking at), Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (45-60 FPS depending on what I'm looking at), Splinter Cell Double Agent (45 FPS), NBA 2K12 (40 FPS). On my desktop I have no issues getting 60 FPS on the same 1080p resolution, max settings, v sync on, without using 100% of the GPU.

JackE

>>>desktop CPU is much better>>>

What's your desktop's mfr and model number? Jack E/NJ

mihai_alex7

It's a custom built one.

JackE

I'm gonna guess most but not all of your games are written to leverage using the older Intel CPU platforms better than the newer AMDs. Would this guess surprise you? Jack E/NJ

mihai_alex7

I don't know, but I'm not getting 100% CPU usage on any core. I thought it could be an AMD optimization issue, but really 3 times less fps? This is the first time I'm using AMD CPU + AMD GPU. I also read across the internet that people are getting low fps in games like Battlefield 1, CS GO, generally low FPS in FX APU & RX 540 laptop.

JackE

If you don't get a better response than Kingfish had to offer, then I'd return the system to the vendor pronto for a refund or exchange if you can. https://community.amd.com/thread/231722 I feel that if you set your power plan to max performance on all settings and plugged in, this laptop should easily outperform i3 your custom desktop. However, Georges may be on the right track in that most of your games may not have been written at a time to take advantage of your more modern AMD hardware. Jack E/NJ

mihai_alex7

But they're the same year of release (2016 if I'm not mistaken). Previously I had a dual core Celeron Skylake 2.8 Ghz on the desktop which I think has the same benchmark score as the FX 9800P and had 60 FPS even in new games like Rocket League.

JackE

mihai_alex7 said:

But they're the same year of release (2016 if I'm not mistaken). Previously I had a dual core Celeron Skylake 2.8 Ghz on the desktop which I think has the same benchmark score as the FX 9800P and had 60 FPS even in new games like Rocket League.

Nevertheless, I still feel Georges has the most reasonable, though not very satisfying, explanations so far. Most of the games that you're playing simply aren't using the full potential of the AMD cpu to help the gpu. So I'd challenge Georges on how he'd prove his theories that 3 year old games might not be written to support the AMD cpu or that AMD has decided to drop support for these games due to Win10 driver issues. Major Win10 updates have certainly caused driver havoc in relatively new machines that shipped with earlier Win10 releases. I'd be interested to see if Georges responds and what he has to say. Jack E/NJ
https://community.amd.com/thread/231722#2876799
https://community.amd.com/thread/231722#2876897

mihai_alex7

I tried DirectX 11 benchmark in Unigine Valley and I'm only getting 20 FPS. I don't think it's just the older DirectX 9 games.

JackE

Yes, but how old is this benchmark software? Jack E/NJ

Gensiorek

mihai_alex7 said:

I tried DirectX 11 benchmark in Unigine Valley and I'm only getting 20 FPS. I don't think it's just the older DirectX 9 games.

Games working bad because processor is bottlenck

i test fortnite ,gta,lol,witcher. Witcher 3 works great on med-high 1366x768 (30fps)in novigrad . For example gta V 23-35fps...league of legends-(its different on new and old graphic drivers) on old its drop to 50fps in teamfights on new 60 stable. But i have a big problem with new drivers... long boot time and bsod on battery .

Worst than integrated 620hd i . And it doesnt matter if i run on lowest settings and resolution or -+high med fps its same

maybe if you have 2ram slots buy new ram to get dual channel.

mihai_alex7

With some Googling I found out that it could be indeed because the newer drivers are badly optimized for DirectX 7-10 games, a problem not found on the Nvidia drivers (so that's why GT 1030 is much faster in the games). Gonna return it today, a pity because an i5 low power + mx 150 option is a lot more expensive and this really seemed the best value at 450$.

If anyone has another explanation and solution please reply.

JackE

Return it pronto to the vendor for an exchange or refund before it's too late. Jack E/NJ

mihai_alex7

I have about 3 weeks time left to return it and decided to give it another chance. So I did the Unigine Heaven benchmark on the same settings and DirectX 11 on both of the systems and got similar FPS so I'm thinking it is indeed a DirectX 9 only issue (old games & esports). Oldest AMD driver for RX540 or newest driver, same problem. Don''t know if there's any setting I can try or it's purely an AMD driver issue, GPU being new I can't install a really old driver. And in the future they probably won't fix it right?

Windows 7 install didn't help, btw.

JackE

Well, if you still have that much time left, you might want to try a factory reset outside of Windows and not-connected using the ALT+F10 cold boot method shown in the video below. This might help determine if a Win10update got installed that doesn't play well with the drivers originally installed. Jack E/NJ