FPS drop with some Nvidia drivers versions

[Rumen Boev]

Recently I have bought a laptop i7 4510U 8 GB RAM and Nvidia GeForce 840M. I tried some games like Stranded Deep, Fifa 15 , CS:GO and after playing about 20-30 minutes, the fps drops from 60 to 10 in a second and stays like that.I read some similar problems and most of them was that the laptop is overheated. I took to repair the laptop at the service 2 times. The first time they only brought it back and told me the video card is not good for this games, but i don't think it is that bad even for CS:GO. The 2nd time i took it to service they said they got it repaired by installing the 344.75 version of the driver. Then I tried GTA V with the newest version of the driver(not only with the newest also with the recent ones ) the fps drop came back so I installed again 344.75 and the problem was not there ( actually the fps drop comes for about 1-2 seconds and disappears ). So my question is what is actually my problem, because I don't want to be with this driver for the rest of my laptop's life.

 

[Harrison Whitmarsh]

Hello Ruman Boev, and welcome to Toms!

I want to start by saying that all of the information I am giving you is NOT an answer, but it should help you better understand the problem.

First, I want to talk about the CPU in your PC. Intel makes MANY different versions of i7 processors, and each type is different. Here is a link to better understanding what "i7-4510U" really means: http/www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/processor-numbers.html
I have also taken a moment to benchmark your CPU to other i7's of different types: =2248&cmp[]=2261&cmp[]=1949]https/www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=2248&cmp[]=2261&cmp[]=1949
From this information I want you to notice that the i7-4510u that you have, is a low power chip that is not entirely made for high end gaming. It was built for i7 engineering but without the heat and power.

Next, I want to talk about your graphics card. The GeForce 840M is a mobile GPU, meaning that once again, it does not have the full power of a GPU, in order to save power and avoid overheating. Here is a benchmark comparison of your GPU vs two very common internal cards. =2873&cmp[]=2697&cmp[]=2953]http/www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=2873&cmp[]=2697&cmp[]=2953
From that benchmark I want you to see that your card just does not perform to the quality that today's gaming GPU's do, its not even close. Is this your problem, who knows.

Conclusion:
You have bought a pretty awesome machine, with i7 architecture, more RAM than you will ever need, and a graphics card that has a bit of speed in it; you are choosing to play games though that use a LOT of system power. Your machine MAY handle these games for quite a while, but over time heat will build up which a laptop's design just cannot handle. When the heat gets too much, the GPU and CPU cannot perform as they should be, thus frame dropping. Based on what you have shared with us, this seems to be the best answer to your problem, in my opinion. Getting a good chill mat can make a world of difference some times, and maybe you are one of those cases.

Anyways, sorry for the speech, I hope it helps!

- Harrison Whitmarsh
Lincoln Nebraska USA

 

[Rumen Boev]

Thank you Harrison Whitmarsh for your answer, but the games I am playing are not even that "hard" so it shouldn't do this problem. After i got it repaired the games do not drop fps with only 1 version of the driver - the 344.75 one, which is from November. I tried to install the newest versions , but then again the problem occurs

 

[Harrison Whitmarsh]

Hello again Rumen!

Your video card Passmark Score: 844 (which roughly has to do with quality and speed.)
Minimum Score Needed for CS:GO : 440 (You could play this on more than just minimum settings.)
for FIFA 15 : 1685 (You will not be able to run this game without problems.)
for GTA V: 727 (You would need to play this on the lowest settings.)
for Stranded Deep : 736 (You would need to play this on the lowest settings.)

I went online and found the lowest Graphics card that these games need to run, and compared those cards to yours, the above numbers are what I found. You card can run each of these games, but you WILL have issues the longer you play, as heat builds. Yes, a driver update can make your GPU more efficient and run better, longer, but it will not fix the issue of its speed. Unfortunately, you do not have the speed to run these games for long periods of time, and in the case of FIFA, at all.

I hate to be the barer of bad news, but the numbers don't lie my friend.

- Harrison Whitmarsh
Lincoln Nebraska USA

 

[Rumen Boev]

But I even got FPS drop on games like CS:GO and Heroes of the Storm and please notice what my problem is - I don't get the fps drop with ONLY 1 driver version ( the 344.75 one ) with all others i got this problem.

 

[Takacs Gabriel]

I have the same problem like you, fps will not drop only with the 344.75 driver version, but I found that with this driver nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/82468/en-us, which is from 24.02.2015, the games aren't suffering fps drops, I not sure what is causing this problem, I hope we find out.
The only difference between our laptops are the cpu (I have i5 4210u), and ram (4gb).

 

[Rumen Boev]

so it is really the driver version problem?

 

[Takacs Gabriel]

I think yes, I just switch to the new 350.12 driver and the fps are dropping again. But I saw something, when I Monitor the gpu usage with afterburner, In cs:go this usage will be around 83% and 100 fps with all on high or ultra, but after a minute or two this usage will go up to 99%, and the fps are dropping to 27. The Cpu usage is droping from 87% to around 50%. Also the temperature is around 60 degrees when all is working well, and when the gpu usage jumps to 99% this temperature is lowering, so I don't know why a driver is causing this. Its not about overheating, its seems that new drivers are causing troubles with our gpu. If I find something I will post here, until then I hope someone else will help us somehow.

 

[Rumen Boev]

Okay, thank you. I just hope Nvidia is aware of this problem

 

[Takacs Gabriel]

I think I found an easy fix for our problem. Right click - Graphics properties (intel control panel) - click 3D. From here at general settings (right side) click custom settings and at vertical sync select driver settings and save. So far I have no problems in CS:GO and GTA 5, the only downside is that vertical sync will always be on, but if you have no problem with it you are ok.

 

[Rumen Boev]

Thanks, I will try it, but I don't know if it is okay to leave vsync always on, could someone tell if it is bad to leave it on?