4070 laptop perfcap reason idle during gameplay

[FLANKE]

I'm playing Valorant on an Alienware x16 r1(i7 13700h RTX 4070) with a 1080p 320hz monitor, every setting in game is at the lowest and I've turned every setting I know in NVidia control panel and Windows to maximize performance but I am still getting 200-ish framerate. Upon checking GPU-Z, I found that the board power when gaming is only around 30W and the perfcap reason is Idle. I have no idea why this happens and I'm out of options, my GPU simply doesn't want to work!!!

 

[Macro Device]

Of course it doesn't want to work. You are trying to press it with a game that barely requires a GPU to run. You are heavily CPU limited.

 

[FLANKE]

I tried testing with MSI afterburner and the CPU and GPU utilization are both quite low with cpu drawing around 80W and gpu drawing 30W. When I game on 4k resolution, the frame rates are pretty much the same because the gpu is somehow consuming twice the power while the cpu stays the same.

 

[Macro Device]

with cpu drawing around 80W

It's a lot by laptop standards. You will get same 200ish FPS at whatever settings, both 720p lowest and 4K Max.

This is because your CPU can only generate this much. The GPU is waiting for your CPU to do its thing 70+ percent of the time. Nothing you can do other than accept it and play at max settings or buy a laptop with a faster CPU (will prove challenging).

In layman's terms:

Your CPU is a boss. Your GPU is a worker. The boss only can think of 200something tasks every second, he's not creative enough for more. So his humble but potent servant only does 200ish tasks every second because it's nothing else for him to do.

 

[FLANKE]

It's a lot by laptop standards. You will get same 200ish FPS at whatever settings, both 720p lowest and 4K Max.

This is because your CPU can only generate this much. The GPU is waiting for your CPU to do its thing 70+ percent of the time. Nothing you can do other than accept it and play at max settings or buy a laptop with a faster CPU (will prove challenging).

In layman's terms:

Your CPU is a boss. Your GPU is a worker. The boss only can think of 200something tasks every second, he's not creative enough for more. So his humble but potent servant only does 200ish tasks every second because it's nothing else for him to do.

Thank you so much! Is it possible for me to overclock the cpu somehow to make it more 'creative'?

 

[Macro Device]

Perhaps you will find your luck with Throttlestop. Its author is an active member here but I'd really NOT advise to overclock a laptop CPU without being fully aware of your power, cooling, and safety precautions situation. Better play 200 FPS than flee from a burning house.

Won't be able to be of more help there I'm afraid. Laptops aren't my forte.

 

[FLANKE]

Thank you!

 

[QyInvoLing]

It's a cpu-bound(typically single-core&cache) game.