GPU power drops with resolution - Razer RTX 2080

[Justice]

First up, Razer, 2080 Max Q, 9750h, 16gb factory ram, 240hz.

Every now and then I try to play games off the battery. Sometimes work is slow, I just need to be on site. And I travel a lot. Because of that, I don't always have a power outlet to plug in to.

I briefly owned the Razer Stealth 1650max q. When I had issues running a game, all I had to do was drop the resolution to 720p to hit 60fps.

Decided to upgrade to the Razer 15. Understandably, the CPU won't get full power, neither the GPU on battery. And Yes, I know it will only last an hour.

However, whenever I drop the resolution to 720p, the frame rate doesn't increase, instead the power drops down and the frame rate stays roughly the same.

Thought maybe there was some setting while on battery which causes this, but interestingly, it does this plugged in too. Tested running some games on the adapter that would run 140, 150 fps. Dropping it to 720p should bump it to way over 150, but instead the GPU power drops in almost half and the game stays at about the same frame rate.

I'm assuming this is some sort of BIOS locked feature in the Razer laptop, but was looking to see if anyone else has seen this occur and found a way to turn it off.

 

[eidairaman1]

Portable computers power profiles and bios are designed to prioritize battery life when not plugged in, they all have limits.

Even my desktop replacement gaming laptop in 2004 would drop performance to extend battery life.

 

[Justice]

Portable computers power profiles and bios are designed to prioritize battery life when not plugged in, they all have limits.

Even my desktop replacement gaming laptop in 2004 would drop performance to extend battery life.

I understand the performance drop for battery life which is why I brought up several issues. This didn't occur on the Razer Stealth. Also, this still happened when plugged in and not on battery

 

[eidairaman1]

I believe the max q cards are designed to drop. I would ask Razer about this even.

 

[R-T-B]

Do you have vsync enabled in the selected game? That would cap your fps at whatever the displays rate is.

 

[Justice]

Do you have vsync enabled in the selected game? That would cap your fps at whatever the displays rate is.

VSync off. I've tinkered with just about every setting, I even tried installing Studio Drivers instead. There was an option called "Max Q Boost" which dynamically adjusts power to the system. Turned that off and it made things worse.

For some reason that setting doesn't appear when I reinstalled the Gaming drivers.

 

[R-T-B]

VSync off. I've tinkered with just about every setting, I even tried installing Studio Drivers instead. There was an option called "Max Q Boost" which dynamically adjusts power to the system. Turned that off and it made things worse.

For some reason that setting doesn't appear when I reinstalled the Gaming drivers.

I'm sorry, that was the only thing I can think of (and yeah, it's one of those "did you plug it in?" type of questions we have to ask lol). Hopefully someone more knowledgable about razer/nvidia hardware peculiarities comes along.

 

[Justice]

I believe the max q cards are designed to drop. I would ask Razer about this even.

Thought of that too, but the 1650 is also a Max Q.

I ditched Razer briefly to get an Asus Zephyrus S. That had a full 2070, not Max Q. On that system, setting it to 720p would produce a very high frame rate increase, as did the Razer with the 1650.

However the Zephyrus was a piece of crap and the LED ribbon went out after two days and I returned it.

I'm sorry, that was the only thing I can think of (and yeah, it's one of those "did you plug it in?" type of questions we have to ask lol). Hopefully someone more knowledgable about razer/nvidia hardware peculiarities comes along.

Thanks. This seems to be a Razer specific setting. I'm actually getting some fantastic FPS on battery with some games (Witcher 3 getting 80-90 or so outside of major cities on 1080p Medium), but absolutely horrible with others. Sekiro ran almost 60fps, 1080p on battery, dropping it to 1600x900 bumped it to full 60 on the Razer stealth. On the Razer 2080? Barely goes over 45fps at any point, even dropping it to 720p and low graphics. The frame rate doesn't change.

 

[eidairaman1]

Thought of that too, but the 1650 is also a Max Q.

I ditched Razer briefly to get an Asus Zephyrus S. That had a full 2070, not Max Q. On that system, setting it to 720p would produce a very high frame rate increase, as did the Razer with the 1650.

However the Zephyrus was a piece of crap and the LED ribbon went out after two days and I returned it.



Thanks. This seems to be a Razer specific setting. I'm actually getting some fantastic FPS on battery with some games (Witcher 3 getting 80-90 or so outside of major cities on 1080p Medium), but absolutely horrible with others. Sekiro ran almost 60fps, 1080p on battery, dropping it to 1600x900 bumped it to full 60 on the Razer stealth. On the Razer 2080? Barely goes over 45fps at any point, even dropping it to 720p and low graphics. The frame rate doesn't change.

Find 1 that is not max q this cycle

NVIDIA GeForce Max-Q Design

An innovative approach to crafting the world's thinnest, fastest, quietest gaming laptops.

www.nvidia.com

https://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-RTX-2070-Max-Q-Graphics-Card.386281.0.html

Basically if it hits power or thermal limits it will drop performance to reduce thermals/powerdraw unfortunately.

There is no such thing as a thin gaming laptop/notebook in my vocabulary.

There is a Gaming Laptop and then there is a laptop or notebook.

Also razer to me is cheap in quality...

 

[Justice]

Find 1 that is not max q this cycle

NVIDIA GeForce Max-Q Design

An innovative approach to crafting the world's thinnest, fastest, quietest gaming laptops.

www.nvidia.com

https://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-RTX-2070-Max-Q-Graphics-Card.386281.0.html

Basically if it hits power or thermal limits it will drop performance to reduce thermals/powerdraw unfortunately.

There is no such thing as a thin gaming laptop/notebook in my vocabulary.

There is a Gaming Laptop and then there is a laptop or notebook.

Also razer to me is cheap in quality...

If you read the gaming benchmarks though listed for the 2070 Max Q, any of the games they ran at reduced resolution have massive frame rate spikes. Example, Control went from 80fps to 220 going from 1080p to 720p. Witcher 3 had nearly a doubling of the frame rate between 1080p and 768p.

Doing the exact same thing, my 2080 just drops the GPU wattage. I ran HWinfo and it will drop from 80-90 watts to 40-44. This is with the adapter plugged in.

 

[eidairaman1]

If you read the gaming benchmarks though listed for the 2070 Max Q, any of the games they ran at reduced resolution have massive frame rate spikes. Example, Control went from 80fps to 220 going from 1080p to 720p. Witcher 3 had nearly a doubling of the frame rate between 1080p and 768p.

Doing the exact same thing, my 2080 just drops the GPU wattage. I ran HWinfo and it will drop from 80-90 watts to 40-44. This is with the adapter plugged in.

Get in reach with Razer and tell them what it's doing.

 

[newtekie1]

I'd guess the CPU is limiting the framerate, so lowering the resolution isn't going to help with the framerate. I think that CPU is limited to 34w when running on battery, so it's probably not clocking too high.

 

[JackCarver]

I think that CPU is limited to 34w when running on battery

He said the problem is also plugged in.

There must be a software called Synapse where you have several options to choose from. For example performance:

Did you test those settings also to get increased graphics power?

 

[Justice]

I've checked Synapse, once you unplug the adapter, most of the settings disappear. It's only when plugged in that you get Gaming mode, which is roughly 5-10% faster than balanced.

and yes, like I mentioned, what perplexes me is happens even plugged in and at low temperatures, high 60's, this occurs, so it's not thermal throttling.

Now and then if I change resolutions, the game will temporarily be running in a very high frame rate for maybe two seconds, then suddenly it throttles down to a lower power mode. So some setting has to be kicking in to adjust this, I have no idea if it's Razer or Nvidia though. I guess I'll start with messaging Razer.

 

[newtekie1]

He said the problem is also plugged in.

Even plugged in the CPU is still capped at 45w. It's holding the GPU back at lower resolutions, no getting around it.