Low fps on laptop with Geforce 660M

[farquezy]

Using MSI afterburner, i see that I only get around 20-50% gpu usage.

Lowering the graphics barely helped.
Being in populated areas drops fps below 30.

I've already made sure the game uses the dedicated graphics and not integrated.

Specs:

8GB DDR3 ram
Windows 7 64 bit
GTX 660M Geforce Graphics
i7-3610QM 2.3GHz

[LITOralis.nMd]

DO you have a notebook with Nvidia Optimus?
You have to manually set PRBF2.exe PRLauncher.exe and PRmumble.exe to run on the GTX660M and not the integrated GPU.

[farquezy]

DO you have a notebook with Nvidia Optimus?
You have to manually set PRBF2.exe PRLauncher.exe and PRmumble.exe to run on the GTX660M and not the integrated GPU.

Thanks for the suggestions, but I have already done this as I mentioned on the original post.

I can verify this by the fact that MSI afterburner shows my dedicated graphics being used while playing PR.

[LITOralis.nMd]

Not sure there is much that can be done. I'll ask a clanmate with same specs if he has any tricks to increase performance, I'll post back when I can .

In win7 power options, you need to make some adjustments , google for "windows 7 notebook gaming power options performance" or something similar.
Most simply, do this:
How To Set Windows 7 Power Settings to High Performance - Ep. 13 - YouTube

More complicated, you can download Process Lasso Free, from bitsum.com and set the prbf2.exe prlauncher.exe and prmumble.exe to gaming mode, and to high priority...

"gaming mode" is a custom power mode that comes with process lasso.

[farquezy]

LITOralis.nMd;1938254']Not sure there is much that can be done. I'll ask a clanmate with same specs if he has any tricks to increase performance, I'll post back when I can .

In win7 power options, you need to make some adjustments , google for "windows 7 notebook gaming power options performance" or something similar.
Most simply, do this:
How To Set Windows 7 Power Settings to High Performance - Ep. 13 - YouTube

More complicated, you can download Process Lasso Free, from bitsum.com and set the prbf2.exe prlauncher.exe and prmumble.exe to gaming mode, and to high priority...

"gaming mode" is a custom power mode that comes with process lasso.

Thank you for keeping up and helping.

My computer is already set to High Performance.
Regarding to your clan made, are these the suggestions he made or are these suggestions you made pending his suggestions?

[LITOralis.nMd]

The suggestions I made above are my own, these are somewhat similar to what I started him with when he first bought his notebook with same specs as your notebook, so it'll get you started.

I will wait to talk to him and pass along his tweaks for PR to you when I see him on TS or our clan forums.

[ConscriptVirus]

Do you have a lenovo y580 by any chance? (just curious, can't give any specific advice regarding to that).

I have a smiliar laptop except with a i7-3630qm +GT 750m. Generally my FPS is also around 30 (in populated/city maps) with low GPU usage too. The main problem is that the CPU is not strong enough. (Yeah PR is pretty CPU bound). Turning up the graphics wont hurt and may actually help. I'm playing with 1080p, max settings, 8x supersampling AA +8x transparency setting, 16x AF, and still getting around/under 50% GPU usage, so yeah, you can crank up your settings. Though, of all the video settings, lowering view distance will help.

Here are some other tips to help with performance (which you will have to further google)

Make sure you have proper ventilation: raise your laptop or buy a laptop cooler. If needed (but I'd recommend against this) you can try repasting the GPU/CPU. Cooler laptop means less chance your laptop will throttle (lower its performance to stay cool).

Turn off core parking (you'll have to google this as steps are hard to type from memory).

Use throttlestop. This program helps the most. Google it and force your cpu to turbo. I'll post a picture of my settings later. When gaming, your temperatures will rise too, but it won't go into dangerous levels. My temperatures average around 70C without throttlestop but with it, it can go into the 80s and at has hit 90C before. However, it is safe. Your cpu will throttle itself if it ever gets to the dangerous temps which i think is above 100C. I use it only for PR and having it on/off will make a noticeble difference in performance.

Finally, make sure you update your drivers. Different nvidia drivers have given me different performance. Intel chipset drivers should be installed in a special way (like using the "-overall" tag).

[farquezy]

Do you have a lenovo y580 by any chance? (just curious, can't give any specific advice regarding to that).

I have a smiliar laptop except with a i7-3630qm +GT 750m. Generally my FPS is also around 30 (in populated/city maps) with low GPU usage too. The main problem is that the CPU is not strong enough. (Yeah PR is pretty CPU bound). Turning up the graphics wont hurt and may actually help. I'm playing with 1080p, max settings, 8x supersampling AA +8x transparency setting, 16x AF, and still getting around/under 50% GPU usage, so yeah, you can crank up your settings. Though, of all the video settings, lowering view distance will help.

Here are some other tips to help with performance (which you will have to further google)

Make sure you have proper ventilation: raise your laptop or buy a laptop cooler. If needed (but I'd recommend against this) you can try repasting the GPU/CPU. Cooler laptop means less chance your laptop will throttle (lower its performance to stay cool).

Turn off core parking (you'll have to google this as steps are hard to type from memory).

Use throttlestop. This program helps the most. Google it and force your cpu to turbo. I'll post a picture of my settings later. When gaming, your temperatures will rise too, but it won't go into dangerous levels. My temperatures average around 70C without throttlestop but with it, it can go into the 80s and at has hit 90C before. However, it is safe. Your cpu will throttle itself if it ever gets to the dangerous temps which i think is above 100C. I use it only for PR and having it on/off will make a noticeble difference in performance.

Finally, make sure you update your drivers. Different nvidia drivers have given me different performance. Intel chipset drivers should be installed in a special way (like using the "-overall" tag).

Thanks a lot! I'll make sure the check them out.

I love how my current CPU is almost 3 times as powerful as the CPU i used on my previous desktop to play PR 4 years ago, yet this new laptop has lower fps.... lol