Laptop Fps Drop Only While Charging?

[Talonjay]

Specs:

Acer Aspire V3

Intel Core i7

NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M

16 GB RAM DDR3

 

This is the only game I've ever played that gives me WORSE performance while my laptop is plugged in. While unplugged, the game runs great (usually at 30-60 FPS). A few seconds after plugging in though, I get terrible stutters and consistent 10-15 FPS. As soon as I unplug it, things go back to normal. I've tried going to lowest settings, but I haven't noticed any difference in this behavior. I'll keep trying other things, any suggestions or advice would be helpful.

[Hydroking77]

You may what to check the performance option while charging and when not charging. I have my laptop not trying to work as hard when it is not plugged in and maxed out when plugged in.

[bejuizb]

You may what to check the performance option while charging and when not charging. I have my laptop not trying to work as hard when it is not plugged in and maxed out when plugged in.

That should be it. Probably, you've set it to Power Saver mode while plugged in, just need to change that to max performance. Should work. Keep us posted on whether that works or not bud.

 

Following.

[Talonjay]

That should be it. Probably, you've set it to Power Saver mode while plugged in, just need to change that to max performance. Should work. Keep us posted on whether that works or not bud.

 

Following.

Setting it to High Performance did the trick for me. I didn't have it set to Power Saver, though. I've never had to touch those options before now, so it's always been set to Balanced. It works fine now, but I can't help but wonder why I had to do this just for Warframe.

 

EDIT: Actually it didn't work. I still get FPS drops while plugged in, but now it seems to take longer for it to be noticeable. 

Edited May 25, 2015 by Talonjay

[bejuizb]

I think I know why. Your laptop battery is being charged, which might be generating additional heat, which could throttle performance, not sure though. 

[Bazooka101]

It could be overheating issues. As the card/processor is now running at a higher frequency and using more resources, the hardware will surely get hotter. Laptops don't have the best cooling systems so it may be throttling performance to keep temperatures in check. I would check temperatures as you play to see whether or not it's the hardware or the game.

[Talonjay]

After some testing, I'm pretty sure you guys are on the right track in regards to it being a heating issue. During normal play (running on battery), the CPU and GPU are around 55°C - 70°C. When I start charging, it shoots up to the 90's. I'm not sure why it does this, because I've tested with other games, and the highest it goes to is 75°C. I've made sure that my Windows power settings are at Balanced, and I've also gone into the NVIDIA control panel and set the Power Management Mode to "Prefer Consistent Performance" as opposed to "Adaptive", since I thought maybe the GPU would try to work harder while plugged in. I've also tried this: (https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/289244-framerate-drops-high-cpu-loads-cpu-overheating-this-might-fix-it-cpu-core-unparking/) but I haven't noticed any difference in FPS while my laptop is charging. (Although I do think it now runs better overall, it could just be a placebo effect) I'm sure I must be overlooking something. It's really weird how this is the only game I've ever had this problem with.