Nvidia Optimus problems

[SentinelAeon]

Hardware & Software:
An old laptop, Asus NV56, i7 3610QM with HD 4000 igpu and GT 630M discrete gpu. Using windows 8.1, tried different drivers for this nvidia gpu

Situation:
3dmark11 will give 1200 points with GT 630M and 720 points with HD 4000

Problem:
When playing a game CS:GO ... igpu and GT 630M will give the exact same FPS, even though GPU-Z, Optimus status and everything else will show that its using GT 630M. Meaning it is using GT 630M but somehow only exactly as fast as HD 4000. CPU is at max frequency and being used like 20-30%. GPU-Z will show GT 630M being used around 75-85%. Now get this: if i connect external monitor to hdmi, which bypasses igpu altogether, fps will double. For those who do not understand ... internal monitor is connected to igpu and igpu is connected to GT 630M. So its impossible to completely bypass igpu using internal monitor. But if u connect external monitor to hdmi, then u bypass igpu and connect to GT 630M directly.

Anyway, any ideas how to solve this ? This laptop used to work ok, so it must be a software thing, sadly we have no idea why suddenly its not working. For 3dmark11 it works fine but for CS:GO for some reason it doesn't. Everything everywhere is set to maximum performance, max power usage, discrete GPU, etc. etc. etc. etc.

 

[dejo]

you may be able to use the nvidia control panel to force the Gt630m. Sometimes if you dont use the driver from the maker (asus) it can cause issues on selection of which is used

 

[mackerel]

Don't know if it is the same problem, I had to force using the nvidia GPU in nvidia settings to stop it from using iGPU. I think this happened after a recent Windows Update, but since I don't use my laptop that often I'm not sure exactly when it might have happened. Basically MS is taking over the control so that's the biggest problem. I wish there's a setting that let you essentially disable iGPU totally. Don't care about power saving.

 

[SentinelAeon]

I tried all that forcing things ... even tried asus graphic drivers. The last option i see is going back to windows 7 .. using windows 8.1 now and i found some people online with the similar problem using windows 8.1. I am not so sure i can solve it anymore though, since fidling around with settings, now i get higher fps with 630M than i do with HD 4000 ... 32fps vs 22fps ... i get 42fps using external hdmi ... but i only now found out that nvidia optimus itself loses some performance when using internal monitor .. on some games more, on some games less but on cs:go it shows huge loss of fps.

 

[SentinelAeon]

Sadly, didn't help. While the ingame menu says im using 630M, the performance is the same. And that is only using very old 2012 driver directly from asus. Using any other driver directly from nvidia, ingame shows HD 4000, even though gpu-z clearly shows 630M being used in both times. Performance is crap. Even on 1280x720 and everything on low, being near 4 bots, fps drops to 30 fps. Putting all settings to max or to minimum barely makes a difference. I thought it was cpu but its not, usage of cpu is like 20-30% ... its at max frequency ... even putting it to lowest possible frequency makes no difference. Temperature isn't an issue. 3dmark11 gives correct score while it cant run CS:GO. Since it used to work and nothing was changed on system, except obviously cs:go automaticaly updated ... i think the best conclusion is that its an issue with the game. I mean this gpu runs gta 5 fine, which looks awesome, while cs:go looks extremely ugly, yet barely runs. I think its time to upgrade to a newer system and hope it will work with it.