Having issues gpu not supported on my gaming laptop.

[Zain9110]

Hey folks,


I recently noticed some weird performance issues on my Dell G15 5520 gaming laptop while playing Cyberpunk 2077. Specs are Intel Core i7-12700H and NVIDIA RTX 3060 Laptop GPU, but the FPS feels lower than it should.


Before buying this laptop, someone had suggested I check for CPU/GPU bottlenecks using a bottleneck calculator or VPSU tool, but honestly, I didn’t do it back then. Now I’m thinking maybe that could explain why my performance isn’t great.


Can anyone suggest a good bottleneck calculator for laptops? Are there any particular tools or methods you recommend to figure out if my CPU or GPU is holding back FPS? Would love to hear your experiences.


Thanks!

 

[Zed Clampet]

Hey folks,


I recently noticed some weird performance issues on my Dell G15 5520 gaming laptop while playing Cyberpunk 2077. Specs are Intel Core i7-12700H and NVIDIA RTX 3060 Laptop GPU, but the FPS feels lower than it should.


Before buying this laptop, someone had suggested I check for CPU/GPU bottlenecks using a bottleneck calculator or VPSU tool, but honestly, I didn’t do it back then. Now I’m thinking maybe that could explain why my performance isn’t great.


Can anyone suggest a good bottleneck calculator for laptops? Are there any particular tools or methods you recommend to figure out if my CPU or GPU is holding back FPS? Would love to hear your experiences.


Thanks!

I've never used a bottleneck calculator because there are so many easy ways to check:

If you use Steam, enable the overlay that gives you CPU/GPU usage statistics. If, in game, one of them is near 100 percent, then that's your bottleneck.

You can probably also use Task Manager, MSi Afterburner, Xbox Game Bar for this, though I haven't done it myself.

Another source of bottlenecks is RAM. In your Steam Overlay, it will show the RAM usage. This one isn't quite as black and white, but if you are maxing out your RAM, that could be a bottleneck as well, but it should be noted that many games use as much RAM as you can give them. But if neither your CPU nor GPU are maxed and your RAM is, then RAM is a problem. (See bottom for something that could be needlessly causing a RAM bottleneck)

Another way to check for a CPU bottleneck is to reduce your overall graphics settings in the game and see if your FPS improves. If it doesn't, then your CPU is a bottleneck. In open world games, a laptop's CPU, even if it is a good one, is frequently the problem (I speak from many years of experience with this).

Generally speaking, unless you cap your FPS, you will always have a bottleneck. Even if you are getting 200 FPS, there is something stopping you from getting 201.

NOTE: In laptops, heat is also a likely bottleneck. Check your temps to see if your laptop is throttling.

Do you have an inadvertent RAM bottleneck? Nvidia cards are automatically set to spill VRAM shortages over to regular RAM. This is especially problematic in systems that have both low VRAM (8 GB or less) and low RAM (16 GB or less). There is not really a great fix for this, but if you are seeing RAM problems (using the method I listed above), then it's worth adjusting this Nvidia setting to see what happens.

In the Nvidia Control Panel, go to Manage 3D Settings and change CUDA Systems Fallback Policy from Default to "Prefer no system fallback". Hit apply and run your game again to check if this alleviated the RAM problem (and potentially created a new VRAM problem)