28 réponses à ce sujet

[M47R1X]

UPDATE: The solution is in the first post at the top of page 2.

note: I've also posted this in the Dragon Age: Origins PC Technical Support forum. Just trying to increase my chances of getting help, thanks!

So I'm having a wee bit of an issue here. I recently bought a Lenovo IdeaPad Y570, a very capable gaming-based laptop with an nVidia GT555M card, Optimus based. I installed DA:O and ME on it (as well as a few other games) and they can run on very high settings with no noticeable lag, right around 60fps... unless the system is plugged in. Moving around in DA:O or ME while the system is plugged in makes the game freeze for about one second every three or four seconds. It's a total game-breaker, ESPECIALLY for Mass Effect. I unplug it and run off of the battery, and I get some VERY respectable speeds. Right around 60fps, with all graphical options maxed out.

I saw this (answers.yahoo.com/question/index) question that sounds very similar to mine, although I have nVidia graphics with no way to change the option that this guy could. 

So I'm at a loss. What can I do to make this work? Playing on battery only is probably not too good of an idea, as it chugs down the battery. Thanks in advance for any help!

Modifié par M47R1X, 04 août 2011 - 06:02 .

[Bogsnot1]

Given that it happens to more than one game, it indicates its a problem with the laptop, not with the game itself. Try taking it up on the laptop manufacturers forums, as it will have something to do with the battery charge facility and/or software.

[M47R1X]

Yup, been working on that. It just seems more prevalent on BioWare titles. It really seems though that when it is not trying to save battery, that performance suffers. It's just all really weird.

I figured that there were some smart folks here, so I'd try my luck. Thanks for the quick reply, man!

[Gorath Alpha]

Furthermore, you should choose to pursue the question in only one forum, whether it is ME-2, or DA:O (although you can discuss both games either place in the context of the symptoms, of course). Your pair of cross-posts are contrary to your agreements with Bioware for using the site. Whichever of the two you eventually decide to abandon, notify a moderator that you want that one locked.  There's no rush, and no demerits here, it's just good organizational preferences on their part. 

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 26 juin 2011 - 05:08 .

[M47R1X]

Gorath Alpha wrote...

Furthermore, you must choose to pursue the question in only one forum, whether it is ME-2, or DA:O. You are in violation of your agreements with Bioware for using the site through the cross-posting. Whichever you decide to abandon, notify a moderator that you want that one locked.

Thank you.

D'oh, sorry, forgot about that. Some forums have that, some don't. I'm on too many. 

I requested that the other get locked. Asked Lenovo and nVidia for help on this. And Yahoo answers. No help from any of them.

You see, this is why I love this place

[mcsupersport]

Does the slowdown happen immediately or does it take a bit of time to kick in, otherwise if you are running on bat and hook up the power cable does it instantly get choppy or does it run fine for some minutes and then get choppy?

Reason I am asking is heat...wonder if they put the battery too close to the vid card and the charging heat is causing the card to slow down to not cook itself.

Other than that check to see if you have any settings/programs that only run when the machine is plugged in, like a video setting that isn't used to conserve power or some hardware that doesn't run all the time if it isn't plugged in.

[M47R1X]

mcsupersport wrote...

Does the slowdown happen immediately or does it take a bit of time to kick in, otherwise if you are running on bat and hook up the power cable does it instantly get choppy or does it run fine for some minutes and then get choppy?

It's immediate. Plug it in, choppy. Unplug it, smooth. Plug it back in, choppy. 

Reason I am asking is heat...wonder if they put the battery too close to the vid card and the charging heat is causing the card to slow down to not cook itself.

The video card is pretty close, but the battery isn't getting nearly as hot as the CPU/GPU exhaust. Maybe find a way to throttle down the CPU?

Other than that check to see if you have any settings/programs that only run when the machine is plugged in, like a video setting that isn't used to conserve power or some hardware that doesn't run all the time if it isn't plugged in.

I'm looking, I just find it uncanny how that guy on Yahoo answers had the EXACT same problem I'm having (different game, but by the description, it's spot on). Setting the ATI card to conserve power while plugged in (I assume it gave it a mild underclock, but I'm not 100% sure) fixed it. All very weird.

Thanks for the response, BTW!

[mcsupersport]

If the change is immediate then heat will not be the issue. You are going to have to find out everything that changes when you plug it in and stop it one by one until you find the problem. I know DA is fairly processor intensive, so it may be something that is tying it up such as an extra monitor running or some such. Might be a good idea to monitor if any programs start using resources right when you plug out in.

Editied to fix a mistake caused by Droid software....it is good, but changes what I enter occasionally.

Modifié par mcsupersport, 26 juin 2011 - 06:38 .

[M47R1X]

mcsupersport wrote...

If the change is immediate then heat will not be the issue. You are going to have to find out everything that changes when you plug it in and stop it one by one until you find the problem. I know DA is fairly processor intensive, so it may be something that is tying it up such as an extra monitor running or some such. Might be a good idea to monitor if any programs start using resources right when you plug out in.

I've been trying that, and telling the Intel GMA (of all things, it doesn't even run during DA:O sessions) to conserve battery when plugged in seems to have helped, or mayhaps my wishful thinking is acting in a psychosomatic manner. I'm still trying things, matching my plugged in power plan to the unplugged plan and all that.

Editied to fix a mistake caused by Droid software....it is good, but changes what I enter occasionally.

I hear ya there, I use SwiftKey and I have to watch what I type like a rambunctious toddler in a needle museum. 

[M47R1X]

 Quick update: I have noticed something. I was messing around with all of my settings, in game and out of game, and it seems that the problems occur when it's running in full screen. Resolution doesn't matter. It will run  choppy so long as it's running in full screen, BUT it will NOT run choppy if the laptop is running on battery. Not sure how big of a difference full screen makes (even tried windowed at native resolution, and it still ran smooth, just removing the window border seems to make it crappy), but whatever the case, that's what's happening.

[final4fantasy]

I assume you have tried to mess with your charging options on your laptop to see what it affects while plugged in.

[M47R1X]

final4fantasy wrote...

I assume you have tried to mess with your charging options on your laptop to see what it affects while plugged in.

Yup. Not sure what to change, though, so I messed with everything. I saw that another guy was having this problem, but he had an ATI GPU, and all he had to do was set it to conserve battery life when plugged in. My laptop has Optimus, so my nVidia GPU doesn't even show up in the menu. The nVidia control panel has nothing, either.

[final4fantasy]

pull your task manager up when you plug it in and see if it is using more ram or processor space while plugged in compared to when you dont.

[M47R1X]

I tried that, and it doesn't appear to make a difference.

[EA_AgentX]

Have you updated your video drivers and accepted any Windows updates to ensure that your system is current? What kind of video card do you have? Are you running the game through Origin? If so, try disabling Origin in-game through the Cog option near the top of the application as this can help with some lag/latency graphical issues.

EA_AgentX

[M47R1X]

EA_AgentX wrote...

Have you updated your video drivers and accepted any Windows updates to ensure that your system is current? 

EA_AgentX

Yessir, I have.

EA_AgentX wrote...

What kind of video card do you have?

EA_AgentX

nVidia GT 555M running in Optimus, with Intel GMA 3100 pulling up the rear. I checked, the Intel GMA isn't doing jack. And it's a good thing too, as it can barely run Quake II smoothly.

EA_AgentX wrote...

Are you running the game through Origin? If so, try disabling Origin in-game through the Cog option near the top of the application as this can help with some lag/latency graphical issues.

EA_AgentX

Running it through Steam, actually. Disabled the in-game stuff for that purpose, and it had negligible effect.

Thanks for your reply!

Modifié par M47R1X, 05 juillet 2011 - 06:27 .

[M47R1X]

That's some data I pulled while playing DAO. Running around in circles in camp.

If that doesn't work: Here is the link to the pic.

Modifié par M47R1X, 05 juillet 2011 - 10:18 .

[Bogsnot1]

The link you provided gives a 403 forbidden error, yet if i cut and paste the text of the image, i see it.

After looking at the processor speeds when its plugged or unplugged, one thing that springs to mind is possibly trying Mass Affinity to balance out the CPU issue.

[M47R1X]

Well it's the GPU doing that, not the CPU. I checked MassAffinity, and that appears to mainly work on load times. Currently my load times are fine, it just seems like some power setting is causing a lot of grief. Thanks for the suggestion, tho!

[Bogsnot1]

My mistake, should have looked more carefully at the pic and actually read what it said
What level is anisotropic ilftering set for under video options in game? If set for "default", try setting it for either off, or just 2x and see how that goes.

The only other thing i can think of is to check the event log and see if there are any errors that pop up in there, especially if any of them are related to power management.

[M47R1X]

It's alright, no big deal. It's off, as well as antialiasing. I looked through the event log, and the only errors that existed for DA:O were crashes (when I close the game, no big deal). I changed the graphics to low as well, and the peaks and valleys still exist.

Also, I added in FPS into the log and changed the polling and min/max to help zoom in on the issues.

Modifié par M47R1X, 05 juillet 2011 - 09:31 .

[Bogsnot1]

After reading the Optimus white paper, I have a few more questions.
Is there a BIOS setting you can change in regards to GPU output, and is your BIOS revision up to date?
Have you tried disabling the Intel IGP in control panel and seeing if that has any effect?
Have you set up a profile for ME2/DA:O in the Optimus software? If so, are any of the settings set for "Use Global preference" instead of "High Performance NVIDIA"?
Does your GPU/Driver support 3d vision, and have you gone through the setup process? If so, have you downloaded the 275.33 driver to fix the "disable 3d vision" bug?

All I can think of for now.

[M47R1X]

Bogsnot1 wrote...

After reading the Optimus white paper, I have a few more questions.
Is there a BIOS setting you can change in regards to GPU output, and is your BIOS revision up to date?
Have you tried disabling the Intel IGP in control panel and seeing if that has any effect?
Have you set up a profile for ME2/DA:O in the Optimus software? If so, are any of the settings set for "Use Global preference" instead of "High Performance NVIDIA"?
Does your GPU/Driver support 3d vision, and have you gone through the setup process? If so, have you downloaded the 275.33 driver to fix the "disable 3d vision" bug?

All I can think of for now.

So get this. After all of this dicking around, I tried setting -- in the Lenovo Energy Management, not Windows -- to Super Energy Star - ONE - LAST - TIME, and this was the result.



Or click here. Damn imgur.

Note that it's still showing minor peaking, but nothing NEAR like it was. I can live with 30fps. I'd rather 60, but on a laptop, you can't be picky.

To answer your questions, the BIOS has absolutely nothing on GPU. It's VERY limited. It's a laptop, and not a Clevo, so I wasn't expecting much. I had set up profiles to both, making sure nothing used global settings, and it didn't seem to make jack difference. Even setting the power preferrence (I found it, finally. Didn't help). Yeah, it does support 3D, but I don't have a 3D display, and the driver is up to date. So now I have the glorious happy-fun-time of finding out WHY Super Energy Star works, and the others don't. 

Thanks for all your help man, I'm sure this is helping others out as well! Surely, I mean I can't be the ONLY person having trouble with this, right?

--UPDATE--

What the fffuuuuuu? I looked at the Super Energy Star stuff, and aside from CPU performance, hard drive shut-off, and dimming/turning of the display and sleep settings, it all looks geared for high performance! How the hell is that supposed to SAVE energy? Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING was on High Performance. And that was default. Is that normal?

Modifié par M47R1X, 06 juillet 2011 - 07:47 .

[Bogsnot1]

Yay, we can cross this off the list.

No idea about how the default settings for energy saving was set for high performance as default. Maybe the person who set the factory default got confused by the term super?

[M47R1X]

Maybe, I'm not sure. I noticed that after setting it to Super EStar loadtimes were horrendous, though. I went and changed the CPU settings to Max Performance, and the FPS went up by about 10 and the loadtimes down to about 5s. So now it purrs like a kitten. Thanks for all your help, Bog, I actually got more advice from you guys here on these forums than I did with Lenovo or nVidia. So now I can go save Ferelden without worrying about my power state! Case CLOSED (until further notice ).

Now if I could just get my characters to upload...

Modifié par M47R1X, 06 juillet 2011 - 09:55 .