Hello!

so i just started to play again 2 days ago, but have experienced strange fps behaviour.
I'm using now an Asus rog strix laptop to play.
cl_maxfps is set to 308.
When i set QW to use the cpu's graphics chip then I have around 700-800 timerefresh results. fps is stable on 308

If i set in windows to use the geforce gtx 1060 for qw, then my timerefresh is above 5000, but then fps drops down, and its around 260-270

How it is possible, and how can i solve it?

Any hints?

1. Go to power management for GFX card and choose high performance. (QW isn't really gfx intesive, so a driver might think it's a screensaver and downclock the GFX card ) Also try the same for the CPU and check temperatures and clocks.
2. Make sure you are running on a fullscreen, try to disable fullscreen optimization for QW.
3. IME virtual keyboard can disable fullscreen in some games.

thanks Korni. I have tried these, but nothing changed.
1. qw is set in windows to use the geforce, also in the nvidia driver to always use the 1060 gtx for qw.
2. it is set to fullscreen. and I have disabled in regedit the fullscreen optimization.
3. that one is also stopped in services.msc

cpu temp is 65, gpu is 63 during qw. gpu load is @45.

still i have the stable 308 fps with the integrated graphics, but not (by far) with the geforce. now its only around 230. But with timerefres its around 5000. Much-much higher than with the integrated grapchis

I am bit puzzled wit the 'fps' and timerefresh' terms. You say 200-300 fps, and 5000 timerefresh. What is the difference?

Why would you set cl_maxfps that low?

You should have 1k-2k fps with such card...
You could give the 3.5 client a try. I got 500+ fps using it (the standard render one, not the glsl build).

What OS do you run?
How other games behave, fps wise?

200-300 is what I see while show_fps is set to 1. ~5000 is the result of a /timerefresh.


I do not have even the 308.... :E


hmm, give me a link pls. The last nightly build what I see is 3.2


Win10
i dont't know. I dont have any other game,

ok, i have found 3.5.
show_fps is still the same. However timerefresh has almost doubled. It is around 9000

Try it with this config: https://www.quakeworld.nu/configs/194
I think it is something in your config...

Try a fresh EzQuake client folder, you can get one on the official download page. Make sure there is no leftover of any previous config.
After launching the client, I would not load any configs, just go to the start map and see what the fps is. After that you could load the config above and see how fps changes...


I would also run a pc benchmark. You can get one at https://www.userbenchmark.com/resources/download/UserBenchMark.exe. Just run it, and after it gives you a score and some comparrision results. You could check if your score is around average. I always get couple of % below average, so I guess normal...

Do you have up to date graphics card drivers?
I know that it is always a puzzle what tobuse for switchable graphics. This being an Asus gaming laptop, I guess the best bet is the official driver from Asus, instead of the one from nvidia.

Maybe look around at the geforce forums and search fir issus with the driver version Asus supports.

There is also a way to underpower a bit the card. I am not that techie to full understand nor explain it, but the concept is to reduce the voltage to the card with keeping the same core frequency.
You need MSIAfterburner for that and there are nice tutorials on youtube about how to do it. It is lowering voltage so you cannot damage the card.

But maybe it is way advanced. By default you should have more fps compared to the integrated card.

There is also a way to underpower a bit the card. I am not that techie to full understand nor explain it, but the concept is to reduce the voltage to the card with keeping the same core frequency.
You need MSIAfterburner for that and there are nice tutorials on youtube about how to do it. It is lowering voltage so you cannot damage the card.

But maybe it is way advanced. By default you should have more fps compared to the integrated card.

I doubt that anything from the config would cause this, as then it would have an effect on the integrated graphic as well. But with the intel i do not have fps issues.

Anyway, I made a clean qw install: only pak files + fresh ezquake. Fps still around 250-260 also dirtbox's config not affected it.

So these have confirmed that the root cause is somewhere outside QW.

Nvidia driver is the latest and have downloaded from Asus webpage, the one which was proposed to this laptop.
btw, i tried the benchmark what you have suggested. i got a pretty good result.

I'm not on a laptop, but I'm having a similar issue in Windows 10. I have top of the line i9-9900k CPU and RTX2080Ti GPU and get easily a few thousand FPS in linux.

In windows, it hovers around 300-400fps.

However, some combination of alt-tabbing away from ezquake, tabbing back in, unlocking cl_maxfps, etc. boosts the fps up. But then it'll inevitably go back down after some time or some other combination of the above.

Just shot a quick video, it wasn't really planned so there's lots of dead time. At first, I have high fps and I'm trying to get rid of it. I end up quitting and restarting, and you can then see the low fps. It's still low after tabbing out and back in, and it's still low after I set cl_maxfps 0. However, after I tabbed out and in again the FPS shot up to 2K+. The video ends right before the fps dips back down to ~400 following no action on my part.

Vid here

This is with ezquake 3.5-alpha15. I never bothered to really troubleshoot since I only play in linux

(Edited 2019-03-15, 03:04)

Here is another video with /timerefresh output.

Video here

Starting ezquake gives ~400fps and timerefresh of about 1700

During that time, the fps jumps up to 1001 occasionally and the timerefresh is 3400.

alt-tabbing doesn't do anything, BUT cl_maxfpx 0 AND THEN alt-tabbing "fixes" the fps to 2800 and timerefresh jumps way up to 11000.

You do not need to undervolt your gpu, it is working fine. I used to have an MSI 72Ge laptop, I had the same issue, I had the feeling it was caused by the integrated gpu. Is there any way to disable it? May be from bios? To be honest I have neved managed to solve it, I sold the laptop quickly With newer games it was working fine, I bet yours does the same. I tried also the nvidia settings, did not help...

Sounds like some powermanagement issue or something. Maybe the laptop decide to not waste gpu power on qw since its not gpu heavy.

try with gl_detail 1, and r_dynamic 1. Will make qw much more gpu heavy. And maybe higher cl_maxfps?

This is strange.

I agree that the config is not responsible. What you say make sense.
I think the OS is using the NV chip for QW, because you have a different fps if you use the other gpu. So there is proof that the other chip is used when you assign the high performance gpu, but unfortunately you have lower fps.

Can you monitor the core speed if the NV chip? As others suggested, maybe the OS limits the performance of the NV chip because there is no load.
Another wild guesses:
-Do you have the laptop on charge when you test? There are different power profile on battery...
-Do you run it as administrator?
-Have you tried multiple clients? Maybe an older ezQuake client, or some other port.
-Maybe talk to meag (current ezQuake developer) if he could make a special build that at least can test which gpu is used, or maybe do some tricks in the client to force something? I am not familiar how is this working, maybe everything depends on the OS, not the client...
-Maybe give linux a try. As BloodDog mentioned, for him that is an option...

OpenGL is pretty ambigious about what driver is used, but I did recently add exports to the .exe to try and tell the drivers to always use high-performance graphics (you can download here). I does sound like power saving or throttling of some kind. Are you just using one display?

I believe dev had this problem... I fear his solution was to send the laptop back but don't quite remember.

This happens for me sometime when G-SYNC is activated.

Did you try without?

OSS!
Interesting video and experience! But unfortunately it did not help me


nope, i didnt find such an option


I have tried this, but did not work. At least not in the way as we have expected. The fps just dropped down by 10 and thats it.


Yeah, when I will be home, i will share with you the core speed.
- of course it is on charge
- yes, as admin
- yup, I have tried FTE, and had the same result. (thats why I just didn´t bug Meag )


I will try it, thx.
Yes, currently I use only the laptop screen.


There´s no g-sync in the ROG gl504gm.

So I have monitored he gpu clock during a few match today.

Results can be seen here)

Btw 0:52 and 0:55 I just played a few minutes with a frogbot, local server. This happened right after a restart. The gpu clock was very low. Fps was around the usual 250.
Btw 16:13 and 16:23 i jumped in to a FFA match. fps was lower, only around 220 (but without restarting the laptop. And i have noticed that if I use it during the whole day and at the evening start QW, then I get lower fps, if I do not restart it. ), but it seems like the clock is finally quite high
Btw 20:57 and 21:08 i played a duel(restarted). Fps was around 260. Gpu clock is 1860.

i dont know...

To conclude:
Even if the gpu clock runs high (1800+), fps still crap.
Correct?

Just from curiousity, what is your gpu clock speed when the benchmark running?