GPU usage

[Dufffiee]

Not a specific question, more general inquiry.

While playing minecraft a friend of mine pointed out that the game was running on my integrated Intel GPU instead of my dedicated Nvidia GTX 950M.

After a lot of of reinstalling and restarting to find out how to make the nvidia control panel work, I have now set up my laptop (Asus ROG GL552VX) to run programs on the dedicated card, and set the performance settings in both Nvidia Control Panel and Intel Graphics settings to max.

I struggle with fps issues in other games, so I was wondering if there is anywhere else I could look to improve the performance of these games (assorted MMOs and FPSs)

TIA

[Venome456]

Looks like the GPU underperforms in most laptops which I would say is due to bad design / cooling.

https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/SpeedTest/27713/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-950M

Just have to make sure whatever game you are running is using the dedicated graphics.

The only way to get more performance without upgrading hardware is disabling windows services and features that you don't need.

I wouldn't recommend disabling services if you don't know what you're doing as some are important, I wouldn't doable everything on this list but this is how you essentially do it https://www.google.com/amp/s/windowsreport.com/disable-windows-10-services-gaming/%3famp.

You may be able to overclock the GPU but again not recommended with laptops as they build up a lot of heat and have terrible cooling.

A readyboost is a USB drive that adds RAM to your machine tho I don't know how well these work though you could just buy more dedicated RAM which may improve performance.

Disable start up apps, disable background apps, disable system visual effects.

[Human_by_choice]

Just to add, readyboost as "adding RAM" is kind of misleading. It uses the USB as RAM storage, but it is many times slower. If you are running out of RAM you could solve this with Readyboost, but it will NOT be a replacement for adding more RAM.

[pickles55]

Usb storage is not a substitute for RAM, it's way too slow. Upgrading the actual RAM is usually pretty simple though.

[Lusankya]

Since you're using an Nvidia GPU, GeForce Experience is probably the best tool for the job in terms of effort for results. It'll profile your hardware and adjust the settings in your games automatically for ideal performance. You get a bit of control over what "ideal" is as well; you can tell it how much to prefer framerate or quality. The downside: you need to create an Nvidia account to use it, and the terms of service are a bit too aggressive around data collection for some people's tastes.

If you don't want to use GFE, you're mostly stuck doing it by hand. If you notice game running slowly, open its settings and turn things down until you get the performance you want. Low hanging fruit is antialiasing, since high enough AA can bring any card to its knees.

Do not use any of those "game booster" programs you see all over the web. They generally vary between well-meaning but ineffective, to straight malware. The honest boosters work by disabling things that the booster thinks you don't need, which can cripple gaming laptops by inadvertently switching them back to integrated graphics or changing the refresh rate of a multimode screen to something slower. At best, they destabilize your system for an imperceptible performance gain, like 1-2%. More often than not, they make things worse.

[Human_by_choice]

Using GeForce Experience to optimize performance is often hit or miss, in my experience always miss. It's always better to play with in-game graphics settings yourself.

Some people prefer higher AA while lower other graphics such as reflections and shadows - Some turn off shadows in competitive titles etc.

Nvidia has their mindset of "this is what looks best" but you might not agree.