Laptop ABSOLUTELY REFUSES to use my gpu when playing games | Linus Tech Tips | Page 1

chilly gorge Apr 10, 2025, 11:24 PM

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A few months ago this starting happening. Suddenly all of my games looked god awful and ran around 30fps. I've tried reinstalling drivers, manually selecting which graphics device to use, everything. I'm playing on an MSI gaming laptop with a 3060.
For reference, I have Helldivers 2 running in the background.
Nvidia overlay says that my gpu has 0% usage, 42 C, 210Mhz, 0.650V, 8W, 405Mhz. It also says that my cpu usage is around the 80% mark.
MSI dragon center says my gpu is at 40%, 61 C and the VRAM clock is at 6000 MHz.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

tawny delta Apr 11, 2025, 2:23 AM

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chilly gorge A few months ago this starting happening. Suddenly all of my games looked god aw...

This is interesting. I have had about the same issue a few times with my laptop.
Do you have a dedicated GPU and an integrated one by any chance?

chilly gorge Apr 11, 2025, 2:27 AM

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tawny delta This is interesting. I have had about the same issue a few times with my laptop....

yes i have both. In the time since I've posted I have made some progress. the gpu seems to be used, but the framerate is definitely much lower then it should be. also, switching between which graphics device the games uses from the in-game settings doesnt change the framerate at all.

tawny delta Apr 11, 2025, 2:27 AM

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Nice pfp btw lol 👍

chilly gorge Apr 11, 2025, 2:27 AM

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lmao thanks

tawny delta Apr 11, 2025, 2:28 AM

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chilly gorge yes i have both. In the time since I've posted I have made some progress. the gp...

Have you selected which graphics processor to use in Nvidia?

chilly gorge Apr 11, 2025, 2:28 AM

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yep. both in nvidia control panel and in the windows settings.

tawny delta Apr 11, 2025, 2:29 AM

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Hmm

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That is typically what worked for me.

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My only other idea is to disable the integrated GPU

chilly gorge Apr 11, 2025, 2:30 AM

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ive done clean driver installs, changed power plans etc

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im fairly certain that if i do that the screen will go black

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let me give it a try. ill hook up the laptop to an external monitor

tawny delta Apr 11, 2025, 2:30 AM

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Okay

chilly gorge Apr 11, 2025, 2:33 AM

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im going to try to disable the integrated intel thing in device manager

tawny delta Apr 11, 2025, 2:34 AM

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Okay 👍

chilly gorge Apr 11, 2025, 2:36 AM

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damn that was weird lol

tawny delta Apr 11, 2025, 2:37 AM

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What happened?

chilly gorge Apr 11, 2025, 2:38 AM

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the screen on my laptop went black. then it seemed that the screen i had an hdmi cable connected to became the main screen with all of my programs and stuff. then i re-enabled it and it went back to normal

tawny delta Apr 11, 2025, 2:38 AM

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Huh interesting

chilly gorge Apr 11, 2025, 2:38 AM

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it also briefly showed that the gpu was being used for maybe 1.5 seconds but then the usage went back to 0%

tawny delta Apr 11, 2025, 2:39 AM

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Yeah if nothing is changing then there is nothing for the GPU to do right

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That is peculiar though.

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Well hmm. I know someone who has this same issue exactly. Needing an external monitor for some reason.

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I will ask him some things.

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I’ve got nothing else though sorry

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¯_(ツ)_/¯

chilly gorge Apr 11, 2025, 2:41 AM

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all good man. thanks though

#Laptop ABSOLUTELY REFUSES to use my gpu when playing games