Legion 7i Gen 8 Microstuttering

[covert swan]

Hi everyone,

So I have the 4080 version of the laptop above and first noticed stuttering in rocket league. No matter what I cap the fps to (including uncapped) it would always end up getting drops down to as low as under 60, even when the average fps nears 1000 in some cases. Loading up other games like Halo and Apex the same thing is shown to me by afterburner with 1% lows being far under what it should be getting. For the most part I play my games at 1080p so I am sure it’s not a gpu limitation and I haven’t noticed anything wrong about my CPU clocks and power draw.

What I have tried:

Clean install of Nvidia drivers

Nvidia drivers from Lenovo website

Intel GPU update

Changing performance modes (interestingly seems more stable on battery as well)

Internal display and monitor (monitor does not support gsync so didn’t need to mess with that monitor wise)

Everything was run on performance mode or balanced with AI plugged in and BIOS is up to date.

Based on everything my guess is that it might have to do with the advanced Optimus but I might have (don’t completely remember) tried with dGPU only and still had the same issue. I’ll be trying that again later today though.

If anyone has insight as to what could be happening or tests for me to try please let me know. Thanks.

Edit: I can provide fps graphs and more once I get home later today.

[ruby gorge]

Did you use DDU to clean up the driver install? Have you tried a version in the recommended list in #1020285176531669012 ?

[covert swan]

I just chose the clean install option under custom installation when downloading the Nvidia driver. As for the recommended list of drivers, I tried looking for it but only found to use a recommended one, but I didn’t see an actual list. Did I miss it somewhere?

[ruby gorge]

Yes. It’s in #1020285176531669012

Try to use DDU to cleanup the driver install before installing again

[modest nymph]

try turning off gpu scheduling, and make sure you are on dgpu mode instead of hybrid and in performance mode too

[covert swan]

Thanks for the suggestions. I went ahead and did a DDU followed by a recommended driver, dGPU mode only and disabling HW acceleration but still seem to be getting the issue, though it does seem to be less then previously.
The picture is how it looks when it happens, sometimes it will happen very often and other times I can play a minute or 2 without substantial drops. When I completely unlocked the fps though it happened at a much higher rate, and also dropped to lower points as well.

[ruby gorge]

Do you get an audio stutter as well?

[balmy kettle]

Seems exactly like the problem I was having. If you enable Xbox game bar or MSI afterburner, it should show your GPU Utilization. My 4090 had a GPU utilization range from 3%, up to 100%. With driver version 528.49, and turning off HAGS, the performance did improve a bit. But still had plenty of micro stutters. My resolution to this problem was to call Lenovo and request a refund.

[balmy kettle]

This guy @ValorantDanishBlunt made a video about this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2zq9YlFUOc

[covert swan]

Interesting video. I also have seen that high level of stuttering in a YouTube video for fh5, but the YouTuber claimed turning off shadow play fixed it.

Actually though, I just tried something that seems to be eliminating this issue. In Nvidia control panel, you can either have the power delivery be normal or prefer high performance, and choosing the later greatly improved my 1% lows, and there are basically no more dips in RL when capping at 144

[modest nymph]

why the need to cap fps? isn't the screen 240hz? do you still get microstuttering in 240/uncapped fps?

[covert swan]

I just cap it usually since my monitor is 144hz and I like the lower temps and fan noise when using the monitor. I tried the internal monitor and uncapped fps as well though either the same results before the fix I mentioned in my last message

[modest nymph]

dam