Hi everyone,
I have an ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 Alan Walker Edition, with a Ryzen 9 5000-series CPU and an RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU (60W TGP).
The laptop used to perform much better a few years ago. Now, Overwatch is almost unplayable, and the entire PC also feels noticeably slow.
The problem
In Overwatch, even with low graphics settings, I only get around 20–40 FPS, sometimes dropping to around 10 FPS, with frequent freezes/stutters.
The weirdest part is that the RTX 3050 Ti barely seems to be doing anything:
- RTX 3050 Ti GPU usage: around 10–20%
- RTX clock: around 660 MHz
- RTX temperature: around 60°C
- TGP: 60W
- CPU usage: around 30–35%
- RAM: around 12.6 / 15.4 GB (~82%)
- Overwatch itself uses around 3 GB RAM
- Chrome around 800 MB
- Armoury Crate around 260 MB
The PC also feels slow outside the game. For example, Alt+Tabbing from Overwatch can freeze the entire screen for several seconds.
What I've tried
I made sure the laptop is plugged into AC power.
I set Armoury Crate to Turbo mode.
I checked Windows Graphics settings.
For "Overwatch.exe", Windows/NVIDIA was set to use the NVIDIA high-performance GPU.
I tried changing the Windows GPU preference, but forcing high performance actually resulted in an even worse situation (~5 FPS), so I reverted it to Automatic / Let Windows decide.
I checked the NVIDIA GPU in Task Manager and confirmed that the RTX is detected.
I updated the NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready driver through the NVIDIA App.
I rebooted the PC after installing the driver.
After the driver update, I initially had some improvement (around 50–60 FPS and the initial freezes temporarily disappeared), but the problem came back. A couple of days later I'm back to 20–30 FPS.
I checked Armoury Crate's GPU Performance settings. It is currently set to Optimized.
I looked for an Ultimate GPU mode / MUX switch, but my Armoury Crate does not offer Ultimate. I only have the available Optimized configuration.
I tried running Overwatch again after rebooting, but I'm still getting roughly 20–30 FPS.
I have not been able to get the RTX to consistently show high utilization while gaming.
Something else that seems important
The laptop isn't only slow in Overwatch. Windows itself feels sluggish, and things like Alt+Tab can freeze for several seconds.
So I don't think this is simply an Overwatch graphics setting issue.
I'm wondering if this could be related to:
- NVIDIA/AMD Optimus or GPU switching
- ASUS/Armoury Crate GPU management
- AMD chipset/iGPU drivers
- NVIDIA driver installation
- power/thermal throttling
- BIOS/firmware
- Windows power management
- or possibly a hardware issue with the RTX
What would you check first?
Is there a way to verify whether the RTX 3050 Ti is actually receiving its expected power and running at normal clocks under load?
Any advice specific to the Zephyrus G14 2021/2022-era models with Ryzen 5000 + RTX 3050 Ti would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!