Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 (G634JZ) RTX 4080 is stuttering when using the discrete GPU

[jc0426]

Got this laptop last June 15 and I noticed that when using Ultimate in GPU mode in the Armoury Crate, games are stuttering really hard to the point that it's unplayable. They're also have lower FPS when the stuttering isn't happening. One of the things I noticed it that the GPU usage fluctuates between 50-99%.

The stuttering disappears once I use Standar in GPU mode which allows me to enable advanced optimus in the nvidia control panel, but that mode is busted too because I can't control the brightness level, the screen's brightness overly bright and it hurst my eye, and my display settings are detecting 2 monitors. So I'm avoiding that mode for now too.

Games which I've obeserved the stuttering:

• Red Dead Redemption2
• Cyberpunk 2077

I've yet to test other GPU intensive games, but so far the stuttering isn't present in games like DoTA2, Valorant or other non GPU intensive titles. I've tried using the recommended Nvidia drivers from the device's support page and clean installed my GPU drivers using DDU. I also tried fresh reinstalling windows but still nothing. I don't wanna update my BIOS though cause there seems to be an issue with ASUS laptops in updating the BIOS.

[Rosemary]

I provided all the details to the support team like logs, how to provide the issue etc., and also showed them many people who have this issue. They just said there is no such problem with their testing, they said i should send it to the asus service center which i obviously didn’t for a such an obvious software/bios issue. Other than that device works fine.  We just gotta live with it according to the Asus. It might also be a widespread hardware issue which i am sure asus won’t care to address.

[Daniel_Shaw]

I hope its a fixable issue. Mine seemed to start after bios update 318. I may roll back to the previous one tonight and try it.

Nvidia overlay says the render latency is like 50+ ms and frames and up and down. Prior to this issue they were sub 10ms.

Some games are OK, like diablo 4 but Starfield and Cp2077 are very bad. Switching to optimus fixes it. But I didn't spend this on a laptop with a mux switch to not be able to use the gpu in ultimate mode.

[jc0426]

Had mine for 3 months now and the only game added to my stuttering list is Metro Exodus. Other GPU intensive games run smoothly even 4K (Forza, Starfield, Witcher 3 Raytracing) so maybe it’s not so much as a hardware issue but still sucks it’s still around. I’d prefer using ultimate mode all the time, who needs to save energy or battery in this laptop anyway. And like I said, Optimus mode itself is busted:

• Screen would freeze and flicker every PC boot

• Maximum screen brightness is insanely higher than in Ultimate mode, it actually hurt my eyes once

• Windows brightness control doesn’t work in this mode (greyed out). Can only control brightness using function keys

• Windows display settings is detecting 2 displays.

[Rosemary]

Yeah 2 display thing that’s how advanced optimus works, although i haven’t noticed performance difference between ultimate mux vs advanced optimus.

[Scar16_4090]

all rebar games = stutter, rebar is causing the stutter issue, turn it off with nvidia profile inspector

but rebar disabled = less performance, nvidia or asus need to fix this

the list of rebar games is 22 and will keep increasing ... 

[Scar16_4090]

Whats your peak brightness?

Check my private message and my thread

https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/rog-strix-series/mini-led-max-brightness-big-drop-622-nits/td-p/964843

[Daniel_Shaw]

Flashing older bios has no effect. Still rubbish on ultimate mode. I've opened a ticket myself to Asus about it.

[Rosemary]

Yeah i had it on previous bioses too, although i have never did a clean windows install since i have big amount of data. You said you just realised the issue, could it be windows issue, if u have the chance for a clean install i would try that, but a small chance it fixes imo. I also noticed it on cp2077 first. Also render latency depends on the game, i get 50ms on cp2077 while 2-3ms on league of legends, doubt render latency is relevant.

[Trebor58]

I am not sure if the following contributes to the stuttering issue or not because I am not a gamer.  When using GPUZ to test the 4080 graphics card in my laptop, regardless of the GPU mode I select, GPUZ reports my graphics card supports PCI-e x16 4.0 but is only running at PCI-e 8 4.0.  Is it possible there is a chipset limitation?  Or has ASUS limited the number of PCI-e lanes available for the 4080 graphics card? Or, that are available in the laptop?  FYI, I am running two SSD's in my laptop and do not know if one was taken out if the situation will change (I am not going to do this.)  Again, I do not know if this contributes to the stuttering issue or not but thought it might be worth considering as a possible cause.

[Daniel_Shaw]

I all. I rolled back to drive 536.99 and the issue goes away. There is a bit of chatter about this on reddit and nvidia geforce forums. Hopeful for a driver fix soon.