Hi guys,
I'm struggling hard trying to understand what is going on with my new TUF laptop. When I first got it, it was apparently running an older version of Crate. It would show me the IGPU stats on the homepage, which would change when entering games via optimus switching.
I then got prompted to update it but things are working differently now. It never shows the IGPU but instead the DGPU in power-saving state. The Mux switching is super twitchy in my limited experience. Sometimes it says the DGPU is inactive even though it isn't. And sometimes the DGPU flickers between power-saving and usage even with nothing happening.
When I first got the laptop (prior to Crate update) I could play games on battery at 60fps, but now when I unplug the power it drops to 30fps.. In fact I find the switching to be very confusing in general. -It seems it won't play games on battery over 30fps unless it performance profile, but using that messes up windows power profile settings, overriding brightness and power settings. It's just frustrating.
I currently have crate on Manual mode + Standard GPU mode with some TDP trimming to save power. Using this it caps FPS to 30 while on battery. But when I first got the laptop I didn't have this issue.
The power management crossover between Crate and Windows is seriously annoying. It's convoluted and not intuitive. Why can't I just run in Standard mode at 60fps? Why must it override windows power settings? - It assumes I want max brightness and power simply because I am running a game..
Possibly more annoying is that the battery readout in windows fluctuates wildly with nothing of consequence going on. One second it shows 17h of battery and then the next it shows 4hrs remaining- Meanwhile in Crate OSD The CPU never exceeds 4 watts, And 0 watts from the DGPU while watching a movie or at idle.
This software is so overbearing and presumptuous and ultimately limited in what options you have. Cannot set a DGPU power limit, which would frankly be the ideal solution to power-saving. Have non-existent flexibility in power modes relative to gaming tasks.
Is the software really so bad and so limited that you need bleeding-edge power profiles set in both Crate and Windows just to play at 60fps, or am I just missing something?
It won't even show me power draw or any data from the IGPU even though the DGPU is not active according to both Crate and Nvidia.
