Could something be bottlenecking my pc?

[MrDoctorMatt-1350224]

I have an Asus N76VZ-V4G-T1268P with:
i7 3630QM 2.4GHz
8GB RAM
nVidia GT650M 4GB
1920x1080 native resolution
Windows 8 64-bit

I play games like BF3, Saints Row:The Third, GTA IV, Assassin's Creed III and Skyrim, and I cannot play any of those games with a decent, constant framerate (40+) above low settings. On some games like BF3 and AC3, even on low it changes between 15-35 fps. Could something be bottlenecking my pc, or could there be anything else impairing its performance?
Thanks
-Matt

 

[Jacob McIntosh]

It is probably your GPU. That model is a little out of date, but not by much. Make sure that all your drivers are updated, and defragment your hard drive(s)

 

[mc962]

Also make sure that there isn't some mystery process out there, stealing all your resources. On Windows 8, for me, Windows Update used to randomly use 100% of my hard drive while updating until I turned auto-update off.

 

[MrDoctorMatt-1350224]

I've updated drivers, defragged hard drives and checked it any processes were memory hogging, to no avail.
I couldn't see any processes that were using too much memory, but I did see one thing.
I checked , under performance in the task manager, the memory tab, and saw this: In Use: 3.4GB Available: 4.4GB. Does this mean that my PC isn't using all 8GB of my RAM, or is it something else? By the way, I saw if it did the same while I played a game (BF3) and it still said there was 4.4GB available. And just to rule out a possible problem, I have 64-bit Win8.

 

[mc962]

Not everything is going to use all that ram. Although if windows is only detecting 4 gb of ram that could be an issue. If I remember right there is some program a lot of people like to use for testing memory (i want to say it's called memtest, or memtest86, or something like that). Maybe try to find and run that to see if your memory still works good.

 

[MrDoctorMatt-1350224]

I don't think the problem is Windows not detecting all of the ram, because on dxdiag it says I have 8GB ram, and every other way to check the amount of ram I have says I have 8GB as well. Maybe my Intel HD 4000 is interfering with games? I know every single game I have can be played on my pc at medium setting minimum with a decent fps, because I watch this guy's channel on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/MihaelGames and he has these specs:
- Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM Processor
- NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 2GB DDR3
- 6 GB RAM
Which should actually perform a little worse than mine. I really want to find out what is slowing my framerate.

 

[mc962]

Make sure you tell it to run with the nvidia gpu. I believe it's right-click-->run with graphics processor-->select the nvidia gpu

Otherwise, since it's a laptop, it might default to integrated

 

[MrDoctorMatt-1350224]

I've told everything to run with the Nvidia GPU (put it as global setting) and I forced all my most-played games to run with the Nvidia GPU and it still didn't have any difference. I really don't get why that guy (youtube person) can run those games so well with slightly lower specs than me. There must be some explanation for it, no?

 

[Xavier Bouttier]

Is the GPU overclocked?

 

[MrDoctorMatt-1350224]

Nope, I'm a bit anxious to overclock, after all, it's a laptop and isn't overclocking especially risky for laptops?

 

[Xavier Bouttier]

I have a laptop as well (Sony vaio F series, gt550 cuda) and I noticed performance drops in games like league of legends.. And I discovered it was because of my temperatures (cpu was throttling). Used realtemp (easy to download and use), and discovered that under load my cpu was going close to 90 degrees celcius!

Bought thermal paste, screw drivers, isopropyl alcohol (from a pharmacy).Took the whole thing apart (first time doing this), discovered my cpu was fused to the heatsink with the cheap paste they used in china. I damn near snapped my cpu in two while pulling out the heatsink. Then had to submerge the whole thing in the alcohol for 5 minutes, and rip the cpu off the heatsink (bent 6 pins which had to re-straighten with a magnifying glass). Then clean the whole thing, rubbing with coffee filters (lent free) and the alcohol. Let it all dry, re-apply the high grade thermal paste, put everything back together.

Results were unbelievable, Idle temp dropped 10 degrees, and under load dropped 25!!

Needless to say my cpu wasnt throttling anymore and no more FPS drops.

 

[Xavier Bouttier]

Oh and also properly cleaned the whole fan, heatsink area which was BLACK with burnt dust.