Desperately Need Help - Laptop Mind Boggling Issue

Thanks in advance for anyone looking this.

Last month (April 2018), I recently spent $3,500 on a new gaming laptop since my job now requires me to travel for work. I did extensive research and ended up buying the following:

ASUS ROG Zephyrus GX501VI-XS74 Pro Extreme (i7-7700HQ, 24GB RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD, GTX 1080 8GB, 15.6" Full HD 120Hz G-Sync, Windows 10 Pro) Gaming Notebook

This unit was considered a top contender for best gaming notebook across the board. Upon receiving it, I instantly paired it with an Asus Rog Swith Monitor (another $800). My problem? The performance is absolutely horrible. Unlike with most PC's though, I don't think its the FPS that seem to be lacking. The game (PUBG) is just really grainy and has a horrible picture. When engaged in battle, it's so grainy and choppy I get slaughtered. It's just unplayable (and this setup comes in just under $4500)

Things I've tried:

- All graphics card drivers are up to date

- Multiple Monitor Brands & Models

- Gforce Experienced Installed, allowed game optimization

- Monitor Installed Properly

Please note, I'm not being picky when I say it's unplayable. Its so bad I might as well not even sit down to play. My desktop that's 2 years old with a much crappier monitor plays 10X better than this new "state of the art laptop". I don't know what else to try.

Please help!

What game setting are you running? While Gforce Experienced is okay to "try out", I would manually adjust the settings to dial-in each game. You cannot 100% trust what Gforce Experienced does for settings, it is more of a starting point.

Are you sure your laptop is using your dedicated card and not the integrated one?

Player Unknown Battlegrounds is the game.

I've run it both in its native resolution and I've also tried minimizing just about all the effects and textures just for kicks. It has no bearing on the game play. I've also run the game in and outside of using the Gforce Experience.

As far as the game making sure its using the correct card (and not the integrated one)....I can double check although in my Gforce panel everything is configured. Is there an easy way to verify this? Thanks

In the GeForce Control Panel, is it running at native resolution? Also, check for DSR Factors (I think that's right). Everytime I take a patch my 970 likes to change it to 2x scale.

Next thing, I would do is pull up Task Manager to monitor your usage as PUBG runs. Anything maxing out? Or something odd like Intel graphics working hard, but Nvidia idling?

Are there image quality issues? Can you put up a screenshot? Does it look like low settings, or something worse like artifacting? Have you insured things like the refresh rate is set properly? Do other games have issues? Do you know how to fully remove and reinstall video card drivers? Does the game run properly using the laptop screen?

You say it's not a frames per second issue, but you also say it's choppy. That's a little confusing.

I'm really curious about how it performs using just the built-in screen as opposed to an external monitor. If it's just any external monitor giving you trouble, maybe try swapping video-out cables and see if that's the issue. Also perhaps try tracking down drivers for your particular motherboard's chipset and reinstalling those.

I'll look in to these suggestions and update you guys later this weekend. Thanks for the input

Something to check inside the Nvidia driver settings.

http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2615/~/how-do-i-customize-optimus-profiles-and-settings%3F

Yeah first problem your running it on the intel integrated graphics not the Geforce one just right click the the game shortcut and select run with geforce card or something like that. I use to have the same problem when was playing games on a ASUS laptop.

@sil3n7 said:

This is what I was thinking. This switchable graphics option is called Nvidia Optimus, it used to work by copying the dGPU frame buffer to the integrated Intel graphics, thus sharing the same screen connection. But this wouldn't work with Gsync, which requires it's own special plug.

Anyway gaming laptops aren't a thing, it's a contradiction in terms and a very unreasonable engineering compromise. Like an ultralight sledge hammer.

The Gforce 1080 in question only puts out less than 100W and it's probably tuned to do 1080p resolution. Gsync requires a display port connection and full screen, I believe.

The issue must be much higher resolution (1440p?) of the ROG Swift, and limitations of HDMI. I don't think the laptop supports external Gsync or perhaps even any resolution above 1920x1080!? Also I'm not in the loop, maybe it's all hooked up via thunderbolt nowadays.

So what is the displayed resolution of your external monitor anyway, some of the info menus should show it?

https://www.asus.com/Laptops/ROG-ZEPHYRUS-GX501/Tech-Specs/

I know there was a thing in windows 7 with laptops that would allow you to have multiple power plans (charging, battery, full power) and within each plan can have different settings that effect fan speeds and cycle rates. Maybe look into that?

If you tried many different games on different settings and then tried them with just the laptop stock monitor and it's still horrible my guess is you got a lemon unfortunately. That expensive of a laptop should have no problem with modern games whatsoever.

Have you tried turning it off and then on again?

I'm just kidding, I would call ASUS support on this one. They are pretty good, if they think you got a defective laptop they will replace it.