Nvidia power draw lowering and causing fps drop in games using monitor

Issues & Assistance Unsupported hardware | Dual boot
1

Hello, I have a dell notebook, here are my specs:

Kernel Linux 6.14.3-2-cachyos
Packages 1921 (pacman)
Shell fish 4.0.2

DE KDE Plasma 6.3.4
Window Manager KWin (Wayland)
Login Manager sddm 0.21.0 (Wayland)

CPU 13th Gen Intel(R) Core​:trade_mark: i5-13450HX (16) @ 4.60 GHz
GPU NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Max-Q / Mobile [Discrete]
GPU Intel Raptor Lake-S UHD Graphics @ 1.45 GHz [Integrated]
Vulkan 1.4.303 - NVIDIA [570.144]

Display(s) 2560x1440 @ 165 Hz in 27" [External, HDR] *
Display(s) 1920x1080 @ 120 Hz in 16" [Built-in]

I am having a problem for quite a white, when I am gaming o my notebook, there is no problem at all, but when using my monitor, I noticed that the fps would drop significantly to 20-30 range for some seconds, and go back to normal, and this would go on and on, this would happen even on low end games. Investigating this i found that the temperature was normal, but the power draw was fluctuating when this fps drops occured:

image
image1481×1006 77.9 KB

In The witcher, using as exemple, in game it would be at 90 W or something, but it would drop to 30 W or something. I tried a lot of things and am kinda lost right now, if anyone got a clue, I would greatly appreciate it.

2

please post your

garuda-inxi

as per the template

3 Likes
3

As @cybertheworm wrote, we need more technical details to besser support you.

The first thing to check is whether your BIOS is up-to-date. Secondly, run garuda-update and reboot to ensure all drivers are current.

Thirdly, make the sure the screen refresh rate is set correctly for both monitors. Having it differ from the monitor’s default can apparently make Dell laptops act weird (source: internet forums).

Also, if you have another DP or HDMI cable at hand, try that. Cables and connections are surprisingly often the issue behind weird monitor issues.

4

Does the monitor have an adaptive-sync setting in its menu?

Try turning that off if you have it on.

5

I tried that, no sucess =/

6

Since yesterday I got an update, I was wrong apparently, the power draw is happening using only my notebook as well, sorry for the confusion. Anyway, here is my inxi:

Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Dell G15 5530 v: N/A
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Dell model: 0X7FHX v: A00 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Dell
    v: 1.19.0 date: 08/16/2024
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 71.7 Wh (100.0%) condition: 71.7/84.3 Wh (85.1%) volts: 12.7
    min: 11.4 model: SMP DELL 70N2F35 status: not charging
CPU:
  Info: 10-core (6-mt/4-st) model: 13th Gen Intel Core i5-13450HX bits: 64
    type: MST AMCP arch: Raptor Lake rev: 1 cache: L1: 864 KiB L2: 9.5 MiB L3: 20 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 800 min/max: 800/4600:3400 cores: 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800 4: 800
    5: 800 6: 800 7: 800 8: 800 9: 800 10: 800 11: 800 12: 800 13: 800 14: 800 15: 800
    16: 800 bogomips: 83558
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake-S UHD Graphics vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel
    arch: Xe bus-ID: 0000:00:02.0
  Device-2: NVIDIA AD107M [GeForce RTX 4050 Max-Q / Mobile] vendor: Dell
    driver: nvidia v: 570.144 arch: Lovelace bus-ID: 0000:01:00.0
  Device-3: Microdia Integrated_Webcam_HD driver: uvcvideo type: USB bus-ID: 1-3:2
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.16 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.6
    compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: modesetting,nvidia unloaded: vesa
    dri: iris gpu: i915 resolution: 1: 2560x1440~165Hz 2: 1920x1080~120Hz
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: iris,nouveau,nvidia,swrast platforms:
    active: gbm,wayland,x11,surfaceless,device inactive: N/A
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa v: 25.0.4-cachyos1.2
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa Intel Graphics (RPL-S)
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.309 drivers: nvidia,llvmpipe surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland
    devices: 2
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor gpu: nvidia-settings,nvidia-smi
    wl: wayland-info x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake High Definition Audio vendor: Dell
    driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl bus-ID: 0000:00:1f.3
  Device-2: NVIDIA AD107 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 0000:01:00.1
  API: ALSA v: k6.14.4-2-cachyos status: kernel-api
  Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.4.2 status: active
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake-S PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi v: kernel
    bus-ID: 0000:00:14.3
  IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: Dell driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 3000 bus-ID: 0000:02:00.0
  IF: enp2s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX201 Bluetooth driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB bus-ID: 1-14:6
  Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 5.2
    lmp-v: 11
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Intel Volume Management Device NVMe RAID Controller Intel driver: vmd
    v: 0.6 bus-ID: 0000:00:0e.0
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 476.94 GiB used: 242.6 GiB (50.9%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: A-Data model: SM2P41C3 NVMe 512GB size: 476.94 GiB
    temp: 66.8 C
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 474.94 GiB used: 242.08 GiB (51.0%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-2: /boot size: 2 GiB used: 529.9 MiB (25.9%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
  ID-3: /home size: 474.94 GiB used: 242.08 GiB (51.0%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-4: /var/log size: 474.94 GiB used: 242.08 GiB (51.0%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-5: /var/tmp size: 474.94 GiB used: 242.08 GiB (51.0%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 15.3 GiB used: 1.39 GiB (9.1%) dev: /dev/zram0
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 16 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
  Device-1: 1-3:2 info: Microdia Integrated_Webcam_HD type: video driver: uvcvideo
    rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 0c45:6730
  Device-2: 1-7:3 info: Alienware AW-ELC type: HID driver: hid-generic,usbhid
    rev: 2.1 speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 187c:0551
  Device-3: 1-9:4 info: BY Tech Gaming Keyboard type: keyboard,HID
    driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 258a:010c
  Device-4: 1-10:5 info: Maxxter Wireless-Receiver type: mouse,keyboard,HID
    driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 248a:5b2f
  Device-5: 1-14:6 info: Intel AX201 Bluetooth type: bluetooth driver: btusb
    rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 8087:0026
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 9 rev: 3.1 speed: 20 Gb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 64.0 C mobo: 61.0 C sodimm: 58.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): cpu: 2374 fan-2: 2610
Info:
  Memory: total: 16 GiB note: est. available: 15.3 GiB used: 4.57 GiB (29.9%)
  Processes: 390 Uptime: 20m Init: systemd
  Packages: 1922 Compilers: clang: 19.1.7 gcc: 14.2.1 Shell: fish v: 4.0.2
    inxi: 3.3.38
7

You have been a member of this forum for two and a half years and should know what a garuda-inxi is. :wink:

2 Likes
8

Device 1 for graphics is listed as the CPU, I think it should be your GPU.

9

Sorry about that, a lot going on with life, here is the correct inxi:

System:
Kernel: 6.14.4-zen1-2-zen arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 15.1.1
clocksource: tsc avail: acpi_pm
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen
root=UUID=d7aa4b76-e995-474f-b5f2-78f8910dcb7b rw rootflags=subvol=@
vt.default_red=30,243,166,249,137,245,148,186,88,243,166,249,137,245,148,166
vt.default_grn=30,139,227,226,180,194,226,194,91,139,227,226,180,194,226,173
vt.default_blu=46,168,161,175,250,231,213,222,112,168,161,175,250,231,213,200
quiet resume=UUID=83349d52-4461-4fc6-89c1-4dda89691efa loglevel=3 ibt=off
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.3.4 tk: Qt v: N/A info: frameworks v: 6.13.0
wm: kwin_wayland with: krunner vt: 1 dm: SDDM Distro: Garuda
base: Arch Linux
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Dell G15 5530 v: N/A
serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: Dell model: 0X7FHX v: A00 serial: <superuser required> part-nu: 0BF8
uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: Dell v: 1.23.0 date: 03/04/2025
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 71.7 Wh (100.0%) condition: 71.7/84.3 Wh (85.1%)
volts: 12.7 min: 11.4 model: SMP DELL 70N2F35 type: Li-poly serial: <filter>
status: not charging cycles: 14
CPU:
Info: model: 13th Gen Intel Core i5-13450HX bits: 64 type: MST AMCP
arch: Raptor Lake gen: core 13 level: v3 note: check built: 2022+
process: Intel 7 (10nm) family: 6 model-id: 0xB7 (183) stepping: 1
microcode: 0x12C
Topology: cpus: 1x dies: 1 clusters: 7 cores: 10 threads: 16 mt: 6 tpc: 2
st: 4 smt: enabled cache: L1: 864 KiB desc: d-4x32 KiB, 6x48 KiB; i-6x32
KiB, 4x64 KiB L2: 9.5 MiB desc: 6x1.2 MiB, 1x2 MiB L3: 20 MiB
desc: 1x20 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 1091 min/max: 800/4600:3400 scaling:
driver: intel_pstate governor: powersave cores: 1: 1091 2: 1091 3: 1091
4: 1091 5: 1091 6: 1091 7: 1091 8: 1091 9: 1091 10: 1091 11: 1091 12: 1091
13: 1091 14: 1091 15: 1091 16: 1091 bogomips: 83558
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Vulnerabilities: <filter>
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake-S UHD Graphics vendor: Dell driver: i915
v: kernel alternate: xe arch: Xe process: Intel 10nm built: 2020-21 ports:
active: DP-1 empty: none bus-ID: 0000:00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:a78b
class-ID: 0380
Device-2: NVIDIA AD107M [GeForce RTX 4050 Max-Q / Mobile] vendor: Dell
driver: nvidia v: 570.144 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm
non-free: 550-570.xx+ status: current (as of 2025-04) arch: Lovelace
code: AD1xx process: TSMC n4 (5nm) built: 2022+ ports: active: none
off: eDP-1 empty: HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 0000:01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:28e1
class-ID: 0300
Device-3: Microdia Integrated_Webcam_HD driver: uvcvideo type: USB
rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 1-3:2 chip-ID: 0c45:6730
class-ID: 0e02
Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.16 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.6
compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: modesetting,nvidia
unloaded: nouveau alternate: fbdev,intel,nv,vesa dri: iris
gpu: i915,nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch d-rect: 4480x1440 display-ID: 0
Monitor-1: DP-1 pos: primary,left model: SFP2701G serial: <filter>
built: 2023 res: mode: 2560x1440 hz: 165 scale: 100% (1) dpi: 108 gamma: 1.2
size: 597x336mm (23.5x13.23") diag: 685mm (27") ratio: 16:9 modes:
max: 2560x1440 min: 720x400
Monitor-2: eDP-1 pos: right model: Najing CEC Panda 0x005f built: 2021
res: mode: 1920x1080 hz: 120 scale: 100% (1) dpi: 142 gamma: 1.2
size: 344x194mm (13.54x7.64") diag: 395mm (15.5") ratio: 16:9
modes: 1920x1080
API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: intel iris drv: nvidia nouveau drv: nvidia
platforms: device: 0 drv: nvidia device: 1 drv: iris device: 2 drv: nouveau
device: 3 drv: swrast gbm: drv: iris surfaceless: drv: nvidia wayland:
drv: nvidia x11: drv: nvidia
API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 570.144
glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop
GPU/PCIe/SSE2 memory: 5.86 GiB display-ID: :1.0
API: Vulkan v: 1.4.309 layers: 13 device: 0 type: discrete-gpu name: NVIDIA
GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU driver: nvidia v: 570.144 device-ID: 10de:28e1
surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland device: 1 type: integrated-gpu
name: Intel Graphics (RPL-S) driver: mesa intel v: 25.0.5-cachyos1.2
device-ID: 8086:a78b surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland device: 2 type: cpu
name: llvmpipe (LLVM 19.1.7 256 bits) driver: mesa llvmpipe
v: 25.0.5-cachyos1.2 (LLVM 19.1.7) device-ID: 10005:0000
surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland
Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor gpu: nvidia-settings,nvidia-smi
wl: wayland-info x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake High Definition Audio vendor: Dell
driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl alternate: snd_hda_intel, snd_soc_avs,
snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl bus-ID: 0000:00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:7a50
class-ID: 0401
Device-2: NVIDIA AD107 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel bus-ID: 0000:01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:22be class-ID: 0403
API: ALSA v: k6.14.4-zen1-2-zen status: kernel-api tools: N/A
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.4.2 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
4: pw-jack type: plugin tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake-S PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi v: kernel
bus-ID: 0000:00:14.3 chip-ID: 8086:7a70 class-ID: 0280
IF: wlp0s20f3 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: Dell driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 3000 bus-ID: 0000:02:00.0
chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
IF: enp2s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Info: services: NetworkManager, systemd-timesyncd, wpa_supplicant
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Intel AX201 Bluetooth driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.0
speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 1-14:7 chip-ID: 8087:0026
class-ID: e001
Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: down bt-service: enabled,running
rfk-block: hardware: no software: no address: <filter> bt-v: 5.2 lmp-v: 11
status: discoverable: no pairing: no
RAID:
Hardware-1: Intel Volume Management Device NVMe RAID Controller Intel
driver: vmd v: 0.6 port: N/A bus-ID: 0000:00:0e.0 chip-ID: 8086:a77f rev:
class-ID: 0104
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 491.94 GiB used: 36.16 GiB (7.3%)
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: A-Data
model: SM2P41C3 NVMe 512GB size: 476.94 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
logical: 512 B speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter>
fw-rev: 92411141 temp: 61.9 C scheme: GPT
ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 model: N/A size: 15 GiB block-size:
physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: USB rev: 2.0 spd: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
mode: 2.0 tech: N/A serial: <filter> fw-rev: 2.00 scheme: MBR
SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
Partition:
ID-1: / raw-size: 459.81 GiB size: 459.81 GiB (100.00%)
used: 36.15 GiB (7.9%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
used: 608 KiB (0.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
ID-3: /home raw-size: 459.81 GiB size: 459.81 GiB (100.00%)
used: 36.15 GiB (7.9%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
ID-4: /var/log raw-size: 459.81 GiB size: 459.81 GiB (100.00%)
used: 36.15 GiB (7.9%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
ID-5: /var/tmp raw-size: 459.81 GiB size: 459.81 GiB (100.00%)
used: 36.15 GiB (7.9%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
Swap:
Kernel: swappiness: 133 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) zswap: no
ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 15.3 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 100
comp: zstd avail: lzo-rle,lzo,lz4,lz4hc,deflate,842 max-streams: 16
dev: /dev/zram0
ID-2: swap-2 type: partition size: 16.84 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
priority: -2 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:3
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 73.0 C mobo: 63.2 C sodimm: 63.0 C
Fan Speeds (rpm): cpu: 2510
Info:
Memory: total: 16 GiB note: est. available: 15.3 GiB used: 5.77 GiB (37.7%)
Processes: 427 Power: uptime: 9m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: s2idle
wakeups: 0 hibernate: platform avail: shutdown, reboot, suspend, test_resume
image: 6.07 GiB services: org_kde_powerdevil, power-profiles-daemon,
upowerd Init: systemd v: 257 default: graphical tool: systemctl
Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 1968 libs: 509 tools: octopi,paru pm: appimage
pkgs: 0 Compilers: clang: b536128bd29a83a26c0aafda19942995b30fc5fd alt: 19
gcc: 15.1.1 Shell: garuda-inxi default: fish v: 4.0.2 running-in: konsole
inxi: 3.3.38
Garuda (2.7.2-1):
System install date:     2025-05-03
Last full system update: 2025-05-03
Is partially upgraded:   No
Relevant software:       snapper NetworkManager dracut
Windows dual boot:       No/Undetected
Failed units: