I'm using a new HP Victus 15 (2025) with a Core 7 240H, RTX 5060 8GB, 16GB DDR5, and the latest Nvidia drivers. In Elden Ring at 1080p, performance stays locked around 32–33 FPS without obvious stuttering, even after lowering several settings from Maximum. The GPU shows 100% usage but only reaches about 60–63°C, while MSI Afterburner/RTSS reports power consumption as low as 28.3W. Nvidia's control panel lists the laptop's maximum graphics power as 80W.
The CPU reaches roughly 83–92°C but only shows 11–19% usage. Other games perform normally—GTA V Enhanced runs at around 100 FPS on Ultra settings. Dynamic Boost is enabled, but the laptop does not support Advanced Optimus and has no MUX switch. Nvidia Power Management is set to Prefer Maximum Performance, Windows is set to Best Performance, and the laptop is plugged into its original 200W-plus charger. V-Sync is disabled, the display is set to 144Hz, and ray tracing is off. What could be causing Elden Ring to remain near 32 FPS while the GPU draws so little power?
4 Answers
Check MSI Afterburner to make sure the GPU power limit hasn’t been reduced below 100%. Elden Ring’s ray tracing setting is another important one to verify, since it can hurt performance considerably even when other settings are lowered.
If the laptop has a dedicated-GPU or graphics-mode switch, it would be worth testing, although this model apparently has no MUX switch. Also double-check V-Sync, the Windows display refresh rate, and possible CPU limitations. A refresh-rate or frame-sync issue could potentially explain a stable half-refresh-style frame rate.
There’s no MUX switch on this model. I disabled V-Sync, confirmed the display is running at 144Hz, and Afterburner doesn’t show the CPU bottlenecking the GPU, so I’m still trying to figure out what is forcing the low frame rate.
Gaming laptops can behave very differently from desktops because of their stricter thermal and power limits. That said, this sounds more like a game-specific frame cap, sync setting, or driver/profile problem than normal hardware limitations, especially since GTA V performs well on the same machine.
Sharing the exact in-game graphics settings and monitoring overlay is useful here. It can reveal whether a hidden option, frame limiter, or unexpected rendering feature is enabled.
Afterburner doesn’t let me change the power limit and doesn’t display a usable limit value. Ray tracing is disabled as well.