I recently sold my ASUS TUF F15 laptop with an RTX 3050. The buyer sent me a screenshot showing the GPU at 100% usage but only around 10% VRAM usage, with very low performance in FurMark—roughly 10 FPS. I used power-saving settings and sometimes limited performance while I owned it, so I'm wondering whether that could still be affecting the system. Is this likely to be a hardware problem, and what should be checked first?
4 Answers
Only using about 10% of the VRAM in FurMark is not automatically a problem. The test can fully load the GPU core without filling most of the video memory, so VRAM usage by itself does not indicate a fault.
An RTX 3050 laptop GPU should not be expected to perform like a desktop or higher-end mobile GPU, but around 10 FPS still sounds unusually low if the test settings are reasonable. Check that the discrete NVIDIA GPU is being used, the charger is connected, temperatures are normal, and no power limit or quiet mode is enabled.
The laptop’s memory configuration can also affect performance. Confirm that both RAM modules are detected and that the system is running in dual-channel mode rather than with only one stick active. That usually will not explain everything, but it can reduce gaming performance.
Both RAM sticks appeared to be working when I owned the laptop, but checking dual-channel mode is still a good idea.
First, make sure the laptop is plugged into its charger and set to a performance mode. Gaming laptops can run dramatically slower on battery or in a power-saving profile. Reinstalling the NVIDIA driver with DDU could also rule out a driver issue.
That makes sense. I used power-saving modes and sometimes limited performance when I had it, so those settings may still be worth checking first.