My sister's HP ENVY 16-h0xxx has an Intel Core i5-12500H, Intel Arc A370M, 16 GB of DDR5 memory, and a 477 GB drive with about 217 GB used. She usually plays while connected to the charger, but gaming performance is extremely inconsistent. In Minecraft, for example, she can sometimes get around 120 FPS with shaders enabled, yet at other times the game drops below 2 FPS even without shaders. I set Windows graphics preferences to use the high-performance Intel Arc GPU and have reinstalled Windows several times, but the problem continues. Minecraft is mostly vanilla with Sodium and Iris, and the shader being used is Complementary. What could be causing these sudden performance drops, and how can I diagnose or fix them?
4 Answers
Since Sodium and Iris are installed, test with completely vanilla Minecraft first, then add them back one at a time. Complementary shaders can be demanding, but dropping to nearly 2 FPS without shaders suggests the issue may be broader than shader performance. Checking whether the Intel Arc GPU is actually being used in Task Manager while Minecraft is running can also help rule out a GPU-selection problem.
Try an older, stable Intel Arc graphics driver. A driver update or corrupted driver installation can cause inconsistent performance, so completely removing the current driver before installing the earlier version may be worth testing. Also confirm that the laptop is plugged into its original charger and set to a high-performance power mode.
Thermal throttling is a strong possibility. Monitor the CPU and GPU temperatures, clock speeds, and power usage while the frame rate is low using a hardware monitor or the Intel graphics software. If temperatures are very high and the clocks suddenly fall, clean the vents and fans, make sure the laptop is on a hard surface, and consider having the cooling system serviced. A laptop can also reduce performance if its power or charging profile changes unexpectedly.
Make sure the system drive has plenty of free space because Windows may need room for its paging file and temporary data. You have a reasonable amount available now, but check that the drive is not nearly full and that virtual memory is set to be managed by Windows. Also watch for background updates, antivirus scans, or other programs consuming CPU, memory, or disk resources during the slowdowns.
I’ll check the temperatures and clock speeds specifically when the FPS drops instead of only checking them while the game is running normally.