[Helvete15]

I can play every game medium-high setting except this one. Was just playing Hitman Absolution on Medium with 20-30 FPS, although I know it could be higher. With this game I'm getting only 9-12 FPS on lowest setting (Ubersampling disabled, windowed mode, 1280 x 720). Here are my system specs:

Intel Core i7-3630QM CPU @ 2.40 GHz
8 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M (drivers updated)
1600 x 900 Resolution
Windows 7 Home Premium Edition, 64 Bit Service Pack 1

I've seen systems the same as mine on youtube running this on Ultra with 30 FPS. I checked with MSI Afterburner and running the game I was only getting 157 MHz Core clock. After overclocking and turning MHz up to max I got 242 MHz with 98% GPU Usage. Is this the max I can get? Surely it should be using more than that. I don't know much about overclocking as I've never done it before. Any help would be very much appreciated.

[Vinterberg]

Try going to NVidia Control Panel, application-controlled settings and select/add witcher2.exe, then there should be an option below it about which GPU to use - set it to the 650M..

I hope that this is your problem

Edit: I think the low clock-readings is because you were running on the i7-GPU, and thus the 650M downclocked alot (like they usually do in desktop mode) and didn't respond well to overclocking.. If it didn't chew away on the game, it would lower it's clockspeeds to save power.. - But I could be way off here, don't know much about clockspeeds in laptops

[Helvete15]

When I go to the NVidia control panel I see Manage 3D settings, program settings, and I have The Witcher 2 added with it saying High-performance NVDIA Processor. I'm guessing this is my video card? I also have under global settings, my preferred graphics processor to the NVIDIA processor. I also see a PhysX configuration tab and it is set to my video card as well.

[Helvete15]

Ok I finally figured it out after messing with the visual settings in the launcher. Turns out texture downscaling was set to high and it was causing my FPS to drop at least by 20. Strange because I figured texture downscaling would improve the FPS? Game runs perfect 30-40 FPS on medium now. Thanks!

[Vinterberg]

Great!

[Helvete15]

Argh! Ok, so I was playing it perfectly with 30-35 fps, then in the first part as soon as I escape from the dungeon and go outside the fps drops to 12 and now it doesn't ever go back up, even loading a different section that was working fine it's still very low again. I didn't even touch any settings or change anything. This is getting really frusterating! I don't know what else to do, any suggestions?

[*Tommy*]

First make sure your laptop is up to date from the manufacturer. Also make sure that your laptop is not set to any power saving mode. I think but not too sure that it may be in the Alien FX panel.

[Helvete15]

My laptop is updated and I have it on high performance, I don't have any power saving on, it's all just set to run high performance, it's just strange that I got low fps all of a sudden, about 9-12 fps throughout whole game, when I was running 30 with no lag at all.

[Helvete15]

I have just noticed while using MSI Afterburner and with the GPU activity icon, that the game is not using my video card. While playing the game I have 0 programs running with 0% GPU usage. With all other games I'm getting 99% GPU usage. I have it set to my Nvidia graphics card so I don't know why it's not using it. Any help please?

[Lord FireStorm]

Try disabling Optimus/On-Board Video in Device Manager or in your BIOS settings...

[Helvete15]

I didn't see anything in device manager or my BIOS settings to disable the Optimus. No matter what I do it doesn't want to use my Nvidia card.

[xeremius]

Helvete15 said:

I didn't see anything in device manager or my BIOS settings to disable the Optimus. No matter what I do it doesn't want to use my nVidia card. ›››

I had a similar problem a year ago with my Alienware M17xR3 (nVidia GTX 580M): all my games were running smoothly except my new TW2.
I called the tech support : they told me to reinstall all these recently downloaded drivers in that sequence: bios, intel chipset, Alienware Bios, GTX 580M, and nVidia Bios.
Hope it would help...

[Helvete15]

Updated all of my drivers in that same order and still doesn't detect my video card...this is crazy haha. Guess I'll have to call tech support as well. I'll see what they say.

[Helvete15]

Just called the Alienware tech support and they wanted to charge me for game tech support..wtf? 89$ for one time and $150 for a years support. I also put in a request for tech support on this site, haven't heard back yet though. Damn, going to have to keep searching online. Please let me know if anyone has any other suggestions. Wish I could just turn this Optimus off and keep my NVIDIA card on at all times, it's a pain in the arse.

[AXX0]

Helvete15 said:

When I go to the NVidia control panel I see Manage 3D settings, program settings, and I have The Witcher 2 added with it saying High-performance NVDIA Processor. I'm guessing this is my video card? ›››

Make sure that witcher2.exe is on the list, not only Launcher.exe.

[Helvete15]

Thanks! That got it working and finally detected my video card, it's just strange now though that even on low I'm getting 30 FPS, and in combat and forests only about 15 fps. Should GeForce GT 650M GDDR5 2 GB RAM be able to handle a higher setting? Also what is the best driver for my card. I found that the most recent driver had issues with the game.

[Helvete15]

Now again I'm getting only 11-15 fps even on low setting with everything disabled and windowed. It still detects my video card but another thing I noticed is that the memory usage is very low, only about 375 mb whereas all my other games I get 1,000 to 1,500 mb. Really weird.