Brand new HP ENVY ~10fps on old games

[Ted_CH]

I just bought a brand new multi-use laptop (mainly for work but also some gaming on the side) and I am EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED with the gaming performance.  This model comes with plenty of horsepower (AMD Ryzen 7 5700u APU/16GB RAM) for gaming, but is still giving me 10fps or less with older games, specifically Assassins Creed Black Flag and AC Syndicate, running on Steam.  The former runs fine on a 12 year old desktop gaming rig, so I would expect even a moderately-spec'd modern laptop to be able to handle it.  VERY AGGRAVATING.

Here is what I have done so far:

- Lowered the graphics settings on AC Syndicate to LOW.  This helped get FPS from ~9 to ~11 but nothing else.

- Checked for the known AMD/Windows 11 issues.  I had to update the Chipset drivers but the October Windows patch already included the fix for the other known compatibility issue.  No effect.

- Deactivate Windows 11 default DVR recording behavior by editing the registry and restarting.  No effect.

- Factory reset of AMD RADEON drivers and support software, directly downloaded from AMD.  No effect.

- Deactivate audio recording in XBOX Game Bar. No effect (would love to deactivate the game bar altogether but I don't know how)

- I have tried using the Radeon utility to log the performance  of the onboard GPU, and have discovered that the GPU SClock is running much lower than I would expect, as low, as 200Mhz, even when gaming at 3fps... SO

- I checked the Windows power options and ensured that the computer is configured for "high performance" when connected to wall power.  I then plugged in the second PSU into the machine (includes both old-style coaxial power as well as USB-C power - so I plugged both in at the same time, in case Windows is not recognizing one or the other as being plugged in.  Unfortunately, this also had no effect on gaming fps.

Again, I am extremely frustrated here.  Considering returning this machine to HP since so far, it seems to be a piece of ***bleep*** when it comes to gaming.  But I would rather just fix it.  I suspect this is a Windows 11 issue, but the machine came with Windows 11.. can I downgrade to Windows 10?  Anyone have any other ideas for things to try??  Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks and regards,

Ted

[Ted_CH]

Am I posting to the right place here - is there a better forum to address?  Does HP support even show up here, or should I rather try to get them on the phone/open a formal support ticket?

Btw, the bleeped out word from the previous post is not profanity.  It is a four letter word for excrement, beginning with c.  My five year old uses it.