Gaming Notebooks

Hi,

I have a HP Omen laptop that has Intel integrated graphics and a dedicated Nvidia GTX 860m graphics. I have this laptop for just over a year and everything has been going fine. Recently, performance in games have been very bad.. I don't think games are ACTUALLY using the Nvidia driver even though it says it is.

I used to be able to play GTA5 and RimWorld with great FPS over 60. Now, GTA5 can't even get 2 FPS and RimWorld gets about 20. I did not change anything with Nvidia drivers.

Thinking this was a software problem, I performed a clean install of Windows 10 and it did not fix anything.

Picture of GTA5 "using" the Nvidia graphics: http://i.imgur.com/NSOL79L.png

By the look of the performance, it would seem that it is using the Intel graphics instead of the Nvidia even though it says it is using the Nvidia graphics. Especially because usually in graphic intensive games like GTA5 you would hear the fans spinning for the Nvidia graphics.

Both the Nvidia graphics and Intel graphic drivers are up-to-date.

I ran a benchmark test in GTA5 with Normal/Low settings with GPU-Z running in the background. GTA5 was getting about 4 FPS. In the past on the same laptop, I used to be able to get 60+ FPS on High settings. Here is a picture of the GPU-Z: http://i.imgur.com/vI23tLR.png

The GPU load is being maxed out at 100% as well as the memory and core clock. The GPU temperature is not rising however and on my machine, you cannot hear the GPU fan spinning (previously you would be able to in GTA5).

Could this be a hardware issue with the Nvidia graphics card or most likely a software issue? Thank you.