Utilization issue in when playing Minecraft resulting in low performance with Arc A350M

[Minerfella]

Dear Support Community,

I have encountered a performance issue while playing Minecraft version 1.21.1 utilizing Intel driver 32.0.101.5971 although the same issue also presented itself with older drivers. This FPS issue is possibly due to low GPU usage with both the Arc A350M and the Xe Graphics which never goes above around 20-30% (Fig 2-4) in game. 

The settings I used for the game are the following:

Fig. 2

Fig 2

Fig. 3

Fig 3

Fig. 4Fig 4

Thank you for the help,

Minerfella

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hello Minerfella,

Thank you for patiently waiting, after conducting replication and it seems that there are some improvement when the lowering the Render Distance. As it appears the issue might be related to the video settings. As such, would you try playing with your settings, especially the Render Distance based on your preference. You can all check following links for more information what to configure to optimize your settings.

• https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/gaming/resources/how-to-boost-fps-minecraft.html
• https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Options
• https://help.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/4410246518669-Optimizing-Performance-in-Minecraft-

Also, please try this following information that will also help you gain more performance:

1) Check if REBAR is enabled in the BIOS. If not please enable it, and test the game

2) Also, have you updated your latest BIOS version?

Let me know if what will be the outcome of this. I am looking forward hearing back from you.

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hello Minerfella,

I wanted to check if you have the chance to review the information that I have posted. Let me know if at your earliest convenience so we can determine the next course of action to resolve this matter.

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Minerfella]

Hello Dhanniel M, 
Sorry for the late reply,  
I have reviewed the information you have provided and gained the following information:
1) The BIOS was already updated to the newest version.
2) REBAR is not available on this laptop but will however test with the desktop A770 16GB later as the same utilization problem is also present with that graphics card (although the FPS is higher due to the GPU being more powerful). 
3) In regards to the settings, I have reduced my render distance (from 32 to 16 chunks) which, while the utilization is still not scaling as the environment becomes more demanding (although I will later conduct more test to confirm this), resulted in the FPS consistently being over 100.

Thank you very much for your support,

Minerfella

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hello Minerfella,

Thank you for your remarks on this one, I will be waiting for the results of your further testing. Also, thank you for your cooperation and patience on this one. I am looking forward hearing back from you.

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Minerfella]

Hello DhannielM,
After conducting some additional testing I have concluded the following: 
1) While reducing the render distance does improve performance (around 100-150 FPS), the utilization does not increase even as the environment becomes more demanding (simulated utilizing exploding TNT) and the only way I could manage to make it slightly increase is changing the graphics setting from Fancy to Fabulous but that only increased by around 10% (from 20-30 to 30-40) but still resulted in lower FPS. I have also tried to change the chunk loading from Threaded to Semi blocking and fully blocking but this had no effect. 

2) When activating REBAR on the Arc A770 16GB I did not see a scaling in GPU utilization utilizing the same testing scenarios as above. 

3) In both scenarios utilizing full the screen mode does not affect the utilization or FPS. 
 *All tests were executed in version 1.21.1 with 2 and 4GB of RAM allocated to the installation (no change between the two) and on the 32.0.101.5768 driver version.

Thank you for your support,
Minerfella

[Minerfella]

Hello Dhanniel M, 
After updating to the 32.0.101.6129/32.0.101.6045 driver I have noticed a decrease in the FPS both in the minecraft version 1.21.1 (from 100-150 with the previous driver to 30-60 with the current driver) as well as in version 1.8.9 on both graphics cards (the A350M and the A770) while all settings remain as in the previous message. 

Thank you,
Minerfella

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hello Minerfella,

I see that you are using the Arc A770 as part of the testing as well. Can I get another CapframeX using the system that have the Arc A770. Also, would it be alright to send a screenshot of your game setting that you use when your FPS got lower to 30-60 FPS. This is for both A350M and A770. Lastly, can you provide an SSU logs on the system that has the A770? You can use this link for the instruction: How to get the Intel® System Support Utility Logs on Windows

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Minerfella]

Hello Dhanniel M., 
Thank you for your reply, I will append below the required files: 
All tests where executed with driver version 32.0.101.6129/32.0.101.6045
A350M settings Minecraft version 1.21.1:

Arc A770 settings Minecraft version 1.21.1 (same as above although higher FPS, closer to 100, due to the GPU being more powerful but less than with previous driver version):

Please find the SSU report file and the CapFrameX data attached below.

Thank you for all the support you have provided,
Minerfella

[Mia14112]

As a workaround I would try installing Vulkanmod.

~Mia

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hello Minerfella,

Thanks for this information, I just wanted to get some information first before testing this in my end. Can you share if the Rebar on your both system using A350M and A770 is enable? Lastly, can you try updating your driver version to 101.6130?, please choose the clean installation of the graphics driver.

Graphics driver: Intel® Arc™ & Iris® Xe Graphics

After updating it can you provide me the CapframeX of the two system. This time try applying the settings that I have provided you back then.

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Minerfella]

Hello Dhanniel M.,
Thank you for your reply, in response to your question, REBAR is enabled on the A770 system but not on the A350M system as it is not available on this laptop. 
I am yet to record the CapframeX data but will post a response once the drives are up to date and I have completed some additional testing with the settings you provided earlier.

Thank you for your patience,

Minerfella 

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hello Minerfella,

Thanks for the update I will be waiting for the data that you gather and I will further investigate this on my end.

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hi Minerfella,

I wanted to check if you happen to see my last reply. I will be waiting for your testing result so I can better investigate this.

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Minerfella]

Hello Dhanniel M.,
Sorry for the late reply, I unfortunately have not had the chance to record the CapFrameX data on the Arc A770 pc yet due to some unexpected driver updating issues but have attached below the CapframeX data for the Arc A350M data with the driver 32.0.101.6130 and the setting from the links you provided earlier.
I will upload a follow up response with the CapFrameX data from the other system as soon as I can update the driver. 

Best regards,
Minerfella

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hi Minerfella,

Thanks for the update. I will be waiting for the data on the system with the Arc A770 so I can fully check it on my end.

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Minerfella]

Hello Dhanniel M.,

Thank you for your patience while I resolved some driver updating issues on the Arc A770 system, please find attached below the CapframeX data for Minecraft version 1.21.1 with the setting provided earlier on driver version 32.0.101.6130. 

Kind regards,

Minerfella

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hi Minerfella,

Upon checking on the CapframeX data, it seems that currently the FPS are somewhat smooth. Can you tell me if you have any FPS drops on the Arc A770? Also, how does your FPS when you are using your laptop that has A350M?

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hi Minerfella,

I just wanted to check if you have seen my previous reply. Based on the data from CapframeX that you provided, it seems that the FPS is quite good, and you have a smooth and high FPS. I wanted to know more information about this.

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Minerfella]

Hello Dhanniel M.,

While the FPS was good and fairly smooth throughout the gameplay within loaded chunks, the main issue which I am encountering is that the GPU utilization remains low even when loading new chunks or reaching more complicated scenarios to render (such as with many entities) and does not increase causing a decrease in FPS and causing freezing/lag instead of increasing GPU utilization. I would expect that as new chunks are loaded/more entities appear, there would be an increase in the GPU utilization and that generally it would be a bit higher than what it is at the moment (20-30%) for the A350M system and (10-20%) on the Arc A770 system however I could be mistaken. 

I hope this clarifies my situation a bit more but if you need more information I will happily provide it. 

Thank you for your support,
Minerfella

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hi Minerfella,

I understand your situation on this matter, so allow me to further investigate this on my end.

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hi Minerfella,

Thank you for waiting. Could you try updating your driver again to version 32.0.101.6319 on both your A770 and A350M? Please perform a clean installation when updating. Also, just to confirm, are you playing the vanilla version of Minecraft with no activated shaders? And are you using Minecraft Java Edition 1.20.2?

For the driver: Intel® Arc™ & Iris® Xe Graphics

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician