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]

Hi Minerfella,

Thank you for posting in the community. I just have some question and clarification about your current situation. Could you answer the following question below so I can better understand your situation:

1. When you say you are having low performance when playing Minecraft on Arc 350M, does the game hang or freeze?
2. Can you share to me if the issue happens after Windows update or driver update?
3. What is the exact model of your laptop?

Also, to better understand your entire system information, please use the System Support Utility (SSU). This will generate a text file that compiles all your system information. You can follow this link for instructions and send the text file here. How to get the Intel® System Support Utility Logs on Windows. I am looking forward hearing from you.

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Minerfella]

Hello Dhanniel M.,
The laptop which I am using is an ASUS Vivobook S15 S5504V, its system information can be found in the SSU file attached below.
Regarding the performance issues freezing  and hanging occur occasionally however the low FPS (around 20-40 FPS) and utilization are the main issue which still persists even after updating to the newest driver 32.0.101.5972 (WHQL Certified), I repeated the test twice to check if the newest driver would help improve my issue but I found that the utilization was dipping even lower to around 6% at times. Interestingly, I also discovered that while looking at the sky the utilization increased to around 40% (resulting in an FPS increase) which was strange as the sky should take the least amount of power to render. 
Thank you for your support,
Minerfella

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hi Minerfella,

Thank you for providing me this informations. I understand that you already tried reinstalling and updating your graphics driver. However, can you perform this troubleshooting and see what will be the outcome.

• First, uninstall your Intel Iris Xe and Arc A350M graphics driver using the Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU), you can access the instruction through this link: How to Use the Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to Uninstall an Intel® Graphics.
• Then after you have uninstall the graphics drivers, reinstall the latest graphics driver Intel® Arc™ & Iris® Xe Graphics - Windows*
• Also, after that can you share to me the version of Minecraft you are playing? Lastly, try to deactivate the shaders to ensure smooth performance during the longevity of the playthrough.

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

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Minerfella]

Hello Dhanniel M.,

After having uninstalled the GPU driver utilizing DDU, and reinstalling the new driver (32.0.101.5972 (WHQL Certified)) the issue unfortunately persists (low GPU utilization, 10-20%, resulting in low fps, 20-30). 
The version that I am utilizing is vanilla 1.21.1 without any mods, resource packs or shaders which could impact the game's performance.

Thank you for your help,
Minerfella

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hi Minerfella,

First have you tried rolling back on other versions of minecraft to test? If no, could you try rolling back to version 1.20?

Also, can you send a screen video or screenshot of your task manager in the performance tab while your are playing?

Lastly, are you experiencing lag and freezes/hang while playing?

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Minerfella]

Hello Dhanniel M.,

Thank you for your response,

After switching to version 1.20 in Minecraft the issue still persists while the game does not hang or freeze but does sometimes lags due to the GPU utilization increasing when reaching more resource demanding situations.
Also, here are the screenshots of task manager in the performance tab, the first while utilizing the Iris Xe Graphics and the second the A350M while maintaining the driver at version 32.0.101.5972 (WHQL Certified).

Best regards,
Minerfella

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hi Minerfella,

Thank you giving me this information, as the issue still persist even after clean installation of graphics driver. Let me try to coordinate this with our Engineers to explore other options or recommendation for this situation.

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Minerfella]

Hello Dhanniel M.,
Thank you very much for all the support you have provided for this issue.

Best regards,

Minerfella

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hi Minerfella,

Thank you for patiently waiting, I have some follow up questions and instruction that needed to accurately replicate this situation on our end:

1. Is this the direct link where the game can be downloaded?
2. Could you kindly confirm if the game is set to use the Arc graphics card by following our "How To Set the Default GPU for Applications and Games" article?
3. If possible, please share the CapFrameX data so we can review it.

I am looking forward hearing back from you on this.

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Minerfella]

Hello Dhanniel M.,

I have checked that the GPU being used is the Arc A350M following the article you have linked and have recorded the CapFrameX data three times using version 1.20 and I will attach the .json files below is a .zip folder as the .json format cannot be attached. 
In terms of the link, I have found that a more direct link could be https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/download as this contains a button to directly download the launcher from which any version can be launched.
Thank you for your support,
Minerfella

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hi Minerfella,

Thank you for providing this information to us. I will now coordinate this with our Engineers to properly and accurately replicate this on our end.

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Minerfella]

Hi Dhanniel M.,
Great, thank you very much for all the continuous support you have provided for this issue.

Best regards,

Minerfella

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hi Minerfella,

Thank you for patiently waiting, can I request for you to update your graphics driver again but using this latest driver version (32.0.101.6078 WHQL Certified). Also, please use the DDU on uninstalling the previous driver while on safe mode. To help you with this, please check this article on How to Use the Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to Uninstall an Intel® Graphics. Let me know if the issue will persist after doing this.

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Minerfella]

Hello Dhanniel M.,
I have reinstalled the drivers (32.0.101.6078 WHQL Certified) following the article you have provided above and when utilizing Minecraft 1.21.1 while the utilization was still low (30% Maximum) the FPS had increased (sometimes reaching the 150 FPS mark). However, when testing with version 1.20 both the utilization and the FPS were unchanged. 

Thank you for your support,
Minerfella

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hi Minerfella,

I just want to confirm that since you are reaching 150 FPS, are you experiencing any lags, hanging, and freezing on the game? Additionally, this is to inform you that Minecraft is not a very demanding game. As the low GPU utilization and a peak 150 FPS gives a good sign. Could you tell me if what you should be expecting on your utilization?

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Minerfella]

Hello Dhanniel M.,

Thank you for your response, while I am reaching 150 FPS at times, the problem I encounter is that while moving around, when reaching areas of the world which are harder to render (such as big mountains or areas full of entities) the frame rate drops to around 20 sometimes resulting in hanging or lag while the utilization does not scale which is what I would expect when encountering more demanding situations. For example, I imagine that as these more graphically intensive scenarios appear, the utilization should increase up to 100% before witnessing a frame drop and instead I encounter a stark drop in FPS and the utilization does not change.

Kind regards,
Minerfella

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hi Minerfella,

I understand your current situation, but to inform you that this is an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Laptop. As I will try to coordinate this internally with the higher department for further checking. We cannot guarantee possible resolution on this, as the laptop manufacturer might alter or customize something on the graphics.

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Minerfella]

Hello Dhanniel M., 

I understand that this issue might not be fixed because of the manufacturer altering aspects of the laptop's graphics and thank you for the excellent continuous support you have provided. 

Kind regards,
Minerfella

[NormanS_Intel]

Hello Minerfella,

I wanted to let you know that we are still investigating this issue. I will share an update in this thread as soon as we have more information.

Best regards,

Norman S.

Intel Customer Support Engineer

[Minerfella]

Hello Norman S.,

Thank you very much for letting me know and providing continuous support for this issue. 

Best regards,

Minerfella