Why do I have bad performance with the Geforce 550M when running on suggested graphics settings for games?

Question

Many games like Skyrim or Saints Row 3 have performance detection included. Whenever I run it, the suggested graphics settings are "Ultra", "Maximum", etc., but when running the game on that settings, it lags like hell and is unplayable. Even medium graphics settings are often lagging.

Also, pages like Can you run it? are showing me I can play Metro 2033 on Maximum settings, but even minimum settings (everything disabled or lowest level) are lagging.

My graphics card is a nVidia GeForce 550M.

I've tried re-installing Windows from scratch, updating my drivers again and again but nothing.

Can you help me or at least tell me why performance detected settings and actual performance differ so much?

Answer 1

Automatic graphic performance detection implemented by games are often innacurate and in the case of Bethesda games (like Skyrim) "almost always" would often be more appropriate. I don't have any experience with Saints Row 3, however it may suffer from similar problems.

In the case of your GeForce 550M I must say that it cannot be considered a mid/high-end card but it is instead part of the low-end card segment.

You can forget about playing Metro 2033 at Maximum settings. Can you run it? is generally not a bad service but their results are not always 100% accurate.

At 1366x768 these should be more accurate FPS values for your graphics card when running Metro 2033.

• low: ~ 77 fps
• medium: ~ 42 fps
• high: ~ 15 fps

Source

TR;DL There is nothing wrong in your settings, your GeForce 550M cannot do more than this. Try to lower resolution or graphic settings to increase performance.