Refresh rates seemed to be capped at 40fps on laptop display, even after setting it to 165hz in settings

I am using a RTX 3060 and successfully installed the NVIDIA driver using the driver GUI on Ubuntu. However the refresh rate of the laptop display still outputs a very low refresh rate (about 40hz), unlike when it runs in windows where it is able to run at 165hz. This was confirmed when i enabled prime synchronization with kernel parameters and glxgears outputs 40fps. I am aware that some users face capped refresh rates when connecting external monitors to the laptop, however this is not the issue that I am facing, where my external monitor is actually able to output 144hz.

Please run nvidia-bug-report.sh as root and attach the resulting file here.

nvidia-bug-report.log.gz (286.8 KB)
thank you for the reply!

Can’t see an error.
If you run glxgears -info, does it show to run on the nvidia card?

It does show that it is running on the nvidia card. Here is the entire output:

Running synchronized to the vertical refresh. The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
GL_RENDERER = GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU/PCIe/SSE2
GL_VERSION = 4.6.0 NVIDIA 460.73.01
GL_VENDOR = NVIDIA Corporation
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VisualID 39, 0x27
320 frames in 5.0 seconds = 63.782 FPS
203 frames in 5.0 seconds = 40.572 FPS
209 frames in 5.0 seconds = 41.614 FPS
200 frames in 5.0 seconds = 39.939 FPS
213 frames in 5.0 seconds = 42.460 FPS
194 frames in 5.0 seconds = 38.608 FPS
203 frames in 5.0 seconds = 40.399 FPS
217 frames in 5.0 seconds = 43.185 FPS
227 frames in 5.0 seconds = 45.175 FPS
216 frames in 5.0 seconds = 42.987 FPS
227 frames in 5.0 seconds = 45.176 FPS
201 frames in 5.0 seconds = 40.015 FPS
200 frames in 5.0 seconds = 39.987 FPS
211 frames in 5.0 seconds = 42.007 FPS
205 frames in 5.0 seconds = 40.983 FPS
203 frames in 5.0 seconds = 40.399 FPS
201 frames in 5.0 seconds = 40.000 FPS
201 frames in 5.0 seconds = 40.001 FPS

when i run other web based FPS indicators such as UFOTest it does show that my Frames are capped at 40fps

However,
When i do turn off prime synchronisation, glxgears will run at extremely high refresh rates (10000fps ++), similarly, UFOTest will be able to detect 165hz but the display does not run as smoothly as it should though.

Should i upload the bug report when i turn off prime synchronisation?

prime-select nvidia sets the rendering to the nvidia gpu and the frames are copied to the intel gpu for display. nvidia-drm.modeset=1 is supposed to eliminate tearing.
why prime synchronisation is massively dropping your frame rate I don’t know. but from the looks of it now, that is the culprint.
@aplattner any ideas?

ahh i see, I have been searching around for answers too, it seems that people only have this problem when trying to use nvidia gpu to render their display, however for me using noveau drivers do not improve the frame rates as well. I am not able to tell if the intel gpu is just hard capping the frames regardless of the rendering by the dGPU

Your internal display has two modes, one 165Hz and one 40Hz. Please check if the i915 driver gets confused by this by switching to intel only and running glxgears.

I have switched to the intel driver and did what you suggested, it seems that the frames are still running at 40fps

Then it’s a bug in the i915 driver, i.e. the kernel. Just for curiosity, what happens if you switch to the 40Hz mode?
Please check if this is fixed in a more recent kernel by e.g. booting a Ubuntu 21.04 live from usb thumbdrive.

switching to 40hz does not change anything, screen still runs at 40hz. oh well thank you for the help! I may look at newer versions of ubuntu but it is not a fix for me because i need to use ubuntu 18.04

If a newer Ubunt/kernel fixes it, you might install it in 18.04.

I have just tried booting it from a live usb in ubuntu 21.04 from a live usb, and the frame rates are still low. the bug doesnt seem to be fixed. thank you nonetheless!

Then you should file a bug with ubuntu or the i915 driver
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/intel/-/wikis/How-to-file-i915-bugs