To start with: I have a very beefy Legion 7i from 2021. It’s got an i9-11980HK, 32GB ram, 2TB SSD, and a 3080.

So I’ve had this issue for a long time, but now that I’m traveling more for work and not always able to plug in my laptop, or only use USB-C charging, it’s become really frustrating and apparent.

When I use the Intel GPU things just turn into an absolutely stuttering mess. Even just opening the start menu feels like I’m trying to run Windows 11 on a 2005 laptop.

My friend has a cheap Acer laptop with no dGPU and an i5 and doesn’t have any of these issues. Things obviously don’t run as smooth as when I’m using the 3080, but it’s a relatively smooth experience when he uses his browser, opens the file explorer, or just does general light tasks.

Anybody experienced this or have a potential solution? Seems very odd to me that the most powerful Intel laptop CPU a few years ago can’t even open the start menu without it being extremely choppy and slow.

I’ve tried completely removing the Intel driver, reinstalling the latest one. Did the same with the Nvidia drivers, updated the BIOS and every other driver I could find, as well as Windows 11 updates. Nothing helped alleviate it.

Thanks in advance.