Low GPU usage?

Hi . I have an i5-2410M (2.3 Ghz), 6 Gb DDR3 RAM and a GeForce 555M GPU on my laptop. With this setup I should be able to play most modern games easy on low settings. However, I noticed that I lag and it’s not due to heat. My temperatures range from 80 to 85. After installing MSI afterburner I noticed my GPU usage is way to low. I understand that the graphics is set at low but that still doesn’t add up. When I tweaked the settings by lowering the core clock, I noticed an increase of GPU activity and better FPS. Still, it was not enough. How can i maximize my GPU activity?
Answer #1
monitor you cpu usage while gaming. If it is ~100% then there is no way.
Answer #2
It stays ranges from 64-75, sometimes spikes down to 52 or 86.
Answer #3
However, I noticed that I lag and it's not due to heat. My temperatures range from 80 to 85.
80-85 is pretty high to be honest and with temperatures in that range, you should consider investing in a decent cooling pad to avoid damaging your laptop.
While gaming, you are running the laptop off the adapter right? Also, make sure that your laptop isn’t set to use the Power saver profile
You are running a 64-bit version of your OS right?
Answer #4
I do have a cooling pad and I am running 64-bit.
Answer #5
Does yours use nvidia optimus to auto change the gpu from intel to nvidia?
It might be playing up (faulty) or not have the auto profile for whatever game you’re playing (in which case, add it manually).