AW17 performing properly?

Hi everyone, this is my first post in the AW17 forum. I'm coming from the m15x camp.
I upgraded to the 17 months ago but haven't really had time to use it as much as I want.

Recently I've been trying to game a little more on it and get some more use out of it. But it hasn't been performing too well. I bought The vanishing of ethan carter to test out something more graphically intense. my FPS fluctuates from about 55 to 35 at "high" settings" (not maxed out). I can be looking in one direction and be getting 50-60fps and turn 180 degrees and it will drop to 30fps. Very frustrating. And gameplay doesn't feel very smooth in a number of games. Even when I'm getting high FPS it feels like games stutter or hiccup every 20 secs or so. Like the computer or GPU is trying to keep up. Even when playing Super Meat Boy my FPS will drop to frame rates that make the game unenjoyable to play.

Can someone recommend a popular or common benchmark test I can download and post my results for some opinions? Just to see if something is really wrong with my laptop. (Latest drivers are installed).

I'll post my specs below. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

16GB DDR3L
gtx 880m
win 8.1
i7-4710MQ processor

 

I would recommend running a benchmark tool off a game like Crysis or Metro. As for the game you are currently playing it can be poorly optimized as it is an indie title correct? you can also get a free version of 3D mark 11

 

Check your temps across your GPU and CPU while benching the system let us know what that is showing. It could be a plugged exhaust causing overheating or some bad thermal paste that needs changing. The 880m has some overheating concerns so my money is on one of those two. As Mikecacho said above grab a copy of 3dMark 11 or the newer 3DMark and run firestrike. At the very least that can rule a few things out. Also grab a copy of Hwinfo while you run it and monitor the temps so you know if your overheating.