Slow FPS on 3d programs - battery related?

Hey,

I am really not very good with laptops so please forgive me if I am doing something really stupid.

I am having some serious issues with the FPS in my games using my alienware M17x r3 laptop.
I have checked the temperature of my cards using GPU-Z and it seems to max out at the following levels (for either card)

Date , GPU Core Clock [MHz] , GPU Memory Clock [MHz] , GPU Temperature [°C] , GPU Power [W] , GPU Load [%] , Memory Usage (Dedicated) [MB] , Memory Usage (Dynamic) [MB] ,
2014-06-06 23:55:21 , 650.0 , 800.0 , 54.0 , 0.2 , 0 , 0 , 0 ,

Date , GPU Core Clock [MHz] , GPU Memory Clock [MHz] , GPU Shader Clock [MHz] , GPU Temperature [°C] , Fan Speed (%) [%] , Memory Used [MB] , GPU Load [%] , Memory Controller Load [%] , Video Engine Load [%] , PerfCap Reason [] , VDDC [V] ,
2014-06-06 23:59:06 , 73.6 , 162.0 , 147.0 , 57.0 , 100 , 344 , 98 , 27 , 0 , 16 , 0.8000 ,

I have seen that there is GPU throttling at high temperatures, but 57.0°C doesn't seem all that high for my NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M.

I have also got an issue where my battery is not charging - even when plugged in.
It now has 0% available battery and I am running the laptop with the cable constantly plugged in.

Could these 2 issues be related somehow? I have tried running the laptop without the battery plugged in, but this has not helped performance.

A friend of mine suggested it may be the hard drive - he ran some scan and it showed that there were a lot of sectors with reading time > 200 ms.
I have replaced this drive with a new SSD drive and done a fresh install of windows. This has not helped either (boosting fps by like 10fps - it still is around 20-30, when before it was over 100).

Thanks so much,

 

could be time for a new battery!

 

So, you believe it could all possibly be battery related?
I am worried about forking out for a new battery only to find that it doesn't help, but is instead some other issue - perhaps the motherboard or something...

 

How old is your system??

Check out this link,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2ax0g4heuE

The Alienware laptops use lots of power when gaming, what power adapter do you have? is this a new problem, or might this laptop be second hand? If the battery is could cause a throttle situation, for example, when my 17 is on battery only it throttles

 

It could well be related IMO. Although it should work I know that when they do not detect the wattage correctly the GPU will run in a slower clock but I can't tell from your data if this is happening .

Maybe load up msiafterburner, use the on-screen-display to show you FPS, clock, temp, and monitor them as you game. You'd need to turn on logging to see the progressive data but just noting these may show something?

 

Hey,

My Laptop is probably around 3 years old.
I checked the link - did a power drain (no help), then tried to run the scan, it said battery not charging...

I installed and ran msiafterburner. I logged the data, but am not sure how to post the file.

 

You can either zip up the log file (after checking it has no personal information ) then using the 'Manage Attachments' button under Go Advanced in the post and upload it.
Another good thing to use when seeking help is the Windows Snipping Tool. Grab an area of screen then save it and upload the same way

Afraid the 580m is a very unreliable card, I've seen many many of them fail so it could have just given up, but the battery thing is still a possibility, fingers crossed

 

3 years, im assuming its a bad battery

 

Ok, have attached it as requested.
If you guys really think it could be the battery, then perhaps I will just order one tonight.
Just a little worried about forking out so much if it turns out to not be the problem : /

Thanks so much,

You guys have been really helpful!

View attachment HardwareMonitoring.zip

 

I can't make head nor tail of all that data! . All I would need is the core clock, FPS, temp, GPU temp and voltage when gaming.



You can use afterburner to show what you want on-screen while gaming so it's real-time. Look at what it is doing and let me know

620mhz clock = max
475mhz = first throttle and lower power mode (e.g. cut-scenes in games)
75mhz = 2D mode when in windows or on battery.
Temp in range of 65-70c is good enough while gaming to not be a problem

Known as 'P' states and you can see them in NvidiaInspector - advances settings.

Good luck

 

Hey, sorry about the slow reply (things have been crazy busy here).

I have done as you asked and attached it here.

View attachment HardwareMonitoring.zip

Looking in real time, I am not quite sure what to say.
But it seems to hover around these values:

GPU1 - 56-57 degrees C, 98%, 74 MHz
D3D9 - between 28-32 MHz

I looked into buying a battery, but the site only seems to sell to businesses : /

Thanks again,

 

Well, I still can't make head nor tail of all that data . The numbers you give are what I need though, I'm assuming the 28.. numbers are FPS.

If you never see above 75mhz then it is in low power battery mode, hopefully a battery will fix this since it should not happen.

Is it the same without a battery altogether and just the PSU?

 

Hey,

Without the battery, the scores are as follows
GPU1 - 57-58 degrees C, 98%, 74 MHz
D3D9 - between 16-50 MHz (normally around 23-30, but a lot more variation perhaps?)

FPS according to CSGO (I tested on this) seems to be between 20 - 30 fps. I was getting over 100-120 before my problems started happening.

Thanks,

 

Oh well, just the same . The card could conceivably be 'stuck' as the 580m is a very unreliable card but I guess you need a new battery to find out...