Where did all my framerate go?! :O

My laptop is running unusually slow in everything it does, and I was wondering what the solution could be. Here's the story:

So about half a year ago, in the springtime, I purchased an Alienware M17x R3 and everything was running fine and dandy (I could play Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on high graphics and still get around 50 fps), as time went on though, I could feel my laptop getting slower and slower. Now, when ever I'm trying to play Bad Company 2, I have to play on lowest settings, reduced resolution, and I still only get somewhere between 20 and 40 fps. What the heck?! Same thing happens in Battlefield 3, Minecraft, and even Call of Duty 4 which my computer used to have no problem handling (it used to run at 300 fps). All I have left is Team Fortress 2, and I can even feel that begin to slow, and it's starting to hiccup now and then. Can somebody please help me? I've tried everything I can think of, but nothing is helping! I'm running the current AMD drivers 11.11a, and before anyone asks, I'm running on optimal performance.

Here are my computer specs:
Intel Core i7 2860QM 2.5GHz (3.6GHz with Turbo Boost, 8MC Cache)
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz (4DIMMS)
2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 6990M
17.3-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED

Thank you so much to anyone that helps

 

when my PC get slow, I just back up my important stuff, and then reinstall windows. This gets rid of most if not all software issues and viruses or whatever on the laptop there might be an easy fix idk, but I do a reinstall every couple months to keep the windows files in order

 

Thanks My friend tried that, he's been having the same issues as me. Haha maybe you were even the one to suggest it to him? Anyway, it help for him which is why I'm a bit hesitant... I'll see if there is something I can do before I try that. But thanks

 

is it just gaming that is slow or is the whole machine sluggish?

 

Gaming is always slow, and sometimes the machine is sluggish... But I have to work it pretty hard for that to happen... Sometimes when I'm working with Photoshop. But everything responds pretty quickly.

 

hmm do you know what your Temps are on your CPU and GPU? these might cause issues if they get to hot.

 

I checked awhile ago, and everything was running at max 80F even when stress tested, so that should be alright, right?

 

thats Hot for a GPU, are you sure the GPU isn't throttling while you are playing games? My 460m can only hit 78C before it automatically down clocks. only got it that hot though from blocking the fan

 

Oh haha it is? I read somewhere that it's fine unless it reaches 100. Maybe that wasn't true. I'll check it again though, what software should I use? I've found a lot of sketchy ones.

 

if you want the ultimate torture test run furmark and Prime95 at the same time. This effectily maxxes out both the CPU and GPU. Another test you can run is 3dmark vantage. this test out your hardware and compares it to similar systems Hope I'm helping you out.

 

Yeah you are defiantly, thanks And I am downloading 3dmark vantage now. I already have Prime95, should I also get furmark?

I just re-benchmarked my CPU using Prime95 and these are my results:

[Thu Dec 01 19:09:54 2011]
Compare your results to other computers at Benchmarks - PrimeNet
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2820QM CPU @ 2.30GHz
CPU speed: 3038.34 MHz, 4 hyperthreaded cores
CPU features: Prefetch, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE4, AVX
L1 cache size: 32 KB
L2 cache size: 256 KB, L3 cache size: 8 MB
L1 cache line size: 64 bytes
L2 cache line size: 64 bytes
TLBS: 64
Prime95 64-bit version 26.6, RdtscTiming=1
Best time for 768K FFT length: 8.380 ms., avg: 8.690 ms.
Best time for 896K FFT length: 10.252 ms., avg: 10.646 ms.
Best time for 1024K FFT length: 11.252 ms., avg: 11.697 ms.
Best time for 1280K FFT length: 15.599 ms., avg: 16.321 ms.
Best time for 1536K FFT length: 18.901 ms., avg: 19.426 ms.
Best time for 1792K FFT length: 23.172 ms., avg: 23.783 ms.
Best time for 2048K FFT length: 25.394 ms., avg: 26.459 ms.
Best time for 2560K FFT length: 32.618 ms., avg: 34.234 ms.
Best time for 3072K FFT length: 40.123 ms., avg: 40.884 ms.
Best time for 3584K FFT length: 48.393 ms., avg: 49.265 ms.
Best time for 4096K FFT length: 53.769 ms., avg: 54.775 ms.
Best time for 5120K FFT length: 70.018 ms., avg: 70.860 ms.
Best time for 6144K FFT length: 86.734 ms., avg: 88.499 ms.
Best time for 7168K FFT length: 104.681 ms., avg: 162.557 ms.
Best time for 8192K FFT length: 113.126 ms., avg: 205.304 ms.
Timing FFTs using 2 threads on 1 physical CPUs.
Best time for 768K FFT length: 8.527 ms., avg: 18.054 ms.
Best time for 896K FFT length: 10.208 ms., avg: 10.526 ms.
Best time for 1024K FFT length: 11.704 ms., avg: 41.250 ms.
Best time for 1280K FFT length: 14.675 ms., avg: 42.365 ms.
Best time for 1536K FFT length: 18.120 ms., avg: 20.364 ms.
Best time for 1792K FFT length: 21.694 ms., avg: 74.257 ms.
Best time for 2048K FFT length: 24.589 ms., avg: 28.761 ms.
Best time for 2560K FFT length: 31.239 ms., avg: 31.764 ms.
Best time for 3072K FFT length: 38.838 ms., avg: 109.534 ms.
Best time for 3584K FFT length: 46.648 ms., avg: 87.237 ms.
Best time for 4096K FFT length: 52.866 ms., avg: 53.374 ms.
Best time for 5120K FFT length: 68.678 ms., avg: 69.138 ms.
Best time for 6144K FFT length: 84.306 ms., avg: 85.076 ms.
Best time for 7168K FFT length: 99.727 ms., avg: 100.497 ms.
Best time for 8192K FFT length: 112.239 ms., avg: 222.416 ms.
Timing FFTs using 4 threads on 2 physical CPUs.
Best time for 768K FFT length: 4.488 ms., avg: 4.986 ms.
Best time for 896K FFT length: 5.509 ms., avg: 6.062 ms.
Best time for 1024K FFT length: 6.130 ms., avg: 6.642 ms.
Best time for 1280K FFT length: 7.912 ms., avg: 8.499 ms.
Best time for 1536K FFT length: 9.661 ms., avg: 10.560 ms.
Best time for 1792K FFT length: 12.092 ms., avg: 12.573 ms.
Best time for 2048K FFT length: 13.471 ms., avg: 14.133 ms.
Best time for 2560K FFT length: 17.036 ms., avg: 17.820 ms.
Best time for 3072K FFT length: 21.145 ms., avg: 25.298 ms.
Best time for 3584K FFT length: 25.470 ms., avg: 37.976 ms.
Best time for 4096K FFT length: 28.383 ms., avg: 29.108 ms.
Best time for 5120K FFT length: 36.729 ms., avg: 50.019 ms.
Best time for 6144K FFT length: 45.446 ms., avg: 46.265 ms.
Best time for 7168K FFT length: 55.238 ms., avg: 161.212 ms.
Best time for 8192K FFT length: 59.894 ms., avg: 175.206 ms.
Timing FFTs using 6 threads on 3 physical CPUs.
Best time for 768K FFT length: 3.505 ms., avg: 4.114 ms.
Best time for 896K FFT length: 3.971 ms., avg: 4.603 ms.
Best time for 1024K FFT length: 4.768 ms., avg: 5.630 ms.
Best time for 1280K FFT length: 5.669 ms., avg: 6.779 ms.
Best time for 1536K FFT length: 6.940 ms., avg: 7.659 ms.
Best time for 1792K FFT length: 8.239 ms., avg: 9.275 ms.
Best time for 2048K FFT length: 9.382 ms., avg: 10.518 ms.
Best time for 2560K FFT length: 11.873 ms., avg: 13.431 ms.
Best time for 3072K FFT length: 14.551 ms., avg: 16.253 ms.
Best time for 3584K FFT length: 17.874 ms., avg: 19.238 ms.
Best time for 4096K FFT length: 20.100 ms., avg: 22.078 ms.
Best time for 5120K FFT length: 26.437 ms., avg: 28.415 ms.
Best time for 6144K FFT length: 32.672 ms., avg: 34.136 ms.
Best time for 7168K FFT length: 41.587 ms., avg: 44.159 ms.
Best time for 8192K FFT length: 42.949 ms., avg: 44.662 ms.
Timing FFTs using 8 threads on 4 physical CPUs.
Best time for 768K FFT length: 3.028 ms., avg: 3.840 ms.
Best time for 896K FFT length: 3.185 ms., avg: 4.248 ms.
Best time for 1024K FFT length: 4.241 ms., avg: 5.146 ms.
Best time for 1280K FFT length: 5.006 ms., avg: 5.974 ms.
Best time for 1536K FFT length: 5.887 ms., avg: 7.621 ms.
Best time for 1792K FFT length: 6.764 ms., avg: 8.272 ms.
Best time for 2048K FFT length: 7.674 ms., avg: 9.457 ms.
Best time for 2560K FFT length: 9.962 ms., avg: 12.361 ms.
Best time for 3072K FFT length: 12.140 ms., avg: 14.133 ms.
Best time for 3584K FFT length: 15.180 ms., avg: 17.484 ms.
Best time for 4096K FFT length: 17.484 ms., avg: 19.206 ms.
Best time for 5120K FFT length: 21.436 ms., avg: 23.754 ms.
Best time for 6144K FFT length: 26.003 ms., avg: 28.313 ms.
Best time for 7168K FFT length: 41.881 ms., avg: 43.895 ms.
Best time for 8192K FFT length: 35.380 ms., avg: 38.416 ms.
Best time for 61 bit trial factors: 2.692 ms.
Best time for 62 bit trial factors: 2.701 ms.
Best time for 63 bit trial factors: 3.070 ms.
Best time for 64 bit trial factors: 3.196 ms.
Best time for 65 bit trial factors: 3.734 ms.
Best time for 66 bit trial factors: 4.399 ms.
Best time for 67 bit trial factors: 4.400 ms.
Best time for 75 bit trial factors: 4.291 ms.
Best time for 76 bit trial factors: 4.237 ms.
Best time for 77 bit trial factors: 4.230 ms.

That's doesn't look bad at all. It's not, is it?

 

This is not going to let us no anything post your temps after a Prime95 and Furmark test. Also, 80'c is fine not bad at all GPU's throttle around 105'c anything really over 90 is not good. But try posting long code like that in the box like I did above to do it you type

Code:

 text [/code*] take out the *. Also, run vantage like the other poster suggested and post your results back and what Video Driver you are on as well.(I.e 11.11,11.10, Stock Dell)

 

that's too much of a slow down, must be a reason to it.. did you clean your fans? if you are pro, do a repaste

 

In post 7 the OP said 80F which is 27C, that temp is nice and cool for a GPU at idle.

So if true, he is not overheating his GPU, if it's 80C idle, it probably implies some sort of cooling failure, possible candidates are:
1. Heat sink clogged with dust - but I would expect both to be so CPU would be high as well.
2. Fan not spinning up on GPU side.
3. Heat sink not making good contact with the GPU (thermal re-paste required)

If none of the above then I dont know what else it would be.

PS. My m17x R3 should arrive today... but been reading this forum for past few weeks.

 

There are a lot of contributing factors to general system "sluggishness." The most prominent is just the normal accumulation of unnecessary files and data that aren't defragmented, and eventually this does make the system feel slower. However, I don't ever really encounter this, like the other poster, I format systems every couple months or so.

I feel like this is the best solution if you have a couple of hours to spare.

 

Idle temps don't mean to to much. it is barely useing the GPU. mine sits at around 54C at idle and 64C underload. However the 460m runs very cool. It all comes down to how hot your machine gets underload. If it gets to hot it throttles then you need to do your steps.

 

Need to run furmark in windowed and GPU-Z While you stare at the temperature zone and clock frequency during the test, then we will know whats going on. Sounds like throttling to me unless the power profiling is set wrong on your machine, i suggest you go into your CCC center, and check what the power options are set to also!

Hope we can get your machine working.

Auslogics disk defrag it if you have time, and ccleaner run the cleaner and the registry cleaner too! that can bring up some allarming numbers.

Cata.

 

Sorry I meant 80C, and the fan seems to be working properly. Unless some dust or something is clogging the air intakes I don't think this is it. I changed the settings for it to use the fan when idle, and full fan power when active or whatever. I forget how they worded it... But yeah. How is your laptop working?

 

I don't believe I need to defrag my computer. I've done it twice already since I got it and I recently checked to see if I needed to defrag using the systems default defragmentation software and it says everything is good to go... Thanks though

 

Thanks for helping I'm downloading FurMark 1.9.1 as I type this. And I have my computer running on maximum performance at all times. Should I still try to defrag? I've done it before, only like a month ago, and I shouldn't have to do it again already right? Ok. FurMark is done downloading, let's try this out!

Let's see.... It says that the GPU Core Clock is running at 300.0 MHz, the Memory Clock at 900.0 MHz, the Fan Speed around 30%, and the GPU Temperature at around 74C and I'm not doing anything labor intensive on my computer right now. I'm going to run Battlefield 3 and give you the results again...

Ok, now with Battlefield 3 running in the background, my GPU core clock is running at 400.0 MHz, my GPU Memory Clock at 900.0 MHz, the Fan Speed around 30% still, but for some reason it says that that is only 4 RPM, could this be the problem?, and my GPU Temperature is at 90C. How's that?

Thanks very big or much whathaveyou for helping me to solve this