Poor Performance on an M1530?

My gaming performance has suffered recently.

I first noticed it while playing Call of Duty 2; my laptop should be pretty capable to running the game in DX7 at a consistent 125FPS at least, but now it sometimes chugs and the game dips to 60FPS and under, and after a bit, itgoesbackup. It's pretty irritating to say the least.

This happens in Left 4 Dead too, but I assumed that it was just a problem with my having an nvidia graphics card since it seems that other nvidia users are having similar problems.

I don't even know where to start troubleshooting.

I have a Dell XPS M1530 with a C2D T8300, 4GB RAM, and 8600M GT.

I just had my motherboard replaced since my laptop wouldn't charge.

 

this right here leaves some questions;

- did this happen on your last motherboard?

- do you know how high your system's temperatures are? if not download this app: http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

- if your GPU ( graphics processing unit ) is getting higher than 86C while gaming then your laptop is overheating, and the GPU protects itself by underclocking.

- you could try to clean your vents and fan with compressed air, if that doesnt help, then you should call dell, tell them your laptop is overheating and you are suffering poor game performance and drops in FPS, they should agree to send in a new motherboard and heatsink.

best of luck!

 

You call 60 fps chugging? Considering the fact that your monitor refresh rate is probably 60Hz, it can't physically display more than that no matter how much the potential frame rate is displayed to be.

 

Your system could be overheating, and throtting the GPU temporarily to lower temps.

You can use rivatuner to monitor temperatures and GPU performance. It will plot a graph while you are playing, and then you can go back and check to see if the GPU clock speeds are going down every time the temp gets too high.

Definitely clean out the vents and fan (of dust and debris); it is the simplest and often most effective thing that anyone can do. I have seen peak temps drop by over 10C on laptops that had not been regularly cleaned, just by cleaning the dust out of the vents.

If that doesnt work, call Dell.

 

I had a chance to test out my GPU's temperature today; under heavy load, it reached as high as 91C. It did happen on my last motherboard... I noticed it once my laptop stopped being able to charge.

I'll try cleaning it a bit tomorrow.

Maybe chugging is the wrong word... I'm used to being able to play the game flawlessly, but once it drops down to 60FPS, the game starts being choppy, and it often drops further to 40FPS.