SXPS 1640 Random Performance Drops

Okay, so I have a Studio XPS 1640 (3670 512mb, P8600, etc.) that I mostly use for gaming. During the past few months, I've noticed that occasionally when I'm playing a game, the FPS will suddenly go wayyy down. For example, I was once playing Oblivion and getting around 40 FPS, when all of a sudden the FPS randomly dropped to less than 10. The same thing has happened in other games such as TF2. I think that this may be due to overheating, because the computer still seems sort of sluggish even after I close the game. Anyone know what I should do? Maybe adjust the fan speed/get a cooling pad?

 

Well overheating and it downclocking it's self is all I can think of. I do know that the Dell drivers for the 3670 do not play nice in the least, and I've heard of this happening to other people here and other places with that card. I'd use mobility modder and download the newest desktop drivers from the ati website, and that *should* cure this. From what I've been told the Dell drivers seem to slightly overclock the GPU causing the heat issue.

If after you try that and it doesn't fix it, try formatting it as it could also be a corrupt OS/Driver - but this is highly doubtful.

I've found that cooling pads with the Studio XPS laptops are kind of pointless due to how the bottom is made. I used an expensive Antec cooler, and a few other "cheaper" targus coolers, than the Zalman cooler and found little to no difference.

 

well I'm currently using modded ATI 9.12 drivers, and I don't really want to have to reinstall Windows (I just recently installed Windows 7).

Do you think it might be that the GPU is switching to 2D mode because of some power-saving option or something?

 

Ive noticed that too.. it happened on L4D2.

I have a 4670 1GB tho

 

Throttling to the system is a known problem with the current DELL laptops, you can find a utility by unclewebb in the XPS 1645 power investigation thread that can help.

 

Ya, you are probably seeing the throttling that so many of us are experiencing. It exhibits that exactly, you'll be playing fine and then chug, chug, audio crackling sounds, then after awhile it may return to normal. Its affecting those of us with the 4670 much more noticeably because of the increased power drain of the 4670/i7 procs. But it does happen to the C2Ds with 3670.

 

Yeah, I'm sure I'm experiencing throttle.. I thought it might've been lag or something with the Source Engine, but I played Need For Speed Undercover and it did the same thing

 

Oddly enough I've yet to ever experience throttling on my P8600 and 4670. I've raided in WoW and played LFD 2 for hours an no issues.

BUT I do know people with the 3670 did have the issue as well as the 1645's with i7.

 

Try Crysis WoW definitely will not stress your GPU and CPU sufficiently to notice throttling. ...LFD 2? *shrug*

 

I have also yet to experience this throttling with my T9600/4670.

 

yep same here with BF 2142, lags terribly

any solution for this? or should we just leech in on the solutions the i7 users are proposing ? ( like the 130w adapter and such )