The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Help! Performance drops in-game!

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by MannyD, Jun 6, 2008.

  1. MannyD

    MannyD Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    3
    Messages:
    52
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Ok I just recieved my Dell 1520 back from its 3rd repair for overheating, they changed the heatsink and fan. I thought it was overheating that was causing my performance to drop in games, WRONG.

    Here's what's happening, whenver I play graphic intensive games for a while the game will suddenly stutter and my fps will drop about half. I decided to try a benchmark so I just ran the CS:Source benchmark with all graphics maxed out, in the middle of the test I had the stutter and performance drop and I ended up with an average of 80 fps. Tried the benchmark again and ended up with 30 fps. I've tried different drivers but have had the same problem. What's happening?
     
    MannyD, Jun 6, 2008
    #1
  2. vinumsv

    vinumsv MobileFreak™

    Reputations:
    502
    Messages:
    1,238
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    hmm Try Updating your GFX Drivers mate
     
    vinumsv, Jun 6, 2008
    #2
  3. MannyD

    MannyD Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    3
    Messages:
    52
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I've tried multiple drivers :) , even the latest from Dell.
     
    MannyD, Jun 6, 2008
    #3
  4. dondadah88

    dondadah88 Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    2,024
    Messages:
    7,755
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    dondadah88, Jun 6, 2008
    #4
  5. MannyD

    MannyD Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    3
    Messages:
    52
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I'm very familiar with the 8600 stuttering but this is quite different, my game freezes for about a second and performance then DROPS. From what ive seen with the common stuttering issue is that there is stuttering but no drop in performance. I haven't been able to find a case like mine, especially with the search feature down :(.
     
    MannyD, Jun 6, 2008
    #5
  6. Forte

    Forte NBR's Supreme Angel

    Reputations:
    352
    Messages:
    2,462
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    What are the temps anyway? Did you OC it?
     
    Forte, Jun 6, 2008
    #6
  7. MannyD

    MannyD Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    3
    Messages:
    52
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Yes, cpu temps max out at around 70 in games, around 50 in high performance mode. GPU temp maxes at about 68 after a while of playing games. The notebook is not overclocked.
     
    MannyD, Jun 6, 2008
    #7
  8. Forte

    Forte NBR's Supreme Angel

    Reputations:
    352
    Messages:
    2,462
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Check to make sure that you are running under High Performance mode in Vista. It could be your notebook is using or trying to use Power Save mode.
     
    Forte, Jun 6, 2008
    #8
  9. MannyD

    MannyD Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    3
    Messages:
    52
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Had it in performance mode when I tested it. Wish it was something that simple =/
     
    MannyD, Jun 6, 2008
    #9
  10. Forte

    Forte NBR's Supreme Angel

    Reputations:
    352
    Messages:
    2,462
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Have you tried restarting your computer? Or do you leave it on 24/7.

    You may also want to check and/or reinstall your drivers for your GPU.
     
    Forte, Jun 6, 2008
    #10
  11. Rodster

    Rodster Merica

    Reputations:
    1,805
    Messages:
    5,043
    Likes Received:
    396
    Trophy Points:
    251
    I'm a hard core gamer. Whenever i'm doing intensive gaming I make sure all AV and Spyware software is turned off. What programs are you running besides the game? Do you have any scheduled tasks running? How about your screensaver is it disabled? Is directX9 up to date?

    Btw, what OS are you running? :confused:
     
    Rodster, Jun 6, 2008
    #11
  12. Forte

    Forte NBR's Supreme Angel

    Reputations:
    352
    Messages:
    2,462
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Thats a good point. Maybe Mcafee is running in the background doing a scan everytime you play a game.
     
    Forte, Jun 6, 2008
    #12
  13. roonow

    roonow Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    21
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Maybe your 8600 is being downclocked? I found that THAT was my problem when i suddenly started noticing my 3d games playing like crap...turns out the laptop somehow was thinking it wasn't "plugged in" to AC power, so it downclocked the video card to save battery life.

    What I did to solve my problem was go to Nvidia Control Panel --> Mobile --> Change PowerMizer settings --> Select "Not manage my power consumption" and uncheck "Extend Battery Life".

    Hope that helps...
     
    roonow, Jun 6, 2008
    #13
  14. MannyD

    MannyD Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    3
    Messages:
    52
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Thanks for the help everyone. I'm going to try your suggestion roonow as it seems like that could be a possibility (even though I have alt-tabbed when performance dropped and checked ATITool to see if the clocks dropped for the core and memory but nothing changed). FYI I have tried disabling everything yet the problem still occurred. I'm running Vista.
     
    MannyD, Jun 6, 2008
    #14
  15. MannyD

    MannyD Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    3
    Messages:
    52
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I have Dell's latest 174.31 Dell but I don't see the mobile option nor the powermizer option in the control panel. How can I get to it?
     
    MannyD, Jun 6, 2008
    #15
  16. Forte

    Forte NBR's Supreme Angel

    Reputations:
    352
    Messages:
    2,462
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Under Vista, powermizer is always on and cannot be changed. You can however try gaming with an external monitor as using an external monitor forces powermizer to be at max performance. If you still experience the same issue, its not powermizer thats causing the problem.
     
    Forte, Jun 6, 2008
    #16
  17. ShinyFalcon

    ShinyFalcon Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    41
    Messages:
    216
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    If the card really is downclocking, I would run Rivatuner's hardware monitor, play the game, and check the clocks after the stuttering occurs, and see if it really is doing that. Have a digital clock (the one that tells time) handy.
     
    ShinyFalcon, Jun 6, 2008
    #17
  18. zet

    zet Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    65
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I think I read about something similar to this on another board, might have been this one can't quite remember. Anyways, the guy was getting poor performance turned out his card was being down clocked - even when he tweaked all the settings it would force a downclock. So, what he did was to overclock his card slightly which would force his clock speeds to stay higher and not drop, that could be worth a try?
     
    zet, Jun 7, 2008
    #18