Is my graphics card dying?

My girlfriend recently purchased a Sager Np5797 with 4gigs of ram 2.8ghz processor and Nvidia Geforce 280m GTX...I have the sager np5796 with a 9800m gtx. We both play World of Warcraft and recently I noticed that her fps sometimes drops to 5-6 frames and that it averages about 20 fps. My 9800m gtx isn't ast good as the 280m and I get 60+ frames constantly....

Basically her fps is way to low for the graphics chip she has and it causes multiple games to lag when they shouldn't be. We use the same display driver from Nvidia (186.03) and she just purchased the laptop 2 weeks ago and the problem started a couple days ago.

What other steps can I take to see if we need to replace the gpu? And what other thing could be causing the low fps?

 

Is her power setting set to "High Performance"?

 

The NVIDIA GeForce 280M GTX that your girlfriend has is probably downclocking itself because it is overheating. Try to monitor the temperature of the Sager while playing WoW. HWMonitor is a good temperature monitor. Don't worry too much about replacing the 280M as it is a reliable graphics card, unlike some in the NVIDIA 8 series. If your girlfriend's laptop can even boot up successfully, the graphics card is fine.

 

I agree, heat is most likely the issue. Simple test is to prop up the back of the laptop to allow for greater airflow. If it makes a difference look into getting a more active cooling solution, there are a lot of them out there.

 

hrmm okay thanks...if heat is the problem is there a way to fix it? I just don't understand why they would release a laptop with a 280m if It can't even handle playing WoW...mine has a 9800m gtx built in and I have no issue whatsoever

 

There are several ways to fix it, but first you should find out if heat is actually the problem.

 

Sounds like the computer might be doing something else while she is on Wow, is windows update, antivirus, or something else updating in the background?

If that and your temps check out, try a different driver. You could always stick that 280m in your 5796 to test it.

 

either cool it down more, maybe buy a notebook cooler like i did, works like a charm, I use the NZXT cryo Black (3 fans).

And update the drivers.

 

Most people seem to think its heat related, next time she plays Run hwmonitor in the background and after it happens look at the max gpu temp. This will tell you if it is indeed heat related (if it goes above 90*c).

http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php
also a gpu-z screenshot might help http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

Also running something else like 3dmark06 will give us a ballpark if its just WOW or if that number is way low also it could be something else. If its not overheating it could be a number of other things besides a faulty gpu, original driver not fully removed, power setting, hdd needing defragged (wow is huge and could be spread out even though it was just installed), latency related wow can be handicapped by internet, like someone else said antivirus or windows update running in the background....the list goes on but need more info

Edit: Also blizzard just dropped a huge patch yesterday and at some points I was getting 5-15fps just hitting a target dummy instead of the usual 60-75 so it could be server side.