Malibal w/ 6970M overheating while playing TERA

Howdy folks! I bought a new Malibal laptop a couple months ago. Here are the specs:

Intel i7-Q2760 2.4 ghz
Radeon HD 6970M 2gb
8gb DDR3 1666 mhz

I also had them apply IC Diamond cooling compound.

It plays TERA very well - all settings maxed, 40-60 fps. When I first started playing, it got pretty darned hot. So I enabled vSync through the Catalyst Control Center, and that seemed to get it under control. For the past several weeks, it's been running at around 72-75C while playing. But about a week ago, it started getting very hot most of the time - around 95C - but not every time. Sometimes when it gets that hot I will restart the game and it will go back to the normal temp. It makes me wonder if maybe vSync isn't activating every time. It's been overheating more and more frequently lately.

I have 3 questions:

1) Any suggestions on what else I can try (besides getting a cooling pad) to make sure it doesn't overheat?

2) I'd like to try to cap my framerate at 40 fps to see if that help. I am completely content with how the game runs at this framerate. Is it possible to do this? How? Would it help?

3) If a cooling pad becomes necessary, any particular recommendations?

I have also posted this in the gaming section of this forum, as I am not sure which spot is better.

Thanks for the help!

 

Did you check if there's dust on your GPU heatsink vent?

 

I haven't yet, but since the computer is so new (I just got it in March or so) I didn't figure it would have built up yet. Will try.

 

It most likely will be dust clogged by the cpu/gpu. I clean it out once every two three months.

Also apparently ATi cards run a lot hotter then nvidia cards so thats also something to take note of. Atleast mine did with 3 different cards.

 

There wasn't much dust, but a lot of cat fur. I cleaned it out, and have been playing for a little over an hour. It has mostly stuck under 75C, but did get up to about 85C for a while.

 

If you want further cooling you can get some ram heatsinks (Aluminium or copper) and place them around the heat transfer pipelines or on the copper plate, it actually works. Make sure the ram heatsinks' thickness is 4mm, 5mm fits but it could be touching the backplate. 6mm will not fit if you are placing them on the pipelines.

 

HAHAHA You are funny
there will be a ton of dust there
I clean my vents every 2 weeks to prevent build up

 

Funny, happens the same thing with me and my HD6990M while playing TERA, I have to hit Fn+1 or else with gets around 90C pretty easy...
Played Max Payne 3 and got around 75C...

 

When I get my NP9150, I was figuring I'd take it apart and clean it around once a month. does that sound either not frequent enough/too frequent, or just right?

 

Again, it really depends on where you live and if you have a lot of animals in your house.

Once a month is fine for most. If you live in a very dusty area (ie; desert) or have pets, maybe twice a month or a little more would work better.