problem with 9800gtx np 5796

I have recently noticed a problem when playing World Of Warcraft on my Sager np5796. I constantly get 60fps+ with settings on high which is what it should be. My frames are usually 60+ but it seems that every 10-15 minutes or slow my fps suddenly drops to 8-19 or so and remains that way for about 30-60 seconds before suddenly coming back to normal and jumping back up to 60+

At first I thought that this could be due to a zone change with a lot of people or things to load or what not, but this has been happening consistantly and has nothing to do with the enviroment I'm in.

Awhile back I OC'd my 9800 gtx to improve core clock to 600 and shaders to 1500 if I remember correctly. I have not had any problems until now.

Any ideas/help would be appreciated, this is starting to bug me.

 

have you monitored your temps?

 

I think you should back down on that overclock, it sounds to me like your video card is down-clocking itself to save it from overheating. A 9800m GTX shouldn't be overclocked for use with WOW anyways... its overkill as it is.

 

Well I play other intensive games such as Crysis too. But you may be right with the graphics card downclocking...I thought it was a safe overclock, but I may be wrong.

It was awhile back that I overclocked it and i followed a beginners guide. What is the easiest way to revert it back to its original settings? I am a complete beginner with OC's and I followed a guide for it.

Whats a good program for monitoring temps?

 

With rivatuner you can setup easy-swap profiles, so you can have the full OC for say, testing 3mark06 with new drivers, a stable OC for crysis and other demanding games, non-oc but full clocks for basic games like wow, and lower clocks for videos and low as you can go for idle.

I know how to set it up, but I can't really teach since I'm out of a laptop and at work

 

no problem I would greatly appreciate it though when you have a few minutes to explain it to me. Ive already downloaded and installed riva tuner so I'm ready whenever you are

 

please go here (I updated it recently)
Monitoring Notebook Temps: nVidia & ATI, CPU, HDD

 

Yeah it sounds like you are overheating so since no one mentioned it yet, you may also want to get the dust out. With the comp off I just use a can of compressed air and spray the underside and then the vents at the back.

 

Great guide =) I installed riva and followed the video steps. I will monitor temps and let you know what they are. I am sitting at 48 Idle right now

 

So upon starting world of warcraft up, the temp built all the way to 97 degrees celcius. My frames dropped ridiculously. What can/should I do. Keep in mind I OC'd my gpu awhile back from 500 core to 600 and 1350 shaders to 1500 and I have no idea how to change that or if that is even the problem

 

Something's wrong, it shouldn't get that high. Even if I stress the hell out of my video card with furmark it takes quite a fair amount of time to reach 90C. More than 15 minutes and I am running the same clocks as you do.

Just as brownstonemr said, you should clean it up, maybe change the thermal past on the GPU.

The problem with your card is that it reaches 90C. At 90C it usually down clocks causing the massive loss in performance.

 

What do you mean the thermal past? and how do I do that

 

Ahh, it's a paste that helps transfer the heat from the GPU core to the GPU heat sink which is then cool down by the fans.

Can you check if your fans are working properly? Are you sure you haven't set your laptop on silent mode. Try hitting Fn+1 and make them spin at full all the time. Might solve the problem for a while.

 

laptop isnt on silent mode...i guess the fans are working correctly i'm not exactly sure how to check that but it sounds fine.
I dont know how to put on thermal paste or where...it seems like a chore to open up the laptop so I'd rather not....I'm considering buying a laptop cooler at bestbuy or walmart and put it under the laptop.

Would that solve the problem or would I need to do something else with thermal paste like you mentioned?

Thanks again!

 

If you don't know about thermal paste better don't bother with it unless you area really determined to.

What you can do is indeed, clean the laptop inside, blow out the dust, while in WoW press fn+1 and keep the fans at max. If it doesn't work, then you should buy a cooling pad and if that doesn't work either, consider downclocking your GPU. But it shouldn't be so much of a problem in the first place.

I my opinion cleaning the laptop and running the fans at max while in WoW should solve the problem but also keep an eye on the temperatures to make sure things work properly.

 

Alright thanks for the help I appreciate it and will clean the laptop...only problem is that the panel/screws are a Bi*** to remove

 

Hey if you don't have a laptop cooler then do what I do sometimes and just get a couple of bottle caps and place them under the rear of the laptop to prop it up. Then you will have some better air circulation underneath and also an arched keyboard which can be easier to type.