FPS Drop While Gaming Because Of Cooling Down?

TastyBl00d

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Dec 4, 2012
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Hello, first of all thanks to all for supporting me.

My case is I own an Alienware 15 R2 with Spec:

Proc - Core i7-4710 HQ
GPU - GTX 980m
RAM - 8GB

Here's simplest I can share here.

And I faced a problem where when gaming for some period, this happen in games that really throttle the GPU for example that I played with this laptop, Assassins Creed Unity, Battlefield 4.

The fps drop after like 1 hour or sometimes 30 minutes during gaming. It drops very bad for example in Battlefield 4 when I set everything Ultra and FPS around 50-90 something like that but when it started to drop, it went around 5-19 fps. really freaking unplayable for like 5 minutes then it back to normal fps then after a while it happen again than back to normal again. This was really disturbing especially when playing multiplayer.

I asked some people and some said like "It's normal for a laptop even though the title is Gaming, its still a laptop. What can you expect for a laptop to run high graphic games? Get a desktop brah"

My Question

1. Is it right that the situation happen because of the gpu core overheat and need to lower it usage to cool it down?

2. And were all gaming laptops out there WILL face this situation when playing games that throttle the gpu at its highest?

3. If this is normal thing happened, I would like to get an Alienware Graphic Amplifier (External GPU), do you think It will solve this problem? Or it probably not because what makes the FPS drop also the CPU so it still nothing change?

p/s : Hope no such suggestion "Get a desktop if you want to play games" because I would buy it earlier with the total price of the laptop but I wont because of some reasons"

Hope you understand. Sorry for any bad. Thanks for helping.
 
Solution


Download msi afterburner and leave it open when you are gaming there you can see the speed your gpu and cpu are running at and the temps. There you will also see if the speed of your gpu or cpu goes down when gaming and the temps are high you are experiencing thermal throttling. Also going external graphics is really expensive and you won't get full performance.

Multipack

Commendable
Sep 5, 2016
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Firstly you could clean out the internals and get rid of any blockages in the vents and intake/exhaust fans. You could also try a cooling pad like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834992913

But yes all CPU's/GPU's will throttle when overheating, and that's why it's not ideal to have a gaming grade system in a laptop chassis. The older they get the more difficult it is to maintain the temps too.
 

jaslion

Honorable
Dec 17, 2012
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Can you monitor your temps whilst gaming (use msi afterburner for this and yes this works with every pc even if it's not msi). What you are experiencing is thermal throttling and this can be due to dust buildup, warm room,...
 

RARRAF

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Jul 22, 2007
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some simple questions to try and help a little is
System restore active ?
if it is try disabling it and using Macrium Reflect to save restore points
what OS are you using ??
if its windows 10
try using O & O shut up 10 will stop un-necessary tasks running
 

TastyBl00d

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Dec 4, 2012
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So if I go for external graphic card or Alienware Graphic Card Amplifier do you think it'll help? Btw I've just cleaned the fan and place new thermal paste about a month ago...How can I know whether my gpu or cpu is throttling?
 

jaslion

Honorable
Dec 17, 2012
529
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Download msi afterburner and leave it open when you are gaming there you can see the speed your gpu and cpu are running at and the temps. There you will also see if the speed of your gpu or cpu goes down when gaming and the temps are high you are experiencing thermal throttling. Also going external graphics is really expensive and you won't get full performance.
 
Solution

MasterChief86

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Dec 13, 2016
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yes, yes and yes. Although you might want to upgrade the hardware, ram and gpu in particular. also, you can compromise a little on the looks and break the components so you can at least game without frame drops or overheating. like remove the cover, mod the laptop and make it work more like a pc.


 

jaslion

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Dec 17, 2012
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1st no don't fo this.
2nd he can't upgrade the gpu because he has a laptop. Also why would you want mod a laptop to function more like a desktop pc when he got it specifically to be portable.
 

MasterChief86

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Dec 13, 2016
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yes, i know it's a terrible solution to mess with it's purpose of portability, but i guess that's one solution where heating and resulting hardware failure wouldn't bug him. we did the same with a friend's laptop after he broke the screen. It was either that or we scrap the whole thing. it's not the case here i guess, but if he doesn't wanna spend again on a pc or make the most of his laptop as a gaming system, then i guess this is an option, despite all its obvious inconveniences.
 

TastyBl00d

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Dec 4, 2012
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Okay guys nevermind problem solve already. I used Thermal Grizzly Conductonout and everything fixed for now. Before 5 min playing, severe fps drop. Now 20 min playing no drop at all.

Thanks guys for everything.


 

jaslion

Honorable
Dec 17, 2012
529
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Replacing the thermal paste can really do wonders sometimes.