[Sourmilk765]

I purchased a gaming laptop in july of 2012, and it has had no problems running games like Skyrim and Mass Effect at max settings. However, within the past 2 weeks or so, all of my games run at around 20 frames per second. (excluding less taxing games, such as half life)

Current set-up is
CPU - Intel i7 3610qm
Ram - 8GB
Graphics card - Nvidia Geforce GT 650M
Hard Drive - 750GB, although I have used nowhere near that.

Wondering if it could be dust build up, but I'm almost too afraid to open it up, as its relatively new. Core temps in game hover around 68-78 degrees celsius, but my card allows for up to 105 degrees.
Any suggestions?

 

[McNinja]

Re: Sudden drop in frames in all games.

Hello Sourmilk765 and welcome to TSF

When's the last time you took a can of compressed air to your laptop?

What are you temps using GPU-Z?
GPU-Z

Have you thought about buying a laptop cooler?
Thermaltake Massive23 ST 23cm fan Notebook Cooler Model CLN0009
$30

 

[Sourmilk765]

Re: Sudden drop in frames in all games.

Hey there McNinja, I appreciate the reply. Using GPU-Z, my temps are about the same, staying around the 70 degree mark.

I actually have been looking into laptop coolers, but have yet to come across a good one for relatively cheap. That is, until I saw the one you posted I will most likely be picking that up within the next few days.

As for the compressed air, I'm afraid I've never heard of this technique. Could you explain it to me, or perhaps link me to a page?

Thanks again for the help.

 

[McNinja]

Re: Sudden drop in frames in all games.

There's a vent on the side of your laptop where your fan/heatsink is located. You just have to spray in there in short bursts to get rid of the dust. It should return the temps to normal levels. The laptop cooler is there to keep it even cooler and allow you to to keep your laptop working longer. Heat is a computer's enemy!

This picture should help. You can see if you resize the image, that there are fins in there. Those are the heatsink's fins and the fan is right behind that. The heatsink usually cools the GPU and the CPU so it works very hard and is not that great at getting rid of the heat.

Computer just collect dust. They collect all the nasty particles like human skin, dog hair and if a person smokes around a PC the tar too. It's the same with any electronic device, you get a thin layer of dust that builds up and is a pain to remove since it's statically charged.

 

[Sourmilk765]

Re: Sudden drop in frames in all games.

Thanks for the info! I apologize for taking so long to respond, I've been out of town the past few days. I used the compressed air on my laptop and noticed a significant increase in fps. It's not quite where it used to be, but most games now run at a smooth 60 frames. I have ordered the laptop cooler aswell.

Thanks so much for the tips!

 

[McNinja]

Re: Sudden drop in frames in all games.

That's great to hear! I hope your gaming endeavors continue with no trouble from your laptop.

If the thread is solved please mark it so with the thread tools drop down menu. Its right above the top post on the page.