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    Having weird GPU (Nvidia) issue....

    Discussion in 'Alienware 18 and M18x' started by ZombiePikmin, Nov 24, 2012.

  1. ZombiePikmin

    ZombiePikmin Notebook Geek

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    specs:
    2860qm
    580m sli

    Not sure if its SLI issues but for example right now i can play BF3 at high settings and average 60fps pretty much all times.

    I keep my laptop on for a little over a day, i run BF3 and all of a sudden im averaging only 35-40 fps. I tried everything. I went to check if SLI was on and if both GPU's were responsive and it works.

    To no avail i shut down my laptop overnight. PLayed BF3 the next day and was surprised that my frames were back to normal how they should be 60fps average. 2 days pass and my frames are crappy again.

    Im glad i can fix it via shutdown for an hour or so, but what the hell is causing it? At first i was thinking its temperature related but HWinfo says that (in 2 days time) my max temp on both my GPus were only mid 70's.

    What can be the problem here????
     
    ZombiePikmin, Nov 24, 2012
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  2. COTitan

    COTitan Notebook Enthusiast

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    COTitan, Nov 24, 2012
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  3. ZombiePikmin

    ZombiePikmin Notebook Geek

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    But I thought the Throttle issue was temperature related? Thats why i bothered to mention my max temps. Surely my max temps aren't alarming....

    edit: okay i can confirm that my issue in NOT throttling related. I tried the fix by Mr.Fox (batch files) on the thread posted above and it did not help.

    Im lost..............never used to do this before. Driver related perhaps...?
     
    ZombiePikmin, Nov 24, 2012
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  4. COTitan

    COTitan Notebook Enthusiast

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    At this point, I would highly suspect a driver related issue, yes. I would do a very clean driver install and see if that fixes it.
     
    COTitan, Nov 24, 2012
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  5. Mr. Fox

    Mr. Fox BGA Filth-Hating Elitist®

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    It is best to not leave your laptop running all the time. It's not good for it and restarting at least once daily prevents all kinds of hardware and software problems. Since restarting restores normal operation, I suspect it has little to do with the video cards or drivers. I suspect more like an app or utility running in the background causing a memory leak over time or something similar. If you make a habit of shutting down your system when it is not in use, it will function better all the time and last longer.
     
    Mr. Fox, Nov 24, 2012
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  6. ZombiePikmin

    ZombiePikmin Notebook Geek

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    Surely 48 hours without a shutdown causing such an issue shouldn't be normal. Its only 2 days. I have friends with both gaming PC's and gaming laptops that leave their rigs on for weeks at a time (no joke) in between shutdowns and they dont experience issues like mine. I know that it can be fixed with a shutdown for an hour or so, but the thing is, i shouldn't have to be doing that. We can all at least agree that leaving your laptop on for 2 days straight and the GPU performance taking a hit isn't normal.
     
    ZombiePikmin, Nov 26, 2012
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  7. mikecacho

    mikecacho Notebook Evangelist

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    ZombiePikmin, once the machine starts to throttle down again in FPS, please restart the rig and play BF3 right away upon restart, tell us if the FPS has come back to normal 60FPS or not. If you genuinely have a memory leak, you'll be able to see it (and the culprit process) in the task manager, and should be able to improve things by restarting the process.

    -Mike
     
    mikecacho, Nov 26, 2012
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  8. Alienware-L_Porras

    Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

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    This is the best thing to do. Also restarting the PC keeps the memory and cache clean and boosts the performance of the computer.
     
    Alienware-L_Porras, Nov 26, 2012
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