Guild Wars 2

I have somewhat of a strange problem. Haven’t encountered anyone else with this and haven’t found any help. Every now and again my computer will just run terribly slow. I’m on an alienware m18x (don’t get all preachy about alienwares, i got a good deal). Nvidia 460m (1.5gb each) with dual SLI config, 16gb ram, and an i7 2820QM at 2.3ghz. I’ve had zero trouble running this game at a smooth 60fps on max settings for a while. Hell, I’ve had the same quality with just about every game.

Recently though, every game I play will run at 15-25 fps at best. Changing graphical settings in game doesn’t change my fps at all either. This might go on for a day or a week, then it will work fine for another day or week. I’ve been using Razer game booster to try and help, but to no avail. I did, however, save a log from the diagnosis tool it has (which I have attached).

I’ve done all the standard “obvious” things. Updated/reinstalled my drivers. Checked for overheating, made sure nothing was eating up a ton of CPU etc. Lastly, it sometimes fixes simply by putting my comp to sleep or restarting. Other times putting it to sleep causes the FPS problem to begin. Not sure if that helps, but just some added info. Perhaps someone has some insight? It’s driving me crazy.

First off, lets check your graphics drivers. You should be able to download the latest and greatest here:
http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/62483

If that doesn’t fix anything check your temperatures while the laptop is under load. For that you can use HWMonitor found here:
http://www.cpuid.com/downloads/hwmonitor/1.22-setup.exe

Thanks for the help, but as I mentioned, I already made sure I have the most up-to-date graphics drivers. I did a clean install as well. In fact, thinking it might be a problem with these drivers, I rolled back to earlier ones with no success. I have both CPU-Z and GPU-Z, and they’re running at about 55c or so. ~60c at worst.

Hmmm, I must have replied before I had my first cup of coffee because it seems like I totally missed that last paragraph of information from your first post. Anywhos, I would make sure that the CPU is actually running at least at 2.3Ghz, perhaps some power saving technology is preventing the CPU from going at higher speeds when its needed, like when playing Guild Wars 2.

Beyond that, I’m not sure really what to check besides making sure that the GTX 460’s are not running in x1 mode and running in x8 or x16.

Ok, according to GPU-Z one is running at x1 and the other is at x8 instead of being x16…any idea how to fix this? We may be onto something! fingers crossed

Don’t forget it’s a laptop @IIithis. Standard desktop fixes like motherboard settings or rearranging video cards isn’t going to help.

@Sadakuno, what brand and model is your laptop? Oops, never mind, Dell :p (I know it’s Alienware Razer M18xR1).

You may want to run a hardware monitoring program and watch the temps, the rig may be throttling due to temps, make sure the fan ports are dust free and possibly look into a cooling pad to provide more air.

SLI in a laptop? I have a feeling it’s a heating issue.

I thought the same at first, but everything is dust free, and I have an extra cooling system. If it was a heating issue then the problem would occur while playing, no? The problem persists in every game (even games I should run without a problem) from the minute I turn it on, and nothing heats up more than it should. Also, at the other random times when it DOES work, I can play for hours and hours and not have a single problem, while everything is running just as hot as when my FPS issues occur.

Running with a different power scheme, one that is down clocking your graphics clock speeds to save power?

Checked that as well. all is normal

I take it you are looking at the Alienware forums as well about similar issues with that model/graphics option.

I’ve been posting on several other forums about the issue, but for some reason it hasn’t occurred to me to post on the Alienware forums. I just made one, so hopefully they can help as well.

Sounds like you’ve done everything short of reinstalling the OS which I would not recommend doing unless it was a last resort thing. However one thing you have not mentioned doing is running a virus scan of your computer which I would recommend you do. Also make sure your recycling bin is empty. If your running a standard HDD and it hasn’t had a defrag done for quite awhile, then I suggest doing one of those too.

I don’t think I’ve defragged for a while. I’ll give that a shot and see how it goes, though I don’t have very high hopes at this point. Thanks for the input.

Sadakuno.8149:

Ok, according to GPU-Z one is running at x1 and the other is at x8 instead of being x16…any idea how to fix this? We may be onto something! fingers crossed

I have no experience with SLI in laptops, but I’m pretty sure the PCI link speeds (x1, x8, x16) should still be the same between desktops and laptops. I would expect them both running in x8 at least.

As stated above, the fix for a desktop would be to move the cards around on the motherboard. However, this obviously won’t work in a laptop, so I’m not entirely sure how to go about fixing this. You did take those link speed readings when you were trying to play Guild Wars 2, right?

If not, go back and take the readings while playing the game and actually putting the system under stress. If the link speeds don’t change, I would suspect there is a problem. Like I said though, since I have no experience with SLI in laptops, these link speeds might be normal even though they look really abnormal.