Alienware m17x R3 randomly dropping framerate for 30 seconds...

I am the proud new owner of a brand new m17x r3. Everything about this laptop is great, but I am having one issue that I find quite annoying.

While I am gaming (in this specific case, the game is Rift), I usually run at around 45 FPS. The problem I am running into, though, is that while playing, the game will randomly drop its framerate to around 5fps. This lasts for about 30 seconds before it jumps back up to 45fps

 What is going on here? Is my laptop randomly switching over to integrated graphics for some reason? I am playing while plugged in. My laptop is in high performance mode, and it is being properly ventilated. Has anyone else ran into this problem? If so, I would love to know how to fix it.

Here are my system specs:

M17x R3 Intel Core i7 2820QM

16GB DualCh DDR3 1333MHz 4DIM

17.3-inch WideFHD1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED

2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M

320GB 7,200RPM SATA-II HDD

Win 7 Home Prem 64 SP1,Eng,w/Media,AWNB

Killer Wireless-N 1103 MIMO, ANW M17X R3

Hey! I have the same computer, with the same specs, AND I have the same problem. Happens in most of my games. It will run smooth and suddenly get really low FPS, and then after a half minute or so it runs fine again.

Have you found a solution to this? Please contact me if you do or when you get. I will do the same :)

have u maybe tried to disable video controller from intel inside device properties at control panel , and just leave active the ati radeon driver . is just a tought u can try and then try again....

Run other games and a 3D benchmark like Heaven ... make sure it's not just Rift.

Run CPU-ID-HW-Monitor in the background and monitor your system. Sounds like your GPU (video-card) or CPU might be over-heating ... and slowing down to protect itself.

Surely you have ... but make you are running on AC power, and Power Profile is on High Performance (Active Cooling and all that)

Not sure how to do it. If you could post a easy step by step, that would be great :)

Thanks for the reply :)

I called Dell and explained the problem. They told me to check if the graphics card driver was up to date, which dumb me hadn't checked :p turned out there was a driver update, downloaded it, installed it and not it works like a charm. Hope this fixes your problem to :)

And thanks for all the replys

Hey guys. I have a problem a lot like this.  However at the moment im only getting the problem in bfbc2 and bf3.  Even when im not in the server but in the main menu my fps will be at 199 and then will drop to 30 then back up to 199. This in game is even worse. will be 80 fps then down to 27 then back up. Even when im not looking at a high detailed enviroment. IE ill look at the ground and my fps is 140 then it will drop to 50 then will go back up.  I have spoken to support about it MANY times and nothing has worked. All the lastest drivers, bios etc. They are sending me a new AC adapter that has a lil more power, think its the m18x ac.  IDK if it will work. OH here is that catch! When i disconnect my AC adapter while in the main menu my fps goes from 199 to 110 BUT it stays at 110. Then i hook my ac adapter back in and then it goes from 199 to 30 then 199 over and over again. IDK guys. Any suggestion please help.

Specs:

m17x r3

i7 2720QM

8gb ram

gtx580m 2gb

1.5tb Raid0

240W ac adapter

I'm having the exact same problem as the rest of you...same system as well, the M17xR3. I've been hunting around for months trying to find a fix but still nada. I have the problem in Star Wars: ToR, Diablo 3 beta, Star Trek Online to name a few.  Don't seem to experience it in WoW or any of the Valve games (TF2, L4D1/2).  I'm running the latest Nvidia drivers and have the game executables selected under the Nvidia control panel to run on the Nvidia card.

SkyKing76,

It sounds like the throttling issue. If your M17x-R3 is throttling within 2 minutes when running a GPU stress application, then the heatsink and thermal paste were not configured properly.

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Issue = M17x-R3 GTX580m throttling at 78C°
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RFYN9 N12E-GTX2 GeForce GTX580m Kit (Video card 3MF8R + Thermal Assemblies V1K2G)

Thank you Chris. I also found this thread: en.community.dell.com/.../19444897.aspx

I tried the suggestion that PhoenixBennu made about the fans and it seemed to have helped the issue I was having. But it also sounds like it could be the paste as you suggest. I'll contact them Monday to see about getting it corrected. Again, thank you for your help with this...its been driving me crazy.