m15 R1, intermittent freezing/stuttering

I recently purchased an Alienware m15 (specifically, this one) and i started to notice pretty quickly that during gaming, the laptop would slow down or stutter during gameplay. I wasn't playing anything too intense, it happened during Halo:CE, Halo Reach, Roller Coaster Tycoon Classic, and Starcraft. Since then, I purchased a cooling mat but the problem seems to have gotten worse. It now happens when just on my desktop or browsing the internet. I've tried searching this topic and it seems like a common problem, yet I was unable to find the solution.

I've run Support Assist and made sure my drivers and all maintenance was performed, and made sure I was using the latest version of Nvidia drivers for my 1660Ti. I have read elsewhere that this could be related to the onboard UHD is causing problems, but I wanted to reach out here first.

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.