XPS 9530 overheating / stuttering while gaming or using Nvidia card? (an odd fix)

Do you own a new XPS 9530?  Do you casually game?  Is it getting great Frame rate (FPS) at first and then dropping to 10 or less frames for no apparent reason?  Does the machine just feel abnormally hot?

If you answered yes to a couple of these questions I think I have a few possible solutions for you.

1. Heat Sink Grease - THIS is what appears to have finally fixed the problem with stuttering and overheating on this laptop.  I had a tech come out to do a complete case replacement on my machine, and while he was in there he had to remove the heat sink - there were SEVERE singe marks on my processor and GPU.  He cleaned them up, replaced the stock grease with some high performance gel and VOILLA - the problem is gone.  Possible that there wasn't enough applied during manufacturing - or not enough...  Either is enough to cause an overheat.  Plus- I'm not sure what grease Dell is using in house - but this tech had some good stuff from www.Microsi.com ...

2. If warranty repair isn't an option, you can try this - If you go in to your advanced power options (inside the power plan options)  -  one possible culprit is the "PCI Express Settings"  -  Make sure "link state power management" under your current plan stays in "MAXIMUM POWER SAVINGS"...  Turning this to moderate, or off causes excessive heat internally while gaming.


3. The cooling design of the new 9530 series of XPS laptops forces air out of the bottom...  Cooling pads push air up on to the bottom of the laptop. - By using a cooling pad with this particular model of laptop is actually counter productive and actually causes the laptop to run hotter...  and once your machine gets in to the 85-90 degree Celsius range...  the GPU starts cutting power to prevent an overheat...  

Also, 3D gaming on your lap with this machine is a no no for the same reasons.  The laptop is cooling itself out the bottom.  Make sure it's on a clean, flat surface if you plan on using anything that uses your Nvidia card ...  This will allow the computer to cool itself (which it actually does a fine job of on it's own...)

If you're just watching movies or typing a paper (anything that just uses your integrated graphics) you're probably ok...  just keep this computer off of the bed, or any smothering surface...  remember.  That's where it's trying to send all that heat it's creating. 

Cheers.