m15 R5, random FPS drop

Hello. I got my laptop exactly a week ago, hence I downloaded some games and ran them. The games that I have been running are RDR2, Sea of Thieves, Forza Horizon 4, Minecraft, Binding of Isaac, 2K21. I learned something when running the big 3, and it was the fact that my FPS dropped after running it for few minutes. For reference, I was monitoring Fusion tab in the Command Center, and it showed quite high temperatures. (see attached below). This was pretty consistent with demanding CPU-based games, since Binding of Isaac and 2k weren't as demanding on hardware, hence running better. I have updated the BIOS and Nvidia drivers, I have ran SupportAssist test, GPU Stress Test, and ePSA test as well and they all passed, which would bring me to thinking about thermal. I'm curious to hear what you guys can help me out with. Here are my specs:

Ryzen 9 5900HX with Radeon Graphics

RTX 3070

32GB Memory

1TB SSD

PS: Would repasting be recommended? If so, do I get Dell to do it or does it not void warranty if I repaste myself?

Game Screenshots: hover over them for reference

R2 - running smooth in the beginningFps drop after few minsCommand Center temps on R2Forza loading temps - alarmingly highforza in game - smooth for a bit and then fps drop once againsea of thieves in game - at the beginning smooth, then fps drop

Hi @zevxzao  welcome to this user to user discussion forum. This is not Dell Support. 

Has the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 GPU been calibrated? 

NVIDIA Driver Downloads   NVIDIA Driver Help Tips  

NVIDIA forum FPS problem 3070 RTX   RTX 3070 Low FPS and Low Utilisation  

The same thing happens to me, you could solve it

did you solve your problem? i got my new m15 r5 ryzen edition two weeks ago, while playing cs go fps drops from 300 to 20 suddenly and fluctuating.

Hi @zevxzao please visit your online Dell account to create Service Request to get Dell to review your NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 GPU and its vBIOS issue. This is a known problem that Dell are trying to fix. Alienware to Address Incorrect NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 CUDA Core Count on m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Lapto... (June 6, 2021). Please quote this article complete with your gaming evidence (video, etc.) of FPS throttling. If you get first tier bland response (from Dell prepared script), raise formal complaint to get Technical Support response at the appropriate tier to either fix this known fault or authorise Rejection of system delivered with known fault. Please be very clear to state your new replacement or full refund Reject remedy. 

@zevxzao @ardathepilot @soulfly21 

Hey happy new years!

Im back after a while but I have some great recommendations:

Monitor your Thermals on your CPU and GPU but I also recommend checking your DRAM Temperatures. Using SpeedFan can help you find all the temperatures in the laptop.

Turn off all overclocks in the laptop, it helps with some games but is pointless because your CPU and GPU are better than my Desktop X5690 at 4.5Ghz with a 1080Ti. 

Place the laptop in an area where it is elevated and has sufficent airflow to breath and exhaust hot air.

Make sure the laptop is wiped down throughly and cleaned with isopropyl alchohol.

I would check for any dust in the vents and fans to prevent overheating and clean it out.

New thermal paste would be recommended but I think the models you have are the new Alienware exlclusive compound which is already great.

I also recommend making sure the nvidia settings are set like this:

• Image Sharpening : OFF
• Ambient Occlusion : Performance or OFF if the game is not DX12 
• Anisotropic filtering : Application-controlled
• Antialiasing – FXAA : ON
• – Gamma correction : ON
• – Mode : Application-controlled
• – Transparency : OFF
• Background Application Max Frame Rate : 20FPS
• CUDA – GPUs : ALL
• DSR – Factors : OFF
• Low latency mode : ON or ULTRA
• Max frame Rate : ON, Set the average of FPS according to your monitor refresh-rate
• Multi-Frame Sampled AA (MFAA) : ON
• OpenGL rendering GPU : Select your GPU
• Power management mode : Adaptive
• Shader cache : ON
• Texture filtering – Anisotropic sample options : ON
• – Negative LOD bias : Allow
• – Quality : High Preformance
• – Trilinear optimization : ON
• Threaded optimization : ON
• Triple buffering : ON
• Vertical sync : ON
• Virtual Reality pre-rendered frames : 1

Hi,

Did you solve the problem? I have the same problem when play csgo.

Hey,

Just try to repaste it. Stock thermal paste that they press is not the greatest. The only thing is, you have to take the risk of unscrewing it apart. It is a lengthy process but I think it may be worth it. I no longer have it, ended up with an Asus instead

I'm also having this issue. I'll be playing apex legends and my fps is usually around 200+ FPS but randomly my fps goes down to 40+ fps. From what I have observed the laptop goes into a battery power mode even while plugged in. My 3070 clock goes from 1800-1900Mhz down to 1200-1300mhz and the memory clock speed goes down from 7000mhz to 6000mhz. I have run a time spy test with and without the GPU messing up and the performance drop is 250% and the CPU is running great no change. It also happened in other games like Warzone, cyberpunk 2077, and others. If I restart, it fixes it, It's is very annoying. also with Optimus on My display when switching GPU's locks up and I have to force restart.

My laptop specs: Alienware m15r5 with an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX, 16GB of ram, Nvidia 3070, 360HZ 1080p display, 1TB SSD. The accessories that I normally have plugged in are a laptop cooling pad, an external mouse from Razer, and a headphone DAC

Update= confirmed that after drivers installation, the system is working fine.

Hi Grimace and everyone,

have you solved this with the reinstalls of the drivers?

I have the same setup except 240hz monitor and 32gb ram and have the same issue. Playing with Apex @ 190fps then suddenly drops to 20fps.
I'm also editing videos with Media Composer and it's unable to play the media without dropping frames which is crazy as it's dnxhd36 codec.

Also just tried Serato dj pro with timecode vinyl and denon ds1 box and even that couldnt play the tracks without skips/digital noises.

Chat told me they haven't found any hardware errors, all my drivers should be up to date and I installed windows10 as well, it came with windows 11 but it had the same problem so I tried with windows 10.

Hi im basically having the same issues but at this point since i saw no solution i contacted dell cares and im waiting for a response because dell support has told me through whatsapp that my laptop is fine so playing games with 20fps is now fine on an RTX 3070

did anyone fix it? im facing same issue right know. could be the battery issue?

Hi @Vini_Colen @zevxzao @Wellow @Gumilap !

Did you guys set your Power plans to High preformance and set the minimum CPU power to 100% and maximum to 100%?

Did you guys already configure your NVIDIA settings like this to increase FPS?

You guys should also see a FPS cap thing for the background apps and the app you use:

Set the background app one to 20FPS.

Set the Primary App one to 240FPS.

Vini_Colen,

Please follow these steps for Apex and Avid:

1. Launch "NVIDIA Control Panel" from the right-click desktop menu
2. Click "Manage 3D settings" under 3D Setting menu and click tab "Program Settings" on the Manage 3D settings page
3. Add or select the game executable file in the directory
4. Select "High-performance NVIDIA processor" in "Select the preferred graphics processor for this program"
5. Click "Apply"
6. Click tab "Global Settings" on the Manage 3D settings page 
7. Click "Restore"
8. Click "Apply"

In regard to the Serato DJ pro, please try using the app without the external denon sound interface and see if the audio works fine. Since this is a 3rd party device, there is a chance that it is not compatible with the computer, hence presents the issues you have reported.

Please proceed as requested, test out each program, and let us know the results.