Video performance loss

Question

I bought a dell Inspiron 9100 last month. Whenever I got it, I installed a few games on it, and they all ran fine. Recently I've noticed a sharp loss in performance. This loss occured literally overnight. The loss that stands out the most is in painkiller. I used to get FPS upwards of 100, now I get around 45 and sometimes the game drops all the way to 1 and the only way to fix it is to restart the game, where the poor 45-50 FPS performance continues. This behavior is also evident in Aquamark 3, where my benchmark score was literally cut in half.

I have reinstalled direct x 9, reinstalled my graphics drivers and windows.

I have a Radeon Mobility 9700 128mb.

anettis · Answer

Montor the temps of your CPU and GPU to see if they might be overheadting and thus throttling back performance. You can use the FanGUI utility to monitor the thermal sensors built into the laptop.

http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/

Tony

tikitorchbob · Answer

How hot is too hot, though?

tikitorchbob · Answer

And my GPU doesn't go over 52 C

anettis · Answer

I have not seen a good answer to that question.  However by monitoring both the video performance and the tempertures of your components you may begin to notice a pattern of behaviour such as a significant drop in framerate when the GPU temperature crosses a certain boundary.  If this is the case then at least you will have some idea of what the cause of the problem might be and then you can look for a resolution.

tikitorchbob · Answer

The highest I got running Painkiller was 65 C. I have NEVER gone over 70 C, I've been using the tool mentioned above for quite some time to monitor it.

cademetz · Answer

100C+ temps are common for the 9600 (and I suspect even the 9700) but I don't know when the chip starts to throttle back to protect itself. However, I would think if the loss was overnight, that heat issues wouldn't be the case. You more likely see a slow unnoticeable loss over time as the vents/heatsink collected more dust. However, post the temps you have just in case.

tikitorchbob · Answer

My house is pretty cold, that might help it out. It might get higher if I play for a long time, but I played through most of the first level and it didn't exceed 52 C. AGP turned down? Where would I go to check that?

I even formatted windows because I thought I might have downloaded a tool that borked the video settings in a way that I couldn't see or some such, but that didn't help at all. I'm worried that there's a hardware problem. =/

cademetz · Answer

Well, if you formatted, chances are the AGP setting is not at fault. If you aren't running the Dell drivers, goto the Display Properties --> Settings --> Advanced --> SMARTGART(tm) and it can be set there. If you are running Dell drivers, I believe it is under the Options tab instead of SMARTGART(tm). Not really sure, since the XPS/9100 use slightly newer drivers than the 8600.

I am with you; with that kind of performance loss, and heat doesn't seem to be an issue, I would suspect other hardware related issues. If you are bored and want to have some SERIOUS fun... run a Dell Diagnostics... just in case.

tikitorchbob · Answer

Haha, will do. Thanks for the help. I checked my drivers and it appears to be running the Dell version. At first I thought maybe I fried the video card, but if that were the case, it wouldn't work at all, would it?

cademetz · Answer

Are you serious?!? 52C on your GPU? If so... I hate you. ;-) Even the other temps you gave are for the GPU... they shouldn't be hot enough to cause problems. Any chance the AGP speed got turned down?

Even with a cooling mod, my 9600 hovers around 75C during games.

cademetz · Answer

In theory, no it wouldn't. However, we all know how theories work. Here's an idea: google 'ATi Tool' and download that tool (first link). Use this to check what clock speeds the card is running. Just to make sure it is running default speeds.

tikitorchbob · Answer

Core: 445.50 Memory : 263.25

cademetz · Answer

Well, right where it should be. So, I am not sure what is going on... I hate not knowing what is going on...

tikitorchbob · Answer

And I hate getting poor frame rates in games I know I can run. Gah. I'll try the diagnostics.

tikitorchbob · Answer

Everything tests out fine in diagnostics.

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Video performance loss

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