M14X R2 horrible fps drops

[Ragequitpenguin]

Hi guys! My first post here! Okay, so I recently bought an Alienware M14x R2 running:

Windows 8

i7 -630Qm @2.40 GHz

8 GB Ram

1 TB hdd + 32gb mSata for caching (already enabled)

and 2GB Nvidia Geforce GT 650M DDR5

Okay, so I'm pretty happy so far with its performance, and playing games and stuffs. Lately, I installed Battlefield 3, surprisingly, I always seem to get horrible fps drops. I tried changing the settings but it doesnt seem to work. The fps starts with 60 goes down to 40-30 and suddenly 3-6 fps every 2-3 minutes or so at Mid settings.! NBA2K13 works very well with a constant 60fps everytime. Any ideas what should I do? Update drivers? I'm currently on 314.07, few days ago, I updated it to 314.22 and had serious problems, LMAO, after the login screen, after the metro start menu shows up, it's impossible to proceed to desktop, It blinks and restarts. I'm not a techy guy, but I somehow managed to fix it by going to removing the drivers while in safe mode and installed a new one, it worked perfectly.

Also read somewhere that it maybe due to overheating? So the gpu underclocks itself to prevent itself from getting fried?

I Also read somewere that GT 650M DDR5 got some amazing OCing capabilities. Interested, I read more threads and found out that its still "locked" so limits the OCing only up to (135GHz). "Unlocking" it while let you have up to (1+GHz?) and access to several hidden features as well. Unfortunately, I have A09 bios and found no mods. I found unlocked A10s& A11s instead. Never tried flashing my bios and I'm obviously afraid to make mistakes so I will probbaly look into that after I get some assistance maybe?

Anyways, I'm using MSI afterburner to OC it to (been playing around 100MHz-135MHz lately) and Memory Clock to 500MHz.

I dont see any improvements at all but problems instead. (The FPS drops while playing BF3 and "Sometimes" on Dragon Nest)

It's not probably an overheating issue, I always check the Temp using the Kombuster that came with the afterburner. 60-68'C all the time, and I've never seen it reach to 70'C.

Anyways, Thanks for reading, and hope you guys can give me some tips and help. Thanks

[svl7]

Grab GPU-Z and Throttlestop and create a log file with each (while gaming) and post them here. Definitely sounds like thermal throttling.

[Ragequitpenguin]

Thanks! I really appreciate it! I'm done making a log with GPU-Z,still yet to make with Throttlestop though. I'll post it here as soon as I'm done with it and have enough posts? Anyway, Is there any way to stop the throttling?

[j9x.inca]

Hi guys! My first post here! Okay, so I recently bought an Alienware M14x R2 running:

Windows 8

i7 -630Qm @2.40 GHz

8 GB Ram

1 TB hdd + 32gb mSata for caching (already enabled)

and 2GB Nvidia Geforce GT 650M DDR5

Okay, so I'm pretty happy so far with its performance, and playing games and stuffs. Lately, I installed Battlefield 3, surprisingly, I always seem to get horrible fps drops. I tried changing the settings but it doesnt seem to work. The fps starts with 60 goes down to 40-30 and suddenly 3-6 fps every 2-3 minutes or so at Mid settings.! NBA2K13 works very well with a constant 60fps everytime. Any ideas what should I do? Update drivers? I'm currently on 314.07, few days ago, I updated it to 314.22 and had serious problems, LMAO, after the login screen, after the metro start menu shows up, it's impossible to proceed to desktop, It blinks and restarts. I'm not a techy guy, but I somehow managed to fix it by going to removing the drivers while in safe mode and installed a new one, it worked perfectly.

Also read somewhere that it maybe due to overheating? So the gpu underclocks itself to prevent itself from getting fried?

I Also read somewere that GT 650M DDR5 got some amazing OCing capabilities. Interested, I read more threads and found out that its still "locked" so limits the OCing only up to (135GHz). "Unlocking" it while let you have up to (1+GHz?) and access to several hidden features as well. Unfortunately, I have A09 bios and found no mods. I found unlocked A10s& A11s instead. Never tried flashing my bios and I'm obviously afraid to make mistakes so I will probbaly look into that after I get some assistance maybe?

Anyways, I'm using MSI afterburner to OC it to (been playing around 100MHz-135MHz lately) and Memory Clock to 500MHz.

I dont see any improvements at all but problems instead. (The FPS drops while playing BF3 and "Sometimes" on Dragon Nest)

It's not probably an overheating issue, I always check the Temp using the Kombuster that came with the afterburner. 60-68'C all the time, and I've never seen it reach to 70'C.

Anyways, Thanks for reading, and hope you guys can give me some tips and help. Thanks

Hey I had the exact same problem. I wrote a guide on how to fix it. Includes how to flash BIOS too unlock more overclocking power instead of the +135 limit on GPU. This guide will fix the FPS drop as well its due to PhysX drivers, the guide will tell you how to install the legacy drivers as well.

http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m14x/3214-m14x-r2-physx-fps-drop-fix.html

[Ragequitpenguin]

Thanks! I appreciate it! I'll give it a try to see it it works for me.

[Ragequitpenguin]

Hi guys! Its almost been a week, unfortunately, I wasnt able to get in touch with my laptop until now.

For some reason, It seems to be working flawlessly, No FPS drops while playing for about an hour? I dont have a clue what exactly happened, but I'am glad it did xD.(Maybe because of better ventilation?)

Anyway, maybe by tomorrow or two, I'd be able to post the logs files as requested by svl7.

Thanks guys!

[Eats7]

this does sound like the 67 degree throttling. any news on the logs? i can replicate this issue so i can get the logs for you svl7 if you need