Dramatic Drop in FPS

[Antarchy]

While I never used to have this trouble with games, I've noticed it in the past few games I've tried playing. The framerate drops drastically out of nowhere. It doesn't seem to be a latency thing, or increased amount of mobs or players. It will just happen out of nowhere, last for about 30-60 seconds, and then go back to a great FPS. Currently I am playing (or trying to) Path Of Exile. Before it was Diablo 3 and before that SWTOR. Every game has had this issue, but I pretty much gave up and started console gaming. But POE is enough for me to try and fix this. SO any help would be very much appreciated!

I have an ASUS Laptop G71GX

It has a Nvidia Geforce GTX 260M 1GB graphics card

Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 2.53GHX CPU

6GB of RAM

64- Bit OS Windows 7

 

[babernet_1]

Overheating?

 

[Warsam71]

Have you installed anything new (other than the games) that may have caused a change in your system configuration? You can also try changing the resolution (reduce it), and off course update your video card driver. Another factor could be overheating as babernet_1 suggested...

 

[Antarchy]

Nothing new to my knowledge has been installed other than games. The Nvidia Driver is up to date as well I believe. As for overheating, it doesn't seem to be getting hot to touch. I also have it on a laptop fan pad that fans from the bottom. I'm not particularly PC savvy so you'll have to bear with me.

 

[Antarchy]

However I just downloaded a program SpeedFan after a little research. It says everything is at a high temperature, and that my CPU fan is 0 RPM. Does that make sense?

 

[Warsam71]

I'm not familiar with SpeedFan, but if your CPU fan is not spinning (i.e. its reading is zero), then you have problem. Heat/High temps aren't good for your laptop. Are the temps above 85-90C? (That's the max temp for most CPUs...and GPUs). I suggest you have a friend or a PC/Laptop Tech check your system soon...

 

[Warsam71]

Do a Google search for "Overheating Laptop", you'll probably find lots of useful sites/tips to help you get a good sense of your problem, for example: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2039789/cool-down-an-overheated-laptop.html

 

[Antarchy]

Thank you guys. It seems it must be heat. I read that most laptops (with the exception of very new ones) do not have a sensor on the motherboard to show its RPMS with tools like SpeedFan. I got a small fan to blow on the back and ran the game, and it runs smooth as ever. While at 75 before, it is now around 60. While inconvenient, I feel this is the only way this is going to make it work haha. If anyone has any other permanent suggestions, I'm all ears!