Question Why Does My FPS Drop Half-way While Gaming & Have Trouble Increasing Back Up?

[Itz Soul]

Hello! so recently i got the Dell Precision M6600 with intel i7 2nd Gen, 16 gigs of RAM & 4GB Nvidia Quadro 5010M GPU. Its a fairly old machine but i just wanted to do some lightweight gaming along with office work so i grabbed it while i could.
Although it's been giving me a weird FPS Drop or maybe its throttling? Idk let me describe:

So basically i play this game called Paladins and it can run quite easily on the lowest of lowest end laptops/systems too but when i launch the game and get into a match the FPS are like above 100 or anywhere around 90s to say the least. But as soon as barely 2 minutes passby the FPS drops all the way to 30-40's and has trouble going back up. It does hit 60 sometimes but that's hella rare like throughout the 15 minute average match gameplay it hits 60 only twice.

I've monitored the CPU temprature and GPU temprature with MSI Afterburner and the only thing that stood out to me was that during the launch of game my CPU temrature was around 75c and after like 2-3 minutes duration (When the frame drop happens) it got cut to 65c and stayed in the same state (went to 61-62 but never above 65) while ofc costing me the FPS.

Can someone out here please guide me & help me resolve the issue?
Thanks

 

[Lutfij]

i play this game called Paladins and it can run quite easily on the lowest of lowest end laptops/systems too
You might want to mention the make and model of said laptops since what you own isn't exactly a gaming laptop, rather a workstation laptop with a workstation GPU, meaning it's good for productivity and rendering(creating worlds) but is horrible when it comes to gaming. It's also not being aided with the fact that you're trying to tax a decade or more older laptop.

You could try and see if your laptop is pending any BIOS updates, then check to see if your OS is pending updates and finally once you've checked the prior two, use DDU to uninstall your GPU drivers, then manually reinstall your GPU driver with the latest sourced from Nvidia in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator.

 

[Aeacus]

Nvidia Quadro 5010M GPU

The fact that you can play games on that, is a miracle on itself. Quadro GPU isn't designed and built for gaming, nor does it have drivers to support games. Quadro (Nvidia) and FirePro (AMD) are designed for workstation use (3D rendering and the like). For gaming, there are GTX/RTX (Nvidia) and Radeon (AMD) GPUs, since those are designed and built for games. Including good driver support.

and the only thing that stood out to me was that during the launch of game my CPU temrature was around 75c and after like 2-3 minutes duration (When the frame drop happens) it got cut to 65c and stayed in the same state (went to 61-62 but never above 65) while ofc costing me the FPS.

If i were to guess:

• CPU hits thermal ceiling
• CPU drops frequency (which in turn drops FPS) aka thermal throttle
• CPU doesn't produce that much heat anymore (due to lower frequency) and your FPS won't go up either, until you either restart the game/laptop

Fix? Essentially none. Only method is to give CPU better cooling, so that it won't thermal throttle in the first place. But with laptop, you can't upgrade the CPU cooler as you can with desktop PC. Only thing you can do: blow the dust from the insides and don't put laptop on soft surfaces (blocking vents). Instead keep it on solid table.

 

[Itz Soul]

i play this game called Paladins and it can run quite easily on the lowest of lowest end laptops/systems too
You might want to mention the make and model of said laptops since what you own isn't exactly a gaming laptop, rather a workstation laptop with a workstation GPU, meaning it's good for productivity and rendering(creating worlds) but is horrible when it comes to gaming. It's also not being aided with the fact that you're trying to tax a decade or more older laptop.

You could try and see if your laptop is pending any BIOS updates, then check to see if your OS is pending updates and finally once you've checked the prior two, use DDU to uninstall your GPU drivers, then manually reinstall your GPU driver with the latest sourced from Nvidia in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator.

Matter of fact, I was just doing that. Because I remember a BIOS update messed up the system for the guy who was having it already so ill let u know how it goes.
As for the GPU and OS updates though, I got them all installed so those two factors are clear I'd say.

 

[Itz Soul]

The fact that you can play games on that, is a miracle on itself. Quadro GPU isn't designed and built for gaming, nor does it have drivers to support games. Quadro (Nvidia) and FirePro (AMD) are designed for workstation use (3D rendering and the like). For gaming, there are GTX/RTX (Nvidia) and Radeon (AMD) GPUs, since those are designed and built for games. Including good driver support.



If i were to guess:

• CPU hits thermal ceiling
• CPU drops frequency (which in turn drops FPS) aka thermal throttle
• CPU doesn't produce that much heat anymore (due to lower frequency) and your FPS won't go up either, until you either restart the game/laptop

Fix? Essentially none. Only method is to give CPU better cooling, so that it won't thermal throttle in the first place. But with laptop, you can't upgrade the CPU cooler as you can with desktop PC. Only thing you can do: blow the dust from the insides and don't put laptop on soft surfaces (blocking vents). Instead keep it on solid table.

I'll try getting a cool pad for my laptop later this month to ensure it stays chill, and yes trust me I'm more then aware of how bad this graphic card in the laptop is but originally I got it for my office and later on thought I'd do some mild gaming like Paladins on it coz even a potato pc can run that title though I guess I was wrong? XD