I'm really frustrated with laptop gaming right now.
I'm really frustrated with laptop gaming right now.
I own a Dell G7 7790 equipped with an i7 9750H, 1660ti processor, 24GB RAM, and SSD storage. Recently, I've faced several problems while playing Borderlands 3 from Epic Games. I'll share a video with this situation. When playing solo, I typically experience 45-60 frames per second on high settings and can generally manage a mix of high and ultra. However, lag spikes are frequent when playing alone, with sudden lockups and FPS fluctuations between 12 and 60. Occasionally, I encounter crashes and the task manager becomes necessary. The laptop stays cool enough when I disable boost in BIOS, but Alienware Control Center must be set to "Performance" mode for it to work properly. It needs to be powered on or off via battery to avoid slow performance. My friend can run the game at 5060fps on an i5 6400+1050ti machine without any issues. A short video showing the game freezing is available here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/t5kev8yy9n0iv5...p.mp4?dl=0 I apologize, but I can't share the video on forums.
It seems like the device is experiencing thermal throttling. How long has it been since you bought it? Was the last time you performed a clean? Also, could you verify the temperatures while under load, not just when boosting is turned off?
The temperatures rise sharply during gaming, peaking around 70°C, but the machine stays very cool thanks to regular maintenance. Keeping it clean and applying updates helps a lot. When I enable boost, the temperature stays steady at 100°C without dropping. That’s why I keep it off. My friend bought the laptop in 2019, stored it in a drawer, and never used it. He sold it to me in early 2022.
I own a 16GB and an 8GB unit, both supposedly running at 2666. I recall the machine performed well with that setup before. It's a weekend gaming laptop used with a friend, and I recently replaced the thermal paste on both chips. The improvement was minimal—around 3 to 5 degrees. According to Coretemp, the thermal performance appears normal. Battery performance isn’t my main concern since I don’t prioritize gaming on battery power. I’m aware it’s not great, but the laptop freezes when plugged in, even for simple tasks like opening a note pad. I’m likely to remove the battery soon, thinking it’s unnecessary and potentially unsafe. Turning on boost mode in BIOS and then gaming seems to cause issues, possibly due to forced use of Alienware Command Center. It runs at the maximum temperature, but I suspect it’s missing a bit of heat margin—about 0.01 degrees. This might be intentional.
The 45W model doesn’t seem impressive compared to your ASUS ROG Strix, which likely weighs more than a laptop. It has a 10750H chip and during intense gaming it draws over 90W, while the CPU stays around 50W or less. When not in use, the GPU stays at a pleasant 81°C, and the CPU reaches about 85°C thanks to factory LM cooling. If placed on the table, the CPU gradually approaches its thermal threshold of 95°C and the GPU hits 87°C.
This laptop is resting on a cooling pad. I didn’t receive the pad for thermal protection; I used it to elevate the machine at an angle for comfortable typing. I’ve been searching online about this problem and am feeling let down by the information I found. Most users report it needs to run at full heat for optimal performance, but Dell claims turning it off means losing all speed. I suspect this could be a deliberate design choice by Dell, and I’m now considering alternatives that aren’t this model.
I've also not have great experiences with Dell stuff, I have their desktop G5 5090. The cooler on it was pathetically small and couldn't cool the i7-9700 properly. Also their RTX 2060 was decent, but the fan curve on it targeted around 80°C, but at least it stayed kinda quiet. Trying to keep it at 75°C with a custom fan curve only made it loud. At least I could install a decent cooler onto my CPU that now cools it perfectly fine. Never getting a dell prebuilt again