Overheating and lag.

[RatherHorrifying]

I am playing ARK on a laptop, please spare me your judgement on that choice for now unless the laptop factor is related to my problem. When my comp is plugged in, the computer slowly starts overheating and the FPS is pretty buttery except every 5 minutes or so, theres a pretty large FPS drop for about 30 seconds. I've yet to experience a crash even with hours of gameplay however the heat of the PC and the periodic FPS drop is mildly annoying. Will post my System Info below, if you all could tell me if this is something I could fix by buying something or if it would require a new comp. Thanks!

Computer Information:
Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
Model: G7 7588
Form Factor: Laptop
No Touch Input Detected

Processor Information:
CPU Vendor: GenuineIntel
CPU Brand: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8750H CPU @ 2.20GHz
CPU Family: 0x6
CPU Model: 0x9e
CPU Stepping: 0xa
CPU Type: 0x0
Speed: 2208 Mhz
12 logical processors
6 physical processors
HyperThreading: Supported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Supported
SSSE3: Supported
SSE4a: Unsupported
SSE41: Supported
SSE42: Supported
AES: Supported
AVX: Supported
CMPXCHG16B: Supported
LAHF/SAHF: Supported
PrefetchW: Unsupported

Operating System Version:
Windows 10 (64 bit)
NTFS: Supported
Crypto Provider Codes: Supported 311 0x0 0x0 0x0

Video Card:
Driver: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 with Max-Q Design
DirectX Driver Name: nvldumd.dll
Driver Version: 24.21.13.9836
DirectX Driver Version: 24.21.13.9836
Driver Date: 6 24 2018
OpenGL Version: 4.6
Desktop Color Depth: 32 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
DirectX Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 with Max-Q Design
VendorID: 0x10de
DeviceID: 0x1c20
Revision: 0xa1
Number of Monitors: 1
Number of Logical Video Cards: 1
No SLI or Crossfire Detected
Primary Display Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Desktop Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Primary Display Size: 13.54" x 7.64" (15.51" diag)
34.4cm x 19.4cm (39.4cm diag)
Primary Bus: PCI Express 16x
Primary VRAM: 6143 MB
Supported MSAA Modes: 2x 4x 8x

Sound card:
Audio device: Speakers/Headphones (Realtek(R)

Memory:
RAM: 16178 Mb

Miscellaneous:
UI Language: English
Media Type: Undetermined
Total Hard Disk Space Available: 1060109 Mb
Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 732807 Mb
OS Install Date: Dec 31 1969
Game Controller: None detected
VR Headset: None detected

[Vesuvius]

by "when my pc is plugged in" i assume you mean when you are running off mains power and not the battery?

do you use a laptop cooling pad?

Overheating will absolutely effect performance... have you actualy checked what temps your cpu/gpu are running at Under load?

[RatherHorrifying]

1. Yes.

2. Nope I do not, though come to think of it, it should help with the external PC heat.

3. I have not, next time I'm playing under the aforementioned conditions I will check. Will post back here when I do.

[BumpInTheNight]

2) A cooling pad should be forcing air into your laptop via the intakes in the bottom which would lend to reducing internal heat which would lend to less throttling from the components when they surpass their ideal operating heat thresholds.

Basically the inside is cookin' and you need to find a creative way of reducing that, a supplementary forced air solution would help but as you initially admitted: Laptop is only so good at doing this sort of stuff so good luck!

[SteelFire]

The every 5 minute drop could be the game autosaving, along with the heat factor. You can check that in your GameUserSettings file, there should be a line for autosave period.

Laptops naturally run hotter inside simply because they don't have as much open space as desktops, which is why cooling pads are useful. Ark is demanding on systems, so yeah, the heat is to be expected.

[RatherHorrifying]

Originally posted by SteelFire:

The every 5 minute drop could be the game autosaving, along with the heat factor. You can check that in your GameUserSettings file, there should be a line for autosave period.

Laptops naturally run hotter inside simply because they don't have as much open space as desktops, which is why cooling pads are useful. Ark is demanding on systems, so yeah, the heat is to be expected.

That's what I thought too because the periods between FPS drops and the FPS drops feel like clockwork though I didn't know how to check if it really was the autosaving. Will look at GameUserSettings file though

[Samadhi]

Originally posted by RatherHorrifying:

Originally posted by SteelFire:

The every 5 minute drop could be the game autosaving, along with the heat factor. You can check that in your GameUserSettings file, there should be a line for autosave period.

Laptops naturally run hotter inside simply because they don't have as much open space as desktops, which is why cooling pads are useful. Ark is demanding on systems, so yeah, the heat is to be expected.

That's what I thought too because the periods between FPS drops and the FPS drops feel like clockwork though I didn't know how to check if it really was the autosaving. Will look at GameUserSettings file though

My guess is that the fps drop is the system throttling due to components overheating.

As people above said, get a good cooling pad and install a temp monitoring app in the meantime.

[Patouski]

And get those GPU drivers up to date, it'll help some... by just being the latest. ;)