Dell G7 7700 - severe frame rate drops and GPU throttling

Since Dell apparently doesn't read or reply directly to these posts except on a rare basis, I wanted to share that Dell released a BIOS update yesterday (9/14/20) that is specifically targeted at this issue. I tested the update yesterday for a couple of hours; throttling was still occurring, but clock speeds went down to a more sane level and FPS in games dropped to a more playable ~30fps.

It requires more testing due to the erratic nature of the issue, but the update looks promising. Hopefully this will be a permanent fix for this problem.

Hi, my experience - part of previous thread: Turning of the intel turbo boost was a first thing that I have personally tried and reinstalled almost everything with exception of windows. But turning off the turbo boost makes the game in this case ms flight simulator 2020 unusable. Which defeats the purpose of having a GAMING laptop. As I have stated above  loosing few percent on frame rate form 50+ in country side or 30in new York is not real issue for flight simulator, but dropping to 10-12 in newYork by disabling the turbo boost or dropping to 10 with the GPU at 300Mhz is an issue for a expensive gaming hardware. The lack of functional throttling on the GPU is the issue now. after the 1.3. bios patch the processor works well and throttles nicely. the laptop is great, but unfortunately the throttling on GPU just does not work and that is sad. 

Update

There is a way to under-volt the CPU (there is solution on the net ), unfortunately the same in not certain for the GPU. I could investigate, but I have a workaround so I do not have the incentive to do so now. The work around has to do with stupidity in clock - voltage setting for the GPU. there is a curve that sets the voltage based on gpu frequency and the curve maxes out at about 1.2v which the laptop is completely incapable of cooling. so in MS FS 2020 it will go to safe mode in less then a minute if the laptop is already warm. 

Now in my case and this has to be tried for each board and your ambient temperature. (so expect few tries) The GPU can take about .8 volts without overheating and going to the dreaded 300mhx (sometimes to 900mhx) in my case. And it happens to be at 1600MHz, so effective speed 1575MHz as opposed to the 1890MHz at 1.2 V and it has no effect on game speed as the utilization of the GPU is not 100% at the 1890 by far. 

So the utility that works is MSI afterburner, you have to manually set the curve to flatline from your desired value. Start form left and set every other point to the sane value. In my case 1600 and it has to be set exactly in curve editor.  If you accidentally set 1601 at the 1.2v range you get 1.2v and overheat. The frequency offsetting also does not wort as it also puts max volts and lover frequency to the GPU and overheats. 

Bottom line is that this is still not a working laptop, but you can make it usable (why is there no temperature limit other than the safety is beyond me. The solution above is greatly dependent on ambient temperature while limiting the max temperature on the GPU would not be)

this is disheartening. I bought my G7 7700 in August and was having random freezing in Photoshop all the time and weird issues trying to start the system from a cold boot. I would usually have to press the power button 2 to 3 times for it to respond. No issues in gaming with Quake Live, Overwatch and the latest DooM.

Last week Thursday it froze on photoshop once again (usually once a day) but this time wasn't able to boot at all after forcing it to shut down. The lights would power up, the fans would get loud, you could see the screen backlight power up but no bios/logo screen at all. Hooked it up to a monitor and nothing. Called support and after an hour and half they said I need a motherboard replacement. Since then I've had 2 cancelled appointments from Dell, I guess the motherboard replacement part is scarce.. probably cause this laptop has a faulty design is my guess. Now they are saying I can expect a new appointment by the 29th. I'm seriously pissed. Of all the laptops I chose I picked a lemon that Dell is choosing to pretend is not s problem. So to recap, Bought August 6th 2020, froze just about every day in photoshop, failed to start Oct 15th 2020 and won't get looked at til Oct 29th.. and that's just a maybe if the part becomes available. 

Is there anything we can do? After reading your post I'm worried a motherboard replacement isn't going to do much and that the system is going to fail again. I've been doing IT now for 20+ years. I've been buying Dell desktops, servers and Sonicwall devices for the company I work for those last 20 years and I feel like an idiot for having faith in a company like Dell. I had a small window to return the laptop but I was sure that bios updates would fix the issues and that the bad reviews were all just user error. Boy was I wrong.

What can be done? Is it too late and we are now stuck in warranty limbo for 1 year until it expires? I feel like Dell needs to make this right.

Hi,

We’re extremely sorry to know that you’re unhappy with our product. We’d like to look into it and try and turn around the experience for you. Could you please confirm if 14VDHX2 is the service tag you are referring to? 

Major_Havoc,

Windows 10 Game Mode:

Game Mode essentially “prioritizes processor and graphics card resources” to the game running in the foreground. In other words, it temporarily suspends background services that Windows 10 currently doesn’t need so your CPU (and GPU) has less non-gaming work in its queue. This system management aims to provide a stable average framerate, which is more beneficial on lower-end systems.

To enable Game Mode, type “gaming” in the Windows search bar and select Game Mode Settings listed under Best Match. Once the settings app opens, make sure Game Mode is toggled on. You’ll need to restart your computer if you’re just now enabling this feature.

• Switch to high-performance settings.
• Allow you to disable special effects and post-processing (or set them to low).
• Allow you to adjust render distance and texture quality.
• Turn off anti-aliasing.

I just experienced the worst tech support experience - abysmal. My G7 looks beautiful but does not perform as advertised - it was marketed as a gaming laptop however it does not work for this purpose, due to known issue of framerate drop - latest BIOS update to 1.3 was supposed to fix the issue but did not. Dell seems to have abandoned an entire set of power users here. I've been a lifelong Dell customer but will never buy anything from them again if they don't respond to this. 

Tech support through Whatsapp is beyond useless. The telephone support little better - they insist this is a software issue when it clearly is not. They did not even understand what I meant by frame rate drop. I was referred to a software support option that cost $140 and they process payment before you even get to talk to anyone. 

I am suffering from this exact same problem however since I've had the laptop for over 30 days I cannot return it, or even upgrade it. I was not offered any hardware analysis or repair. I paid well over $3,000 CDN for this laptop and it's useless except to watch movies or read email. I am willing to upgrade to an Alienware and I am even willing to DOWNGRADE the video card if that would solve my problem - but I am not being offered anything to resolve except the option to pay for specific software support that I know will not fix the problem.

I'm practically speechless at how bad this customer service is, and the inability to even talk to anyone that can understand or acknowledge the issue properly. That is why I am venting here, in the long shot hope that maybe, just maybe, someone from Dell will see it and care enough to retain a loyal customer who is willing to work towards a solution, and compromise, even willing to throw more money after bad - but I don't even know how to get someone on the phone. I'm not suffering through the tech support nightmare rabbit hole again. 

Please, please, contact me and help make it right - I want to love this laptop and I want to buy Dell again. I'm begging here. Please could someone contact me to discuss a resolution? 

Thank you.  

I am a certified A+ hardware and software technician. I have done everything possible including what has been suggested here. Even on lower game settings, the problem persists. Nothing is running in the background. Drivers are all fully updated to latest versions, as is BIOS and Windows 10.

All Dell diagnostics report the unit to be fully functional, no errors. Technical Support claims that this proves it to be a software issue but that is no the case. The history of this issue is well documented in this thread. We are all experiencing the same issue and frustration with not having a fix. We all hoped the 1.3 BIOS would fix it but it has not. 

I will try everything you ask, even though I've already tried these things - but I feel that we're just wasting our time unless you have something to try that hasn't already been mentioned in this thread. I've done everything except processor/GPU tuning using non-supported utilities to do things like undervolting, because I see people have already tried these complex things and they didn't fix the problem. 

I want to resolve this as a customer satisfaction issue. I am willing to settle on an amount for this laptop that could be used as a credit towards something more robust, like an Alienware, that will do what this unit advertised. 

With a 10th gen i7 processor and an RTX 2070 super - there should be no need to self-throttle graphical options in game settings, even though I have already tried that and it didn't work anyway. This laptop should be able to take whatever current AAA games we can throw at it. Some chugging in games like MSFS 2020 is acceptable given the super high hardware requirements but a drop to 5 FPS is not reasonable. Bear in mind that this is on "medium" graphic settings. 

Please put me in touch with someone that has the power to negotiate a resolution. As I said, I'm willing to settle and compromise, and pay for an upgrade. This laptop is only two months old. 

Major_Havoc,

Slow or Lagging Performance = Set DPM to Ultra Performance

Click here for information.

Thank you. 

I have experimented with "game mode" in fact an earlier suggestion in this thread was to _disable_ game mode, so I've tried both - it doesn't make a difference. I have experimented with lowering graphical quality to the point where I may as well be running a graphics card several generations older. This defeats the purpose of buying a laptop with the best current graphics options available.