Drop in VRAM CLK - from 9001mhz to 405mhz

Good Morning,

So I've been encountering a series of (probably connected) issues with my Dell XPS 9730 laptop. Specs are the foot of this message.

Apologies for the long description, I want to be sure the complete device update history is included, in terms of changes from before the problem first occurred and any progressive changes, which may help someone much more knowledgeable than me to identify the root cause of the user experience - frame "stutter" during gaming (from 60fps to 1fps).

What is the ultimate root cause, which maybe creating a chain reaction from the root cause to the user experience?

I could not say definitively, but I suspect that it is related to a BIOS update around September/October 2024. That's when the problems seem to begin. Around the same time, I also had an NVidia graphics driver update.

I initially noticed games - which had never had one single issue for almost 12-months prior - began to "stutter".

I began to do some basic investigations to find the root cause of the problem. Firstly, I discovered Fluctuating GPU with the game giving me a "low frame rate" warning, and the GPU output going from 99% down to 0%.

The output seemed to get remedied after a while, following a subsequent NVidia update, but the "stutter" remained. I then discovered a drop in render latency along with the drop in FPS. But still none the wiser as to the cause, or how to fix it.

More recently, I have observed that when the game initially starts, the VRAM CLK is anywhere from 6001mhz to 9001mhz, but after less than a minute, the VRAM CLK drops to 405mhz. And then the render latency and FPS issues commence. When researching this problem, I've noticed 405mhz seems to be a recurring theme on different devices, as if there is a setting/restriction - though I'm not sure why the VRAM CLK would go to 9001mhz, to then drop to 405mhz.

GPU temperature is around normal, less than 85 degrees Celsius - usually around 80, which is normal running temp for this device when playing games.

Going back to the BIOS update around September/October 2024, this affected the Power Options. Prior to the BIOS update, I had "Power Saver", "Balanced" and "High Performance" Power Options available; after the BIOS update, I only had "Balanced" available.

To resolve this issue, I had to run some CMD registry edits to restore all Power Options.

Checking driver latency on LatencyMon, I have noticed that "ntoskrnl.exe" and "Wdf01000.sys" had a comparably higher execution time, around 0.6ms, as opposed to around 0.05ms for other drivers; and "ACPI.sys" having an execution time of around 1.3.ms.

Event Viewer system log is not listing any information, warnings or errors during the timespan the games are running.

Intel components are all up to date, using both Intel Driver & Support Assistant and Dell's own MyDell Support Assist drivers and downloads facility. 

Any advice / recommended changes is very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Laptop Summary:

Dell XPS 17 9730
13th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13900H Processor (24MB Cache, up to 5.4 GHz)
Memory - 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5 4800MHz
NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) RTX(TM) 4080 with 12 GB GDDR6

Laptop Specs - partial DxDiag:

Operating System: Windows 11 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 22631)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: XPS 17 9730
BIOS: 1.14.0 (type: UEFI)
Processor: 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13900H (20 CPUs), ~2.6GHz
Memory: 65536MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 65220MB RAM
Page File: 13026MB used, 56290MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 12
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: 240 DPI (250 percent)
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
Miracast: Available, with HDCP
Microsoft Graphics Hybrid: Supported
DirectX Database Version: 1.6.1
DxDiag Version: 10.00.22621.3527 64bit Unicode

Graphics Specs ( x 2):

NVIDIA
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Type: Full Device
Display Memory: 44607 MB
Dedicated Memory: 11997 MB
Shared Memory: 32610 MB

INTEL (IGPU)

Card name: Intel(R) Iris(R) Xe Graphics
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Chip type: Intel(R) Iris(R) Xe Graphics Family
DAC type: Internal
Device Type: Full Device (POST)
Display Memory: 32738 MB
Dedicated Memory: 128 MB
Shared Memory: 32610 MB
Current Mode: 3840 x 2400 (32 bit) (60Hz)
HDR Support: Supported
Display Topology: Extend