Hi, so it appears as though my ATI 5870 is underperforming a bit and the GPU keeps varying between 0% and 100% used (when checked via msi afterburner). This problem has only started happening for me over the course of the last few months. I'm not sure if it's supposed to do this, or if it's a driver issue... but it's been performing worse in games overall and just terribly in Battlefield 3 (20-40fps at any given time during the game on all low, except at the beginning, where it gets 60+ for the first 15 seconds of the game after loading up and me spawning. I'm not sure if this might be because the GPU is still being used entirely during that timeframe before it starts stuttering its usage or not.)

The FPS in the background is misleading in the pics (in between levels, not being read properly), but here they are:

Misc info:
Laptop: Asus G73JH
Processor: Intel Core i7 Q720 (1.6GHZ, 2.8GHZ turbo)
Video Card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870
RAM: 6GB DDR3
Hard Drive: 500GB 7200RPM

The card's temperature when not being used stays around 73-75 degrees.

So, has anyone else encountered extremely low framerates from a 5870 mobility? Or does anyone know why it might be performing so poorly now?

Upon further investigation, my 5870 does well in all games that don't cause it to spike up to 100% GPU usage. Anything that doesn't runs brilliantly, it's just when it hits 100% it stutters.

Does anyone know a way to limit the GPU usage? Maybe if there was a way to limit it so it doesn't go above, say, 90%, it would stop stuttering?

73-75 degrees at idle seems  high...you might need to do some cleaning on the inside and around air vents. Also, the Asus power controller is a pos, in my opinion (whatever they call it now)  ... I have a N71Jq and I use a laptop cooler with fan. The higher I set the graphics settings the more the gpu is taxed and the hotter it runs.

Intel I7 960 @ 3.87ghz *Intel DX58SO *HIS HD6970 2gb *Corsair TX650M *2x4gb Corsair XMS3 *WD Black 1TB *Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit *Gateway HD2401 24" 2ms 1920x1200  ***Asus N71Jq laptop *Intel I7 720QM Processor *Mobility Radeon HD5730 1gb *8gb Ram *Windows 7 64bit  ***Acer 5750 laptop

* A clear conscience is usually a sign of bad memory *

75 seems to be normal temp for this card, I am checking temp daily and since I bought my asus stressed gpu temp is around 75 degrees

(at least for my laptop model)

Ah. Thanks for the replies.

I did buy some compressed air and used it on the big fans in the back. It lowered my GPU's rest temp from the 73 C where it was before to 60 C.. and the stress in high end games went from 93-95 C (sometimes 100+) to 78-80 C.

It's running a lot better now. Although it appears to be underperforming a bit still from where it should be at, that seems to be more driver issues. It's no longer stuttering between 100% and 0% usage, but maintaining a good 98-99% in those very high end games.