I have a Dell XPS 17 (L702x). I've noticed repeatedly and constantly that when I run GPU intensive apps, they will crash to the desktop after 30-60 minutes. If the app uses the NVidia GPU, and does heavy usage of it, the fans on the left will churn like mad, and at some point it will crash.
I've tried a number of things to fix this but to no avail:
updated to the latest NVidia drivers (see question here)
monitored the temperature of the video card: it gets to something like 90-95 degrees Celsius at peak usage. From what I gather this is not too hot for such a card under heavy usage.
tried switching to the non-nvidia card (forced the app in the NVidia control panel to use integrated graphics) - this doesn't result in crashes as far as I can see.
bought one of those fan "plates" that go under the laptop. The card does get 5-10 degrees cooler with that, but I still have the crashes.
I've noticed also that, if I run a game with highest quality graphic settings (set via in-game menus and/or NVidia control panel) the crashes will happen more often than if I run the same game with lowest quality graphics.
What I gather from this (and googling - but no definite answer found there) is that the card gets too hot for its own good, and stops (resulting in app/game crashing) in order to avoid physical damage (I guess).
My question is: is there a way to set the video card such that it will not get as hot as to need to crash my apps/games? Should I under clock it?