Low FPS with T60P and Advanced Mini-Dock

[herbpatterson]

Hi,

I have a T60P, 3GB RAM, ATI FireGL 5250 256MB Graphics, Windows 7 Professional 64bit, Latest Catalyst ATI Drivers, power mode (max CPU, max performance), Fan is running all the time for max cooling.

I have an interesting observation. I get low World or Warcraft framerates when using an advanced mini-dock:

Setup 1
- T60P + Port Replicator (Dual Screens External VGA 19" monitor and Laptop LCD)
- I get 40+ FPS

Setup 2
- T60P + Advanced Mini-Dock (Dual Screens External VGA 19" and External DVI 19")
- 4-7 FPS

Experiment 1
- Simulate Setup 1 with an Advanced Mini-dock
- T60P + Advanced Mini-Dock (Dual Screens External VGA 19" monitor and Laptop LCD)
- 4-7 FPS

I actually have 2 instances of setup 2 (so I know its not a defective Mini-dock). The external monitors are all the same (Acer AL1916 19" - I have 5) and the experiment seems to point to the Advanced Mini-Dock. Maybe the DVI passthrough, active or not is a graphics drain?

I've updated with the latest Catalyst drivers using the driver patch from driverheaven.net.

Any thoughts or ideas to help me increase FPS? I've throttled down all my game graphics settings to the bare bone already and turned down anti-aliasing.

Thanks

[herbpatterson]

Some additional comment on this:
- I sent this into Lenovo for warranty work where they replaced the planar board, which includes the GPU. I did not have this problem prior to the replacement.
- I just noticed that the GPU temperatures are ~ 10C higher now idling and under load. Idle/Load in the dock is now 73/89. The 89 is with the fan on full (via TPFancontrol). Out of the dock, temperatures are about 5-8 degrees cooler AND FPS are high. Its only in the dock when FPS drops.

Any thoughts? The key issue is that framerates drop signifcantly when in the advanced mini-dock. Obviously I will have to do something about the temperatures (i.e. apply arctic silver myself or send it back in). Are the temps the problem? The only inconsistency is that out of dock, when I get high FPS temps are still high (~85Deg). Presumably if temps were an issue, I would see a framerate drop also out of dock.

Thanks