Dell :: 1530 Performance Dropoff

The more I looked into it, the more I think it's a problem with the card downclocking itself due to high temperature.

What happens is that I start say, Mass Effect, and for the most part it runs just as well as it did 3 months ago. same settings, updated drivers, etc.

But the problem is, after about 20 minutes or so of playtime, the frame rate suffers dramatically, and the only way to improve that is to call up the game's main menu, or alt-tab out to desk top where there's no rendering on screen. Wait a minute or two, go back into the game only to have the bad framerate return after about 3-5 minutes.