OK thanks Yovav. I'll see if I can find a laptop here on campus with similar or the same config and go from there. We may have to have our devs take a look and see if there's a configuration specific problem.
So two more things I thought of that you can try while I'm trying to find a laptop with same graphics chipset:
1. This chipset supports NVidia "Optimus" if the laptop has two graphics chipsets - which according to DELLs website this model does. There may be a BIOS option to disable the onboard graphics accelerator and switch to the Intel chipset, overriding the Optimus system's automatic switch. That would definitely affect performance because it would be using the poorer chipset instead of the high-performance one. So check the BIOS for this option.
2. We do have the newer precision laptops with K1100m - there was an issue with the driver on that one, that we reported to Nvidia and they have a fix which I believe is in the current driver update from NVidia (not from DELL yet). So getting a driver update from the NVidia site instead of DELL may help - I see that Nvidia updated just the 4th of this month, actually: NVIDIA DRIVERS Quadro Desktop/Quadro Notebook Driver Release 340 WHQL
I'll put in the request with systems now to find a laptop with that graphics chipset, and I will update you either here or through your tech support contact.