Dell Studio 17: When Gaming Isn't Enough
by Dustin Sklavos on August 26, 2010 12:10 AM EST
Gaming Performance at High Settings
Finally we decided to see just how hard we could push the Dell Studio 17. These numbers are more academic than anything, intended to help demonstrate the difference between a mainstream-class card like the Mobility Radeon HD 4650 and its higher end peers, but it's worth seeing just how the 4650 handles the native resolution of the Studio 17 at these high settings. The Mass Effect 2 results are a repeat of the native res score on the previous page, but this time we're comparing the Studio 17 with some higher end gaming options.
Now we see performance of the 4650 start to grind to a screeching halt. The low memory bandwidth and core clock speeds are finally catching up to it, and it's barely able to produce playable performance in DiRT 2 and Left 4 Dead 2; everything else is unplayable.
The 4650 is certainly enough to get decent gaming performance out of the 900p screen in the Studio 17, but it isn't 100% ideal and isn't going to be able to max out most games at that resolution. We did also experiment with playing some games at 1080p with the 4650 connected to an external monitor, but the limited memory bandwidth just can't pick up the slack.
Worth note is how the 4650 stacks up against the GT 335M here when the GPU is the primary bottleneck; most of the titles are close to a tie, with the two systems changing places. Oddly enough, StarCraft II, which seems to be rather dependent on a fast CPU for our test scene, favors the 335M, despite the use of a ULV processor.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
41 Comments
View All Comments
Dustin Sklavos - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 - link
It's my understanding the most recent BIOS should've fixed the fan issue. I don't really have that problem with mine.Lingyis - Thursday, September 2, 2010 - link
well, the technician came but wasn't able to fix it so dell is sending me a replacement machine in 10 days or so.i hope the one i currently have just happens to be a lemon.
that aside, the screen is incredible. i'm seeing purple colors i've never seen before on a computer screen. deep blues are also nice.
battery life is definitely short... will see if the replacement machine does better.
Lingyis - Wednesday, September 15, 2010 - link
Well, i got my replacement. It has the exact same issue.Are you sure you don't have a fan problem?
My test case is actually your website. Using Internet Explorer, go to anandtech.com, and cycle through the "latest post" graphics. Does you fan come on every time you click on the "Next" triangle?
Because on mine, and both of mine that I got in the mail, the fan goes on reproducibly. You click, the picutre cycles, the fan goes on for 2 seconds, goes off. You click again, same thing happened again.
I tried it on a bunch of other computers and laptops none seem to have that issue.
Even if it's an IE issue, the fan still comes on way too much. Like as it goes through setup, the fan would come on quite a bit, but again, only a few seconds at a time.
On this newest Studio 17 I just received, I imagine the BIOS is up-to-date, just as my last Studio 17. So I haven't checked, or maybe I'm too upset to bother, so maybe I'll eat my words tomorrow when I contact customer support and a BIOS update fixes things.
If not, I'll try my best to get my money back from Dell, which is unfortunately because I am really liking the screen and I've gotten used to the keyboard. I spent $1500 on this (maxing out most specs) and I'm not going to be happy with the annoying fan.
Lingyis - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
Okay, so the replacement machine has the exact same issue and couldn't be fixed. So I'm returning for a refund. Which is too bad because I'm really starting to like the machine, but the fan is too annoying to bear.bijeshn - Saturday, August 28, 2010 - link
Quote:"Thankfully, you can toggle them back to being proper function keys in the BIOS. ..."
You don't have to take the trouble of going to BIOS to change it. You can toggle them in the Mobility Center itself.
AnnonymousCoward - Saturday, August 28, 2010 - link
It is an atrocity for Dell to only put 1360x768 in Inspiron 15.6" models. They might as well include 256MB RAM and call it a day. I still love my D610 screen, a 14.1" 1400x1050.When a $255 netbook has a 10.1" 1024x600, midrange Dells with crappy resolution are pointless.
The cheapest Dell 17" has 1600x900 for $530. 1920x1080 brings it up to $850!
Another "WTF" is, didn't Dell get the memo about SSDs? Give an X25-M 80GB option for +$150.
seapeople - Saturday, August 28, 2010 - link
Yes, it's amazing that Dell, alone out of all the manufacturers of computers, uses a 1360x768 screen on 15" laptops. You'd think that since nobody else uses such a screen, Dell wouldn't dare think about using it. This is fully Dell's fault, a blame attributable to no other. Considering that they don't even make LCD panels, I'm sure they had to look far and wide to find these ultra rare, uncommon, not very often used 1360x768 panels. You'd think they'd take the easy way out and just put on the same resolution panels as everyone else. But no, not Dell.tvdang7 - Sunday, August 29, 2010 - link
my studio xps 16 only gets about 2-2.5 hours of internet usage or about 2 hours with video play back. with a 9 cell. i do not get how the studio 17 gets about an hour + more than it with equal specs.JarredWalton - Sunday, August 29, 2010 - link
That's about in line with what I tested on the Studio XPS 16 back in the day:http://www.anandtech.com/show/2746/10
My guess is that the RGB LED backlighting (even at 100nits) uses more power than white LEDs. It's also likely that in the past 18 months Dell has managed to tune power requirements such that the latest laptops use less power than their older counterparts.
tvdang7 - Monday, August 30, 2010 - link
mine is wled not rgb. so we have about equal specs except that i have the 5730 video card which draws less power than the 4650. So its blowing my mind.