The Dell XPS 13 (9300) Review: Return of the King
by Brett Howse on July 16, 2020 10:00 AM ESTGPU Performance
One area where Intel-based notebooks had previously was in the graphics department, and with Intel’s launch of Ice Lake they directly addressed that. Along the way, Intel has also joined AMD in more aggressively demarcating their integrated GPUs based on the price of the processor. Intel always had a small bit of variation in the included GPU, but for the most part, a Core i3, i5, or i7 U-series would generally offer the same 24 Execution Unit GPU configuration. With Ice Lake, the naming scheme now includes the GPU size in the processor name, with G1, G4, and G7 graphics options, meaning lower-priced Core i3 and i5 models will not necessarily be outfitted with the same iGPU as a Core i7.
Intel 10nm Ice Lake-U Series CPUs | |||||||||
AnandTech | Cores Threads |
Base Freq |
1C Turbo |
AC Turbo |
GPU EUs |
GPU Freq |
L3 Cache |
TDP | |
Core i7-1068G7 | 4 Cores 8 Threads |
2.3 | 4.1 | 3.6 | 64 | 1100 | 8 MB | 28 W | |
Core i7-1065G7 | 4 Cores 8 Threads |
1.3 | 3.9 | 3.5 | 64 | 1100 | 8 MB | 15 W 25 W |
|
Core i5-1035G7 | 4 Cores 8 Threads |
1.2 | 3.7 | 3.3 | 64 | 1050 | 6 MB | 15 W 25 W |
|
Core i5-1035G4 | 4 Cores 8 Threads |
1.1 | 3.7 | 3.3 | 48 | 1050 | 6 MB | 15 W 25 W |
|
Core i5-1035G1 | 4 Cores 8 Threads |
1.0 | 3.6 | 3.3 | 32 | 1050 | 6 MB | 15 W 25 W |
|
Core i3-1005G1 | 2 Cores 4 Threads |
1.2 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 32 | 900 | 4 MB | 15 W 25 W |
This comes into play since Dell offers three processor options on the XPS 13, with both the Core i3 and Core i5 variants only offering the G1 graphics. To be clear, even the G1 Generation 11 graphics on Ice Lake are a larger GPU than the previous Gen 9.5 offered, with even the lowliest Core i3 featuring 32 Execution Units, but the full GPU in this laptop is only found if you choose the Core i7 model, which offers the 64 Execution Unit G7 graphics. It makes choosing the processor a bit more complex than it used to be, as it would be on an AMD-based laptop which follows the same mantra.
Dell shipped the XPS 13 review unit with the Core i7-1065G7, and as such this device does feature the full-sized GPU, and as we have seen in other Ice Lake based notebooks, the larger GPU is a significant improvement over previous designs.
3DMark
In our first synthetic test, the XPS 13 finishes slightly behind other Ice Lake notebooks, but not by a wide margin.
GFXBench
We run the DirectX 12 tests from version 5 of GFXBench, and as expected, the XPS 13 scores right in the same range as expected.
Tomb Raider
The original Tomb Raider has been a challenge on integrated GPUs, but with AMD’s Ryzen and Intel’s Ice Lake, the game is finally playable although without any extreme graphics settings enabled. Once again, the XPS 13 slots in right where it is expected.
Rise of the Tomb Raider
The first sequel to the re-launched Tomb Raider series is much more graphically demanding, and the XPS 13 slides out of the playability window even at the lowest settings we test at.
Strange Brigade
Strange Brigade is a game with a wide-range of settings, and can be very playable even on integrated graphics. As seen with Rise of the Tomb Raider though, the XPS 13 is not quite as performant as some of the other Ice Lake notebooks we have tested.
F1 2019
Codemaster’s F1 simulator did not fare very well on the XPS 13, scoring well under expectations. This game can be very CPU limited as well, so TDP can be a major factor.
Far Cry 5
Like most of the other games, we see that Far Cry 5 is once again below other Ice Lake systems, but even on the best integrated system Far Cry is only barely playable regardless.
GPU Conclusion
Although the XPS 13 was outfitted with the top of the range Core i7-1065G7, with its full 64 Execution Unit GPU, the XPS 13 was not quite able to match some of the other Ice Lake systems we have seen. We will get into that a bit more in the thermals section, but this is likely due to Dell more aggressively clamping the processor to its recommended 15-Watt TDP, where other manufacturers may be more aggressive and allow 20+ Watts. Since the GPU is one area where more thermal headroom is always welcomed, this can have a larger impact than a CPU-bound task.
Otherwise, while the Ice Lake G7 GPU configuration is nothing short of a massive step up from Intel's earlier integrated GPUs, they are also competing with AMD in a field that's normally AMD's strength. So for as fast as the G7 configuration is, it and the XPS 13 end up trailing laptops based on the half-a-generation newer AMD Ryzen 4000 APUs.
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eek2121 - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
None of those? Intel has solid mobile offerings. Extremely competitive in performance and power consumption. Try reading the article instead of shilling the comments section.aebiv - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
You've been asleep for awhile eh?Walkeer - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
are you a bot or st.? Did you noticed the ryzen 4000 mobile CPU from AMD, which destorys any and all intel mobile chips in terms like performance, core count and power consumption? in this test, its repsesented by acer swift 3, which just completely annihilated the xps 13 in multi thread and GPU testsSharma_Ji - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
True that, after looking at those performance charts, buying an intel based machine would be plain stupid.invinciblegod - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
No it's not, mainly because very few companies actually has put Ryzen chips in their premium laptops/Ultrabooks. If you need a laptop right now and not next year, then these machines are fine. Also, any eGPU enthusiasts will have a more limited choice as future Ryzen machines will undoubtedly use thunderbolt only on few devices since it is not built in.invinciblegod - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
Competitive doesn't mean better, it means competitive. Like Qualcomm chips are competitive with Apple's offerings, not because it has equivalent performance, it just means that they are good enough that people using Android won't be compelled to go to iPhones because the chipset is just too far behind (like if Qualcomm was stuck on 3G for some reason or lacked wifi).Similarly, if you can do similar things with an Intel cpu compared to an AMD cpu, then they are "competitive" even if they are behind.
Operandi - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
Competitive means you are competing. When you are loosing in pretty much every meaningful metric you doing something else and its competing...PeterCollier - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
I didn't know that number of design wins was not a meaningful metric.Rookierookie - Friday, July 17, 2020 - link
I consider the mobile Ryzen 3000 series to be competitive, and those were losing in every meaningful metric to Intel chips.mrochester - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
Out of interest, where do you get 16:10 AMD Ryzen 4000 laptops from?