Dell XPS 15 Haswell Edition: QHD+ with a Refined Design
by Jarred Walton on March 6, 2014 7:00 AM ESTDell XPS 15: Gaming Performance
With that lengthy preface about throttling, let’s just make it clear that all of the benchmark results here are from post-reboot testing, so throttling should not be present. What we find is that the GT 750M is a reasonable mainstream mobile GPU that can easily handle our “Value” settings and outside of the most demanding titles (e.g. Metro: Last Light) it can run our “Mainstream” settings as well. Not surprisingly, “Enthusiast” quality is mostly out of the question, except with older and/or less demanding titles. As for gaming at the native 3200x1800 resolution, that’s generally more than you can hope to get out of the GT 750M. Some games will certainly break 30 FPS at low to moderate settings, but in most cases opting for a lower resolution with higher quality settings will provide the better experience.
I also want to make note here that with 2014, we’re going to be reducing the number of games we test in our laptop reviews. There’s a real concern that running too many GPU-centric tests can distract from the overall target market for a device. While I’ve gone ahead and included most of the games from our 2013 test suite in Mobile Bench, moving forward we have decided to focus on just four games. Our current list consists of Bioshock Infinite, GRID 2, Metro: Last Light, and StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. These should provide a sufficient amount of data that we’ll be able to say how well a system handles gaming workloads. In some reviews we will also include other titles (e.g. if there’s a new GPU that warrants additional investigative work), including some less demanding games that will better illustrate the “casual gaming” aspect.
Considering this isn’t really being targeted at a gaming audience – Dell has their Alienware brand if that’s what you’re after – the XPS 15 still manages to hold its own in the gaming tests. Throttling concerns aside, when the fans and GPU are running as expected, gaming at one fourth the native resolution and high detail settings is easily accomplished, and even 1080p medium/high detail is possible.
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prophet001 - Thursday, March 6, 2014 - link
This kinda makes me mad about all the crappy screens they've been putting in 15+" laptops for the last 7 years.jphughan - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
The QHD+ display is definitely not crappy; the problem is that the display was tested with Dell's questionably named "splendid mode" enabled, which grossly oversaturates colors. I wrote about it a few pages back in a reply. But I've notified Jared (the author of the article), who confirmed that he was unaware of that setting. He immediately saw its effect though and said he'll be rerunning the LCD tests.prophet001 - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
I wasn't talking about this screen. I was talking about the screens that laptops have been using in the recent past. Like 15.6" LCDs with 1366x768 resolution.CommanderK - Thursday, March 6, 2014 - link
I bought this machine in Germany, and I sent it back. Bought maxed out configuration for 2000 Euro (now 2100), but alread for this price I had the feeling it was not worth the money. Reasons were almost the same you had here:- Throttling in games
- Touchscreen stopped working occassionally
- CPU coil whining ... this was especially annoying with fans off in the bed, but also audible in normal desktop usage
- Fan was first off, but already minimal level was annoying (and this one was almost always on when using external monitor with PSU)
Dell wanted to repair, but I refused. When selling such a top level machine at such a high price, it MUST work as expected. Originally I didn't want to, but now I simply bought another retina Macbook Pro with similar specs. It is very quiet, doesn't have such an annoying fan and almost no coil whine. And of course no throttling.
What is especially interesting is that this machine must sell like sliced bread. The price was raised and the waiting time increased. But with the even higher price, the decision for the macbook pro was even more easy (about 200 Euro difference). Dell service is good, but I don't want a machine that needs repair on arrival.
Sit down Dell, learn, try to be better next time.
CommanderK - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
Small update: I received the machine with described flaws about three Months ago. I sent it back because I expected Dell couldn't repair the problems. Now seeing this review that my guess was right. Even worse for me from a publicity point of view, they are still selling the machines with THE SAME flaws as three months ago. This shouldn't happen.Flunk - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
I had similar problems with the last revision of the XPS 15. It looks great, but the performance really doesn't match up to the looks or price tag. Really disappointing that Dell would do the exact same thing again.jphughan - Sunday, March 9, 2014 - link
The touchscreen was resolved with a firmware update, coil whine is still an issue (discussed above) that Dell is currently investigating due to widespread reports, and the increased wait times were because of a shortage on QHD+ panels. But I don't know how you encountered throttling on the XPS 15 and not the rMBP. Unless your XPS had a defective thermal assembly, the rMBP is known to throttle even more heavily than the XPS, partly because its 85W power adapter is totally undersized given that the combined TDP of just the CPU and GPU is I believe 95W -- and that's before counting the display, WiFi, BT, powered USB devices, etc. The rMBP under heavy load while plugged into the wall will actually DRAIN the battery as an auxiliary power source in order to make up for its AC adapter's inadequate power delivery. Anyway, sorry you had a bad experience with yours.praeses - Thursday, March 6, 2014 - link
Be sure when doing benchmarks that you are not charging the battery at the same time. Sometimes either the power draw will be too much or more likely the increased heat from the charging circuitry can cause it to start throttling.Kenazo - Thursday, March 6, 2014 - link
I'd be all over this if it had a number pad. Hard to justify it as an accountant otherwise. :)bloc - Thursday, March 6, 2014 - link
Buy a separate number pad. The rest of us want to sit in front of the monitor and the touch pad in the middle under the scroll bar. You spend $1500+ on a computer and why do people endure sitting 20 degrees to the left of the screen. Apple and Samsung got it right with their high end laptops - NO numbpads.