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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Luscious - Thursday, March 6, 2014 - link
My big issue with this notebook (and other big box notebook manufacturers) is Dell's insistence on pushing Windows 8.1 rather than offering consumers a choice of Windows 7. I'd be happy if Dell offered just the OS drivers for this on their support website, since I can install the OS myself, but they don't. It's good that boutique builders like Eurocom continue to offer Windows 7 with their notebooks.JarredWalton - Thursday, March 6, 2014 - link
Meh. Windows 8.1 with Classic Start or similar bypasses 99% of the problems I have with Windows 8 (Modern). Plus, the boot times are really improved, and probably some other nice things as well. It's not perfect by any means, but I don't care enough to try going back to Win7 on a laptop that ships with Win8. If you're in a corporate environment, though, I can see this being a bigger issue.jphughan - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
Windows 7 drivers are available by looking under the essentially identical Precision M3800 page. The only exception is NFC, which doesn't exist on the M3800., but the 8.1 driver from the XPS page may work on 7.unni - Thursday, March 6, 2014 - link
I can confirm 100% that the throttling happens only if the laptop is at an angle. As long as it is on a level surface, eveything is fine. I have played Battlefield 4 for 30 mins at 30-fps when the laptop was on a table. As soon as I change the angle of the laptop, throttling kicks in within 1-2 minutes even when there is nothing blocking the vents. This is a strange behaviour and doesn't seem to have anything to do with temperature either. I had Dell replace the motherboard and apply new thermal paste. The issue was still there. As part of the trouble shooting, I had to completely restore it to how it came from factory. I didn't update any drivers except BIOS. Now, BF4 runs at 30fps without any throttling. Also, one user had recommended in Dell forum to use NVidia Inspector and limit the FPS to 30 (if you are on the latest drivers). Strangely, that works as well.unni - Thursday, March 6, 2014 - link
The line"I have played Battlefield 4 for 30 mins at 30-fps when the laptop was on a table."
should be
"I have played Battlefield 4 for 30 mins at 30-"50 fps when the laptop was on a table.
JarredWalton - Thursday, March 6, 2014 - link
I can confirm 100% that throttling happens even when the laptops are on a flat surface. Sorry, but I've tried lots of things when the throttling has occurred, and none of them fixed the problem (unless I rebooted, but that wasn't don enough to actually notice until yesterday).unni - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
I guess there are differences between our machines then. Mine is the full SSD one. I don't have to reboot either. All I need is to quit and relaunch the game. Throttling will be gone.xTRICKYxx - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
Once throttling occurs the first time, the chances of throttling happening again increases dramatically.xTRICKYxx - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
Disabling turbo boost or downloading throttle stop would probably fix this entirely.Wolfpup - Thursday, March 6, 2014 - link
I've had much better luck with Dell notebooks than anything else, but I'm still picking an Alienware 17 or the like over this...