===> The Official Studio XPS 1640 + ATi 4670 GPU Owner's Thread<===

Just got my 9 cell battery and it's nice to have the laptop propped up. I'm pretty sure the temps will drop a bit and the increased battery life should be nice.

 

@joker

Do you have COD4 installed by chance? If so what fps levels are you getting?

Also, can you post a few pics with the 9cell?

 

Joker can you let us know how much time you get off the 9 cell vs the 6 cell ?

 

I'm getting just short of 2 hrs with WiFi on, Bluetooth off, and the Windows power setting on "Balanced".

 

Joker- How much was the 9 cell?
Thought about ordering it with my order, but figured it could be had cheaper elsewhere or with another discount coupon.

 

9cell is a free upgrade right now, just talk to the rep.

 

Mee too..

Thanks Roger.. Can you also state how much difference you will get on same setting on "Power Saver" mode (WIFI ON, and ideal )

 

Don't have COD4 yet, I might get it. Here's a pic of the laptop propped up by the 9 cell:




Battery life was abysmal with the 6 cell, I barely scratched 2 hours and that's with the CPU undervolted and downclocked. I'll let you guys know how this one fares.

 

I paid $84 shipped. Try what tenknics is saying and see if you can get it free.

 

Joker,
can you post the settings you used to undervolt and downlock your CPU. I plan to do the same once I receive my XPS16. I have T9550.
thanks.

 

Installed Age of Conan, has a 7 day trial. Running it at native resolution, High, and 2x AA and it looks and runs beautifully.

 

Joker

As well as the time you get from the 9-cell I would also like to know what difference it makes in regards to the heat since it props the computer up?

 

On home/epp/both? I don't see such thing..

 

Yes, that's the new give-away item BUT they upped the price on the 4670 to make up the difference. I got the unit this morning with the 4670 only $100.00 upgrade....

 

So far there's a 2 Celsius drop in idle temperature from 37C to 35C.

 

Typing this on my 1640 right now, getting it setup. Will bench as soon as I get the stuff downloaded.

6615 3DMarks
T9550, 4GB DDR3, 7200rpm 500GB
Catalyst driver package 8.603.01.888
Default settings

Trackmania on normal settings
LOW 22fps
High 60ish

Will get more accurate benches later.

 

Since I don't have another computer to compare the quality of colors on the RGB 1080 screen, does anyone have a way of checking? Post your hardware ids if you can, so I know that ours are from the same batch..

 

On thing I can say about the heat is that using this computer on your lap is not good. I never use mine on my lap but I felt the underside of the computer and it is very warm just from web browsing and being on for a couple of hours. The touch pad and palm rests haven't given me problems yet. I haven't really put it under stress yet though.

 

I have mine sitting on my lap typing this and it is far from uncomfortable.

For gaming just from a ventaliation standpoint i would not use it on my lap though.

 

hi Mhatrey if ur located in india....then hw do you plan to have it shipped from US. I was also planning to get SXPS 16 from US but have to wait along time for the friend to return back to india.... Is there any other way?

 

Ok L4D performance on this is fantastic. 40+FPS at 1280x1024 (max it well let me set it to). All other graphics settings at default. Only thing of note shadows set to low, models / effects both set to high.

Track mania ran at around 22fps with the filtering set to 8x. dropping that down to bi or trilinear raised FPS to over 30.

 

Hmm that doesn't seem right for your L4D performance. I set mine at 1080p, full details on everything + 4x AF and I get an avg of 50+ fps. You might want to double check your settings.

P.S. change the aspect ratio to 16:9 and then you can select 1920x1080.

 

@joker

Did you do a clean windows install? I'm running Win 7 RC on mine, and the only issue I've come across is getting the volume controls to display the nice little graphic that comes up when you increase or decrease the volume. I figured this functionality came after installing QuickSet from the Drivers and Utilities CD, since the graphics appear when the LCD brightness, WiFi, and keyboard brightness are changed, but it doesn't work for the volume...Any ideas?

 

Hrm yes you are correct changed it. Performance is as you indicated. I did have some random slowdowns but to be fair I do have it sitting on my lap

That and I have NEVER been a fan of ATi drivers.

For giggles I tried 2 Eve-online clients and l4d at 1900, well no surprise it wasnt possible, nor was l4d + 1 eve client. Again not the biggest deal in the world. Though being able to do that on my desktop quadcore is fun

Overall pretty good performance for a non gaming laptop imo.

 

On Dell US site the option for the ATI 4670 is US$100 more. The Latin American site (which includes the Caribbean) that option is US$400. We are not allowed to purchase on the American site. The price difference is ridiculous.What do you all think about that? I am in Trinidad & Tobago.

 

That is just CRAZY....

Not sure what Dell is thinking, really. You could try calling and see if they can cut you a discount.

 

wow thats insane. and i thought the dell canada upgrade at $120 was unfair.

 

hi sunny.. thing is laptop is not going to ship to INDIA.. but I'm going to be SHIPPED to US.. for my higher Studies

I ordered it before to my friends place who is my senior.

 

How does the Facial Recognition work? Is it useful? What if the laptop bugs out and can no longer read your face, is your laptop just locked up like that?
Is it cool like a futuristic movie?

 

Putting together several vids of different games. So far I have homeworld, eve-online. Will string together a bunch of in game footage.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K89KlbRkD5E

This short video will show you exactly what it looks like. It starts around 1 minute 29 seconds of the video. I use it but it doesn't work very well yet (specifically in lower light levels), but from what it says it sounds like it "learns" your face. However, to answer your question about the laptop no longer reading your face, you have to enter a password any time it doesn't recognize you. So you no never have to worry about not getting into your laptop. You can also disable this feature any time if you don't like it.

 

Thanks for completely answering my question!

 

So how does this machine do as a gaming laptop? I was considering purchasing a used Alienware m15x with the 8800 or 9800 nvidia card. However this looks attractive

 

Im working on a video right now. Currently rendering it.

Gameplay footage of

Eve-Online
HalfLife 2
Homeworld
Left 4 Dead
TF2
Trackmania

All run at 1920x1080
Shadows set to low/off
All other settings set to high.

It ran great when not recording so take what you see with a grain of salt ok?

 

Looking forward to it. Went to best buy to look at the chassis and even thouts its 16" inches its not one of those monster laptops

 

uploading now.

 

Excited to see....

 

Here you guys go. Enjoy.

Game play footage

 

Thanks, you're making me excited for mine! Glad to see Source games run at native relatively smoothly... Also, EVE is gorgeous and I bet it looks amazing on that screen!

 

Performance is better than in the video. I was recording using fraps and its pretty taxing if you dont have a 2nd hdd to record to. It takes some cpu to do it too. So yeah it rocks.

 

Just installed and ran COD4 at max settings + 1080P resolution. Indoors I was getting 45-60+ fps and outdoors it would do between 25-45+ fps. Not bad at all.

 

I got my XPS 16 on Friday, and I am very impressed with it...except the video card (3670).

Does ANYONE have any idea when Dell will be releasing this as an option in Australia?

I bought my XPS 16 through Dell Finance, and if I return the laptop, I don't know if Dell will let me keep paying off the amount and then use that credit to pay for a new laptop when the 4670 is released?

 

===BUMP===

Really nothing to read on this thread.. .. Damn this waiting period sucks

Why there isn't a universal remote, one that featured in 'CLICK' movie.. (I'm losing my brains for sure .. Will take a nap for now.. Hopefully someone will have something updated here

 

First page of the thread has been updated with Skraeling's video. If any other SXPS 16 owners want to make gameplay videos and add them, PM me and I'll put the link on the first page. Any other benchmarks, comments or additions to the FAQ are welcome. Later tonight or tomorrow I will try to hunt down a COD4 timedemo so I can benchmark the game and post the results.

 

I'll probably be getting the laptop next week-end (if fedex are reliable then it'll take only three business days to get from the US to France according to them)
I plan to make videos for Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect and maybe Alone in the dark (although i've heard this game is badly optimized). You guys are using Fraps right?
I'll shoot videos with the stock processor (i.e. P7350) and with the T9600 I'm thinking about getting (I want this laptop to last me at least 3-4 years)

Can't wait for it to arrive, I'm sick and tired of waiting for Photoshop/Illustrator/C4D to display any single change I make to the design I'm working on

I wanted to ask you guys a question : on European keyboards, we have the accentuated letters right under the number keys. Is there any way I can remap those on the qwerty keyboard of the computer? Thanks!

 

I think Windows lets you choose the international language setting for keyboards so it should be possible to remap them. As for filming wth FRAPs, personally I don't recommend it. It doesn't give a true indication of how the system performs and could create misconceptions. I think recording gameplay video using a video recorder is a better alternative since viewers get to see the unhindered real time gameplay performance (have FRAPs running to measure FPS) as well as appreciate the aesthetics of the laptop and display. Keep in mind if you guys upload videos to youtube, try to convert them to 720p so youtube knows to process them as HD.

 

Oh about the 9 cell battery life. With 100% charge, full screen brightness and multiple firefox windows open, I've been averaging approximately 3 hours. This is with the system undervolted using RMClock so that also plays a bit of a role.

 

Its certainly too bad for 6-cell battery then ...

Would it even make 2 and a half hours with 6 cell ?

 

I'm pretty sure if I got aggressive with power conservation by killing background processes and dropping the brightness to 0 I could approach 4 hours with the battery time. But since I'm always near an outlet, I haven't felt the need to do so. The 6 cell could maybe hit >2 hours as well.

 

I see...This is what I thought software wise. The only pain in the butt is going to come from the accents not being actually printed on the keys. Thanks for the answer Joker.

I'll have to record with my cellphone hopefully it'll be of good enough quality. I agree, your method allows to see what the actual display looks like, and on your SF4 video, it looks yummy

Any of you guys used it for photo editing? I'm really curious as to whether the RGBLED screen really makes for a striking difference with regular displays.

On a side note, I miss Florida! The weather's been kinda crappy lately over here.