Dell XPS 15 9530 (Haswell): Gaming and External Displays

Dear Forum:

I am closely considering purchasing the the top-tier XPS 15 haswell model from Dell. However, I would like to ask present owners two questions regarding the machine's performance powering external displays and while gaming.

1. The 750M gfx card is certainly sufficient for most games - especially if one doesn't have any pretensions about playing at max detail settings. Can anyone give me specific details about playing League of Legends or DoTA? Specifically, how well does this notebook perform after 5 - 6 hours of playing? Is the heat buildup truly drastic?

2. I have gotten used to working with two external displays - one landscape and one portrait. I am considering buying two with higher-than-hd displays to use with this computer. Does this rig have what it takes to power two such displays through the HDMI and Mini DisplayPort simultaneously?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Best regards,

Sebastian

 

*bump*

No owners can shed light on this?

 

I've certainly been able to throw some max settings at this machine, particularly TERA at all maximum settings with 1080p resolution as well. This game makes my desktop's GPU whine (probably because the display has it's own power needs) so I was surprised to see it run so flawlessly on my XPS 15.

League of Legends is definitely not the slightest of problems for this machine -- it can run perfectly fine. I'm not really sure about how long playing time would last you since I have the tier before your's (smaller battery) because I wanted more storage customization.

Also, heat buildup is in every powerhouse -- especially those running an HQ series + dedicated GPU; more wattage is required and the longer you play, the hotter it will be. You will hear faint fans depending on the game, but some games are optimized well enough so that your temperatures are maintained better. It depends on what you're playing. I have read in the main XPS 15 thread that a couple of folks playing LoL and DoTA experience some kind of fan noise and/or heat buildup (particularly more); but like I said, I don't think those games are structured well enough to be cooperative with power control and whatnot.

I hear barely anything while playing TERA at max, 1080p. I'm also a beta tester for Elder Scrolls Online (coming soon, mind you!) and that game also runs phenomenally as well.

In a nutshell: don't expect out-of-this-world battery life, yes there is heat, and it depends on the game.

I hope I've been able to help.

 

Thank you very much Waru - your post was indeed very useful! I can imagine that LoL is perhaps not as efficient in its use of the gfx processor as other games. You often notice League getting consistently lower FPS even with high-end cards when compared to other games. I guess its just something with the way it is programmed or designed.

How about external displays? Do you use any with your XPS 15?

 

Yeah, League's issue is primarily the way it's programmed.

I haven't gotten into external displays yet mainly because I'm currently in the process of revamping my desk setup at the moment, so I will be ordering a new secondary display soon. I don't see why it can't support two displays with an adapter.

 

I am playing games on an external 120Hz display without any problems. Check my review:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...30-haswell-2014-top-configuration-review.html

 

Ok, bare with me this >>Dell XPS 15 9530 (Haswell) is the same or ( (relatively) the same as the Dell XPS 15 that arrived last August (2013) or was it September (2013)? Were I am confused is the number (9530) does that signify a update? If not will this get updated before the next generation (Broadwell) which I am assuming will be around 3rd or 4th quarter.

 

Another quick question: is the memory used in the GT750 GDDR5 or GDDR3?

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk