Dell XPS 15 9570 benchmarks + temps

Ah I see! Yeah I need to file down the sinks I've got as they're too tall. Need to track down some double sided tape as well

 

Hello guys, i see you talking about temp, throttling and so, i am myself interested in the 9570 with an i9, but reading you i wonder ...
Is this a conception failure to have such a processor in a case so thin ?

With my work, the computer will have 2 / 3 minutes of load, never a full cpu + gpu stress for a long period. Do you think i will suffer from throttling ?

Also, in various topics, i heard about a bad heatsink design, not covering the full processor, but rather a side, resulting in 2 of 4 cores less protected against heat.
Do you think 9570 still have this issue ?

Link: http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ven-core-temps-due-to-uneven-heatsink.797477/

That is a lot of question, but thx for helping !

 

It's not ideal to have an i9 inside a thin laptop, it will never perform as good as something that was built to handle such a cpu. I do recommend undervolting as it provides the best increase in performance out of all of the mods.

Working for 2/3 minutes of load would be more ideal as it will throttle less, but it will still throttle down as the >45w limit is only 30 seconds or so.

The heatsink is a terrible design and mine was bent slightly, having said that Dell puts enough thermal paste on there for 8 laptops so it will still be covered.

Good luck if you go the i9 route, I'd love to have one to test but that is way too much money for something that will likely perform the same as an i7.

 

Thank you for answer. I have principle, and using a lot of thermal paste to minimize a heatsink design flaw is a no go for me, espacialy for such a pricey computer.

I will go with pcspecialist, an other case, and a 8750h. Too bad i liked the design of this dell. But it has to perform first..!!

 

Alright I just put in the table with the results from benches and with that I think I'm done. Hopefully it helps someone, and at least shows the differences each mod makes. I'm pretty happy with the performance of this laptop and may hold on to it for a while...

 

Yeah don't get me wrong, with an undervolt the dell performs great, just not as good as say an MSI titan. The form factor is great for me and is super portable, I just wish dell would have put a little more thought into the cooling. Even if they made it a few millimeters thicker I would have appreciated the better cooling.

 

Damn, with all those thin laptops i don't know which on to choose....
Thank you for your answer.

 

I think the situation is a bit different . . . Most laptops have sloppy, excessive thermal paste applications from the factory so Dell is not alone here.

From a user's perspective, you really want the smallest quantity of high quality thermal grease possible; that gets you best thermal performance. That takes time, effort, skill, and money.

From a production perspective, it is cheaper and safer for all the factories just to put on a lot of thermal paste. No manual skills required. And too little thermal paste could cause worse heat problems than too much.

This why most laptops should benefit from a good repaste by the consumer.

 

First off, thanks so much for all of your hard work on this and sharing your results. Your work has definitely helped me, as I've just received my laptop today and will start playing with it tonight after work.

If I might ask, I know undervolting is the biggest bang/buck, but how would you rank the other mods you've explored? I'm trying to figure out which I want to do vs. which aren't worth the effort. I'm thinking the following, since I'm upgrading the ram and replacing the SSD anyway:

-Undervolt
-Repaste CPU/GPU with Kryonaut
-Thermal pad stack from VRM to backplate per Eason's guide
-Thermal pad from RAM sensor

I'm not planning doing iUnlock's mod per what I think you're recommending across multiple posts. Thoughts on the above after all of your work with this laptop?

 

Great question. If I had to rank order what I think is worthwhile here is how I would do it.

1. Undervolt - by far the best
2. Cheap thermal pad between the ram and case bottom - super cheap and easy to do
3. Repaste - a little more advanced but worthwhile, especially in keeping the max temps down
4. iunlock mk5 mod - basically just try to cool some of the VRM near that ambient sensor - only really if you want max performance, but I don't know if the juice was worth the squeeze so to speak on that one.

 

This is awesome. Thanks.

I'm going to start working through these over the next few days. If there are any logs/datapoints/tests you would like me to run, including stock, I'm happy to do it and report back.

 

For starters, HWINFO with certain preferences changed/tweaked. For example Enable PCH thermal device and EC support which are disabled by default for precise measurements from all sensors under EC section.
You need to check off each option and close HWINFO and then re-open it to reflect the changes. If your PC gets hung or gets non-responsive uncheck PCH thermal device and EC support.

 

Not exactly like this. They use paste printed thickly in rectangles on chip positions on the heatsink, like every other factory. The problem is that their thermal design is so borderline because of squeezing the dimensions that many get direct thermal throttling under load. Funnily, this heatsink if pasted properly was in fact adequate in the 9550/9560, except for the VRMs which don't have a heatsink. And with iunlock's mod that could be fixed with some effort.

Not clear regarding the i9, but I don't think it is worth the money, considering the uncertainty if there will be any advantage.

 

I repasted and did the pad mod (own type). Unigine basic = 3595 Score, FPS 142, which is not too bad. But in CineBench i only get about 80 fps open GL. CPU Multi = 1224 and adäquat too.
What did i wrong with the open GL thing? Driver issue?

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/piq4ektsnhqvoq4/AAC2bjAsjdrHSg8pOq9WzQbHa?dl=0

 

How does it do in 3dmark?

 

Just filed down sinks and connected them to the 3 main chokes with 3m tape. Padded RAM and CPU/GPU to case. Running 3dmark stress test now - it used to score 95.5%.

edit: 97.7 on timespy - passed.

 

I didn't run the stress test until after everything was said and done but I think I scored 98.7%. I have no idea if that's good or not though, lol.

 

9198 Performance Mode.

 

96.2 on fire strike - not passed

 

Interesting, I'll try firestrike. Perhaps it's more difficult to pass?

 

@Eason - 99.4% pass for me. I wonder what the big differences are. My temps never go over 67C though.

 

What's your ambient temp? I guess mine was around 26C. My CPU around 70, my GPU always around 77.

 

My ambient is much better than yours, it's 22C in my office.

 

ah okay. I repasted anyway and added a .5 mm pad to one GPU ram pad that didn't look like it was making contact. Went to 97.5%. CB loop test looks MUCH better after padding btw:


Rendering (Multiple CPU) : 1228.39 pts
Rendering (Multiple CPU) : 1204.42 pts
Rendering (Multiple CPU) : 1172.13 pts
Rendering (Multiple CPU) : 1161.04 pts
Rendering (Multiple CPU) : 1168.43 pts
Rendering (Multiple CPU) : 1171.44 pts
Rendering (Multiple CPU) : 1169.66 pts
Rendering (Multiple CPU) : 1169.45 pts
Rendering (Multiple CPU) : 1177.27 pts
Rendering (Multiple CPU) : 1175.99 pts

 

Wait, are you saying the 9550 VRAM issue is back?

Is this due to a warped heatsink not making contact to one chip? Which one?

 

Custom, maybe I missed it, but do you mind going into a bit more detail on how to pad the ram and heatsink?

Which one you purchased and how/where to apply them? I assume there's a specific thickness.

 

I just looked at the pads and noted which had impressions and which didn't. added a very thin little bit of padding to the one that had no imprint. I don't know if it makes a big difference.

 

Hi all, I was out of town last week. I am gonna experiment with my 9750 now.
I reread this thread and I have few questions/observations for @custom90gt

1) Did you use 2mm pad for RAM and 2mm pad+3.5mm heatsink for VRMs/PCH?
Do you feel that the pad height is adequate or was it a loose fit?

2) You didn't do any padding to CPU/GPU or heatpipe? It seems that there was some confusion a few post ago by @Eason or maybe I missed something?
Maybe showing a picture of the backplate would help.

3) Did you do iunlock mod for flow redirection?
I don't think you did it and maybe this is the reason your mk1 doesn't work. You created more "clutter" without airflow.

4) Which type of black tape did you use on the fans?

5) It doesn't look like the PCH needed any attention. iunlock didn't do it.

6) Vcore/Vcache are not the same thing and they are associated with two different clocks and "separate" CPU parts.

7) Now that you fixed thermals, have you tried increasing the power limits durations using XTU like @pressing suggested?
That might help push you to stay in the 56w state more often.

 

Has anyone tried to just use a stack of thermal pads between the mosfets and the backplate (instead of mosfet-heatsink-tpad-backplade like @custom90gt)?

 

I will try to answer a few of your questions here. Hope they provide some colour

I see several people use 3M Super 33+ (105C) or Kapton tape. I use thee former. Need to be rated 100C+. There should be no stickiness in the airduct or dust will quickly accumulate; I put tape back-to-back where appropriate.

On the 9550 and 9560, unpadded PCH caused noisy fans during menial tasks with PCH temps below say 40C (I forget threshold). So several people did that for silence in the office whilst internet browsing. I did also.

Not sure what you are asking. I think there is some question if the core and cache can be undervolted at different levels for 6th, 7th and 8th gen CPUs (or if core and cache undervolt must be the same on your system). No documentation from Intel. Check to see if Intel XTU will allow that. There is a lot of banter about this on the ThrottleStop Guide.

Haha - I stacked fujipoly 17w/mk pads from the 6 key VRM mosfets to the case bottom both for the 9550 and 9560. The case bottoms got hot as hell. After a short period the keyboards and were uncomfortable to use; even the track pad was uncomfortable. I pulled out all the VRM thermal pads after that.

@GoNz0 noted the hot case bottom would superheat intake air and reduce effectiveness of fans. I think he was correct based on benchmarking and observing temps.

17w/mk pads are probably not indicated here but lower performance pads might be fine. Using the case bottom less aggressively as a heatsink was successful for a few people; it was a balancing act that took some trial and error.

 

I can answer this partly (I think)...

On the 9550, there were 4 vram chips next to the GPU. Each was covered with a fluffy thermal pad. Each fluffy pad transferred heat to the heatsink. Unfortunately all the 9550 heatsinks were bent so that 1 or 2 vram chips had no contact with the heatsink.

You could diagnois by looking for good thermal pad contact and seeing indents about the full size of each vram chip.

Fix was typically to replace problematic thermal pads with slightly thicker thermal pads. Make sure to use only low w/mk pads that are fluffy. If you use thermal pads that are too dense or too thick, then the heatsink will not clap evenly on the GPU and you will have significant GPU thermal issues. I suppose you could bend the heatsink but it is super delicate and getting this bent the correct amount and flat would be a challenge. . .

The 9560 heatsink was revised and the vram contact was fine so not an issue

With the 9570, @Eason noted that his laptop had an issue with vram thermal pads, which is similar to what I described with the 9550.

EDIT - not sure if this is an issue on many 9570s of if Eason just got a a defective heatsink so I would not mod unless you see a problem.

 

Posted my responses in red. Sorry typing from Mexico on my phone.

 

@pressing my heatsink was messed up as I posted. That's why I used K5 pro. My guess is Dell still has issues.

 

Do you think 1.5mm could be enough for the RAM? It seems a more common format (I basically have to buy everything).

Thanks

 

I don't think would work sadly.

 

Thanks. Is a 5mm padding stack enough from the VRMs to reach the backplate or should I shoot for 5.5mm or 6mm?

 

Wish I could measure the heatsinks for you but I thought @Eason ran thermal pad from the vrm to the case. Maybe he can help.

 

In his 9560 guide, he had 3x1.5 pads that makes a 4.5mm stack.

 

If 85c is still a safe temp for RAM modules, why the hell Dell put a threshold at 63c?

 

This (1.5*3 stack) was the route I was going to go too. Hoping it works for you and please report back.

 

I got through 11 of the 19 pages, but need to run back to work. Custom, does the GPU stay pegged at 1500Mhz under gaming stress? Does the CPU stay above 2GHz in games? I don't need it to be in the turbo ranges to be effective at light gaming. As you saw in the other thread, the 9575 I had liked to choke the Vega GPU during gaming sessions, tanking framerate. I'm hoping if I go with the 9570, it will choose to choke the CPU with PL throttling, which as long as it doesn't drop to 15W usually means pretty decent gaming performance.

I'm also wondering if disabling TurboBoost on the 9570 during gaming with the dGPU will be effective at keeping both frequencies as high as possible.

 

Must say that this review of the Razer Blade 15 looks interesting in comparission:



Just things like them seem to use good paste instead of the tooth paste Dell uses...

 

Its a proprietary toothpaste.

 

A toothpaste years ahead of the other companies'!

 

I think the tooth paste Dell uses is pretty standard, except that the heatsink is underdesigned so it only works with the best.

 

I'm waiting for my Kryonaut stuff to arrive on Monday to be able to do my repaste, as I have a big temperature different between cores on my 9570. Core 4 gets hotter than all the others by about 6 to 8 degrees and starts to throttle every time I do any benchmarks.

I'm thinking the paste may have missed a bit of the processor or something like a bubble perhaps? I also have a 9550 i5 and the temperatures of that are pretty much within a degree or two of the others.

 

Well 9570 is going back to Dell sadly. I decided I want to buy a new truck and I really just don't need the laptop since I have an X1 carbon and x240 sitting gathering dust.

 

Because you don't like it or think it's not performing, or just don't need it?

I just ordered a 4K 9570, but still may cancel before shipment. This HP Omen 15 for under a grand at Microcenter would probably be a really smart choice. I could then keep my MBP (which I enjoy for anything other than gaming).

SO it's MBP + HP Omen or Dell 9570 + eGPU - price is about the same.

 

It seems after all the modding and testing, the 9570 was not a compelling laptop for you. The competition has caught up and the platform is getting a bit long in the tooth.

Maybe next generation will provide a more compelling upgrade in chassis, CPU and GPU. . .

 

Performance is great actually and it's a wonderful laptop. But when it comes down to keeping it vs putting the 1200 bucks down on a new truck, I have different priorities. I can't recall the last time I gamed on a laptop and the desktop does pretty well when it comes down to performance...