Dell XPS 15 9570 benchmarks + temps

There's been more activity in this thread than in a long time, lol.

@evomod, perhaps you have a weird TS setting? Maybe try intel XTU to set the undervolt and see what kind of score you get. I did think my 112k stock realbench score was much much higher than I thought it should be. I was actually hoping for something more along the lines of 95k so I could really tout how good the mods were, lol. Not sure what changes you're referring to in your post though.

@abujafar - if you are just using heaven and you didn't specify to use the igpu, you're not really testing your undervolt. I don't have the 9570 anymore or I'd double check that setting igpu voltage only works, but I know it does on every other laptop in the house right now, lol.

I'm sure I missed tons of questions but am running out the door right now, feel free to repost them or whatever.

 

@custom90gt I did explicitly activate the integrated card. It seems pretty ok until 150.

What is the height of the thermal pads on VRAM modules? They look 1mm to me, can anybody confirm?

 

I believe they are 1mm although they don't all make contact with the heatsink, lol.

 

@abujafar
The VRAM thermal pads are 1mm, i measured them after my last repasting

@custom90gt
I have tried Intel XTU, but the results don't where better and the settings are not that good compared to TS.

But I tried some other thinks...
1. Closed all the tasks in the taskmanager before testing, that was the biggest brake of performance.
2. Done a new repasting with less thermal paste and added 2mm thermal pads on the heatsink directly above the CPU/GPU (some small stripes).
3. Changed some settings in ThrottleStop > CPU-Core: -220mV | CPU-Cache: -167mV | iGPU/SA: -110mV

Than I made some benchmarking and got good results (in my point of view)
+ Temperatures with all cores are within 2-3°C
+ 'Cloud Gate' 25692 > 26739
+ 'Unigine Heaven Extreme' 1023 > 1074
+ 'RealBench' 93354 > 104850
+ 'PCMark 8 Work Acce.' - > 5370 ( did the wrong test in the first run)

ToDo:
a) With the CPU-Core voltage I need to make some Prime95 that I can see if it run this settings for a longer time, and/or if i can set them lower.
b) Set up the profiles in TS for a better battery life/ performance.
c) Look how to set up Afterburner to get better temps./ performance of the GPU.

Thanks again to all who helped me

 

Careful - offloading too much heat to the backplate is known to make things worse long-term.

 

Hi guys!
A lot of message have been posted and it is quite difficult to summerize all this stuff about repaste and thermal pad.
Can someone tell me what is the better choice for thermal improvment (without taking to much risk) : repaste (which paste do you recommand ?) and/or new thermal pad (which one and where to put them ?) and/or undervolt (if so, which software and which set up ?)
Thank you very much for helping !
Have a nice day

 

Has anyone seen https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/8k3r71/dell_xps_15_9560_and_9570_custom_vrm_heatsink/ topic yet? What do you think

 

I think the guy didn't have much experience initially. Not sure what's going on there now.

 

Interesting, I wanted to do that but since I no longer have access to a machine shop and such I threw the idea out. It would be cool to have a VRM heatsink, but also quite a bit of work to do it.

 

I asked him on any news on it and he replied: Ordered two heatsink designs for the 9560, but am currently out of the country for work. I will do the testing as soon as I return.

 

That's awesome. I'd def be interested for my 9560!

 

Anyone tune and benchmark the i9 8950hk? Interested to see results for this one.

I am still new to all this so hopefully I will be posting my own i9 results soon.


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You buy me an i9 and I'll run everything on it and post up the results

 

LOL! sure its on order! I am just glad I finally got a machine that is stable after a few updates.

I have noticed that Intel Xtu is junk and seems to cause issues so I no longer use it.




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Yeah, I highly recommend throttlestop. I only use XTU on the desktop because it gives me individual core control.

 

Agree! I have been trying to digest all the settings on TS.

Have some Kryonaut paste and pads on standby.




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So a quick questions regarding TS.

Since I have an i9 8950HK and the Dell Bios 1.2.2 has Speed Shift enabled....
1.Do I need to also enable Speed Shift EPP in TS both on the main screen and in TPL?
2.Do I uncheck Speed Step and C1?

Sorry for all questions as I am still learning this stuff and pouring through the threads/posts on multiple forums has been a bit daunting.

 

1. You can not disable SpeedShift without powering down and switching it off in BIOS. So if you have SpeedShift enabled in BIOS, selecting or unselecting the SpeedShift box in ThrottleStop should not matter

2a. If you are running SpeedShift, selecting or unselecting the Speed Step box in ThrottleStop should not matter as SpeedShift takes control at the CPU level

2b. ThrottleStop is the easiest way to control EPP with the new Windoze release I have seen. It seems M$ removed EPP manual adjustment from Windoze Power Options. I still run older W10 so can't help.

3c. Unrelated but If you are having problems with C1 states for some reason you can choose to disable them. There is more info in the ThrottleStop Guide but that is an esoteric feature that is not for the general population.

EDIT - you can confirm is SpeedShift is enabled as the letters SST will be green (either in ThrottleStop or HWiNFO64). As a bonus, ThrottleStop also confirms EPP value in the Main Screen & FIVR screen.

 

Thank you for the response...I

I noticed in HWiNFO 64 IT WAS GREEN. TS shows a value of 128 for EPP on main screen and a value of 1 and 48 on the TPL screen.

Should either of these be adjusted?


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Questions on the 1.5mm thermal pads...Where exactly are you guys putting them? I have a 2mm that I would be putting on both 16gb ram sticks. Should be repasting the i9 8950hk in the next day or so. Currently have results on stock cpu and at -140mv both tests on Aida64 stress tests.

 

Where is this DIMM/ Ambient Sensor located? I am experiencing high DIMM temps when running Realbench Stress when only testing 4gb of RAM. DIMM in AIDA64 showing 90+ withing min of starting the stress test which either blue screens or I have to shut down.

 

Slap bang between the DIMM modules. Its the tiny square thing in the middle towards the top.

You can use thermal pads to cover the DIMMS to the case if you are getting high temps, may help.

 

Never experienced this previously. Not sure why all of a sudden the DIMM temps are skyrocketing. I am back at stock core/cache voltage.

 

Your processor will be kicking out some serious heat being an i9, especially if you've gone back to stock voltage and it hits peak frequency. This XPS has many thermal issues it seems.

You can tune the laptop setting in Dell Power Manager, have you got that installed? Cool disables Turbo but does do a better job at keeping the machine quiet and cooler but you do take a performance hit. Turbo massively passes the processor's TDP and as such this machine cannot cool itself out of the box without being tweaked. Unless you live in the Artic of course.

I really hope future XPS models become a bit 'chunkier' to be able to properly deal with cooling (while staying powerful and innovative), and Dell create a new model of lightweight 'Ultrabook' types that are still pokey but are able to stay cool and quiet. Whats the point of having a really powerful machine if it cant sustain its own cooling?

 

Yes I have dell Power manager installed. have always used Ultra Performance and never really experienced dimm temps above 72

 

As you note, "Cool" setting disables turbo speeds on my laptop but HWiNFO shows that turbo is still enabled.

If you enable SpeedShift, turbo speeds are accessable even at "Cool" setting (with a low EPP)

 

Can you please check and let me know sustained clock speeds with and without hyperthreading?

 

I can't since I returned it but maybe someone else can for you.

 

Stock results Think i might need to return. throttles cpu down to 800 mhz. This is after 20 minute stress test.

8750h, 16 ram, 500gb ssd, FHD.

Its the ambient sensor reading 120C thats bothering me

 

That's the VRM temp sensor. Mine never got that hot, but maybe I was just lucky. Looks like either an undervolt/repaste/padding is in your future or returning the laptop.

 

Stock mine got 115 °C. Undervolting and padding is on your todo-list. I would repast too.

 

I'v got paste, pads and heat sinks lying around, but not sure if i should return it and get one that runs better on stock, before tearing the whole machine apart....... 121 C seems extreme, so maybe defect vrm.

How are your temps after mod?

 

My max before messing with the VRM was 86C...

You can see my trial results in the iunlock section.

*on edit*
those results were undrvolted which I'm sure took a big load off of the VRM. Looks like stock it got up to a max of 90C while running realbench...

 

I write here my personal insights after working on the laptop for a couple of weeks. This can be considered an addendum to the excellent @custom90gt original post



1) Undervolting is the first thing to do. I was able to push to -175 core / 140 cache -125 sysagent/igpu.
I CAN undervolt more the cache and it appears to be stable on prime95 BUT it is not stable on throttlestop's stress test. I believe this is because with prime95 the clock goes down soon, while TS bench runs at 3.9 for most of the test.
Even though Core and Cache seem connected at first, under some stress tests it appears that undervolting the vcore more then vcache does result in a measurable difference in VID (as measured by HWINFO64.

2) The "catastrophic" throttling to 15W/800mhz is triggered only by the DIMM sensor reaching 62c. I don't believe this is due to the RAM getting hot. I believe it is due to the proximity of the sensor to the heatpipe. Padding this sensor to the backplate helps to get rid (or delaying a lot) this throttling during stress tests.
After doing this, I got similar results to the ones reported by @custom90gt and also consistently so (about 118000 points in Realbench/1250 cinebench).

3) Repasting helps HOWEVER it wasn't a straightforward job for me. I didn't have much improvement with kryonaut but I did much better with an old tube of GC Extreme that I had laying around. This can be explained by the fact that GCE is more viscous and sticky paste with respect to kryonaut. Viscosity helps in notebooks' heatsinks which sometimes are not perfectly even/balanced.

4) Related to point 3. The contact of the heatsink with the VRAM thermal pads is uneven. In the picture, the orange pad is very squished while the green pad barely makes contact. Maybe one underrated thing done by @custom90gt is that he swapped the pads for a thick paste (k5pro). Maybe this change made its heatsink seat more properly and that is why his repaste with kryonaout worked so well.

5) It is possible to undervolt the GPU as well. However, it's not really an undervolt, it's more a remapping of the voltage/frequency curve.
If the temperature of the card is below 78c, the card will try to work at the 1V point (1680mhz). This is probably the "maxq" Voltage of the card.
Once the temperature hits 78c, the card will use less voltage (and work at a lower frequency) trying to maintain 78c.
I used MSI afterburner to change the voltage/frequency curve. To simplify, I pushed the whole curve up by 125mhz, ESPECIALLY the beginning of the curve.
This essentially tells the card that it can work at a higher freq by using the same voltage as before, e.g. 1V/1800mhz
Or, equivalently, it can work at a lower voltage for reaching the same frequency as before (e.g. 0.8V/1680mhz).
I broke 1200 points in Unigine Heaven Extreme (from about 1120).

6) The laptop does not throttle based on VRMs temps (As opposed to the 9550/9560).
My hypothesis is that:
- There are 3 chokes and 6 ICs supporting the GPU (In Blue). 2 ICs per choke, IC codes: 6314 GV8N1E and 6354 GV7315
- There are 3 chokes and 3 ICs supporting the CPU (In Violet). IC code: FDMF 3035
While the laptop doesn't throttle because of the VRM temps, they might get hot anyway.
For example, the first ambient sensor is very close to the GPU mosfets and it can reach 100c under GPU stress tests (like Heaven).

I am considering padding all the MOSFETs ICs with (a stack of) thermal pads up to the backplate.
Any feedback is appreciated.

Edit: some modifications to CPU undervolting section

 

Good post @abujafar.

I don't have the 9570 but have spent some time analyzing the vrm of the the 9550 and 9560. The labels on the chips and board are tough to read but here is a stab:

==> As you noted, it looks like Dell doubled up the number of mosfets on the GPU; that reduces work, reduces heat, provides smoother power. Nice change although it was probably min required with the 1050Ti so there's that.

Indeed the blue chips are on the GPU side and look similar to these AO mosfets
http://www.aosmd.com/res/data_sheets/AON6314.pdf
http://www.aosmd.com/res/data_sheets/AON6354.pdf​

==> On the CPU side, the mosfets appear similar to these
http://www.onsemi.com/PowerSolutions/product.do?id=FDMF3035

==> The PU1001 is probably the Power IC from Richtek which manages the vrm. But I can't read any of the numbers. There appears to be a similar chip (PU1501?) that might be dedicated to the CPU.

==> As you can see the labels on the board and chips easily, you can match the parts (9550 scheme will be similar):

So for example, CPU power mosfets (PU1200, PU1201, PU1202) might be associated with chokes (say PQ1200, PQ1201, PQ1202). Or GPU power mosfets (PQ1002 , PQ1003 ) might be associated with choke (PL1003). I can't see the labels so well. . .

__________________

Using the case bottom to heatsink the mosfets has not been a very successful strategy for most people. That bottom gets saturated fast then can't dissipate much heat. Also superheats intake air so that cripples your fans/radiators.

I always liked the idea of diverting a bit of cool air from the fans into the vrm (and also providing a small escape vent at the back for that hot air).

Also I used some 3m 105* tape to better seal the fan-radiator connection. That definitely helps improve radiator performance but might boost ambient internal stagnant air temp a bit.

 

I think you are 100% correct

PU1001 and PU1501 are the same and the IC has this code stamped is "7J 5C 70C".

To be fair there are two other chokes (yellow and pink in this image). The pink choke seems to be associated with another IC/mosfet that has code "6962 GA8H2L".

It seems that DELL reworked the board a bit.

Not sure how to do that, if it really works, and how much of a hassle/danger it is. I'll have another look at iunlock original post.

Regarding my padding plans,
- If I don't pad, the VRMs will get hot (of course here we are talking about heavy sustained load).
- If I pad, maybe VRMs will be a bit better?
I do agree with you that the bottom will get hot, but I assumed it was going to be a bit better.

That is doable and makes somewhat sense. I have the tape. Not sure how much it will help.

 

Maybe the Richtek 8205 or 8206 variant. Would have to see it better to guess.

Probably unrelated to the hot CPU & GPU power section. The code typed on the motherboard will indicate what those are. and there are only a handful of possible functions. You can measure temps manually to confirm.

As little as possible.

There are a few posts on that mod for the 9550 and 9560. Need to make sure airflow is not exposed to sticky side of tape to attract dust and undo any benefit. I think I wrapped both radiators 360 degrees with 3m tape but maybe not. Can't remember.

I noticed a significant increase in hot airflow outside the back of the computer - very obvious. Temps might have dropped a few degrees but not much more.

 

115-120°C of course was at running prime and furmark simultaniously. By doing normal desktop/Office/web work Ambient1 was around 70-80°C max.
If you do the whole modding thing you gonna get similar temps as in post 1 in this thread.
And yes, imo to get these way better temps it's necessary to pad the vrm's and may be the chokes too to the alloy bottom plate. Otherwise much thermal energy will stay in the case.
I surely would have kept the dell but the fan control in idle modus is so desperate poor, i couldn't stand it.

 

These temps are too high; 120C risks killing the laptop & likely reduces its lifespan.
The temp sensors are not so accurate so individual components likely are significantly hotter. ​

Also, I don't think you should be running Furmark on a uber-thin laptop; running Prime & Furmark together is crazy. For example, Prime alone or ROG RealBench alone are rough enough benchmarks for this laptop.

 

It does look like a Richtek

Pink is **700 and Yellow is **900. I uploaded 3 high res picture here: https://imgur.com/a/9Rxvy4F

360 wrapping seems hard but I can definitely put some on the top.

You mean from the screen hinge, that's where the exhaust is.
BTW, does keeping the laptop closed while working using an external screen/keyboard harm the exhaust?

 

I've been reflecting on the whole 'owning a Dell 9570' laptop today after sending mine back and reading some of the new posts on NBR. I am impressed with the ingenuity of many of you on here, you really research and think of innovative ways of getting these laptops to stay cool - but - why should you have to, you are paying a premium price for a premium product? You should not have to alter and repaste a machine that is advertised as powerful and the 'Ultimate Experience'. Why can't Dell make these XPS models that are able to run at full speed and cool themselves? Knowing that the i7 models aren't able to cool themselves and then have to throttle, they stick an i9 in them and hope no-one notices.

I've personally been brand loyal to Dell for a while but after recent experiences getting mine - finding and trying to fix its issues and then actually getting it collected and returned,I doubt I'll be using Dell anytime soon, (unless things change considerably - such as)

1. A completely redesigned model comes out that is able to cool itself and run as advertised, properly and stable and reviews reflect this.

2. Dell sort out their Premium Support, I now know how bad and frustrating other users have found it as I guess I've been lucky in the past but it has definately declined in recent contact.

But - what do I know!

 

Yes

​

There is some passive cooling from an open laptop. As a general matter I would think it runs cooler and heats the screen less if you keep the screen at least partly open. That might be a bigger deal with laptops that don't have intake grilles (e.g. MacBook Pro). But you would need to test to confirm.

 

Don't expect any XPS laptops to cool themselves properly in the future. According to a Dell engineer, "newer XPS laptops will be focused on running quieter within their thermal envelopes"

 

+1

The main idea of iunlock's mod is adding cooling surface on top of the VRM mosfets, and redirecting some airflow over there to take VRM heat away. There's too much of it for conduction via the backplate, particularly if one wants to hack the DIMM sensor a little bit.

Another much simpler option circulating recently is using a large thermal pad as a "bridge" between the VRM mosfets and the heatpipes, not touching the backplate. This supposedly heats up the heatpipe (and the CPU and the GPU) by a couple degrees, but should not be problematic if there is enough headroom to their direct thermal throttling.

 

Undervolt -170 core, -160 cache, -75 igpu, no physical mods.

CPU down 18 C. Nvidia gpu down 4 C. But that dimm sensor still hits 63 and throttles cpu down to 800 mhz.

Iv had to disable cpu turbo boost when gaming to avoid huge fps drops, but stuck at 2.2 ghz seems unfair for the 8750h

Anyone have a recommendation on how to allow higher cpu speeds than base, but keep cpu speed within a boost limit to avoid throttling?

edit: without opening the computer?

 

Did you happen to read the first three posts of this thread?

Put thermal pad on your ram and see where you end up.

 

Was hoping to see how far i could go without physical mods, to see if its worth keeping. Hoped that pad/repaste could be icing on the cake

 

I didn't see this earlier. I will tell you that I take the time to rebend the heatsink to ensure that it is as flat as it can be. My 9570 heatsink was bent in the shape of a "V" and needed some work. Perhaps this helps with the results that I get with Kryonaut. I did the same on my 9560 and have amazing temps (like it barely breaks into the 60's in prime95 with the fan speed at 3000rpm and all cores within 2C of eachother).

The K5Pro won't change the way the heatsink mounts unless the stock pads were too thick to begin with. I don't think that's the case as mine barely made contact and had only a small indention on the pad itself. Now after bending the heatsink straight it may make a bigger difference since the mounting is closer to the ram itself.

If you do try to straighten your heatsink please be careful. It takes almost 0 effort to bend and pinch a heatpipe. I use my calipers to see how level the heatsinks are.

 

There is nothing you can do software wise to lower the dimm temps unless there was something out there that would let you lower the dimm voltage.

 

I think that temp is more influenced by the proximity of the sensor to the heatsink than by the RAM modules themselves. Also, the RAM is dual sided. Padding both sides is hard.