Dell XPS 15 L501 *Owner's Lounge*

just follow my earlier post on how to disable hardware acceleration for adobe flash in youtube.

 

Yeap but this is still not resolve problem of drivers from nvidia web site !!!

 

Guys, can anyone with the I7 and the Full HD screen let me know what sort of battery life they are getting?
If anyone owned the S-XPS 1645 before this, is it better than the S-XPS 1645 ?

 

Who have successful install the new drivers NVIDIA on this dell ??? with optimus !!!!

 

Ok. Finally after a couple of tests, here is what I can confirm.

The drivers from laptopvideo2go.com screw up Optimus. DO NOT INSTALL IT! If you use the modified drivers from them, most of the time Intel's Graphics kicks in. How do I know this? On the NVIDIA control panel, go to View and select the option "Display GPU Activity Icon in Notification Area". The notification icon will now let you know whether you are using NVIDIA or Intel when you run any application.

Only Dell's driver allows Optimus to function correctly. I checked this a couple of times with a 1080p video on youtube. With laptopvideo2go's drivers, optimus didnt work and NVIDIA was turned off despite the 1080p video being rendered. With Dell's driver, Optimus worked so NVIDIA turned on - BUT! the flickering came back on again.

I know this is difficult to explain in words. So I am going to make a video of the problem and put it up on youtube. Meanwhile, here is a link that will help explain what I am talking about.

Bottom Line: DO NOT INSTALL LAPTOPVIDEO2GO's driver for now if you want Optimus and wait for Dell's driver.

Believe me when I say that I will be more than happy if I am proved wrong by somebody here.

 

No i agree, i've the same thing at home that's why i cannot understand how maxghost said it's okay for him !!!

 

Hi all, is it possible to have some comparative photos of the FHD panel downscaled to 720p to see how the scaler works? (mostly in gaming environment)

Thanks in advance

 

You need to use the custom .inf from laptopvideo2go.com to install the driver. They have instructions on the site. I assumed you would actually read them before trying to just straight up install the driver.
I'm not 100% sure that it messes up Optimus though, but it's true that it might. Unless the integrated graphics can run 1080p movies (VLC) on it's own, I think optimus is working. I'll have to mess around and find out. I'm going away for the weekend, but I'll try stuff out on the go.

 

Please tell us what you have done !!!!!!!!! PLEASE

 

sorry but on laptop2go our graphics card cannot be found !! LOOK

Drivers | drivers for mobile cards and laptops | laptopvideo2go.com[]=win7x64

 

Have prices increased though? I just speced a i5-460 with upgraded screen and 9-cell and it came to £856. Same spec came to around £760 ish a couple of weeks ago. (NB used £10% voucher for both)



Edit: my mistake, used the i5 560 instead of the 460

Still prices have increased by £20 because they no longer offer free shipping.

 

just to clear things up, and I'm sorry if this has been discussed already, but do the laptopvideo2go.com drivers work well with i7+435m (=NO optimus)?

 

Thank you for that. Found the solution here:
http://www.everythingitunes.com/os/windows/2008-01-04/mmkeysdll/

 

Anyone ?

 

Sorry, I posted in the wrong forum.

 

Repeat Post

 

Excellent question that is so far unanswered.

I have a similar question a few pages back, that is unanswered.

Based on analysis / benchmarks, from various websites,
the GT420M and GT435M are in a class of GPUs whose optimal performance are better
at a resolution of 1366x768. Any higher resolution, the
performance/FPS is affected.

I'm sure the FHD is awesome for videos and general usage,
(web browsing, photos, applications that are improved
on a higher-res, etc.) in the native resolution of 1920x1080.

How about for gaming purposes? Does the FHD downscale properly
to a 1366x766 resolution with no pixelization/blurriness?

If the FHD doesn't downscale properly to 1366x768, what resolution
are you using for games?

What are the benchmark results are you getting at that
particular resolution?

Surely you're not playing games at the FHD native resolution
with the GT420M or GT435M.

 

Also, I tried drivers from laptopvideo2go. The drivers stopped the nvidia GPU from switching back and forth between the integrated GPU. I had to roll back to the driver listed on dell's site.

 

Yes. I did actually replace the inf file with the custom version before installing. I believe if you don't replace the inf file it wont install in the first place. But after extensive testing, I can say for sure that Optimus only works with Dell's driver.

 

I can confirm that. Optimus only works using Dell's drivers.

 

I have an XPS 15 on order with delivery expected next week. One of my first steps will be to upgrade from Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Ultimate.

Has anyone tried upgrading their OS, rather than doing a clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate? How did it go? Are there any gotcha's to be aware of?

Thanks!

 

Does the XPS 15 support running dual external monitors? One via HDMI and the other via DisplayPort?

 

There seems to be a general opinion on this forum that the 1080p version of the screen is worth it. I would disagree for UK buyers at £170 for the upgrade.

I have the standard screen on my XPS 15 L501 and it is excellent and at least as good as any other laptop screen. Any problem the screen might have is that it has to be viewed at right angles. Viewing at any significant angle away from a right angle reduces the quality. Actually this is a problem with many laptop screens anyway.

In fact the main problem with the screen is a problem with any new laptop screen. Manufacturers insist on making it a 16:9 aspect which makes normal documents squashed in the vertical. I inderstand they do this for viewing movies but is movie viewing really the most important use of a laptop? Surely the viewing of documents and spreadsheets are more important?

The only other less good thing about the Dell is the design of the surface forward of the keyboard. Many modern laptops have a smoothly rounded design making it comfortable to rest your wrist while typing. The Dell design is flat with a sudden edge to the surface which can be uncomfortable for your wrist.

Otherwise this laptop is excellent with an excellent spec for the price.

 

Please show me a modern laptop model that has a "comfortable surface" for your wrists.. This laptop's surface is just like any other laptop: flat. The only difference to other laptops is that this laptop's surface is made of aluminium, which feels way better than plastic in my opinion.

And it's not only the quality of the screen that makes me recommend it to others, it's the resolution as well. I just love the 1920 x 1080 resolution as a workspace to work on. Especially in stuff like photoshop, movie editing, it's lovely to be able to oversee the whole workspace. Same goes for webbrowsing.

16:9 is not only for movies, in my opinion. I find it useful to put (for example) to Word documents next to each other, while still being able to read both of the documents.

And I haven't even mentioned the color / brightness / contrast quality yet.

It's all a matter of personal taste. I have paid 200 euros for the HD screen, and I haven't regret it for any moment. That's why I recommend it to other people.

 

About to purchase this laptop but can't decide between going for the i3 or the i5 processor.

I will primarily be using the laptop to watch movies (mkv) and youtube (1080p clips), will the i3 with 3GB Ram suffice?

Also what sort of battery life will the i3 and the i5 processors give with the 9 cell battery (420 graphics card)?

Also does the i5-460m have turbo boost?

 

Yeap but the drivers from laptop2go video doesn't work anyway ... drivers can be installed but it's only intel video card who is used !!!

 

Re the 1920 x 1080 resolution being hard to read etc. , I've seen some recommending to reduce the resolution to make it easier to read . In that case , if you wanted to watch a 1080p movie , would you have to manually change the resolution before running the video player , and manually reset afterwards , or would the video player do this automatically ?

 

Can anyone answer the above please?

 

i5-460m does has turbo boost, up to 2.8ghz.

Just surfing the internet casually, I can get up to 6.5h out of my 9-cell, 1080p, 420m, i5-460m.

RAM is up to you. On my Asus laptop, I had 3GB and it was more than enough for me. Unless you're doing some large scale video editing with files upwards of 1gb, then you'll definitely need more RAM. Otherwise, 3GB is enough.

 

So I guess an i3 will have the same battery life?

Looks like for movie watching (mkv) and youtube (1080p flash), an i5 with 4GB is overkill so may as well stick to the i3 with 3GB?

Also has anyone ordered with a TV Tuner, will I need a separate antenna or will the small one supplied do the job? I don't have an aerial coming into my bedroom so would have to rely on the supplied antenna that comes with the laptop.

Has anyone tried out the supplied antenna with the tv tuner?

 

This is the first dell i've considered purchasing in a long time, so I'm somewhat unfamiliar with how their site works. Are the instant savings that expire dec 10 likely to actually expire, or change to a larger savings?

also, does anyone know of any active dell.ca coupons for this beast?

 

Can you not even go into Optimus settings and force a program to use the NVidia card?

 

Can't agree with much of what you say.

A laptop that has a comfortable surface for the wrists? Well my 4 year old Toshiba Satellite P100 and my 2 year old Toshiba Satellite P200. So there's two for you. Most, if not all, I have come across on display in PCWorld and other shops are now designed with more comfortable wrist rests. It's nice to have an aluminium surface, but you can still shape aluminium as much as you can plastic.

1080p is not necessary for normal usage on a laptop. It may be nice to have but it is not worth an £170 upgrade in the UK. 16:9 aspect ratio is not good. Being able to place two documents next to each other is a poor excuse for such a design. As for web browsing task bars take up much of the top and bottom of screens - making it even narrower. Not good. It is also really not necessary to have 1080p on such a small screen.

You have your opinion. I have mine. I also have good reasons for mine. Many others are looking at 1080p versus the standard screen. It is only fair they get to hear from people who have the standard screen, not just how fantastic the 1080p screen is.

 

I just ordered xps 15. I want to use it as a HTPC somtime. the old M1330 had a remote.

does xps 15 come with a remote control? if not, can I buy it separately from somewhere?

 

Yes you can. Right click the program and choose to launch it with NVIDIA.

 

Excellent points.

Those are the positive aspects of the FHD B+RG LED screen
that made me very interested in possibly purchasing that option.

The FHD will be awesome for those purposes.

But how about for gaming?

Unless I've read the tests/benchmarks incorrectly, from other websites,
the GT420M/GT435M GPUs are not capable of giving sufficient
FPS/performance at the native resolution of 1920x1080. So there's
no choice but to play in a lower resolution to have certain games be playable.

Can the FHD downscale properly to a lower resolution?

How does the screen appear when downscaled to a non-native, lower resolution
of 1366x768? Is it pixelated, blurry? Is the pixelation/blurriness noticeable
when playin games?

 

You made some excellent points also.

That's why I'm in a quandary of
choosing between the (720P) and (1080P) screens.

 

Really? I was unable to do so with the drivers from laptopvideo2go.com

 

Like I said, a matter of personal taste. I don't mind not having a comfortable surface for my wrists, I'm used to it, just like when I use my keyboard for my desktop computer. And for the hell of it, the laptops surfaces you mentioned look just like mine.

I didn't say 1080p is necessary, I said I personally like it a lot. And I gave you some examples, fact is that you didn't mention the main purposes of this 1080p screen; Photoshopping, Video editing and perhaps gaming + watching movies. Putting 2 word documents next to each other COULD be a plus, but if you never use it, no.

As you said, the resolution is not needed for normal usage, hence I always tell people WHY they could go for the 1080p screen (beautiful colors / Photoshopping etc.).

And of course it's fair that people get to hear from people that have the standard screen, although the stories I've read about people having that screen aren't the most positive ones.

If you find the 720p an excellent screen, I just think you're not used to high standards. And that's okay, really. But the 1080p is worth the money, in my opinion. It's a combination of perfect colors, brightness and contrast AND usefulness for specific purposes (described above). That's what my recommendations are based on.

If you don't need all of that, and you use your laptop just for some webbrowsing and listening to music, I'd recommend the 720p.

 

You can't do it with the modified drivers. I think only Dell's work. I have Dell's driver installed.

I have attached a picture here showing the ability to run Internet Explorer with the graphics card of your choice if you have Optimus working.

 

When you say "perhaps gaming", are you
implying you have played graphic intensive games
on the FHD B+RG screen?

Are you playing graphic intensive games on the native resolution of 1920x1080
with the GT420M/GT435M GPU? If you are playing on its native resolution, I'd surely
like to know if the GT420M/GT435M is even capable of providing a playable FPS/performance
at that 1920x1080 resolution.

Or, are you playing in a downscaled lower resolution?
If you are playing graphic intensive games in that lower resolution, are there
noticeable pixelization/blurriness at that lower resolution?

That's all I'd like to know.

It seems like the FHD B+RG owners, in this Dell thread, are unwilling to answer or ignoring
my simple question pertaining to playing graphic intensive games on the FHD B+RG screen.

 

The 420M graphics card is not capable of playing games at 1080p. The 435M card is a bit better but is not up to the standard of the ATI 5800 series or the top nVidia cards on desktop computers. So the 1080p screen is not needed to play games.

I am used to high standards of viewing as I regularly view Freesat HD on a Panasonic 50 inch plasma screen. On that size of screen the extra resolution is useful. On a 15 inch laptop it's usefulness is marginal, and not worth a £170 upgrade cost.

I also use Photoshop for my Canon 40D photos and find the standard screen perfectly adequate. Again on my larger desktop computer monitor the higher resolution is useful, but really not necessary on a 15 inch laptop screen.

 

I have been closely following XPS 15 forums and really tempted to buy the FHD for my XPS15.( INDIA)
I would be watching movies,videos,surfing and also I like playing games but I donot play graphic intensive/recent games.I am a medium to light gamer like NFS most wanted,carbon half life left for dead(most of them are 2008/2009 games )
But I don’t understand what u guys are talking “playing games at native resolutions”.
Can I play my games in good settings(FHD settings) Please suggest whether FHD is worth it..??

 

The 'native resolution' of the FHD screen is 1920 x 1080 pixels. The native resolution of the standard screen is 1366 x 768 pixels. When playing games at native resolution, as mentioned, it refers to playing them at the native resolutions of each screen. Playing games on a laptop at the FHD resolution of 1920 x 1080 is unrealistic, it is going to be very slow. A resolution of 1366 x 768 is much more playable. Even if you had the 435M and a fast processor playing on battery power would also be unrealistic. You would need to be connected to mains power.

So if you are playing low graphics games an FHD screen would be superfluous. Many older games are also not capable of 1920 x 1080 resolution as well.

The real benefit of an FHD screen is with high quality photos in photoshop and with bluray movies. In the UK that would require an £170 upgrade and a bluray dvd player.

I am sure the FHD screen is really nice but do you really need it? Or is the extra cost unimportant to you? Those are the questions you need to ask yourself.

An extra point is that the best quality of an LCD screen is when it is used at it's native resolution. Reducing the resolution on an FHD screen would reduce the quality and then there will not be the significant difference with the standard screen compared to using it at it's native resolution.

 

Thank you Pontius Navigator for the reply.

Thank you for confirming my initial thoughts
that the GT420M/GT435 GPUs are not capable of sufficiently
processing games at the FHD resolution of 1920x1080.

But no one seems to want to answer if the FHD is capable of downscaling
to 1366x768. If it can downscale to that resolution, is the screen
pixelated/blurry or is it still sharp? If it's still sharp, I might still
consider the FHD screen.

I totally agree with the points you've made about the 1080P resolution
in a 15" screen. Especially with that price difference / extra cost.
I'm leaning towards just settling with the 720P screen.

I wouldn't mind having the best of both though, (1080P for videos, web browsing, certain apps, etc.)
and (720P for games, web browsing, certain, apps, etc.). Hehe!

My final decision all depends if the FHD screen can downscale to 1366x768.

But no one is willing to verify the capabilites of the FHD screen.

If I can see/test one personally, then
of course I wouldn't be posting here repeatedly about the FHD screen.

 

I'm in the same predicament as you. Hehe!

I'm still deciding which screen to choose before placing my order.

The games you mentioned are considered graphic intensive games. Since those games
require a capable GPU for the game to be playable.

The GT420M/GT435M are definitely capable of handling those games you mentioned with acceptable
FPS/performance at 1366x768. At 1920x1080, that's another matter. No one has mentioned
FPS results for games at that resolution.

"Playing games at native resolutions" just means playing games at maximum resolution (best quality)
of that particular LCD screen.

So, for example, the FHD B+RG LED screen has a native resolution of 1920x1080. If you have that screen and playing a
game at its native resolution, you're playing the game at 1920x1080.

Sorry I can't give you a definitive answer if the games you mentioned is playable at 1920x1080 in the lowest settings.

Based on what I've read on other websites, this class of GPUs GT420M/GT435M, and Pontius Navigator confirms it,
isn't capable of optimal FPS/performance at 1920x1080 resolution.

That's why I'm interested to know if the FHD B+RG screen can downscale to 1366x768 (with no pixelation/blurriness),
since the GT420M/GT435M performs much better at that resolution. So far, no FHD owner has answered that question.

EDIT:

Uugghh! Sorry, posted this, didn't notice Pontius Navigator gave some excellent answers to your questions.

Excellent points made by Pontius Navigator. I definitely agree.

 

Strange that. There are loads of contributors who have bought the FHD screen. You would think someone could answer that point. I would have thought the answer would be that it can downscale but, as you know, that would reduce the quality.

 

no you can't!

 

I'm at school reading these messages right now, seeing you guys agree with Pontius Navigator, who doesn't even have the 1080P screen with 435M GT, how can you judge whether it's good enough to play games?

I've played both WoW and TMNations on high(est) settings, 1920 x 1080, FPS in WoW was about 40, and TMnations managed to get a FPS of 70. It's both very well playable. To get the WoW FPS higher you can just turn off a few settings that will hardly make a difference in graphics but will give you a higher FPS.

I'll try other games for you later, and I'll reply on the things being said here when I get home.. I totally disagree with you, Pontius Navigator. It kinda seems to me like you want to talk down the 1080p screen while you haven't even seen it yourself. Shush. Will be continued.

 

@Pontius Navigator:
thanks for te reply ..Well I agree.. but yo some extent only.
@majestyz:
we are waiting for the results for other games..
Also why dont you give it a try to downscale the resolution.
Then we would be in a better position to compare..