Please help been offered a dell studio xps 16 can't decide

Hi

I'm looking for a bit of advice I have been offered a dell studio xps 16 (refurb) for £999 it comes with the following spec

2.8ghz core 2 duo CPU
8gig ddr3 ram
500 gig 7200rpm harddrive
1gig rideon 4670 HD graphic card
windows 7 pro installed
3 yrs accident waranty

my question is will this spec be able to play mw2 etc

thanks in advance

ian

 

When I had the chance to try out MW2, during the Steam free weekend offer, I was able to max it out (no AA) at native resolution (1920x1080). I achieved an FPS average of ~55. I was quite impressed. On Bad Company 2, when there is no GPU throttling, I achieve an average of 40+ fps, (1280x720 res, everything high, shadows-medium, HBAO-off) It's not the best card, but it's very capable. Personally, I wouldn't recommend the system for gaming, as I suffer from the aforementioned GPU throttling (a thread on that should be easy to find). For me that is really the main issue that holds back this otherwise great system. Though your components might keep the the temps below that threshold, and you might be lucky. Look up other issues users have had with the system and see what you can learn for yourself. It's unfortunate to say, but sometimes, with the XPS 16, luck is all you need....What screen are you getting though?

Good luck.

 

hi

thanks alot for the reply, the screen is a

Glossy 15.6 inch Full HD -LED LCD display (1080p)1920 x 1080

thanks for the advice, i have been reading the threads just wasnt sure which xps16 i had and if mine would be affected by the throttling??

do you know how i can tell if it would affect me, i have the laptop here at the moment and have a few days left before i need to return it if i dont want it.

thanks alot

Ian

 

Check out the threads on throttling, you'll need furmark, prime95, cpuid, and throttlestop...

I think that is all.

 

Also keep in mind that forcing your laptop to throttle the GPU doesn't necessarily mean it will throttle when you game normally. Games don't put a system under the same kind of load that benchmark programs and other programs intended to put 100% load on the system.

 

I believe you have a 1640, since you seem to have the Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 (2.8 ghz) processor. Only the 1645 and the 1647 come with the Core i7 and i5 processors, respectively (which yours doesn't have).

I haven't really been following the 1640's throttling issues, as I have a 1645. Your components seem to point toward less heat produced and power used than me [your T9600 vs my i7-720QM and WLED vs RGB], but then again, I believe the 1640 runs hotter than the 1645 and 1647. As RacingGun said, I think the best way to test for GPU throttling is by trying out a game (I don't use benchmarking tests myself). Mine GPU throttled on Bad Company 2, yours might not. Then there's also CPU throttling which is a different issue all together , which I know had been essentially fixed with the 1645 and 1647, but again I don't know about the 1640.

To learn how to check for CPU throttling you can use this thread. You can get the latest Throttlestop from Unclewebb's post here. The rest of the programs can be googled. GPU throttling can be learned about in more detail from this thread . I know all this stuff might seem unnecessary and overwhelming for a system that should work straight out of the box, but I was also forced to educate myself about this stuff before I realized that I was suffering from the all this throttling nonsense as well. Now you might not have any of these problems or even notice them now, but it's always better to know about them than to ignore them. It's sad for Dell really...

 

hi guys,

thanks alot for all the info, its been an eye opener... never knew this type of problems exsited....

the processor i have is a

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9600 Processor (2.80GHz, 1066MHZ, 6MB L2 Cache)

been playing MW2 tonight for the past couple of hours,

setting are

1280 x 720
anti analysing x 2
everything set to yes in advanced setup.

works really well.

im off now to read all the posts on throttling, could be a while.

thanks once again

ian

 

During some games, an XPS 1640 with a Core 2 Duo can throttle to as little as 800 MHz and then can throttle internally even further.

Go download a game demo or two it you don't have any modern games to test. Run a ThrottleStop log file while playing and it will keep track of the CPU multiplier. Send me a log file or upload it somewhere convenient like Free large file hosting. Send big files the easy way! and then post a link here so we can have a look.

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/3/1794507/ThrottleStop.zip

 

I was amazed at the performance of my 1640 while playing MW2, everything maxed, AA on X4 and it was super smooth. MW doesn't play as nice though. Even GTAIV plays good compared to all the bad things I heard about it on PC. If you really want to game with it you may want to look into overclocking the GPU. I am glad I did ;-)

 

BTW, a T6600 has only 2MB of cache and runs at 2.2 GHz. Maybe your CPU is a T9600? The T9600 consumes more power and might get you closer to the throttling point sooner. Nice CPU when it is running at full speed.

 

hi,

thanks alot for the info... i have had a quick go. i was playing mw2 for about 1hr before i realised i hadnt pressed save on the throttlestop program...

so i started logging and here are the results, only a short time but i was using it on 100% power setting.

Download ThrottleStopLog.txt from Sendspace.com - send big files the easy way

any advice would be very helpful... still reading never knew there was so much to it all this throttling...

thanks alot, its been a very interesting journey so far....

Ian

 

hi

how did you overclock it and by how much, and what improvements did you see..

thanks alot

Ian

 

yes sorry it is a T9600 2.8ghz

ian