**The Official Studio XPS 1647 Intel Core i5/i7 "Owners' Lounge"**

I didn't get 6 years out of my previous system School screwed us by promising us a great laptop for a small price... ended up spending 1550,- on a laptop that didn't do what the specs said it would. And had just 1 and a half year life spand (which is 6 months longer than all of my fellow students!)

Any time you would open more than just photoshop or 3dsmax... it would turn black on the spot and restart! jippie (t8300, 2GB ram 800mhz, 8600gs and 256GB HDD) XXODD

 

hey guys what happened to the new I7 M620 ???

I dont see it on DELL site either on the HP site !!

 

According to my Dell rep the next batch of RGBLED screens will arrive at their factory on 6th Feb'2010. Quantities are limited and backlog orders are significant. Looks like my laptop won't be arriving till end of Feb'2010.

 

That sure sucks. Looks like anyone with a EDD within the next few weeks wont have it met..

 

I have crysis to use as a benchmark, what other games/ apps do you guys want me to use when it gets here.... I plan on reinstalling the whole machine because I got a deal on win 7 pro which I rather use

 

anyone with RGB screen with EDD earlier than 2/10 ? (and not shipped yet)

 

So I loaded up Crysis with Throttlestop monitoring and FRAPS in the background. I put the log up for Crysis. Timestamp at 19:20 is when Crysis began playing. Frame rates from FRAPS were 16 - 20 fps. Still very much playable, I guess it would smooth out with higher frame rates I'd have to see it though as I this was smooth, no stuttering etc.

I did the same thing with FEAR 2 just to see what the frame rates would be and in FEAR2 with the same setup and I was getting 45 - 60 fps with it hovering between 50 and 60 FPS most of the time.

So this 1647 is definitely throttling but I guess not as severely from a playability standpoint than the 1645's. I'll dig out my 130W power supply tomorrow (forgot it at work) and try the same thing with throttlestop enabled and look for differences in frame rates.

Got some ideas to try from DW that I'll do later and see if there is a difference. As before my brightness is at max and all game settings were maxed out in both games.

 

Stormwerks, thanks for posting that. So its safe to say that the 1647 can play crysis without any lag? I also have a few questions for ya if ya don't mind how is the sound? Any crackling, popping, hissing when multitasking or visiting a site? Does the computer resume from sleep mode ok. On my dv8 it would constantly lock up after resuming from sleep. Hey thanks again for your tests. Greatly Appreciated.

 

ya can try on battery see what ya get. but 130w adapter + ts is probably the best.

 

@mattmjb0188 - the sound is fine, no crackling, popping or anything. It played normally the entire time. The unit also resumes from sleep or hibernation without issue doesn't matter whether its gone to sleep on its own or I close the lid and re-open it. I guess I would have to play Crysis on a machine that runs high frame rates and not throttling etc to know if there was a difference but it seems to be a non-issue on this 1647. I'll try throwing it on my XPS-17 with the dual nvidia cards and see if there is a visible difference.

 

Go on youtube and take a look, Theres videos with the p8600 with the 3xxx series gpu playing crysis at maxed settings so ya....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oS2Lr5NhfE

 

Cool, did you get the Creative Sound Blaster or just the regular IDT sound? Sorry for my sound questions, its just every HP laptop I have had has had issues with the sound preferably (IDT) OH I don't know if this has been addressed on the 1647, but does it run cool? I heard in the 1645 they fixed it somewhat.

 

Then the 4670 is really a good card if it can play it on high with out lag. On the Nvidia 230M which is on my dv8t it couldn't play it on high, it lagged so bad.

 

It's 4670 at 1280x720 resolution.

 

theres other videos just search for it on youtube... i just pulled the first one up i saw

 

@mattmjb0188 - Mine has the Sound Blaster on it. It does run cool too. If you check my throttlestop logs you can see my temps under max loads gets up to 60 ish but never more than that.

 

4670 is a great card however 5 series ATI will be great not as great as first though but it will deffinatly run cooler and faster.

The Nvidia 285GTS is out soon that should be a good one to watch. This its that modle. (GTS, M OR GTX I can never remember).

 

Did some more runs (I'm starting to get addicted to this game) running on battery and typically no throttling. Crysis looked exactly the same without throttling as it did throttled. Same FPS rates.

I then turned some settings down in Crysis and got the frame rates up to 30 - 35. Looked exactly the same again.

Go figure. Next set will be with a 130W adapter and throttlestop enabled.

 

So your setup can run crysis at maximum ?? What resolution is this at ?

 

That is really strange.. you are getting the same performance when the laptop is throttling than when its not..
cool

Thanks a lot for these tests..

 

Crysis is probably limited by gpu rather than cpu. You can read gpu load from gpu-z.

 

I think we are starting to see the picture here. The 1645's cpu throttling would limit the gpu performance since it clocks down so low. As the i5's may be throttling but the multipliers are generally by default so high even if it dropped some multipliers it would still be high enough to not limit the gpu.

Games like DA, l4d2 or tf2 you may see a difference, as they are very cpu intensive games and use multiple cores to assist rendering. So i guess for now yall may be in the clear, but a laptop shouldnt do this and i would worry about the future apps to come.

 

@fluffyuk - yup it plays on maximum no problem that I can see although the frame rates according to FRAPS are low but I can't see a difference between the low frame rates and higher ones.

 

atlstang - sounds plausible to me and certainly if I was looking to get longevity out of a platform primarily for gaming that would definitely be an issue. I continue to be impressed with this laptop though.

 

From my understanding as well using fraps takes away some performance as well

 

Seems like it.

 

Im so happy yours works dude, I cant believe Crysis on MAXIMUM settings! What res arre you playing at ?

Do you think the 8GB RAM has something to do with it ?

 

I'm wondering that too

 

I think it might play a little role in it but I think the fps is depicted primarily on GPU and CPU, 8GB might not even be needed for the same results

 

You're correct. FRAPS will cause quite a bit of lag with it running in the background. I am anxious to run some tests on mine when it gets here tomorrow. I do a lot of gaming on my desktop so I have a few things that I would like to try out, in addition to Prime95 and Furmark.

Plus, I have the lowest end XPS 16 so everyone can use it as the benchmark minimum...

 

Im glad to hear theres more positive things coming from this laptop

 

Im a expecting those tests

 

I'm playing it full screen at 1920 x 1080. I suppose its possible. Don't get me wrong the laptop is working hard because the fan kicks in and runs full out the entire time.

 

Im astonished dude thats or than most desktops ? very high settings on Crysis need like quad SLI dont they ?

 

I agree. That is very impressive..

 

heyyy... for all the people who recently bought the 1647... where are you guys located??? i've checked all over the Dell (US) website and there's no mention of the 1647s or the i7 620M processors anywhere... all i see is the xps 16's with i7 720M quads... plz help

 

Um I am near austin so ya.... Mine gets here FRIDAY!!!!!!

 

The i7-620M Dual Core was an option in the early days of production. It doesn't seem to be available at the moment in the XPS 16 series.

 

Plus you really dont want it when you could get a normal i7 for near the same price anyways

 

Since you know him so well, why doesn't he want it?

<3

fudfudfudfud FUDFUDFUDFUD FUDFUDFUDFUD

 

Early testing showed that the Dual Core i7-620 was very competitive with the Quad core even in well threaded tasks due to its higher multiplier. In many tasks like gaming that don't fully utilize 4 threads let alone 8 threads, the Dual Core was the clear performance winner.

 

You gotta use the EEP program to be able to see it....try this link:

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...p&cs=2248&link_number=17967996&kc=epp_lt_perf

come'on man.... i7 620m is also a "Normal" i7 cpu.... and who said the i7 620 is worse than the i7 720qm..... all depends on the personal reference

 

I didnt say it was worse... im just saying if there is a quad for the same price thats what i would do

 

@Texanman: I see on your signature it mentions that the Ram is only clocked at 1066 mhz due to the cpu, do u know if that's the same case for i7 620m??

 

does the one from best buy come with a backlit keyboard? it is i5 430m is it the 1647 model?

 

Im not sure actually... I was reading a technical article about the i5 mobiles and found that it can only support 1066 ram... then I go and take a look at my laptop page from dell and it states that they placed 1333 ram in it

 

Yes, every 1647 comes with a backlit keyboard. The one from Best Buy has the i5-430 and it is the 1647, its all there on their website..

 

@zyc_hot: EPP program? what is that? Is that available in other regions?

 

It's the Employee and Education program, My college (US) is enrolled with dell for this program so if I purchase through the school, I get a discount.....I am not sure about other locations, check with your school...

 

So I notice your EDD is today... any news?