XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

i did drop the res down to check that, would like to know others default core clock to see if I have something holding the GPU above stock before I dive into the diagnostics.

 

Hey everyone.
I'm considering to buy the XPS 15 top tier modell but the temperatures mentioned in the notebookcheck test are a bit scary

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Sorry misclicked and tapatalk posted my post to fast... Is the heat a problem playing games like Dota2, Starcraft2, Heroes of Newerth, WoW?
I would appreciate an answer to this very much.
Best regards Sefiror

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You'll get heat on any notebook with components such as the XPS 15, and keep in mind that this is a relatively thin machine. Also, heat as a result of gaming really also depends on the game you're playing. Some games are optimized well enough to maintain temperatures/performance and some are terrible at it such as LoL and DoTA (so far, I've read at least 4 complaints in regards to this). I play TERA regularly and at max settings, 1080p or 1600x900 -- and I don't get nearly the same heat as some of the other MMOs that I casually play.

 

Thank you for your answer!
I have no problem with a bit of heat but in the notebookcheck test at the stresstest cpu and gpu were around 100 degree Celsius and that would be really hot.

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There are some problems between kernel 3.13 and the nVidia proprietary drivers. While some users didn't need to do anything, I had trouble at first, and was able to make the proprietary driver to work only through Bumblebee, and not standalone.

You can find some info in the wiki: Linux - XPS 15 Wiki (feel free to contribute)

 

Hi guys

Quick question...

Apologies if this is something that's been covered - I tried searching but no joy. So I've had this laptop since it came out and I'm running 8.1 + latest NVidia drivers (and Intel) on QHD screen. Certain games I run, even though I have full screen selected, appear to run in full screen to the solution that's selected (eg 1980x1020) but I get a black 'border' around the remaining edges of the screen. Note - the games are in full screen mode.

At first I thought this was old games and something programming related but even the latest Thief game does this. The only way to truly get a fullscreen appears to be to set the resolution to insanely high (QHD res) and then it's fullscreen but obviously games lag a lot due to the quality and I have to crank it down a fair bit.

So....does anyone have a clue what I'm talking about and have experienced this themselves and secondly, how does one get this resolved?

Any help appreciated folks. Many thanks.

 

I had the same issue but discovered that if I change my desktop resolution to 2048x1152 before launching a game, it will run fullscreen at whatever resolution I select in the game. Not sure how that makes a difference, but it works with every game I've tried.

When I'm done gaming, I just switch the resolution back to 3200x1800.

 

I haven't measured exact temps, but yeah, the keyboard does get pretty hot during gaming, sometimes to slighty uncomfortable levels, but it never gets unbearable or really irritating. It's not like you will get burned. Considering the thin build and the specs, I think it's unavoidable. For me it's no big issue.

 

Try this: enter Intel Graphics properties -> Display -> Change the resolution to 1920xxxx or in whatever resolution you want to play -> Change the scaling setting below to Full screen - > Save and switch back to native. Now try running Thief in the said resolution (while keeping the native desktop res). It _should_ be full screen. I have no problem with Thief, although some games _do_ require the changing of the desktop resolution (Bioshock Infinite, Civilization 5). I suspect the problem might concern DX 10+ games, as Civ 5 works fine when I launch it in DX9 mode.

 

BJBJ and Loui100 - thank you both for your suggestions. I'll try these out when i'm back home tonight. Thanks again.

 

Lucky you. I order from UK on 28th and it is still stuck in pre-production

 

Blimey, UKMail's depot's about an hour away from me... Oh well, better than having them leave it out in the open or refusing to deliver to a neighbour because they couldn't be sure which flat they were from...

You say tracking number, do you mean the one on the Dell page? That's coming up as Syncreon and so far all I can see is that it's left the manufacturing plant and is now "Pending".

 

28th of January or February?

 

Mine been in production for almost two weeks.. still not shipped. Order from US, Feb 2nd.. estimated delivery 3/17/14. Midtier.

 

It's really weird how they sort out the orders. Doesn't seem to be on a first come first serve basis.

 

January, I wouldn't mind if it was February.

 

If it's of any consolation, mine departed the "manufacturing facility" at 9am on Friday and hasn't yet arrived wherever it was going. Maybe it was just scanned prematurely...

 

Had to go with option chaps - the Intel option mentioned didn't work for m I'm afraid. I hate that this even has to be done - not a major problem but just annoying. Loui100 - question for you...

In Thief, after you leave the initial room on the very first level does your frame rate drop to next to nothing? Mine does - I'm not sure if this is trottling or bugs in the game. If it's throttling, I'm not sure what I can do about this (if anything).

 

Weird, we should have the exact same drivers etc. so why does it work for me? There is some real issue with those Intel drivers.

As for the FPS, I can't be sure but I don't recall it dropping to 0 for sure, at least not for long. Does it stay that low for you? What settings do you use? Make sure to turn off SSAA, it's an FPS drainer. I got everything on max except SSAA and it's fine. You can drop the res a bit for increased fps but it's playable in 1920xxxx.

Btw, did you update the Nvidia drivers?

 

To the people who got an XPS 15 recently (after all the waiting): have Dell fixed the coil whine? Any info on whether they plan to?

I see people saying that there are "others" who don't ave coil whine, but reading this thread, it seems the XPS 15 is simply plagued by it and that those who don't have any coil whine are mere exceptions to the rule.

Cheers

 

This has been asked and answered in this thread about 3 times in the last week. Dell has acknowledged the issue, which suggests that they're working on developing a fix and incorporating it into production -- but nobody has gotten confirmation that that's happened yet. People without coil whine do indeed seem to be the exceptions to the rule at least in the forums, but forums are biased toward negative information. Other people like myself have it and don't really mind because it's quiet enough to be inaudible with even low amounts of ambient noise and frankly isn't that irritating even when it is audible. As I've said numerous times, I didn't even consider it an issue until so many people complained about it since I've heard it on so many other laptops I've used.

But if you're worried about it, wait several months to either order your system or request a replacement motherboard. Right now it seems Dell has suspended motherboard replacements for this issue because they don't believe replacements are likely to fix the issue. I presume that they're therefore working on a design change to the motherboard and will allow replacements for coil whine again when updated motherboards are available, at which point affected customers will be able to expect that the replacement will resolve the coil whine.

 

So potentially it is possible to get the smaller battery and set up a RAID setup then, which would offer even faster storage speeds.

 

Regarding coil whine, someone else referenced this before, but it is apparently still being actively investigated: XPS 15 9530 - Noise problem? - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

Also, keep in mind that different systems seem to be afflicted to different degrees, and that some users may have better or worse hearing than others which affects perception.

FWIW, I don't notice any coil whine with my original system, but I do with my 1st replacement. And based on mosquito hearing tests (search youtube), I can't hear frequencies 15khz or higher.

 

I said you could have two separate drives simultaneously, not a RAID setup. This system does not support any typical RAID level. The only RAID-ish functionality is Intel Smart Response mode, which is used when your mSATA slot has a 32GB cache unit installed in it and your SATA slot has a spinning hard drive. That mode presents the two drives as a single logical disk, and from there you use the Intel Rapid Storage application to enable Smart Response and optionally Rapid Start -- but not both at the same time if you have 16GB of RAM.

 

Hi,

I tested the laptop yesterday playing Starcraft2 HoTS for 3 hours in a row. All graphics at ultra, full HD and 4v4 games (so the CPU will also be busy), but no AA. I didn't notice any throttling (the frequencies reported by GPU-z were at maximum during gameplay). In a couple of days I will rerun the tests but this time I will also have a look at the temperatures and I will also test Dota2.

Thanks.

 

It will throttle with dota2

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I've found I get the best results using the Geforce Experience software to optimize my games based on the hardware capabilities of the laptop. It decides the optimal resolution and in-game settings in an effort to give you the best compromise between a good and playable experience (frame rate), and best visuals.

It doesn't support every game out there, but does have profiles for heaps of them. I find it indispensable and use it on both my laptop and desktop.

 

Those who are suffering from throttling, I may have good news. As per this post, I forced the frame rate to 30 and played BF4 while laptop was in my lap. I played for 15 minutes with a consistant 30 fps-didn't face any throttling (otherwise would get throttled within 5 minutes). Will test more tomorrow.

If anybody knows if this is actually harmful (whether it would cause it to overheat), please let me know.

 

Guys playing bf4, when u run it at 1600x900 does it fill ur full screen? On mine it just displays as a little square.. is there a way to fix this?

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http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...ll-owners-lounge-post9582588.html#post9582588

 

Please keep an open mind while doing those tests. Not all games are optimized correctly to fully utilize Nvidia's technology. TERA, for example, has been running flawlessly for me, and the game is a lot more graphically intense than games like Dota2 or LoL which bring hotter temperatures and throttling even though they are smaller and not as heavy. It's not always the hardware. Many users are having throttling with funny examples of games and others playing BF4 or similar graphics are experiencing good temperatures and no throttling.

 

Another option might be not to use the laptop on your lap, when you're doing demanding stuff like playing games. You might find you're able to play at full frame rates if you just place it on a solid, level surface. That way, all of the vents are unobstructed and the cooling system can function at peak efficiency.

 

I don't know about windows, but with linux you can use the powertop command line program. You might have to install it (with Ubuntu it's easy "sudo apt-get install powertop"). Then just run it with the command

It will give you a lot of information. Use the "tab" key to scroll through different information displays.

 

Thanks man! Unfortunately I am having hard time to locate where the consumption in Watts is listed. I guess it is in front of my eyes and I can't see it!

Thanks!

 

I'm not sure why you wouldn't see it. When I start powertop on my xps 15 laptop, the power consumption is shown on one of the first lines (see this image here: ). When I try it on my desktop though, I don't see the power usage.

 

On the overview tab the power usage is only shown while in battery, as it is the battery discharge rate what it reports.

You may find some power usage for your desktop in the Device stats tab.

 

It's a strange one - it drops and stays dropped until I quit the game and start again. It 'feels' like throttling - the reason I say this is because it starts beautifully smooth. I can't remember the exact settings I use but the res is 1920x1080 - which I think should be ok.

Just something worth note, I don't know if anyone else's does this but when I change the resolution in Windows, it now no longer actually takes effect (it revert immediately back to 3xxx x xxxx QHD even though I click the Apply/OK or whatever comes up when you get the 15 or 10 second count down. I actually had to change this within the Intel App.

I'm starting to feel the same...something really screwy about these Intel drivers...In regards to NVidia drivers, always the latest ones.
Something I'm not considering is that there is probably a good chance there are bugs as well in the game - I've applied the 1st patch but it's probably best to wait for performance to be optimised I suppose.

 

I've noticed similar behaviour. Right clicking the desktop and selecting "Screen resolution", then choosing something other than 3200x1800 and clicking apply, results in the resolution changing, then quickly switching back. If you change it a second time and click apply again, it will take. Kinda odd, but not such a big deal IMO. I'm sure it'll get sorted out eventually.

In the meantime, it's just two extra clicks.

 

What position do you play in? I only use my laptop lying flat on the desk so far, so maybe that's why I don't suffer from throttling?

 

as jphughan said - I don't think you'll find a way to get faster storage speeds - your best bet is to buy the fastest SSDs you can get your hands on. With the smaller battery, you will have room for one 7mm SATA laptop drive and one mSATA drive, and speed will be determined by the drives you use. If you're interested in swapping batteries, let me know - I have the mid-tier but am not using the extra SATA slot (and my storage needs are not very great - but I could def use some extra battery life)

 

That's exactly why. Kudos to you and thank you for jumping on the common sense bandwagon and posting about it!

Several of us have been advising against gaming while the laptop is in any position other than on a stable, solid, level surface for some time now. Yet, there are still almost daily comments about how the laptop throttles/overheats when on your lap. :hi2:

Please, everyone experiencing performance loss due to throttling, just try this, if you haven't already: before you fire up any sort of resource intensive application, place the computer or a solid, flat, level surface, like a table top, desk, hard cover book. This will ensure that the cooling system works as intended...unobstructed.

I suspect the complaints/comments/incessant rants about throttling/overheating would diminish or possibly be eliminated.

Ultimately, I think all any of us wants is to enjoy our shiny new computers to the fullest. IMO, realizing that you can't game on your lap, a pillow, blanket, carpet, would go a long way to helping make that a reality.

Give it a shot and post about your experience! I always place the laptop on either my glass top coffee table, or a large, hardcover book while gaming. I can literally game for hours at a time without noticing any performance degradation that could be attributed to throttling. Give it a shot.

 

Ahhh...I hold my hands up. As someone who works in IT infrastructure for over 15 years should know better. It's on my lap keeping the missus happy (spending time with her etc) however I do try my best to keep the vents open as possible. Looks like the laptop's going to be relegated back upstairs to the office room ;-)

I'll check it out and see if it makes a difference. Thanks chaps for pointing out the obvious - sometimes you miss what's right in front of you even though you've read every post by everyone else talking about the same thing lol

 

As I had mentioned here, the laptop doesn't throttle when it is on a level surface. But as soon as I keep it at an angle (without anything blocking the under side, except my hand at the hinge and the opposite edge touching the table (basically, laptop at a 45 deg angle)), it throttles. In my HWInfo log, I didn't see any indication that the temperature increased when it was at an angle. Another user also mentioned that he experienced similar behaviour ( here).

Also, why it doesn't throttle if I set the FPS to fixed 30?

I guess its not about obstruction. Just a theory-may be when it is at an angle, is it possible that the airflow direction changes? That still wouldn't cover why it works with fixed 30 fps though.

Please note that I am not trying to question anybody, just throwing out my doubts.

 

They should make a battery with a space to fit a 2nd msata drive, that would really finish off the new XPS.

 

It's a discussion. It's good to ask questions and throw out opinions. It's also good to try possible solutions and see if they work. Sometimes the most simple thing is the secret. :thumbsup:

My best guess would be that having the laptop not resting flat on the surface, somehow impedes it's ability to draw the proper volume of air in. I'm no engineer, but there does seem to be a common denominator with people that are experiencing throttling...laptop not flat on a solid surface.

Also, I would be inclined to assume that locking the frame rate at something lower than the maximum it's capable of rendering, ie. 30fps, would limit the workload on both the CPU and GPU, thus resulting in a reduced temperature. Again, no expert, but that would seem to make sense. Anybody with additional thoughts on this, please share!

Assuming this is correct, perhaps the presumed reduction in temperature is such that the cooling system IS able to cope, even in sub-optimal situations...such as propping it up at an angle with your hand, though this obviously isn't a real world scenario. I can't imagine anyone trying to game with one hand propped under the hinge,

 

Forest for the trees, my friend.

Please let us know what your result is! Hopefully your wife won't miss you too much, while you're fragging up a storm in the office.

 

Finally received mine from Costco. So far I'm not seeing/hearing any of the flaws typically mentioned. Screen seems fine and I can't hear any coil whine (yet). However...

The mousepad. Clicking in the left bottom corner gives off a click sound, but nothing happens. I have to move my finger almost an inch to the right to make the click actually register. This is highly annoying obviously, but don't recall anyone else having reported this.

And the thing is, I'm really hesitant to get it serviced, because I'm afraid that will introduce some other problem. How sad is that?

Any advice?

 

I updated to the latest nvidia driver.. still having fps issues in opengl games (quakelive for example). In fullscreen only ~140fps (while I should get 500+ fps) and in windows mode the fps is stable @max fps rate (250).

 

Both the left and right buttons on my touchpad are a little finicky as well. Too far into the corner, and the click doesn't register. I got used to it pretty quickly and adjusted my presses accordingly. You will too.

My advice...if you got a near perfect unit, don't mess with it because of something comparatively insignificant which you can readily adapt to. Also, update the touchpad driver and touchscreen firmware, both from Dell's site. Many people, including myself have reported improved touchpad accuracy and performance, especially with 2-finger scrolling.

It probably won't fix the weak corner clicks, since I feel this is a hardware design issue...which goes to say all of the XPS 15s probably have this. Running on that assumption, getting a replacement won't help anything and could potentially leave you with a much larger problem.

As I said previously, it was pretty easy to adjust to, with a little time and patience.

Enjoy your new beast!