XPS 15 (L521X) Owner's Lounge

LiquidSilver - I can confirm your findings with my new XPS 15 (I7 3612QM / GT 640M)

When I play any games - the CPU throttles to 1.2ghz immediately and the performance is unacceptable!

I tried the 99% setting for Max CPU under power profile and the CPU ran @ 2.1ghz for about a minute when gaming and then throttled back to 1.2ghz

I compared to my DELL E6530 (work laptop) I7 3520M / NVS 5200M and it runs at 3.3ghz and stays there when I fire up the same game and the performance is significantly better than the XPS 15!

I'm definitely going to return this XPS 15 if a solution isn't forthcoming in the next several days....

Thanks for your informative posts as I found this thread when searching for similar issues to what I was experiencing!

 

I hate to say this, but this is not a solution to the problem. The solution to the problem is for Dell to fix the laptop. I have a busted touchscreen that registers touches when I'm nowhere near the screen; I could just turn off the touchscreen, but that doesn't fix the issue. Dell coming on Monday to replace the screen will fix the issue. Likewise, this computer comes with a processor capable of turbo-boosting up to a certain speed. The solution isn't to cripple it.

 

What is the point of a fast processor if the system throttles whenever you run anything that uses a fast processor? Ridiculous.

Does anyone else's not remember the backlight keyboard setting? I do not like the lights on and it seems like half the time I wake it up from sleep they come back on, I turn them off again, next time it comes back up from sleep they are on again. Pretty annoying. Guess I will check if there is a way to disable it totally.

 

Just ordered the 640m model... should I be feeling buyers remorse? Haven't used a laptop in ages, my last one overheated me. Hopefully it won't be a problem with this model


Also did anyone else get a free xbox 360 with their purchase, seems like you can't choose it from the directed students offer's website however I got one of the chat support guys to include a free 360 with the laptop.

 

... I suppose those temps are in fahrenheit? 80 degrees on a CPU is crazy if you are running a desktop. been out of the mobile scene for a while. is this normal?

 

Running prime95 my temps are 80-82C per CoreTemp. Supposedly the 3612QM max temp is 105C.

 

Does yours have throttling issues when doing prime95?

 

sorry if already posted but it seems that the throttling issue is also affecting the 14inch line
link
I suppose this is only a software issue that can be fixed with a BIOS update? wouldn't want to cancel my order just yet.

 

I ran it for like 5-7 minutes and per wmic it stayed at 2.2ghz the whole time.

wmic cpu get CurrentClockSpeed,MaxClockSpeed /every:5

 

Is it configured to use Intel Smart Response by default or just Intel Rapid Start?

By the way, mine (the $1699 standard model) comes on Monday and I can do some tests if you would like me to. What settings are best to use for FurMark and Prime95, and are there any other tests which would be good to do with free programs? Is there any guide available on here or elsewhere about how to test a laptop's performance and thermals/throttling?

 

retina costs 900-1500 dollar more, also no software and customization
a better comparison would be with the regular macbook pros, in which case the recent competitions blow it out of the water.

 

Boys, maybe some good news.

I tried to redo the test using wmic with your command.

I think that wmic doesn't measure turboboost (I cross checked with Intel Turbo boost monitoring utility and Hwinfo64)
On my new test, with prime95 the CPU moves its frequency at around 2.7Ghz and keeps its temperature at 95° (Celsius). It seems to work well now!

(I don't know what happened, maybe an upgrade of Windows?)

Celsius! I'm doing all tests at over 30° Celsius of ambient temperature.
Anyway, the top of laptop doesn't get hot, and the laptop is silent during normal usage (but of course not gaming).

Both! resume is very fast, (at least using 8 GB of ram)

Hi Raudi, this morning I experienced a better behavior using prime95. (and yesterday evening I did notice an improvement when gaming, but I did not measure it)

I'll check tomorrow... maybe the CPU requires just an update of Windows.

 

When I tested my XPS 15 with Prime 95 - the CPU stayed at the turbo boost speed [email protected] for several minutes, but as soon as I start up a game it drops to 1.2 ghz within a minute. (GPU also down clocks from 645 > 445)

 

So, since Prime95 is only-CPU and the game involves GPU, it seems that the GPU is the real issue, and its throttling makes CPU downclock to 1.2 GHz?

 

On this intel chipset the gpu can put the cpu into throttle mode.

Turbo boost can go upto 3,1ghz. Why is the highest value posted 2,8ghz?

 

I will have this as a replacement laptop. Would anyone be up to running skyrim on it and telling me how it runs? Any other processor heavy game is fine (i.e. witcher 2, gta 4). I now have a i7 6770qm, so how much of a downgrade would it be?

 

May I make a suggestion? This thread is the owner's lounge...can we keep the discussion focused on the L521x and its ownership and leave the comparisons to other PCs for the other thread (see below)? It doesn't make sense to have the comparison discussion in two separate threads.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/650572-new-dell-xps-l521x-ivy-bridge.html

 

I am addressing my question to owners of this laptop, thereby asking it here is a necessity to get the appropriate answer.

 

What drivers is everybody using for the nVidia card? Have you tried the latest beta, and does it throttle then?

Drivers | GeForce

 

Yes, I tried the 3.04.79 Beta drivers with no change - the CPU still throttles after about 1 minute of gaming and I lose about 50% FPS

I also tried setting the Power management mode to "Maximum Performance" in the NVIDIA control panel settings

 

You're all using the A04 BIOS, right? Mine comes tomorrow, but I'm worried about this throttling.

 

Yes, I downloaded the A04 BIOS and when installing I noted that the current version listed was A04. (so mine came with A04 installed).

I really hope there is a fix or workaround found before my 21 day return period is up as I would like to keep this laptop as it is much nicer than my E6530 (work laptop) in every way except gaming performance (which is why I ordered the XPS 15)

 

there is one way to fix that problem bios update A05 .... increase fan speed or .... adjust some limits on the system.

other fix dell changes out the fan for a more powerful one or a different design on the blower wheel itself to increase airflow

 

You can make a custom GPU fan profile with MSI Afterburner. Try putting it on 40% below 40C, sloping up to 100% beyond 70C (yes that's quite aggressive, but to do this next part it's probably needed). Then use ThrottleStop to keep the CPU from ever going under 2.1 GHz (DO NOT DO THIS ON BATTERY). A cooling pad (I recommend the U3... have never actually used one, and this one is quite big, but I've heard lots of good reviews about it, and I probably will get it soon) will help even more... you may even be able to use some of the OTHER functions of Afterburner if you do it right.

You cannot undervolt the CPU from what I gather... and it's a shame too because Ivy Bridge's thermals are severely affected by voltage changes. Hopefully Dell will enable voltage changes in the BIOS sometime, or the ThrottleStop people will finally figure out how to do it. I believe you CAN use the aforementioned MSI Afterburner to undervolt the GPU though, just make sure you run a stability test with OCCT and try some real-world testing before using it for a critical gaming run.

Rumor has it the Ivy Bridge processors use a VERY bad thermal paste, so if you can have it replaced (or do so yourself if you are confident), then it will likely work wonders on the thermal profile (you might as well have it done or do it on the GPU also, especially since after doing so you may be able to turn it into a 650m if you do certain settings right on certain software)

 

Well these throttling issues are concerning to hear. Hope Dell finds a fix soon or I'll be heading the Lenovo route even though I like the design of the XPS 15 much better....
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk 2

 

3.1GHz Turbo is only if one core is being stressed and the others have no load.

I'm not sure if it is completely no load on the others or if they are allowed a few % but I've rarely seen the case where one core is sufficiently loaded with others having such a low load to use max turbo.

 

Raudi, could you post a review of your work E6530 in the Latitude sub-forum? Many thanks.

 

I think this is what is going on -- I very rarely see max turbo with my L502x

 

agreed but the dell is just so much better looking ............ dont really game on my laptop any ways so ill just need the power for photo editing if so much and maybe need for speed occasionally

 

In an effort to test the throttling, I ran prime95 and Furmark together, one to max the CPU and the other the GPU. After abut 8-9 minutes according to CoreTemp my CPU was at 101 degrees and Furmark said the GPU was around 94 degrees. wmic still reported 2.1ghz for CPU speed. Then my PC just shutdown. I think I reached a thermal limit and it responded by just turning off. This is kind of ridiculous, I should not be able to reach thermal limit that results in shutdown on a stock config machine.


EDIT: Ran this test again and now wmic reports that the clock speed is 1386 during the test. Throttling?

EDIT2: And... it shut down again. Wonderful. I guess I am returning this.

 

In light of this, I think I'll only test games and the tests suggested by other people. I'll be skipping the furmark and prime 95 tests tomorrow. Sorry guys.

 

That won't damage the chips with short term exposure and that's exactly what the shut off is for.

I mean that isn't likely to occur in real world usage but I am still curious to see what the outcome of the throttling in standard gaming is all about. It shouldn't be doing that after 5 - 10 mins of normal gaming at all.

 

You ran Prime 95 and Furmark at the same time, and wondered why it shut down? Of course the bloody thing is going to hit the thermal limit....I am sorry but that was a really dumb thing to do.

 

It could throttle instead of shutting down...that's what this mechanism is for.

Not after, 15, 30, 60, 120....minutes either. It should not be allowed to sell notebooks which are not capable of handling their power in normal use which would be playing games also.
Like I said before, I had a Envy 17 (early 2011) and was on a lan party. It was such a shame to have lower framerats - UNPLAYABLE - compared to 3 year old cheap notebooks because of throttling. I hoped that this nonsense would have ended already.

 

No, shutting down is the correct reaction to such insane tempertures and load. I get frustrated when I watch this thread and see uneducated people running these kind of tests and saying it is indicative of real world performance. The laptop has a throttle issue, which is clearly a bug. This will get resolved quickly, especially when the bad PR hits once the mainstream reviews are out.

 

Do you have another suggestion on how to maximize CPU and GPU usage at the same time? The laptop should function as it is delivered. It is not like I am trying to overclock it or something. If I cannot use 100% of the resources sold to me for even 10 minutes, I think that is a problem and I imagine most other purchasers would too.

 

No, having better fans and cooling is the correct reaction to enable us to use the laptop as it was given to us. A less good reaction would be to throttle. Shutting down without warning is pretty much the worse reaction outside of just melting parts or catching on fire.

 

One of the best tests to use for the CPU is called Intel Burn Test; it makes the CPU a bit hotter than Prime95. If it can run at least 100 times without crashing (after using ThrottleStop to force the CPU to stay at 2.1 GHz... unless you WANT to test it on turbo lol... and don't run FurMark at the same time unless you want total mayhem), then the computer is stable. Otherwise it's very unstable... no computer should fail this test at stock settings.

 

I see the same: when the discrete GPU is on, the CPU throttle to 1.2Ghz after 1 min.

(without GPU, the CPU reach 95° and then slow down a bit (2.7Ghz), with GPU on, the CPU goes to 1.2ghz when it reaches 80°)

I don't need to stress the CPU with prime95, it does in this way just running a game.

 

This is an extreme case, we are seeing CPU throttling just running a game.
(I think it is a software/bios issue)

 

I runned Intel Burn Test one time without problems (the system behaves as it should). The system behaves in a different way when the discrete GPU is on.

 

I really hope this can be solved by software but I am not really sure about it. The heat of the CPU must pass the GPU before it reaches the fan which can lead to some problems. The cooling system of another machine leads 50% of the heat directly to a fan without heating up the CPU by the GPU as you can see here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...ell-xps-l521x-ivy-bridge-398.html#post8651381

According to the temp measurements I am not sure that gaming without throttling might be possible.

 

I have some hope because the system throttles in a stupid way.

I suspect it is the DELL EC sensor that triggers this extreme throttling and the shutdown with furmark. I will be able to check it later today.

 

First post here, but thought I say that I'm happy that I just received mine.
3612QM
16 gig RAM
512 SSD
Blu Ray
and the usual stuff.

Will do some installation / testing tonight

 

I have received delivery of the i7 with 1tb 640m, having done a quick check of cpu using the windows cmd i can confirm that the cpu steps down 2.1 to 1.2ghz straight away. How do i change the cpu power settings to stay at 2.1ghz? Initial thoughts are that the build quality is v.good, display is v.good (no noticeable difference between the L501 reviewed by anandtech) trackpad works well with multitouch and havent noticed the fans kick in too often. Optical drive seems to check for disk every time wakes from sleep or boots up i have also noticed one dead pixel on far right (far enough not to really notice it). Will post more details later (uk version)

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

 

Then wouldn't the problems be with the GPU, not the CPU?

 

@ golfguy251
The CPU is a dead-end in terms of heat and the heat from the GPU goes to the CPU also (even if it is a heatpipe which should be one-way). If the GPU is hotter than the CPU there is no way for the heat of the CPU to be transported to the fan. I think the design is not that clever BUT I believe that it should still work in real-world use as I am pretty sure that Dell tested the system somehow. That is why I try not to panic right now.

 

The cooling design heat pipe is alright, the fan is just not big enough to cool everything.
even if it didn't share the same heat pipe the heat would go to the same way, to the only fan, and it would be the same exact quantity of heat, so why not share it?
my frustration is didn't dell learn anything with apple?
only a fool would follow the same mistake others already did.
also, no cooling headroom means no upgrade gpu for some time...

 

Well I just took mine out of the box. Initial impression is it is very nice and feels no where near as heavy as it is.

One issue... My factory seal was broken on the box and resealed with more factory seal tape (I'm assuming for the bios update we all read about). However, there is a faint scratch on the silver side. What to do about that?

 

I'd ask for a replacement