XPS 15 (L521X) Owner's Lounge

Here a list of scores on 3D Mark

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

Edited because I have misunderstood, someone is talking only about cpu score of 3DMark vantage instead of total score.

 

We are talking about cpu score.

I found that Vantage CPU score is the easiest way to see if the CPU throttles to 1.2Ghz when the gpu is on. It may be because of a design choice, a production problem, or driver/bios immaturity, but we have no feedback from dell (it is okay, they need their time) and we have evidence that the Inspiron doesn't throttle.

I refuse to believe it is a mistake of engineering

 

Finally just received mine today. Very beautifull laptop, good looking screen

But :

- the touchpad was not perfectly align with the case ... (1699€ laptop !)
- the fan is quickly at full speed and noisy ...
- found no way in the bios to boot from an msata drive ...

This plus the throttling issue and I called DELL for an immediate return

Will go to an Apple Store for a MacbookPro.

 

Little OT: do you have problems in these days opening this forum? I can't open it anymore with browser (tried with Chrome and IE, also deleting cookies/cache), I get a white page with "Page not found". However, no problems with Tapatalk

Sent from HD2 with Tapatalk

 

Ok typing my first post from my new xps.

Love the feel of the touchpad, and the overall finish of the laptop
I need to get used to the keyboard as it looks like there is more space between the keys compared to my latitude E6400.

during normal browsing an copying is saw the cores jumping from 1.2Ghz to 2.8Ghz with a avarage temp of 45 degree.

Doing some light work (20%cpu load) all cores went to a 2.8Ghz with a avarage temp of 60C

during copying, installing and doing some light work the highest temp I recorded so far is 66C

 

I did try opening this last night and couldn't get to the forum homepage because of a similar problem. Very strange.

 

For me the problem arises when I use the URL in the email notification, they've added a .prod. in url: forum.prod.notebookreview.com. Removing the .prod it works flawlessly

 

If you hover over the links to the pages in the browser on the top and bottom, it tries to redirect you to another URL format.

E.g. for page 40 it tries to forward you to:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/showthread.php?t=673630&page=34

But it should be like this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/673630-xps-15-l521x-owners-lounge-40.html

I just put in the pages manually

 

right now im gonna do over my windows 8 installation i think chrome has issues cuz i cant access engadget either it loads another site and there are frequent page not found errors with this site and other so clean install is in order for me

 

After reading this I also opened up the laptop. The thing I noticed is the ribbon cable that ran over top of the fan housing was not secured down. The glue had pulled off. I re-taped it down and now it is way better. Pretty sure the cable was vibrating against the fan housing.

Much happier now.

 

You didn't look very hard in the BIOS then. You set the HDDs to ACHI, then select msata drive from the boot menu.

 

Hi LiquidSilver,

The XPS 15 is already in the box for a return, but I can give DELL a chance ...
Did you find the time to test throttling with Photoshop CS6 or any CUDA enabled software ?
Finally did you tried booting from a msata + SSD combo ?

Thank you.

 

Inspiron 15R SE does not throttle at all + display is quite nice! Review on german notebookcheck:
Test Dell Inspiron 15R Special Edition Notebook - Notebookcheck.com Tests

Gigabyte 2442N unboxing:
http://www.mobile01.com/topicdetail.php?f=238&t=2784666&m=f&last=36808026



3Dmark vantage score:
http://attach.mobile01.com/attach/201206/mobile01-16ddacdda6f0120e185eef5beb3a0a3b.png

 

Well, here my 3dMark Vantage result of this evening...

P8641
Graphics Score: 7290
CPU Score: 19466

I discovered that fixing the fan speed at max using Hwinfo64, the throttling is disabled. (Maybe it is a bug, I don't think is safe to do it).

Temperature of the gpu went over 80°, but it goes well over 80° even when throttling is enabled. I didn't see the GPU throttling for passive cooling: it stays always at max boost frequency if it is on load. The policy of the system is "if the GPU get a bit hot, let's turn off the CPU". Then the GPU get a lot more hot.

Cpu boost+gpu boost+the protection of the system make a great mess. (I'd point to nVidia drivers too). Maybe this can be tuned a bit by DELL, to have a bit more consistent performances: why the system can only work at max or at minimum?

I'm still undecided if I'll keep the system or not. On notebookcheck, I'm noticing that a lot of systems, if stressed, throttle badly nowadays, especially IvyBridge+Kepler (all the system with the GT640 reviewed by them so far), and I'm not finding a good alternative to the XPS15, that may have had the bad luck to come in my hands first, and during summer.

Anyway, I think I'm done with testing.

I tried Photoshop CS6, but the OpenCL option was disabled. I tried to install nvidia beta drivers, but still no success with OpenCL.

So I made some tests using the "Liquify" filter - it should be accelerated by Open GL. I was not able to stress the system using photoshop, and even the filters that should have been accelerated by OpenCL worked fast enough on the CPU.

Frankly I think we'll not see any meaningful use of OpenCL-CUDA in Photoshop before the natural obsolescence of the laptop.

I didn't try Premiere with the Mercury engine.

 

Just to update you all - I met up with Dell-Bill B today and gave him my XPS 15 to pass on to their engineers. I also shared my results from different test scenarios and conditions that I observed which triggered the CPU throttling.

One thing I noted from some additional testing that I had done was that if I manually throttled down the CPU incrementally or even set it to run at 2.1ghz I was only losing about 20-30% framerate and I could get at least 15-20 minutes of gaming in before the CPU would throttle to 1.2ghz.

 

Also done some more testing on my machine. It seems when running 3DMark2011 I get roughly the same score as Elands (around P2000 --> actually went over it with a few points).

I left HWInfo64 running & logging during the benchmark and it seems the CPU did not throttle down as much as with Civ5. The combined CPU&GPU tests in 3DMark were run at over 2Ghz but remained mostly under 80C. Unfortunately, Civ5 still throttles down to 1.2 Ghz. I checked in the log and it seems to remain at 1.2Ghz once temp 80C is reached on the CPU. From that point forward it remains >80 C and remains at 1.2Ghz. I even tried to disable the turbo boost on the CPU by changing the power options, but this just postpones the inevitable for a few more minutes.

I then disabled the Nvidia processor to use the HD4000 (which is a lot less hot) and throttling did not occurr on the CPU (for half an hour or so), unfortunately the speed of the HD4000 is not something you want to game with. Temps remained at around 72C.

I've already requested the return of this laptop, it is something I still hate to have to do but until these issues are resolved I'm not going to risk keeping it. The price for a 1.2Ghz machine for a casual game is just a bit to steep.

If the issues are resolved in the coming months I would immediately order it again as in general, this laptop is really good quality and very nice to work with.

GT640M, I7, 8GB, SSD.

 

Recieved mine in the mail on Monday

Got the base model 14. In love with it, I can't get enough of this keyboard it's so amazing! The only con is that it's a little on the heavy side for an 'ultrabook' but other than that it's phenomenal.

I will be posting a review on YouTube under the username "supitzsammm" next Sunday or Monday.

 

After working whole day on the laptop (and let the cooling paste settle) I installed 3D mark vantage

3DMark Score 7845
3DMarksGraphics Score 6760
CPU Score 15131

The Highest temp was 88 degree on core 1 and 84 degree on the other cores.

The room temp was 23 degree.

 

But my 3dmark ventage score shows me 2,1Ghz not 1,2Ghz

NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3612QM Processor,Dell Inc. 0880F2 score: P7845 3DMarks

 

Can somebody please set the max proc speed to 99% on the power plan you are using, under power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management and do some gaming and see if the processor still downclocks to 1.2Ghz or if it stays around 2 Ghz?

I know it's not ideal, but I just want to see if this works, currently this works on my L502x that has a very similar issue and I was thinking of upgrading!

 

Got mine in the mail yesterday, I figured I would post my not so expert opinion.
First, the laptop is beautiful. The silicon base and soft-touch palm rest are definitely comfortable. The screen is better than I expected, it's bright, viewing angles are more than adequate for me, and there weren't any dead pixels. Keyboard feels good, though i wish there was a little more key travel. This is mainly just something I will have to get used to. The fan problems others are reporting are nonexistant for me. The fan is inaudible during basic usage and not too loud by any means when watching hd videos. The base of the laptop stays extremely cool, except for the back left corner where the cpu and gpu are. This area gets noticably warmer than the rest of the laptop, but not uncomfortably hot. The samsung msata is very fast, and wake and boot times are quick. Waiting for my 830 to arrive and then i will see what this puppy can really do. All in all, I am very pleased with my purchase.

 

I just ran 3Dmark Vantage and got a cpu rating of 8341. I ran it again with the integrated graphics forced on and got a cpu rating of 16341. There is definitely an issue here.

This is quite annoying, but I don't have time to do anything about it until Friday. I'm going to have to complain to my local Dell support people (in Canada).

The 99% thing suggested above does not help.

 

Tried it (see my previous post), did not help atleast not for civ5. It appearantly can utilize all 4 cores so maybe that increases the temperature more quickly than some other games.

 

Score
P8641 3DMarks

Graphics Score
7304

CPU Score
19165

Reporting from Australia, using the top model offered in Australia (with 500gb SSD). Looks good...I hope...I didn't do any changes to the base config/bios that came with the computer. Weather is a bit cold, at around 20degrees Celcius (if that helps)

 

excuse my ignorance but what program did you use (can you link me a download). I am also in Australia and have the same model so would be interesting to see if my results are the same

 

A bit cold? It's 14°C here in Ireland. And it's summer here and winter there. I need to move


At least I know I won't be suffering any overheating problems due to the weather

 

Nice! If you want to check GPU temperatures, just start the monitor (hwinfo, etc) after the game/benchmark, to activate the GPU.

Assuming you have the i7, Since you got an intermediate result maybe the CPU throttled at the end of the benchmark.

Finally some good numbers

I think just one run of 3dmark Vantage is not enough to asset the thermal stability of the system, it should be able to manage towards stability a difficult situation, not only avoid throttling for one minute in winter.
People who pass the Vantage test should hit harder ^^''...

But it is at least something.

(I decided to keep the laptop, so I will follow its fate until the end)

 

This is a repeat test:

Score
P8668 3DMarks

Graphics Score
7305

CPU Score
19677

after using my laptop for two hours to do some simple word processing. Now, how do I test it more? should I run it consecutively for 3 times???

mark pozzi, you can download the test by googling 3dmark vantage

I repeated the test (ran it 3 consecutive times, all 3 times, the fan did not kick up excessively, it maintained at a good low hum, not loud at all, definitely not at maximum spin - heard that maximum spin only once which occured when I first started the laptop and ran WEI straight off the box).

Results at the end of 3 consecutive tests:

Score
P8645 3DMarks

Graphics Score
7271

CPU Score
19976

I think i can safely say that I did not experience any throttling and am not expecting it to throttle with moderate gaming. Can't say about excessive gaming though

 

xD, come in France, here, it's summer and it's 34C^^ and this is at only 2 hours, in ship, from ireland.

 

Anyone else experiencing very slow WLAN?

 

something weird going on.

Ran vantage first score was low.

Ran a second time and got:
P8370
7326 graphics
14626 CPU

the third time i got the following:
P8581
7268 graphics
18743 CPU

:S:S my fan is definitely running at 100% during these tests. Definitely seems to be something up

Luckily I only use the laptop for work/surfing the web so doesn't bother me but hopefully dell will come out with a fix soon.

 

Je ne sais pas quel bateau que vous utilisez. Il est beaucoup plus que deux heures. Peut-être dans un avion.

I think I'll stick with my cold weather and working XPS. Though I'm increasingly tempted by the Inspiron 17R SE, it's starting to seem a lot better to me

 

most people hear are in cold regions and still have throttling 9issues what bout where i am its either hot sun or rain and its mostly hot here in Caribbean regions so my system might shut down under load :O .... now thought of that dell u really need to get this fixed b4 i order

 

I mean airplane xD my bad

 

That would make a lot of sense, I was having a lot less touble the day before yesterday when it was 24C, yesterday at 30C was terrible.

 

right now its 88C lmao and it gets higher lol ........... on a good day we get 60 70. on a good night we get low 30c lol so the dell would fry easy if not in ac but i wont game that much but when i gaming i wanna game for about an hour str8 ... so it needs to hold up

 

Well, I'm glad to see that your system seems working really well, but it is almost unbelievable that the fan didn't was at maximum spin, even accounting for the ambient temperature difference.

It would be nice if you could monitor & log temperatures and frequenciecs with a program like Hwinfo64, and post the log file. If you do it, start 3dmark before starting the monitor app, so it can see the GPU.

 

A couple of updates.
Throttling-
We have root caused it and formally identified it as a systemic issue. We are working on a fix which will come by way of a BIOS update. We have a target ETA, but I'll hold off on sharing a date until at least later today when we get a 2nd update from engineering. There will be BIOS updates to address throttling on both the 14 and 15 posted concurrently or close to concurrently. If you followed how we handled customer feedback in the days and weeks right after the XPS 13 launch with regard to issues with the fan and touch pad, you can expect the same kind of responsiveness and urgency from us. Hang in there, folks. Our fix will be implemented- and refined if needed- very quickly.

SSD option in the US-
This should be live on Dell.com tomorrow or Monday, barring any unforeseen delays.

 

Awesome news!

Now if only the courier was open today so I could go collect my new XPS!

 

It's good to hear that Dell is looking into this. Other than this issue I really like this computer, the build quality and ergonomics are really a cut above any notebook I've ever owned and it's easily in the same class as the MacBook Pro.

 

Thank you so much for the quick resolving with this problem, excited to hear when this update will come. Again so much thanks to Bill!

 

thanks bill woo hoo im gonna get an XPS would it be too much to ask the root cause of the issue

 

Thank you very much! I'm looking forward to buy this laptop!

 

Thanks a lot Bill... I guess you'be been busy lately

Quite reassuring, that it's going to be resolved throught BIOS update! No messup with harware revisions and stuff like that!

Any info you could provide on the technical root casue? Was it specific to the new XPS14 and XPS15 only?

What behavior should we expect after fix, specifically? Similar behavior as described for the Inspiron 15 SE, which would be expected behavior?

I know, a lot of questions, but hey, your customers would like to know!

 

Good news. I had already requested the return. I would also like to know how the problem is going to be resolved and how all components will react after the update. I might even cancel the return. Will the fan be programmed differently? (Spin up earlier or have higher rpm?). Looking forward to some details about the root cause and solution.

 

How is the display for you guys? I bought the xps 14 and have been really disappointed with how grainy the screen is. How does this display look from up close?

 

I have a question - overall, I like the touchpad but I was wondering if anyone knows of a way to enable a two finger tap to be the right button? Kind of like it is on Macs, or the Envy?

N

 

Definitely not too much to ask. I have the preliminary info, and more detail is forthcoming. I won't be able to share verbatim, but I'll comb through and pull out enough to give you a good picture.

Basically, root cause is in the way we programmed the BIOS to handle temps, fan algorithm and throttling values. We can change how the latter 2 react to the former and come up with a better scheme that we hope will work for everyone. Just like with the XPS 13 fan, we'll be looking for feedback from you guys and tweaking what we can based on what we hear from our customers.

The resolution will be in the form of a downloadable BIOS update. Should take you about 5 minutes tops to download and run the flash. You will probably see some fan algorithm tweaks to be sure. If you can or want to try to stall returning the system once you receive the box and shipping label, you won't have to wait long. You can always flash the BIOS and decide whether to return or not at that point, depending on how aggressively the returns team is about shipping the system back. I would think they'd give you some time if you just replied to their email that you're considering cancelling the return.

 

Just got mine in the mail today SO glad i didnt cancel the order since a fix for the throttling is coming soon! LOVE the computer so far, the quality is amazing, and the speakers really surprised me. Didnt expect them to be so good.

 

Could someone do a quick video review or even overview of the laptop for youtube????

There aren't any videos of the current range except commercial ones from Dell. It'd be nice to get a better idea of it before I buy in a few weeks.

So glad to hear about the fix. The XPS nearly lost a customer to the Inspiron 17R SE.