XPS 15 9570 Owners Thread

I can confirm the abysmal performance of the SK Hynix 512 GB drive. I just tried to copy a 30 GB file, just a regular copy-paste, and the file transfer speed was on average 150 MB/s! Yes, 30 GB file copy took entire 3 minutes! That's slower than the SSD in my 7 years old laptop with old SATA3 interface!
When I try CrystalDisk benchmark, at first it reports 300 MB/s seq write speed. When I re-run it again it goes up to 600, and when I do it the third time the seq write speed goes to 1100 MB/s. Something is wrong with this drive...

 

And you know for a fact that this was because of the Hynix SSD and not something else like BIOS settings, anti-virus, power settings, no other tasks running at the same time etc? My Samsung Pro SSD can also appear to be slow from time to time when using it on the XPS15, but I doubt that the SSD alone is the reason for that.

 

Do you have the latest firmware for the drive itself? If I recall correctly there was a firmware update that fixed write speed issues with the drive.

 

Yes. No antivirus program, and Windows defender is s disabled. The file being copied wasn't on the indexing folder list either. I tried with some programs idling, and with all programs closed, ThrottleStop off and on, and all power modes on the power slider, and no difference. No any changes in the BIOS.
Actually, on battery the large file copy speed goes to 200 MB/s with 2 second spikes going up to 450 MB/s every 15 sec or so. The speed on AC is constant 150 MB/s. For both on battery and on AC the file copy starts much faster and then drops down within several seconds.
I really have no idea what could cause such a slow speed...
Maybe I should try switching to AHCI?

Yup, I just checked, I have the latest firmware.

 

Are there any way to manage the brightness buttons? Lowest percentage is "0%" which is actually like 15% and then increases with 10 for every click up to 100. While in Windows you can control it with increasements of just 1%. For example the jump between 0-10-20-30% is very steep, and in a dark room none of them are perfect. Would like to have smaller increasements and more clicks on the buttons

 

Try Windows Mobility Center

 

Have you tried using Flux to make your display warm for low light evenings? It makes the screen considerably less bright, and you can adjust it to be more warm (orange) or less. It feels MUCH easier on eyes in evenings! I suppose most people use Flux, or at least the built in Windows night light, which is far less customizable...
There are 2 warmth settings in Flux, 1 for early evenings and 1 for late evenings, so you can have your screen just slightly warmer than during the day for early evenings and more warm (and less bright) for late evenings. I actually like to keep my screen slightly warm even during the day, I find it gentler on the eyes.
You can also set it up so it's automatically disabled for whichever application you want and when apps are in full screen mode. And it has a very handy shortcut key to disable it completely for an hour...

There's another free program called SunsetScreen which does the similar thing, but in addition it can just decrease the screen brightness (without making the screen warm). I think it simply overlays the screen with a grey filter, which can be fine tuned from 0 (completely dark) to 255 (full brightness of the current Windows brightness).

 

Purchased a 9570 from the outlet and boy does it need repasted. Two of the cores hit 100C while the rest are at <80C... Will try to make time to do it today, but not sure if that will happen.

 

Wonder if that is a bent heatsink. . . You will soon see.

 

Yeah I literally can't run Prime95 for more than a second before it starts to thermal throttle. Not super excited about Dell's quality control on that. If my father had purchased this laptop he wouldn't know something was wrong outside of the fans running nearly all the time...

 

I'm still struggling with random appearance of c-state sleep bug where the CPU idles at 3W rather than 0.6. reflashing the BIOS fixed it before every time, but it doesn't fix it anymore.

 

Wonder it it's some weird bios flag that is getting set? You have to reflash the bios and not just load defaults?

 

@custom90gt why did you do it? ahah, well keep us posted with you progress. Are core 0 and 2 the hottest?

@Eason make sure that you load bios defaults, so that the old S3 sleep setting is cleared. Did you change something in windows for forcing S3 sleep?

 

@abujafar, I really just did it on a whim because I got a good deal from the outlet. If I can't get it to run decently then back to Dell it will go. If I do get it to run well then I'll sell the 9560 and try to recoup the majority of my cost.

Well repasted and temps are much much more manageable now. The sad part is I've noticed the VID on this 8750H is much higher than my old 9570. Looks like I may have just had a really good cpu before as temps are going to be a much bigger issue with this laptop. Doesn't look like it will do more than a 150mv undervolt either (same as my previous). Pretty funny that under max clocks my previous VID was .84v and now this one is at .92V with the same undervolt.

 

Hmm maybe I should do that again.

 

@custom90gt Mine also does 0.92 at full clock and my max undervolt is -140mv.
I do think that you had a great chip. 84 is another 80mv down. Strange but great!

 

I managed to accidentally kill my battery. :-(
I was working on a terrace (on a battery, in a shade) and left the laptop running on the terrace. Meanwhile the afternoon sun came in and was shining on the laptop for an hour before I saw and took it in. The laptop was quite hot with the fans running, even though it was idling. But everything looked OK. I continued the work indoors, but when the battery reached 45% the 7% reserve battery warning suddenly came up. Very quickly after that it hibernated.
I waited for some time for the laptop to cool down and then plugged it in, but the charging light was just rapidly blinking orange.
I powered the laptop to BIOS mode, and the battery info said the battery needs to be replaced. Damn!
I find it crazy that 1 hour with the laptop in the sun (yeah, it was a stronger sun, but still) could kill the battery!

I have an accidental damage warranty, but not sure I'll be able to get a free battery replacement instead of paying for it because it's a battery?
I'm travelling in Asia and I'm mostly mobile, so it'll be a big inconvenience to try to replace the battery...

 

Back at it again I see, hard to resist the urge

 

You can always try calling Dell and having them ship you a battery and install it yourself. You should have a warranty on the battery outside of the accidental damage anyway. It's worth a shot.

 

Hi, just wanted to tell you that I decided to go the long route of switching back to RAID. However, I must have done something wrong when holding down shift and pressing reboot, because after changing from AHCI to RAID in the BIOS, windows booted like normally (instead of into 'advanced mode'). But luckily so, because it seems to work just fine(!) The drive is being detected by IRST and the firmware update tool as well. So, just to make it clear, I didn't have to do anything else than change the setting in BIOS.

I don't know if it makes a difference, but I guess it can't hurt to mention that I had (and have) the latest IRST drivers installed, not the ones from the dell.

Best of luck to you, if you try it.

 

Yes, that seems to be the case when switching back. My impression is that it also depends on how Windows was installed, MBR, boot options etc. Have never really been able to see a "red line" for it.

 

Nice. Did I say anything of NVMe vs SATA SSD? I was speaking in general of SSDs. I never said anything of SATA SSD vs NVMe. There are Samsung SSDs, and then ... there is not Samsung. Samsung... and not Samsung. My Samsung 860 SATA SSD on my desktop is faster than the SKH NVMe in multi I/O scenario (copying or loading lots of small files, which is normal world scenario), like decompressing, installing, starting games which use data blob files (like WoW). It got better in the last 1-2 years, however, the Samsung controller CPU, which limits a SSD speed, is still lightyears ahead of all other competitors.

Not really sure what youre talking about, but the vcore at full turbo boost is around 1.1V, and that is with a 130mV undervolt offset. You wont see the 4.1GHz on the pic because it just clocked down the second I took the pic, but 1.1V is normal around that speed of 3.6-4.1GHz. If it goes lower to around 3.2GHz vcore is around 0.98V.

 

I guess the point was that if there is no noticable difference between a SATA SSD and a NVMe SSD, the differences between different NVMe SSDs would be even smaller.

 

My point is like @improwise mentioned. The difference between SATA and NVMe isn't substantial so it would follow that the difference between NVMe drives is not there either. I fixed the wording of your posting, in the future please remember:
Foul language isn't necessary to discuss notebooks and help people, so it won't be tolerated. Any attempt to bypass the profanity filters will result in an infraction against the user and that post being edited or removed. Using asterisks or any other symbol to disguise bad language is considered bypassing the filter.


*on edit*
While I do like Samsung SSDs I haven't been troubled by any of the others. Thinking just over the past year or two I've owned and used the following m.2 drives (not going to list my 2.5" ones):
Toshiba XG3, XG4, XG5, HG5 (SATA)
Adata SX8200, SX6000
SK Hynix PC401, PC300, SC308 (SATA)
Intel 600p
Samsung 950 pro, SM951, PM951, PM961, 960 Evo, 960 Pro

I'm sure I'm missing a couple but in all reality I don't notice a difference between any of the drives. It's true that I don't edit video from them or copy large files back and fourth, I do game on them and run a ton of other things on them. I really like to test hardware and then sell it and try something new. That's why I've had a ton of drives (and video cards and cpus and...).

The VID on CPUs is different. The current 9570 has a substantially higher VID than my previous. For example under Prime95 at 3.3ghz and a -150mv undervolt on my old one the VID is .84. On my current laptop under the same test and undervolt the VID is .94. Sadly this equates to higher temps and lower clocks to fit within the 45w window.

 

Interesting. One thing though, I have measured read and write speeds with crystal disk mark before and after switching from the initial RAID setup to AHCI, and then once again just now after switching back to RAID again. And while most of the read/write speeds are the same, my sequential read speeds are (still) only a third or so of what they were to begin with (in the initial RAID setup). In my first run they showed around 1200 MB/s, now they average around 450 MB/s (which is what they fell to after switching from RAID to AHCI). Any idea why they are not back to 'normal'?

 

The variability from one benchmark to another (even when using the same "configuration") may be due to the saturation of the SLC cache of the drive. Basically, there is a small portion of the SSD that is used in a fast write mode. Later, the controller moves this data to the regular part of the SSD.

SIDE NOTE: As I wrote in one of my previous posts, I don't believe that when you set AHCI mode the drive actually uses AHCI. The drive is (and is recognized by Windows as) an NVMe PCIe drive.

 

That doesnt make any sense. What different CPUs? You have a 8750H, I have a 8750H.. I think you didnt get the point. I will post the picture again:


Like you see, vcore is around 1.1V for 3.8Ghz core. Taking your 0.98 in comparison, that is a 120mV difference, which is HUGE. Both of you said " at max clock and turbo I have a 0,96-0,98 vCore", which I dont have. I would welcome a screenshot of your CPU of HWInfo like this one, because I want to know if undervolt isnt working for me, for whatever reason. Because I find it actually weird, that mine has a vcore of up to 1.1 with a 130mV undervolt. Even my 22nm 3770 with a 135mW undervolt is around 0.96 at max clock of 3.8Ghz. Does TS not work properly on the XPS or did Dell change anything in bios for undervolting not working or it is overwritten? I thought cpu=cache and system agent=igpu otherwise it wont work. Do you have same value for all 4? Do you use TS or Intel tool?

So whats your vcore for 3.8-4.1Ghz? 3.7? 3.6? 2.2?

 

@custom90gt and I were implicitly talking of CPU stress test conditions.
@custom90gt made this explicit in his last post. There are things like Vdroop that reduce the VID under heavy load.

 

My point is that Intel gives different batches of chips different stock VIDs and the mobile market doesn't seem to be any different.
On my first 9570 the stock VID must have been ~80mv lower and therefore the -150mv undervolt made it run even better.

I have hundreds of logs for it. I took some averages for Prime95 small FTFs and video encoding at the corresponding speeds for you:

First laptop with a -150mv undervolt
3.9GHz - 1.051v
3.8GHz - .97V
3.5GHz - .927V
3.4GHz - .897V
3.3GHz - .84V

Second laptop with a -150mv undervolt
3.9GHz - 1.078v
3.8GHz - 1.053v
3.5GHz - .971v
3.4GHz - .925v
3.3GHz - .915v

Here is a screenshot of my TS undervolt and VIDs while running prime95 at your same undervolt:


This is why my second 9570 with the same CPU runs much hotter (and at a higher estimated wattage) than my first.

I use throttle stop and verify it's working by changing the undervolt while prime95 is running and watching the VID. It's working properly, I just didn't get a good cpu this go around. However my GPU undervolts more, so that's a potential win...

 

@custom90gt I think you got an exceptionally good CPU last time around. I have modded another 9570 for a friend and is in line with mine and your second 9570.

 

I just feel bad because the info I posted on the other thread seems to show such a great sample that people are upset when their temps/scores aren't near what I got. Part of the silicon lotto I suppose.

 

@custom90gt If you want to feel good, think about that lucky guy who will get your refurbished unit.

 

Wait, so all you had to do was go into the Bios and flip it back from AHCI -> RAID?

Hmmmm, I wonder if it's worth the risk for me, since most guides make it seem like this long, complicated process.

 

To add a data point (and, let's be honest, brag a bit ): I just got my 9570, 8750h/16Gb/256GB SSD/1080p config, and it turned out that I won Dell's lottery: I got one with a Samsung PM981 SSD. I wasn't expecting that, from what I read they are a rare thing even in higher capacities, and I don't think I've seen any mention of it in a 256GB model.

Super happy with my purchase, especially that with a promo it effectively came out to about $1000 + 100 in tax - at that price it's one heck of a laptop.

 

Thanks for the input. Seems like the drop in write speeds might be MS-related: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...e-speeds/22191f97-8011-4596-926f-b63b1a4a351c

Yes, that is exactly what I'm saying. In theory, if it doesn't work for you that way, you should be able to just switch it back to AHCI in the BIOS then. (Make a restore point though, just in case).

Hi Tsunpl, congratulations on the good deal.

Can you do me a favour and download LatencyMon, and see if ACPI.sys is causing high (above 1ms) DPC latency? I have a case going with dell, who now says that not all the 9570's are plagued by this... so if you could let us know, that would be great!

 

I've tried to switch from AHCI back to RAID but it does not work for me. I have a Samsung 970 EVO installed, would that make a difference?

 

One theory is, do you have the intel drivers installed?

 

Yes.

 

My xps, as I posted about earlier, is making a sparking/buzzing weird noise from the left side of the laptop with the power plug connected.

It makes noise all the time, but mostly when it's fully charged and still have it connected to the wall. Called Dell and they had no idea but they will send somebody out to replace the motherboard and power adapter

 

Well I'm glad they are taking it seriously for you. Although it sounds obvious, have the Dell tech try the power adapter first, lol.

 

Anyone having issues with the Nvidia GPU maybe since Windows 10 updates of the last days? I am asking because I have a weird issue right now. I wanted to play WoW today and noticed my GPU doesnt clock up anymore and just stays at 9xx MHz and has 100% usage. I tried Dell power manager settings optimized and ultra, no help. I tried another game and it was even worse and mouse cursor was really slow and laggy and I just got 17FPS anymore where I had steady 60FPS last week. I have not changed anything else since then but Windows updates. Tried Cinebench and it shows a performance way below a 650M.

 

Hey Guys,

just ordered a xps 9570 with i9. After reading about thermal throttling and audio latency issues I’m thinking about canceling the ordering.

I want my laptop to work without the need to fix the hardware by myself. I think one can expect that from a 3,5k product....

But what would be a good alternative? Buying a Mac?

I work with a Pc workstation for video cutting, so a windows based laptop would be a better workflow I guess...

 

Hey,
perhaps try doing a reinstall of the NVIDIA drivers? When you do so if you click custom you can run a clean install where it will remove the old drivers.

The XPS is a ultra thin laptop that will throttle with the i7/i9, no way around it even with mods. The Mac is also a ultra thin laptop that will throttle with the i7/i9 and no way around it. If you want something that will run without throttling you need something that is more of a workstation laptop. The 7730 seems to be performing well and I'm sure that lenovo's P52 and upcoming P72 will do a great job. Lots of options out there that aren't thin that will perform well but nothing that is thin and light sadly.
If you need thin and light then maybe look at the Razer 15 (my only worry is customer support) or MSI GS65.

 

Ok get it! Thanks so much for your Time and help!

So what would you recommend for laptops that are workstations and bigger?

 

Tried, reboot, no change.

I have no idea whats going on. Everything was working normal last week. I have not changed anything since then but Windows 10 updates. And the Nvidia GPU is now broken. It never clocks higher than 1000MHz anymore, randomly when I reboot Windows a few times and toggle alt+tab out of a fullscreen game 10 times, it may be worked 1 time, and clocks were normal again. But now over the last hours, it is totally broken, regardless of what game I use.

Tried Dell Power manager optimized and ultra, no change. Tried Nvidia tool reset all to default, tried all profiles adaptive, best performance, high performance, no change.

When I do a FurMark stress test, it clocks down to 450MHz and I have 3FPS.

 

I wouldn't do any tests with FurMark, as far as I know NVIDIA is smart enough to lower performance so the GPU doesn't go nuclear.

What are your Intel dgpu drivers? Perhaps they were updated? If you check installed windows updates, what were the last few? Do you have any logs with GPU-z? Perhaps it will show what the performance limitation is.

I think you should visit this sub forum:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/forums/what-notebook-should-i-buy.16/

Don't forget to use the form:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/what-should-i-buy-form-must-read-before-posting.29271/

That way you get more than just my opinion, plus I haven't used many workstations since I quit engineering.

 

It is clocking 510MHz, it has a temp of 47°c. It wasnt the stress test of FurMark but the benchmark. NO GAMES are working anymore, in every game it just clocks around 900-1000, has 100% load, and I have no 60FPS.

No, Windows 10 doesnt update GPU drivers because it is deactivated, Intel drivers are latest.

I dont think this shows anything useful.


WoW:

 

Hey,
if you go to the sensor tab it should show you the performance limit reason. You can also have it log a text file while you game. I'd be happy to look at the log if you'd like.

 

This is in WoW




Another game, which worked before normally and not anymore:


I actually noticed before some month ago, that the power logic for the Nvidia GPU of the XPS is not working as optimal as you think it would. For example, randomly it happened that I got 60FPS even with GPU clock of 1100MHz and fans were silent (seems vcore of GPU is randomly way too high most of the time). Then the logic boosted it to 1709 were no need for it were there, and fans were crazy. All with a capped 60FPS of course.

 

@maffle what happens if you go to NVIDIA control panel->3d settings->global settings
Power management mode and set "MAX Performance"?