XPS 16 Getting ATI 4670

The problems, as you even note, are overstated. The SXPS 16 gets hot and that's in part due to it's metal chasis and perhaps cooling design. However, something like that can be remedied through better designed heatsinks/heatpipes and a more powerful fan. I'm sure they would consider all that when adding a 4670. This HP DV7 I'm using right now is slightly bigger than the SXPS 16 yet it has 2 hard drives, 4650 GPU, 4 GB ram and a 2.0 ghz CPU and its not even warm in my lap. I looked at the GPU/CPU temps and they are very similar to the SXPS 16 but the plastic doesn't heat up quite like a metal base.

 

Update: Played Left 4 Dead with max settings, 4xAA/8xAF at 1600x900 and it was almost always pegged at 60 fps with the 4650 GPU. Keep in mind this GPU is identical to the 4670 except it's clocked a bit lower. The gameplay was much smoother than the 3670 was when I had the SXPS 16. Those of you waiting for the update are going to have a significant performance boost to look forward to! I'll try to take a FRAPS video later tonight and upload it.

Edit: I used FRAPS but unfortunately it cut the framerate in half when I started recording. I can still upload it to give you guys an idea of what the game looks and plays like on a 4600 series card.

 

What I don't understand is that despite the fact that the bottom is made of metal, on the review (I know this is biased because that could have been a one off unit) the external temps still looked pretty high. Although the bottom may be made out of metal which will conduct heat into things faster, that doesn't make it any hotter, thermometers don't lie. If anything, the temp you read from the thermometer would probably be less on a metal chasis if you had the exact same laptop but clad in either metal or plastic. Plastic doesn't conduct heat well.

 

Yeah a plastic chasis doesn't conduct heat well and that's why it feels cooler when you touch it despite having the CPU/GPU temperatures as a laptop with a metal chasis. My guess is the SXPS chasis is conducting heat (not necessarily dissipating it well) and it gets worse when the vents get blocked by the LCD and/or flat 6 cell battery. The 9 cell alleviates this a bit by adding height in the back to increase air flow.

When I had the SXPS 16, it overheated every single time I played a game and would end up throttling until I upgraded to a 9 cell battery to take care of the problem. On the other hand, this HP (which has a more powerful 4650 GPU [1 GB RAM] AND two hard drives inside) barely gets warm when I'm gaming on my lap. One of the key differences is that the HP has better placed vents that aren't obstructed like the ones on the XPS 16 and it's a plastic chasis.

For the revised SXPS, I really hope Dell did something about the cooling layout rather than just slap a 4670 in the 3670's place (which can easily be done since they're built on the same process and are nearly identical in size). Quite frankly, as much as I despise HP, this dv7 I got from Costco (for only $850!) has outperformed the SXPS quite handily. If it came with an LED LCD, I'd probably have kept it and not bothered with the SXPS 16. Hopefully Dell comes through with a proper revision soon.

 

I'm just hoping the upgrade comes by the time the Windows 7 free upgrade date comes around, which I believe is June 26th. As of now the SXPS is the laptop I plan on buying but I guess things could change by then.

 

I was looking at dells website today, and i was looking at the tech specs page of the Studio XPS 16 and it shows

Graphics
ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3670-512MB
ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4670-1GB

Under the Graphics Section

http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/note...d.aspx?refid=laptop-studio-xps-16&s=dhs&cs=19

It just came up today, but when you customize it, it doesn't show the option to choose that video card.

Click on the tech specs tab and scroll down you will see it!

 

God! The folks at Dell do know how to tease us!!!

But that means they are not going to update the chassis and the cooling system...

Btw, thanks for the news, mystycs.

 

So much for June 1st and mid-June lol

What's interesting is that they're keeping the HD3670 form that page so those who don't need more graphics performance can still save money. Good move

 

This will be a very good upgrade for the sxps 16, Im glad to hear this .

 

I read somewhere that the hold up has to do with Windows 7 certification. Maybe these revised SXPS 16's will be "Windows 7 certified ready" or some crap and that's why we're waiting longer. I think it's supposed to be by the end of June so let's hope..

 

I'm going to talk to a rep tomorrow and see if they'd be willing to order it with the 4670 now since it's listed on their site. It's worth a shot!

 

Well I just hope that the HD4670 won't add significant heat to the overall machine. It's not that much more heat producing than the HD3670, but it still produces more >.>

Cause I know the MSI EX625which is the other machine with this GPU) does also get warm(partly due to a small heatsink however).

 

Although I have a completely different laptop with a plastic chasis and different cooling, it does have the 4650 GPU and when I use GPU-z to monitor it's temps, they're about the same as the 3670, maybe even a bit cooler. First thing I plan to do when I get the SXPS 16 + 4670 is to open it up, upgrade to quad core and remove all the thermal pads and factory grease with arctic silver 5. If the heatsinks are insuffucient, I might try the coin trick to improve on it.

 

Yep, squeeze out all info you can about it and report back here.

 

Good thing there's the upgrade for the XPS 16. Finally, it's in the 4xxx series. Wonder though if the XPS 13 could get the same graphics upgrade?

 

Hi, I plan on buying the XPS 16, but I'm not sure if I should wait.
Do you know if the hd 4670 will also come in the xps 16 sold on dell.ca (Canada)? I want my laptop for the end of august so I don't mind to wait, but there's a deal today on dell.ca for the xps 16 :
http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/topics/reftopic.aspx/dhs/en/days_of_deals2?c=ca&cs=cadhs1&l=en&s=dhs

Should I buy today or should I wait for other deals and upgrade in the summer?

 

Try calling Dell. When Dell started taking orders for the M17x, the phone operators sometimes had access to options that were not showing up on the web page. If it works, please let us know the pricing!

 

For what everyone is on about with the cooling, just because it is only 5 watts more power hungry, doesn't mean it will be almost as cool. Different chips create power at different rates, everyo one knows AMD processors generally get hotter than intel for the same power, it's the same idea here. The 3670 could be the intel and the 4670 being the AMD

 

Like I said before, I have the 4650 and it doesn't run hotter.

 

That doesn't mean anything, that is a different laptop with different cooling, you can't compare the two. Also the 4670 has higher clocks than the 4650 which will mean a higher output of heat (heat output and power consumption go up exponetially with clock speeds, hence why if you want to beet clock records you have to use liquid helium to cool them).

 

You act as if the mild overclock on the 4670 over 4650 will increase TDP through the roof (it won't..go read the specs). While the cooling system may be different between the XPS and the HP, the principal is the same--both use a single fan + copper heatsink to conduct the heat. With GPU-Z, it's easy to make a fair assessment that heat output won't increase by much if at all.

 

I ran the SF4 benchmark on a 4650 with the settings at 1600x900, texture filter 4, models high, background high, soft shadow low, self shadow low, particles mid and extra touch off. The results:

SCORE: 9545
AVERAGE: 57.57FPS
OS: Windows Vista(TM) Home Premium
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T6400 @ 2.00GHz
Memory: 4062MB
Graphics Card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650
Display Setting: 1600x900 60Hz

(c)CAPCOM U.S.A., INC. 2008, 2009 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.


Video of how it looks in action: http://www.vimeo.com/5206885 (its not up yet, should be in about 30 mins). The 4670 should do a better job than this so the revised SXPS 16 should be a very nice system.

 

I wouldn't exactly call a 125Mhz bump in core clock a "mild increase", although it wont add a humungous amount of heat to it, I wouldn't be suprised if it was kicking out 1/4 as much heat again as the 4650. Add this to the already increased power consumption (albeit not by much) and add it to a computer which can feel increadibly hot even without the more powerful graphics and then think about what effects it could have.

On paper, a 5* increase in temperature might not sound like much but on skin it is a different matter

 

What's the big rush? Unless there are phenomenal deals out, it doesn't makes sense to get a laptop now when in 2 weeks you'll get the free upgrade to windows 7 when it comes out.

 

It really boils down to what if any improvements they could have made to accommodate the 4670. If they added a thicker heatsink + heatpipe and changed the fan to run at a higher rpm during idle and peak use, it could help temps. I doubt they redesigned the vents but it's not unusual for Dell to use a different heatpipe/sink configuration for higher end graphics cards (they did it with the 9300/XPS Gen 2). Even if they did none of the above, the 4670 only consumes a negligible amount of power (5 watts) more than the 3670. Usually you have power consumption and heat output go hand in hand so we'll see if this holds true with the 4670.

 

I doubt they will re-design the mobo for it but as you say, we can only wait and see

 

I've been telling myself this for half a year now and i just keep getting more tempted to order one lol......

 

Also the fact that both gpus are listed pretty much answers the questions about whether it'll be a replacement or an upgradable option

 

I was originally gonna wait for this supposed free upgrade to Windows 7. But then it got me thinking. Anythign that's offered free, is gonna MOST LIKELY be the most basic (aka Crappiest) version. So the free upgrade will probabaly only get you the bare bones version of Windows 7. So if thats fine with you, then by all means wait. But if you want to pick what version of Windows 7 you want, Buy your Studio XPS 16 anytime.

 

Actually its an equal version aka home premium to home premium, ultimate to ultimate, etc

 

Oh.

Great. Now you've convinced me to wait...

 

Haha....yeah i'm in the same boat. I know the smart choice is to wait, but its so hard...

 

Hey guys, Anyone wanna chime in, i dont care about windows 7 but i use cs4 Alot and im wondering if it would be worth the wait for the 1gb 4670. Any thoughts?

 

There website doesnt show that the

ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4670-1GB

option is available anymore....

 

They probably removed it due to all of us pestering them. Doesn't matter, we know it's coming eventually. It sucks waiting but what can ya do..

 

The big question is when >.>

 

If they can pull out that 1GB ATI, I'm about 90% sure I'm in

 

If only I could predict the future! My guess right now is the end of june and either by july 4th or a bit after. Hopefully not longer than that, this waiting is becoming tiresome.

 

Well the thing is Dell gave no official word of any kind. People speculated June 1st and mid-June and both those dates have passed lol

What I'm thinking s perhaps the HD4670 comes along with other parts as a refresh tot he Studio XPS 16. Perhaps Dell is waiting on say the new Intel CPUs coming later this year or perhaps Windows 7 or idk >.>

 

Yeah, most of the dates that are floating around in this forum are not supported by any hard evidence. And I would certainly hope to see Dell update other parts of the SXPS 16. I know this is almost impossible, but I would really like to see ATI Hybrid CrossFireX and a removable bay. I wish more laptop vendors would offer hybrid graphics. It offers improved battery life and improved graphic performance, it's really the perfect solution for laptops.

 

Thing is, despite having a relatively powerful configuration, the SXPS 16 right now is underpowered compared to it's main competitor HP. HP's 17" laptop and competitor to the SXPS 16 already features a 4650 GPU, an LED screen (not as nice as the RGB LED but still good), dual hard drives (a big plus), and quad core support. Dell needs to get on the ball quick with this 4670 release so they can have the edge over HP again. I purchased the DV7 with the 4650 for $870 from Costco and video performance wise, it thrashes my old SXPS 16 for $400 less (keep in mind my SXPS was a refurb, a new one would've had an even larger price difference). Aesthetically Dell has a winner, it just needs minor improvements and the biggest one is the 4670. As long as they throw in a thicker copper pipe + sink and maybe more powerful fan, it should solve the heating issue.

 

Hp's 17" isn't the competitor to the SXPS 16, it's the dv6, i.e. HP's 16 inch model that is a competitor >.>

 

There's not much difference between the two except the dv6 is cheaper. It still offers these graphics configurations though:
Help me decide
Choices:
Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
512MB ATI Radeon(TM) HD 4530 Graphics
1GB ATI Radeon(TM) HD 4650 Graphics

I hope dell gets to it soon, I want that 4670 pretty bad.

 

Well they're different beasts. Dell will most likely upgrade the GPU along with other things eventually though. Even Sony upgraded their FW 16" laptops with HD4650.

 

Oh I didn't know Sony had already done this. Hmm..time to go pay the Sony page a visit.

 

Well if they haven't it's right around the corner as well However, Son actually announced the change(i.e. the FW490 series) unlike Dell.

 

Yeah nothing yet on their site. I wonder if we'll see Sony and Dell update around the same time. The VAIO's are actually pretty nice laptops, it would be my 2nd pick after the SXPS.

 

sony has updated in the uk, you can get a fw with 4650 now.

 

if you care about customer service at all, i wouldn't advice a Vaio. not gonna discuss it here cuz i don't wanna derail the thread, and im of course speaking from personal experience (owner of a year and a half old vaio paperweight), but just visit the vaio laptop forums and check out for yourself before making the jump.

 

Well honestly lots of big mainstream laptop manufacturers are "meh" with customer service with a hit and miss factor. Only like Apple does a half decent job I've heard(they better with the prices they charge), but everyone else I've heard horror stories form.

The product IMO is more important that the service around it. The SXPS 16 is a pretty good product and it'd be nice to see it up to standards of current tech