How Dell cripple performance explained by Notebookcheck.net

How Dell cripple performance - explained by Notebookcheck.net You're all welcome FYI, Frank Azor @Alienware-Frank is also VP General Manager for the DELL - XPS lineup. Not only for the Alienware lineup.

@Mr. Fox @j95 @TBoneSan @unclewebb @Rage Set @Johnksss@iBUYPOWER @tilleroftheearth @Ashtrix @Phoenix @ajc9988 @Falkentyne @0lok @Vasudev @Mobius 1 @Cass-Olé @hmscott @Donald@HIDevolution @bloodhawk @thattechgirl_viv @aaronne @Prema @syscrusher @Huniken @Jon Webb @Coolane @ole!!! @Arrrrbol @ThatOldGuy @UsmanKhan @bennyg @Tanner@XoticPC @cj_miranda23 @ssj92 @D2 Ultima @Stress Tech @leftsenseless @thegh0sts @Georgel +++ All not mentioned but not forgotten.

"Using a combination of hardware and software, Dell designs its XPS lineup of notebooks to dynamically adjust power inputs to the various components to ensure that the system operates within specified temperature limits. We explain how Dell implements its Dynamic Power Policy to maximize performance within design constraints."

Why enforcing power limits is essential
"CPUs that are power-efficient operate within the specified thermal limits and, therefore, consume a lesser quantity of power. If these CPUs were to be pushed for more performance, there needs to be a mechanism to dissipate the excess heat produced. One way of doing it is to implement a heatsink, which can absorb and dissipate excess heat away from the CPU. Sometimes, due to design constraints, <it is not possible to put in a big heatsinks in a smal thin chassis> — but it is still essential to keep the CPU performing at its peak. Under such conditions, enforcing a low power limit (Aka cripple the product) will ensure that the heat dissipated is within the required range."

How Dell's Dynamic Power Mode helps
"Each notebook has its own design and has to be individually optimized for maximum performance while remaining within the skin temperature limits. Instead of just setting functions based on worst-case thermal limits, power limits to electronic components can be dynamically adjusted based on temperature feedback from thermal sensors placed at specific locations in the system. Correlation between skin temperature readings, power draw, operating frequency, device temperature, and other factors are established that enable the Dell Dynamic Power Mode to predict the surface temperature. This results in a matrix of power limits and thermal rules that are applied in real-time to adjust power limits to various components. This is implemented via a combination of Embedded Controller (EC) connected to each component and OS-based controls. The Intel Dynamic Platform Thermal Framework (DPTF-Aka Cancer software) provides a software framework for Dell's power policies."

Spoiler: The whole story if it disappears from the web!! You never know with Dell.

Dell Dynamic Power Policy: A look into how Dell manages thermal and power policies across its XPS lineup

Dell implements its Dynamic Power Policy across the entire XPS lineup (Source: Dell)
Using a combination of hardware and software, Dell designs its XPS lineup of notebooks to dynamically adjust power inputs to the various components to ensure that the system operates within specified temperature limits. We explain how Dell implements its Dynamic Power Policy to maximize performance within design constraints.
by Vaidyanathan Subramaniam, 2017/09/10
Business Gaming Kaby Lake Notebook Software Windows XPS Working For Notebookcheck

Introduction
Notebooks are getting more powerful by the day and manufacturers are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that premium notebooks perform as close as possible to their desktop counterparts. However, unlike desktops, notebooks have limitations on how much power can be crammed into a portable chassis while also considering other factors like mobility, thickness, etc. Due to the limited space for heat dissipation, there is a cap on performance of individual components, primarily the CPU and GPU. To ensure these components exude maximum performance while still keeping temperatures in check, OEMs come up with various measures to meet a certain performance threshold even under heavy load. They achieve this by means of a combination of hardware sensors and software algorithms that constantly monitor system load and change the power inputs accordingly. The Dell XPS 13, XPS 15, and XPS 13 2-in-1 have special sensors built-in that gather real-time temperature info from strategic locations in the notebook. Here, we discuss how Dell achieves performance compliance under load by implementing Dynamic Power Mode in their premium XPS lineup.

Why enforcing power limits is essential
Power is required to drive all electronic components in the notebook. CPUs and GPUs are silicon-based and operate by means of a clock frequency, i.e. the number of instructions that can be executed per second. The clock frequency at which an electronic component such as the CPU, operates is determined by a lot of factors, but the most notable of them is the power input. The higher the power consumed, the higher the clocks, and consequently, the faster the computer. High power consumption also means high heat production.

CPUs that are power-efficient operate within the specified thermal limits and, therefore, consume a lesser quantity of power. If these CPUs were to be pushed for more performance, there needs to be a mechanism to dissipate the excess heat produced. One way of doing it is to implement a heatsink, which can absorb and dissipate excess heat away from the CPU. Sometimes, due to design constraints, it is not possible to design huge heatsinks — but it is still essential to keep the CPU performing at its peak. Under such conditions, enforcing a low power limit will ensure that the heat dissipated is within the required range.

Generally, CPUs and GPUs are rated for a certain power limit value called the thermal design point (TDP). The chip manufacturer guarantees that the chips will operate at designated frequencies within the limits of the specified TDP value (provided adequate cooling is ensured) so that the chip does not cross something called the thermal junction temperature or TjMax. Operating within the specified values is adequate for nominal performance, but notebook OEMs constantly look towards extracting the maximum possible performance from the silicon while still innovating on slimming down the overall dimensions of the notebook. Even if the heatsink is large, there occurs a point beyond which the effectiveness of the heatsink in slowing temperature increase, falls. This point is called the "thermal soak", which is a saturation point for the heatsink. The thermal soak should be reduced by removing the soaked up heat by means of a fan. During this process of heat absorption and dissipation by the heatsink, there will be periods of high power draw for high performance and periods of low power draw for low performance.

The periods of high power draw cannot be sustained long enough as it will lead to increase in temperatures beyond the specified thermal limits and will consequently soak the heatsink for a longer time. The hotter a chip gets, the less efficient it is with power. To deliver maximum performance in this short window, CPUs and GPUs boost the clocks to perform an intensive activity and return back to nominal or idle state as soon as the activity is completed. This allows the chips to cool and gives the heatsink-fan combo enough time to dissipate the soaked up heat.

How Dell's Dynamic Power Mode helps
As discussed earlier, notebooks have a size constraint. They need to be as thin as possible while still being able to perform at their peak. As each notebook generation gets thinner than the previous, the vicinity of the operating surface gets very close to the heatsink-CPU assembly. Due to the absorptive nature of the heatsink, this area can be extremely hot and make working with the notebook a huge safety concern. Although chip manufacturers set thermal limits and guarantee optimal performance within these limits, in the interest of operational safety, CPUs, GPUs, and any other high performance components must not be allowed to reach these thresholds.

Each notebook has its own design and has to be individually optimized for maximum performance while remaining within the skin temperature limits. Instead of just setting functions based on worst-case thermal limits, power limits to electronic components can be dynamically adjusted based on temperature feedback from thermal sensors placed at specific locations in the system. Correlation between skin temperature readings, power draw, operating frequency, device temperature, and other factors are established that enable the Dell Dynamic Power Mode to predict the surface temperature. This results in a matrix of power limits and thermal rules that are applied in real-time to adjust power limits to various components. This is implemented via a combination of Embedded Controller (EC) connected to each component and OS-based controls. The Intel Dynamic Platform Thermal Framework (DPTF) provides a software framework for Dell's power policies.

The Dynamic Power Mode Policy can therefore, adapt to the notebook's usage. If the system is docked, the policy can set a higher temperature limit. Similarly, if the system is hand-held or worn, the policy can set a lower limit in real-time. Thus, maximum performance within the dynamically adjusted power limit can be provided.

Dell offers the following explanation with respect to how power is dynamically adjusted —

The thermal and power policy dynamically adjusts power to allow performance to be maximized within the constraints of the mechanical design - i.e. the thermal capacitance of the heatsink and conductivity through the specific material stack-up unique to each platform. By monitoring these values in real-time and using them as inputs to the models constructed in a controlled series of laboratory experiments, the system will adapt to the user's environment as well as their particular set of applications and how those apps load (lightly or heavily) the components within the system."



Conclusion
With a combination of hardware, software and firmware, Dell's Dynamic Power Policy aims to extract the maximum possible performance from the XPS lineup by dynamically adjusting power levels based on input from thermal sensors. Power management will be all the more essential for upcoming notebooks featuring the 8th generation Intel Kaby Lake-R ULV chips (15W-25W TDP) since they are in many ways chips that previously required a 45 W TDP. We look forward to review Dell's upcoming refreshed XPS lineup using the 8th generation Intel CPUs and evaluate how Dell's implementation of Dynamic Power Policy lets them stack up to the competition.

 

FazorBlades are never a good thing Poppy. As you know, I've done the deep dive into Snailienware desktops for years now; as I put on my preferred public persona as a concern troll (Cass-Trollé) my main concern right now is their (starting at) $3000 Threadripper 1950x desktop, who uTubers TimmyJoe, Jayz & others have reported that their standard 140 x 280mil AIO liquid coolers are worthless for overclocking that new chip (Enermax 360 is the cure of course), & so as a way to get a post started on your crippled thread here, I'll drop a photo of the AlienTechnologies 120 x 48 kooler, then make a simple observation: if a 280mil cooler can't cope with heat inside of purpose built dream-machines with ample fans at all 4 corners (7-10 fans at times), we expect Fazor to put his thumb on the scale to take control of this pre-built desktop's over-clocking (in)ability in order to combat (reduce) massive heat whilst using an undersized cooler, the bare-minimum cooler, the weak link in that overpriced system --> through Alien Crippled Power Policy

If Jailienware doesn't blush in locking down a high-cost desktop, they never will when it comes to their line of BGAware / XPOS disposables. Frank, well, he was the 3rd employee on staff, the janitor / stockboy; now self-stylized as a 'co-founder', mmmhmmm. When Linus told the world their TRipper overheats with mild overclocking, Frank said: 'no it doesn't! You're a bad reviewer! Don't believe Linus!'. Mmmhmmm, must suck living in a world of digital goodness & traveling the world over, yet having to peddle Mr Dell's junk for a living. I wouldn't work there if he paid me

Spoiler: ThreadCrippler

This website is a chore lately, IE11 hates this place > long-running scripts, page reloads, crashes, agh
edit:

Old habits die hard I found / fixed the problem: ScriptingDictionary was disabled, pages here run ok now

 

why are you using IE11?

 

AW 3 + QA tetraphobia, not really...

 

So true..

 

If you ask me, the problem stems from their "design constraints". I am ok with the thin and light designs making some kind of compromise on component TDP to fit your design's thermal envelope. This however is not the kind of design compromise you make on a high performance system. Pick the performance you want and then design the chassis + thermal envelope accordingly, don't try too cram something that will run to hot in an existing design and then cripple it with some wonky power management. I have my doubts that Dell management was willing to invest the cash necessary to do good get good power management models and algorithms.

What isn't fine though is that their dynamic thermal management kicks in in scenarios like gaming, etc. If you're running Prime95 + Furmark simultaneously, then sure, you're putting the system under the most stress it could be under an unrealistic extreme scenario and a little bit of thermal throttling would be fine on a given component, as long as you're capable of dictating whether you want the CPU or GPU to be affected.

What really scares me is this:

You can fit correlations to pretty much anything and your correlation may not mean anything. The fact that they mention correlations rather than modeling has me scared. A simplified, but with a sound physical basis heat transfer model is likelier to yield better overall thermal management than any random correlation. They also just listed a bunch of variables and a good multivariate analysis is not simple and so on.

Once you've got your model, again make the design according to component TDP, add a safety factor to it (very often simplified heat transfer models tend to overestimate rather than the other way around). That way, you know that power management shouldn't kick in under use unless there is something wrong like failing thermal paste, dust buildups, etc.

In the end, it almost sounds like manglement told their engineers and designers to do something unreleastic, which the engineers and designers likely told them was not realistic. Manglement being manglement didn't listen, engineers did their best with what they had and then manglement put some PR on top of it...

Places where I see that kind of power management shining is on battery power top increase runtime or to keep the notebook running silent. That is fine as long as there is user control over it.

 

Is this advanced system intelligence technology for the new Alienware's same as explained so well in this thread? Most likely.

Alienware 17 R4 Review, New Era of Gaming - haghgostar.com

"Alienware has its own system intelligence, which includes your attention, in front of the laptop, it can automatically optimize power usage and especially trigger advanced security profiles, which is a groundbreaking feature in Alienware machines."

 

You should be scared. There is every reason to be. The problem is (and I know this from the relationships I had with them) skin temps is like their golden calf to which literally everything is a secondary concern. There is no wiggle room on that spec based on their company policy, so performance ends up taking a back seat as a matter of necessity. They cannot deliver full performance and still hit that target. The thinner they make them for the sake of popularity, the more performance has to be compromised to meet that skin temp drop-dead goal. Clock speeds have to be lowered, throttling becomes a means to that end, watts have to be lowered, the system has to use less power, etc. or it will not be compliant with this arbitrary threshold that someone decided needed to be the most important consideration for a Dell/Alienware notebook. This is really unfortunate, as it stifles what they are able to deliver just because of that one measurement. Since thin is popular with the Facebook generation, I don't see this problem going away... ever. It will likely only get worse.

They have had that spec for a long time. It used to not matter that much because end users that don't give a rat's butt about skin temps were free to override things and get full performance. We didn't care about skin temps. What's different now is they no longer allow Alienware owner's to make their own decisions and castrate their junk with firmware and hardware gimping techniques.

What is so ironic is that this nonsense flies in the face of the stupid engineering stunts we see them pulling with uncooled components like MOSFETs and crappy designs like the tripod heat sink and fake radiators. Maybe if they paid closer attention to the small things they could eek out a little more mojo from their turdbooks and not have to be so OCD about things like skin temps.

 

I really like Dell laptops but this is my main concern, they have good support, nice products and design but software and bios implementing it's just awful, after 1 year that the 7567 was out on the market, last month they fixed the HDMI performance bug (intel driver) when using the laptop with lid closed and connected to an external monitor.

 

But how many other manufacturers would never fix the bug at all?

John

 

No issues with throttling on my new Inspiron 13 with i7 8550u Quadcore

 

Tested Aida64 stability test as the guide?

Edit. FYI. Tested model... Dell Inspiron 13 7000 (i7 8550u).

 

That's pretty nice! I believe if they start using this i7-8850u instead of the i5-7300hq in gaming laptop with powerful dissipating systems it would hardly throttle at all since it will output 3x less power (15w x 45w)

 

Be you sure... The first they would start with, was designing the HS for 3x less power.

 

See:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=2922&cmp[]=3064

Does the 7300HQ throttle that much (which chassis?)?

Don't forget that the 8550U (not 8850...) needs more than 15W TDP to truly fly too (around 28W according to Silvr6, iirc).

 

28w base, then maybe 35 or above to sustain full boost (without an igpu active)

 

Is that confirmed? I thought it was 15W base with 28W max power for a few seconds/minutes?

 

Furmark!!


Edit.
P95+Furmark!!

 

Thanks, but I think I'm asking for sustained TDP output above 15W (for hours, not seconds).

Also; what chassis is that tested in?

 

Mind yoo... We are still in the Dell cripple performance thread Dell XPS 13 (i7-8550U) -NBC.net

 

I mean if you want to sustain full boost then you would need that much TDP.

The power consumption of intel CPUs can't really go lower now until there's a node update or an architecture update.

 

It wouldn't surprise me at all. They'll go to their design team and ask them to design for the TDP advertised by Intel and design around that one spec.

Now, if Intel would provide a typical clock vs heat dissipated curve for a set operating time, that would be a much better design starting point instead of two or three data points. Dell could still make the choice to design for 15 W and consciously choose to have something that can only turbo for short bursts, but at least their engineers/designers would know exactly what they are aiming for.

If you were to ask me to design a cooling for a 15W TDP system with little to no other information, I would design for 15W, slap an oversize factor on top of it (Dell probably has one their engineers/designers use) to allow for some leeway and call it a day.

If I knew roughly how the CPU behaved however, let's say that 28W value is what you need for constant maximum clocks, then if asked to design a high performance system, it would be easy to aim for 28 W of cooling performance (+ over-sizing). You could even design for the "almighty skin temp" constraint that Mr.Fox mentioned previously and still have a laptop that cools itself nicely and performs at peak performance.

It would also be very likely that Dell would ask for a 15W design regardless of the amount of information they have, but I'd be willing to bet that better data on the heat/performance of the CPU would go a long way to get laptop manufacturers to design systems that operate at full turbo. Something tells me they are completely unwilling to invest the time, money and personnel to do their own testing on how the CPUs behave in terms of thermals and performance except for a few expensive more niche systems they can sell at a major premium as in Dell Precisions mostly. Seems like they were willing to do with Alienwares before, but scrapped that altogether. From what I've seen in the Precision forums, that line seems to still be doing ok in that regard.

 

Obviously some people have an agenda to point out throttling and try to look at everything in a negative light. If you look at my separate thread which is be no means an exhaustive list of benchmarks, the i7 8550u for all intents and purposes is FASTER than the i7 3840QM in my Precision M4700. When I stated my cpu didn't throttle (Inspiron 13 7000) I meant it did not throttle in a negative way. It is able to pull 44w of power for a few seconds and then slowly starts dropping its clock speed to comply with TDP restrictions. The XPS 13 from notebookcheck benches a little bit higher and had the same throttling behavior because its PL2 Power limit is set at 51W (vs the 44W of mine). My cpu finally settles in a 2.5-2.6ghz when loaded on all cores and it does so continuously while using about 17W (CPU power) I think dell may have set the TDP a bit higher than factory on this model(there is a TDP up of 2.0ghz at 25W according to intel). Sure it throttles in furmark and that is actually fine in my books because i haven't used any programs that stress any of the computers i've owned to that point aka its not a real world situation for 95% of notebook users. Being disappointed about not having a heatsink design for 44w or say 28w so a cpu doesn't throttle doesn't make a lot of sense in an ultrabook, my inspiron is thin and light and in now way has a cooling system designed for 28w sustained use and I really don't need one as its faster by a large margin than the model is replaces.

You would have be insane to think that a 15w quadcore isn't going to throttle but it's not throttling in a way that negatively affects performance. Once again many places have shown this cpu nearly as fast or faster than the 45W quadcore cpu's. I can only speak to the inspiron 7000 13 I have but its better than my M4700 in every way except for GPU performance which is to be expected. So looking at it from a pure CPU perspective there is ZERO negatives at all.

Here are my benchmarks

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ing-behavior-on-dell-inspiron-13-7000.809595/

A review of a notebook similar to mine @ Techspot

https://www.techspot.com/review/1500-intel-8th-gen-core-quad-core-ultrabooks/

What is interesting is the conclusion
Across every workload, on average we saw the i7-8850U outperform the i7-7500U by 49 percent. That’s huge.

Once again there is "throttling" but it should be taken out of context to mean its negative as its been shown over and over again its performance is so far above what anyone thought.

Ok rant done

 

That means the 8 th gen BGA HQ or HK can do much better than ULV with quad cores.
Well that's good performance. Just keep an eye on performance after each BIOS update and keep older BIOS on your disk in case you observe any issues.

 

Based on the great performance in the 15W design, imagine if dell put this CPU in the XPS 15 which is designed for a higher TDP better battery life and lower temps.

 

At the price point and form factor they might do it. But they are more expensive than hq chips of earlier generation.

 

What? Not comparing properly they're not? (New to new).

Even if they're the same price; inflation makes the new chips effectively cheaper.

 

Here at my place it will be damn expensive

 

Our personal budget vs. the cost of something desirable doesn't make something more (or less) expensive.

Everything is expensive everywhere; it is late into 2017...

 

I put it here... Dell 9550 throttling woes making the machine almost unusable As the thread is about how Dell Cripple the performance!!

 

thanks for the information. Good thing I came across this before buying one.

 

Again the problem with not putting heatsink on the mosfet/vrm.

 

And, like @tijo said... basically crippling the guts to work within the constraints of the chassis, instead of designing the chassis to properly accommodate the guts... that's bassackwards, and it drives lots of bad engineering decisions in notebook la-la-land.

 

Talk about bad engineering... Only TRIPOD is missing for this very flawed design!!

How much can Dell cripple the performance for this FRANKENSTEIN - CHIPS with next level of software/firmware?

Intel Core with Radeon RX Vega M Graphics Launched: HP, Dell, and Intel NUC

Navigating Power: Intel’s Dynamic Tuning Technology
"In the past few years, Intel has introduced a number of energy saving features, including advanced speed states, SpeedShift to eliminate high-frequency power drain, and thermal balancing acts to allow OEMs like Dell and HP to be able to configure total power draw as a function of CPU power requests, skin temperature, the orientation of the device, and the current capability of the power delivery system. As part of the announcement today, Intel has plugged a gap in that power knowledge when a discrete-class graphics processor is in play."

"The way Intel explains it, OEMs that used separate CPUs and GPUs in a mobile device would design around a System Design Point (SDP) rather than a combined Thermal Design Power (TDP). OEMs would have to manage how that power was distributed – they would have to decide that if the GPU was on 100% and the SDP was reached, how the CPU and GPU would react if the CPU requested more performance."

"Intel’s ‘new’ feature, Intel Dynamic Tuning, leverages the fact that Intel can now control the power delivery mechanism of both the combined package, and distribute power to the CPU and pGPU as required. This leverages how Intel approached the CPU in response to outside factors – by using system information, the power management can be shared to maintain minimum performance levels and ultimately save power."

 

100w on bga???

 

All in one package. A graphics chips who contain 45% processor for your daily tasks

 

FCU*** BGA.
Desktop Chips does it better.
Now I don't like BGA at all.

 

@Papusan Can you do a test for me?
Can you downclock your cpu to 2.1GHz with speedshift turned on with value set to 200 and dGPu set to lowest clock rates and memory clocks(400 on core and 1GHz on memeory) and check the estimated battery life? Disable turbo as well. Use high performance power plan.
I want to see the estimated battery life shown by windows 10. Because BGA chips aren't worth my time and money. Its okay to carry a heavy laptop w/o any limits.

 

65W for notebooks hothardware.com/news/intel-8th-generation-core-with-amd-radeon-rx-vega Same trash but higher TDP for desktops

"In this case, Intel is delivering 8th generation H-Series Core processors that will be available in 65W TDP (laptops) and 100W TDP (desktops) SKUs, and will take up much less PCB real estate in thin and light notebook designs. In fact, Intel says that the footprint for its three-pronged solution (CPU/GPU/HBM2) is 50 percent smaller than a traditional discrete setup, representing 1900mm2(3in2) in saved board space. In addition, the z-height for the package is an incredibly tidy 1.7mm."

See what a Joke this is.... "But of course, what everyone wants to know is how will these processors perform compared to a traditional Intel Core processor teamed up with discrete graphics? Well, Intel says that its 8th generation Core i7 with Radeon RX Vega M GL graphics is up to 1.4x faster than a Core i7-8550U with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 GPU in a notebook system. On the desktop side, an 8th generation Core i7 with Radeon RX Vega M GH graphics is up to 1.13x faster than a Core i7-7700HQ with GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q."

I have played with BGA clocks before. I have got enough of it.

 

I've played with LGA and PGA before and I got sick of it...

 

I took a look inside Notebookcheck.net as usual. And come over showed bench results from 7820Hq in a Dell Precision (One of their most known Notebook Workstations). See the similarity aka the performance behavior from both Alienware gaming laptops and Dell's Precision Notebook Workstation, and it's quite scary reading. The first round of Cinebench R15 is run with <more> normal score and with round 2 it will goes straight into the bottom and stays there through the whole tests. Exactly as showed from Alienware's Cinebench R15 results below. This is not or can't be a coincidence. It fits the thread title as like a hand in a glove. <How Dell Cripple Performance>



Cinebench R15 stress tests done from latest Alienware reviwed on Notebookcheck.net late fall 2017. 7820HK jumping between 3.2 and 3.3GHz. Scores below is from Cpu Monkey... Fully locked down 7700Hq vs. 7820HK.

 

Many ways to get rid of Power Limit throttling. One safe way is to turn of the notebook with the on/off button. Or simply turn of Turbo Boost Not a Dellbook, but many work in exactly the same way.

 

As everyone knows, the thread title is called "How Dell cripple performance". Here is more info regarding why Dell have to Cripple the Performance... Will people get this infomation directly on Dell's sales site (Product Details) when they put in a order of the Trash? Nope!! This is what they get on their web site...
Powerhouse performance.
Super-speed: The most powerful XPS laptop we’ve ever built includes the latest 7th Gen Intel® Quad Core™ processors and an optional 4GB GeForce® GTX 1050 graphics card with the latest and greatest Pascal™ architecture, so you can blaze through your most intensive tasks.

Maximum memory and storage: Supports up to 32GB* of memory with a bandwidth of 2133MHz, 1.3 times the speed of 1600MHz options. Faster memory means you get to the content that you need quicker. Expandable storage up to 1TB* in your choice of standard hard drive or optional solid state drive (SSDs), available in faster PCIe versions, provide plenty of storage room and high-performance responsiveness to access and run your applications quickly. The XPS 15 boots and resumes in seconds with a solid state drive, so you can do more without waiting.

Killer™ Wireless: The Killer 1535 Wireless-AC adapter provides a strong and reliable Wi-Fi connection and was designed specifically to make your online videos, voice and games play faster and smoother. It automatically detects, classifies and prioritizes network traffic ensuring your most important data takes priority over your other less urgent applications. Killer delivers your critical packets immediately, thus eliminating unnecessary latency and lag.

The truth...
XPS 9550 and 9560: Throttling CPU under sustained 100% CPU and GPU loads

 

@Papusan - you know things are bad when they say the throttling is by design. That's really messed up, but it goes to show what a sorry state the whole industry is in as it relates to notebooks. It is in shambles and will likely only get worse. It seems conveniently popular now to make excuses for sucky performance and pass it off as "by design" hogwash.

Don't know if we should say thank you (tongue in cheek) to Dell for making excuses for it rather than denying the problem exists, or be more angry at their competitors for pretending they have no knowledge of engineering defects of this type.

 

If Dell know the throttling is by design... They should mention this in the product details for mentioned models. Or put in a link to the proper Knowledge Base article. This mean they are full aware of the flaws and should warning potential buyers before they click the purchase button. Otherwise, I will call it a huge fraud!!

 

I have not seen a Dell system work like any other system (i.e. 'normally') - ever. When Dell 00001 rolled off the assembly line; it was throttled beyond being useful to me.

Can't understand how they're still in business...

 

Follow up with Dell's Latitude notebook models. Same awful experience - Knowledge Base article!!

 

Thermal pads on the 8xxx/9xxx M was pretty common, they are not your regular thermal pads, but it was common by HP, Asus, Dell, and many others, those where low TDP GPU's and they stayed under 70ºC, the alternative was to shim them with a 0.5-0.8mm cooper shim.

The E6400 has a NVS 160M aka a 9300m GS, just normal practice at the time.

 

I think this is pretty overblown. To be honest this whole concept that nvidia pushed about not being a difference between desktop and notebook GPUs with people buying into the hype has exacerbated it. Desktops > Laptops, always has and always will be just like Custom > OEM. Macbooks have been aggressively throttling both GPU and CPUs using their own controllers for years and no one has complained and when applied properly has their benefits just as improved battery life. Know what you're buying and don't believe the marketing-speak.

 

Tricky marketing overselling a product's capabilities.