Dell XPS 15: Game Performance

Hey everyone,

I bought a new XPS in mid-august for school / primary gaming rig and I must say I'm pleasantly pleased with it.

Here are my specs:

Intel i7-2630
8GB DDR3 Ram
Nvidia 525M w/ 1 GB
500 GB HDD
1080P Screen

I play Starcraft 2 quite a bit, and I really wanted a laptop that could keep up with the game. I tested it out today to see how high I could run the settings before it became unplayable after I updated.

Blizzard must have updated a few things graphically because now I can run it on 100% Extreme Settings @ 1080P with Vertical Sync on at 27fps and about 20 fps during big battles. Obviously this isn't the greatest, but all things considered that I can easily run on High settings or Ultra without hiccups I'm quite pleased.

The same goes for WoW. It being an older game this rig can chew through those graphics and never break a sweat.

Portal 2 runs at 56 fps maxed out
Team Fortress runs around 60 fps maxed out

As I gain more games I'll post up their performance. Also these fps records were taken while I had the computer running for best performance on the Nvidia chipset and best performance under windows with all computer settings on.

If you have any questions or comments please post! If you'd like game info or would like to request a game I'll see what I can do!

I know I would have loved having this information before I bought this computer so I thought I'd contribute back to the community that helped my buy this thing

Thanks for looking,
- T

 

Sounds like you are a happy XPS 15 owner, glad to hear it!

 

Reposting this here since your subject fits my problem much better than where I originally posted this and maybe the right people will have some feedback for me! Sorry in advance for the wall of text but having an issue with my gaming performance!

I was wondering if anyone who uses thier XPS 15 R2 for gaming has had the same experience I had.

My system has i7 2720 mobile intel chipset, the Nvidia 540m video card, 8gb of ram and the standard 640gb hard drive.

I have had system lock ups and poor performance issues with playing games WOW, RIFT, and Starcraft 2 for months. From what I have read in these forums and others the rig I have should be able to play these games at medium settings with few problems.

I first called up dell tech support when I bought the laptop a few months ago and was told sorry buddy your programs are the issue not the system as all the self diag memory checks temp checks etc are running normal.

So after months checking with the video game companies sending error logs to them etc they all are saying its an unknown video card related error thats causing my lock ups and slow fps performace.

So I called dell back 2 days ago and this was the response they gave me... They stated oh yes we know about some games having problems with the Optimus technology on your video card but we can fix this by updating some settings... The rep then remoted in and wanted to force all my games to play on the Intell HD graphics processor vs. using the video card I paid good money for!

I mean that cant be an acceptable resolution in my opinion.

Has anyone else had crashing/performance issues with the optimus run nividia cards? I think Dell is blowing smoke that I should just "not use" the Nvidia card. That is a horrible solution as the intergrated graphics while not bad are easily going to lose alot of performance and FPS from using a dedicated graphics card.

I am going to call back tonight and see if I cant get a supervisor or something to force a 3rd party tech to look at my system because I cant see paying for a system with a video card then not being able to use it for its intended function.

Any advice or others who have had similar responses from dell or issues with thier laptop?

 

basic, you are getting bull sh@t from Dell as you realize. Get on their case, running games on the Intel GPU is crap and not what you paid for, plus the Intel GPU isn't good enough for most games.

 

That is deffinately the plan I am just shocked they are offering that as a "Fix".

I wonder how many people who are not very educated in PC/computer specs have been fooled by such a tactic. I have bought dell laptops for the last 7 years but really suprised by the response I got from the dell techs.

Now I just have to pray/hope they send me a good mother board replacement and not one with other problems.

 

It should be fine, there are tons of people with XPS 15 playing very solidly on games.

 

Once I get my dell l502x, I will test some games that I have been itching to play as well as some emulators, namely ps2

 

Have you tried updating from the Nvidia website? I did that and noticed a dramatic improvement, also I played with settings within the Nvidia Control Centre such as actively selecting the 525M as the card for each game and then making the card prefer performance over quality.

 

I have tried newest drivers / beta drivers all that.

Even tried completely reformatting the hard drive and doing a clean windows 7 install with step by step driver re-install in the right order and still has the problem.

The one thing I just tried that seemed to let me play longer was a suggestion I got from the L502x owners lounge. I changed my power settings to only allow max performance of my CPU to 99% vs 100% +.

So far I am cautiously optimistic as I played for about 90 mins straight today and no slowdowns or crashes.

I have no clue how throttling the power settings has anything to do with keeping the nvidia GPU stable but it worked for now... I need to keep testing it and see if this power setting thing really keeps my system going strong.

 

That's very strange, please keep us posted on your progress! Maybe there is a setting under advanced power settings? When I play I'm always on high-performance and plugged in.

 

Overclock your GPU with Nvidia system tools, and use ThrottelStop to force turboboost on.

You'll squeeze out some extra FPS. Just watch temps. As for crashes and the like, that doesn't sound like an Optimus issue. Once Optimus has chosen a GPU, it doesn't muck about while the game is running.

If the power settings has helped, perhaps you are overheating? Setting the CPU to 99% reduces temps by quite a bit. CPU temps affect GPU temps, so monitor your temps while playing and see if anything is getting too high and causing the GPU to throttle performance, or shut down altogether.

Anyways, I am quite pleased with the GPUs performance. Granted, I knew what I was getting into. It will play new releases, but not at high settings. It's not a "gaming laptop," but I so far haven't found a game that's unplayable at all settings. One thing that sucks is that 1080 gaming isn't gonna happen for new games. Such a nice screen... oh well. 1600x900 is nice too.

 

Well power settings extended the time between crashes but it was still happening so I had dell overnight to some 3rd party techs a new motherboard/video card set up to replace...

Sadly this did not fix anything the parts they sent must have been refurbished as the tech seemed to install everything right but after getting my system running it cannot detect the video card at all now!

Very frustrating I called dell and complained for the 4rth time this week they are sending me a fedex box to send my laptop into thier official Dell Depot to try to fix it there vs. with third party techs this time...

Frustrating as all hell but hopefully they will get it right before they send it back to me this time then I can be like others and enjoy the flexability of this mid ranged laptop to play my games and use all the awsome screen/battery life features.

 

I'm in a very similar situation as you.
they tried to do that to me too, with my l401x. I told them I was a student and there was no way I'm going without my laptop for the "10 business days" or my two weeks. They sent me a 15z. Just got delivered, can't wait to get home and crack it open.

 

I am pretty lucky that my older laptop a 2 year old 1645 xps system still works fine. But its so antiquated slow and not nearly as fancy a screen as the L502x that it is a frustrating reminder of getting a lemon this go around with dell.

Hopefully they will fix it and all this will just be a bad memory.

 

Actually the display on the 1645 (if you got the RGBLED) is far superior to the one in the new XPS15.

 

I must have skimped on the screen on my 1645 as its only 900p? or so vs the 1080p I have on my XPS 15.

The main things I upgraded on the L502x is the screen to 1080p looks way richer in colors and the sandy bridge i7 chipset. Load times and battery life are way better... when it works. I have middle of the road video cards, same 8g ram, and similar hard drive size.

 

How well can you play League of Legends and at what resolution?

 

On paper. The RGBLED was a more expensive display and had a better color gamut, but in real life the XPS's more inexpensive B+RGLED display is MUCH better. Brighter, whiter, blacker and the colors appear just as vivid as on the RGBLED. Side by side comparison: the RGBLED black levels appear washed out and the whites appear more beige. Overall, the XPS 15's FHD display is a huge improvement visually.

 

None has tried Battlefield 3 on an XPS? (Any configuration is good ) I would like to see some videos or impression about fps and general performance Can't wait till tomorrow!

 

Where can I get it?

 

If you have early access on Origin (preordered the game before 25th september or bought the limited edition of medal of honor), otherwise you'll have to wait tomorrow for the full open beta access (and tomorrow i'll make some tests )

 

I find the BF3 runs well on medium settings and 1080P. Nothing spectacular, but lets be realistic, this a laptop playing an extremely demanding game

 

The FPS when playing WoW and similar games using the Nvidia card is fine with a little tweaking. In WoW, for example, the shadow quality has a huge impact on my FPS. I can set everything at ultra and put shadows at lowest setting and still get good framerates.

The problem is crashes. WoW, Mass effect, Dragon age, etc, will all crash after ~20 minutes of gameplay (WoW and Mass effect crash more often than dragon age).

This only happens when the laptop is plugged in. When the laptop is unplugged, they run fine using the same vid card and same drivers and I can play them until the battery runs out w/o a single crash. I've tested this over and over and over and over. Zero crashes unplugged, many crashes plugged in, with vid card in either case always set to use the Nvidia.

The Intel card will run w/o crashing even when plugged in, but it's a weaker card and the FPS is worse. I use it for WoW right now and reduced settings.

I finally convinced Dell to send me a new motherboard. They kept insisting it was a driver issue, but after reinstalling drivers 5000 times and showing the difference plugged in -vs- unplugged they finally agreed something may be wrong on the motherboard.

I'll post here and update if it corrects the issue or not. It's supposed to arrive this week.

 

I have had exactly the same issues as you have with crashing and we also have exactly the same chipset/video card/accessories in our laptops.

Below is a dell forum post about the issue some one linked to me that seems to indicate that while the Nvidia card usage triggers the "event" that causes the lock up its not that the card is deffective but something deffective has been done with the installation or mounting of the mother board near the video card/voltage control/or connections on the video card when on AC power. Obviosly Dell does not know what the manufacturers deffect is or they would have a better solution than changing the motherboard and yet that does not always fix it 100% of the time.

Dell customer forums link: http://en.community.dell.com/support....aspx#19936117

Some of the respondants in that forum reported that once the motherboard was changed no more errors occured but others like myself still have issues.

Also I have had my mother board replaced and even sent my laptop in to the dell Repair depot (not recommended my screen came back with a 1.5 inch scratch) and the new motherboard seemed to add life to how long I could play my games like wow and others but now instead of 5-20 min play time before crashes its more like 15-45 minute play time before crashes.

My experience is that we are not the only ones with this issue but we are a minority as most people with these new XPS systems do not have this voltage AC power crashing during game issue. And as you can see from these forums reviews of the system many people are super happy with the performance and can play for hours with no problems.

I am still negotiating with Dell about maybe getting a replacment system since they could not fix it deffinatively but so far have not heard back from them in last 2 days... crossing my fingers that they come through for me.

 

i have tried but every tem minutes, sometimes less it crashes and i have to hard reset. not sure if its my xps or the so called many bugs bf3 has at the moment..? i have xps 1645

 

yeah I've got similar issues with my 540M, going to try to get them to send me a new mobo soon. You mind relinking that dell forum page? Its not working for me.

 

Hi Guyz....new to this thread........
i own a DELL XPS L502X....specs r 6gb RAM i5-2410M CPU @ 2.3GHz....Graphic card :- GE force GT525M



I was following and was searching threads where i can get solutions for my gaming problem which i was facing with FIFA2011...ryte nw i am downloading the latest nvidia software to check if it resolves my problem...meanwhile can i know whats the optimum temp a cpu is considered safe.

When i play FIFA 2011 my temp goes upto 92/94 C sometimes.

Can anyone help me is dis fine or temp is too high...???

 

whats the latest graphic driver update version for GT525M ????

 

not sure what happened but I can no run StarCraft 2 on Ultra / Extreme without dropping below 60fps .. not complaining but anyone know why?

 

Does it crash, lockup or freeze in at all? If not then no, it is not too high. People really need to stop being so concerned about laptop temperatures, they have nowhere near the cooling potential of a desktop. The XPS is not a gaming system, it is an entertainment system and not designed for extended sessions of gaming. If you want that, then get an Alienware.

 

But you shouldn't be too complacent either.

Lower temps can help increase the lifespan of the components, and 95C is actually bordering on shutdown if the temps were to go any higher. (ie lockup/freeze)

IMHO 95C is too high. Not that it is dangerous and your laptop will bust into flames You should either check the filters, repaste or even call Dell. You also need to factor in your ambient temps.

When you compare this temperature to sombody else's temps you will realise that it is not normal and you can't blame it on "not being a desktop". As reference, I only get about 78C.

PS Some of us cannot afford getting an Alienware laptop to use for gaming and portability