This is a lot of good information
I have not bought anything yet so am looking forward to performance and thermals information.
Here's a summery based on the performance / thermals for both the XPS 15 & Aero 15. However, it must be noted that contrary to what some people really think, both of these laptops are not really classed as proper gaming laptops. Some places may especially push the Aero 15 so that it's aimed at gamers but if you dig deep online and also take a leaf out of other Aero 15 owners on the NBR forum, it has been designed & produced for fast "Content Creation" so to speak. By this I mean video editing and the like. While it may have the 1060, this plays a role within the following. In my opinion, enthusiast gamers should really be focusing on the more expensive Aorus range if they want to stick to Gigabyte / Aorus etc.
It is also a similar case for the XPS 15, while it is similar in specs (apart from the 1050) - again, Dell have and always will promote the XPS range of laptops as "professional". A lot of owners out there get frustrated because of what I'm about to explain, but really, they should be looking into the likes of the Alienware range if they are really gaming focused. At the end of the day - there is only so much both of these laptops can do and it's solely because of the slim profile they both sport, and because of this overall cooling on laptops like these are hindered in favour of the slim profile factor.
XPS 15
- Very quiet operation throughout during light to medium tasks, the fans only really kick in when the CPU is above around 50c. Even then, above & when pushed to the max - the fans are quieter overall than the fans on the Aero 15.
- Sadly Dell did skimp a bit in the SSD department, while other premium brands are generous by supplying the the likes of the superior Samsung SSD's - Dell are known for supplying inferior LITE-ON & Toshiba models (low 2100/1100mb's read & write speeds). The overall read/write speeds on these are much lower than say the Samsung SM961/SM951.
- GTX 1050 (not the Ti version). It must be said the 1050 is the pretty much the "entry level" mobile chip within the pascal range. While it does offer good performance, the 1050Ti & 1060 are still leagues ahead. A lot of XPS 15 owners were disappointed by the fact that Dell did not feature the 1050Ti from launch, but this is because the 1050Ti requires a lot more cooling capacity and unfortunately with the slim profile of the XPS 15, this is not possible. That aside and with my testing - gaming with the likes of GTA V & Battlefield 1 proved to be interesting; On medium or so settings, I was able to maintain a steady 50-55 FPS depending on the environment.
However... after 40 minutes or so with playing either game, the laptop's CPU would start to throttle and monitoring Hardware Monitor would show that it had lowered all 4 x CPU cores from the full 3300mhz capacity right down to around 2400mhz. At the time of when the throttling started, the CPU only maxed out at around 84c which isn't really drastic in terms of peak CPU operating temperatures. However - it's largely reported online that Dell implemented an annoying safety & fail safe feature on these laptops where as soon as the CPU reaches 77c, the laptop will throttle the CPU right down to constantly keep it below 77c, and this is until you shut down or reboot the laptop.
That aside, the true intentions of this feature is to also control & maintain the temperatures of the laptop motherboard "Mosfets". These are what help control and regulate the CPU power & temperatures. It's because these reach a max fail safe temperature reading that kick starts the CPU throttling as well which in turn protects the CPU & Mosfets from frying themselves.
The peak temperature of the GTX 1050 while gaming isn't largely an issue (78c from my tests), however it also must be noted that the heat from the 1050 also affects the CPU temperature because both the CPU & GPU share the same heat pipe. It's largely been carried out online amongst other XPS 15 owners where they have modded their laptops so that they can perform better and without any throttling but a majority of people only get so far and still have to result in using laptops coolers as well etc.
Aero 15
- Excellent out of the box performance, very quick & snappy. Gigabyte are also generous in the SSD department, the one I had came with the Samsung SM961 512GB and displayed test results of 3400/1800mb's read & write speeds.
- The fans on these are a bit louder than the XPS 15 out of the box (spin into life very quickly as soon as the CPU / GPU hits 45c by default), but they can be tweaked with the Gigabyte utility by choosing the "silent" profile which in turn only makes the fans come on when the CPU / GPU hits around 60c.
- GTX 1060. This has to be said that this is the ideal 1080p gaming chip and especially on laptops as well. I was able to maintain a 60 FPS in both GTA V & Battlefield 1 in most environments.
- Overall peak CPU temperatures I experienced when testing showed that it did reach around 87c when gaming, and around 77c from the GPU. However... I didn't really experience any throttling with the Aero 15 which was quite impressive but at the same time, the laptop does kick out a hell of a lot heat from where the fan exhausts are based (top of the laptop, right under the bezel). This in turn also makes the entire keyboard very warm when in operation and can be mildly uncomfortable overall, the underneath part of the laptop is very hot during as well. A laptop cooler is definitely a must for the Aero 15 if you're intending to use it for gaming just so it cools down the chassis overall more importantly (with it being all aluminium - this does not help matters either). It must also be noted that both laptop fans are very loud when pushed to the max.
While the Aero 15 may perform better in this department and for longer periods, I still don't see it as a gaming all rounder and sadly this is because of how hot it gets when pushed to it's peak and it generally just feels uncomfortable with the amount of heat it creates overall. Other bigger, bulkier & more enthusiast gaming laptops have much better cooling capacity which can help to control & regulate the head dissipation & overall distribution... while at the same time keeping the chassis temperature much cooler.
I'm not really a gamer anymore as I don't find the time but if I had to go back to either laptops - for me it would be the Dell XPS 15. For my needs it ticks all the boxes and overall it's just that little bit better in terms of build quality, looks, feel & portability.
Liam.
