XPS 15 9560: FHD vs 4K

JokerPower · 1 Jul 2017 at 06:53

Hello!

I have the opportunity to buy one of these with 25% discount

FHD:

4K

** No Competitors **

My requirements are:
- portability
- working with Office documents, presentations
- run at decent frames games like StarCraft II, CS Go, Battlefield

I've thought about Alienware, which also is available at 25% off, but it's too bulky, I mean 4,4 kg or so.. c'mon

Some people say XPS 4K is better at color reproduction, response time is better and it's more stylish. But at the same time it's more vulnerable to reflections..

Also I've heard about some throttling troubles when gaming, how bad it is?

What do you think?

Paul11 · 1 Jul 2017 at 11:09

another consideration is battery life, the 4k will have less battery life than the FHD

JokerPower · 1 Jul 2017 at 13:40

Regarding gaming, how is throttling?

LEK-89 · 1 Jul 2017 at 17:39

JokerPower said:
Regarding gaming, how is throttling?

Sadly the XPS 15's are not all that great for heavy gaming, they will throttle once the CPU / GPU hit 77c and as a direct result the CPU will throttle down to below 2000Mhz. I owned the FHD version briefly and BF1 would throttle within 30 minutes, frame rates went down from 50FPS to 25FPS. It's not so much the CPU / GPU overheating itself but a thermal component called mossfets which actually tend to overheat (this component regulates the overall thermals).

The 4K version is great for intended uses such as content creation and the screen itself is lovely. The battery life on the 4K will be worse than FHD by a good couple of hours.

Liam.

JokerPower · 1 Jul 2017 at 19:04

LEK-89 said:
Sadly the XPS 15's are not all that great for heavy gaming, they will throttle once the CPU / GPU hit 77c and as a direct result the CPU will throttle down to below 2000Mhz. I owned the FHD version briefly and BF1 would throttle within 30 minutes, frame rates went down from 50FPS to 25FPS. It's not so much the CPU / GPU overheating itself but a thermal component called mossfets which actually tend to overheat (this component regulates the overall thermals).

The 4K version is great for intended uses such as content creation and the screen itself is lovely. The battery life on the 4K will be worse than FHD by a good couple of hours.

Liam.

Well I'm not planning it for heavy gaming, just to be sure it can run sometimes more demanding games like Battlefield

Basically I will be playing only StarCraft II

LEK-89 · 1 Jul 2017 at 20:02

JokerPower said:
Well I'm not planning it for heavy gaming, just to be sure it can run sometimes more demanding games like Battlefield

Basically I will be playing only StarCraft II

While I'm not into StarCraft, you may be OK as it's not graphically intensive as BF1. However just bear in mind that on the XPS 15 regardless of any game, as soon as the CPU temp rises above 77c when gaming - it'll throttle down to keep it below 75c and will remain like that until you restart the laptop.

This is the one gripe with the XPS 15 and Dell's tollerences with thermal management on this model, though I suppose with it being slim it's practically the compromise.

Out of interest what budget have you got in mind for a laptop like this, have you taken a look at the Gigabyte Aero 15 if you're solely looking for something slim due to the portability factor?

Liam.

JokerPower · 1 Jul 2017 at 20:35

LEK-89 said:
While I'm not into StarCraft, you may be OK as it's not graphically intensive as BF1. However just bear in mind that on the XPS 15 regardless of any game, as soon as the CPU temp rises above 77c when gaming - it'll throttle down to keep it below 75c and will remain like that until you restart the laptop.

This is the one gripe with the XPS 15 and Dell's tollerences with thermal management on this model, though I suppose with it being slim it's practically the compromise.

Out of interest what budget have you got in mind for a laptop like this, have you taken a look at the Gigabyte Aero 15 if you're solely looking for something slim due to the portability factor?

Liam.

My sister works at DELL and there is 25% off for employee and family members

FHD for 1349 (original price 1799), 4K for 1611 (original price 2149)

I'm in a dilemma about which one to get, FHD or 4K..

Hades · 1 Jul 2017 at 20:43

I'd suggest that if battery life is most important then get FHD. Otherwise get 4K.

LEK-89 · 1 Jul 2017 at 20:46

JokerPower said:
My sister works at DELL and there is 25% off for employee and family members

FHD for 1349 (original price 1799), 4K for 1611 (original price 2149)

I'm in a dilemma about which one to get, FHD or 4K..

Fair play.

I'd recommend the FHD version, 4K is nice but gaming on it is a no go unfortunately due to the resolution and even though you'll be able to notch it down to 1080p, it won't scale well in games.

Liam.