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Why XPS 13 9360 with Intel iCore i5-8250U CPU @ 1.60GHz, 8GB RAM so slow
I bought this computer in May 2018 and I don't understand why it's so slow overall and has pauses/unresponsive periods from time to time. I reinstalled Windows 10 in September of last year and it seemed to improve for a few weeks but went back to it's constipated self soon after. Is this quad-core that slow and obsolete now? Is it the 8 GB of RAM?
Sometimes the computer seems to not respond for around 1-3 minutes. I boot into Windows and there are no desktop icons for 3 minutes, then they show up. When I stream live TV, there are periods where the video stops with a busy, hourglass signal and I have to refresh the site several times to restore operation.
It almost feels like in the old days when the Pentium computers were running out of memory cache although I can't hear that sound of rumbling marbles during the stagnant pauses. I know the computer is ridiculously slow because I bought a Lenovo IdeaPad 5 end of last year with an i7-1167G7, 16 GB RAM, and that thing smokes! Feels about 5-10X faster than the XPS in opening files, downloading/installing Windows updates, running diagnostics programs, doing the equivalent of the Dell Support Assist operations/updates.
I have a fast Samsung 970 Pro SSD, and my internet service is 300 MBPS. I know the memory read/writes of the 9360 are capped at around 1500 MB/s but I don't think that is the issue.
Anybody else with an iCore i5-8250U feel the same way, that this 4-core is outdated, or is there something else causing these slowdowns. I feel like junking this XPS 13 and getting a new one but these XPSs are super expensive machines.
ejn63
10 Elder
10 Elder
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23K Posts
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January 9th, 2022 04:00
The system may need internal maintenance -- open it up, clear out any dust inside and replace the heatsink thermal pads.
Clevor
68 Posts
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January 13th, 2022 04:00
I'm surprised nobody from Dell knows what the problem is, because I figured it out!
In the Dell Power Management I had the laptop set to COOL setting, to prevent the laptop from overheating whenever you charge it (which is a universally known problem on Intel CPUs in this generation, I think 8th) or when you run a virus scan. I am pretty sure this keeps the CPU from throttling much over baseline. So my 4-core i5 was stuck at 1.6GHZ.
I changed the setting to OPTIMIZE, which is lower than the max setting of PERFORMANCE, and that woke the laptop up and it's back to it's snappy self. Of course the downside is the fan gets loud on several occasions and the keyboard gets warm but not really hot. Core temps hit 100C during charging or virus scans, but not continually so the average temps stays at around 60-70C.
What I do is make sure I don't charge the laptop while running a virus scan, which is the worse case scenario to max out the CPU and get the fans running.
On my Lenovo IdeaPad 5 purchased at the end of 2021, they have the situation under better control. They have a similar thermal management program and I have that set to something akin to Dell's COOL setting. While running a virus scan and charging the laptop, the fans do run audibly, max temps get to around 80-90 C, but average temps are around 60 C so not too bad. Main thing is THERE IS NO DROP OFF IN PERFORMANCE AND THAT LAPTOP SMOKES WITH THE 11th-gen i7.