XPS 15-9570, performance has tanked

@BroBot92, thanks for reaching out to me. I have moved your post to create a new thread as the original thread relates to the previous model of XPS from two generations ago.

Thanks for providing the information you have provided. I haven't had any reports of performance drops on the 9570 systems which makes me think this could be unique to your system. Considering that information I believe the latest BIOS and the 1803 update are less likely to be causing this. 

Can you help me out with the following troubleshooting details -

a) Has the system ran fine up until the last two weeks?
b) Do you have the latest firmware update for your drive installed?
c) Do you have the latest drivers installed after you did the OS refresh?
d) If you run the system in safe mode do you still have performance issues and lag whilst watching youtube videos?
e) Can you run the extended performance tests on the system and note down the results please - https://www.dell.com/support/home/uk/en/ukdhs1/product-support/product/xps-15-9570-laptop/diagnose

Click on custom component tests and tick all 9 options on the bottom left corner under "Performance"

Have you tried disabling automatic panel refresh rate at all?

1. Right-click on the Desktop, and select Intel® Graphics Settings

2. Click on Power to access the Power Section

3. Under Power section uncheck the Panel Self-Refresh to disable it.

Regards, Alan

Hi Alan,

a) Yes (BEFORE THE BIOS AND WINDOWS UPDATE!)

b) Yes - I have tested with both the old drivers and updated drivers after restoring the factory recovery image!

c) Yes - as I have previously mentioned

d) Different performance issues, slightly more stable (pixel grid gone), but still choppy playback due to lack of GFX acceleration in safe mode - (you should know this...)

e) Component Test results: We did not find any issues (green tick)

f) Yes I have disabled auto-refresh under Intel GFX - made no difference at all...

As I have mentioned either the new BIOS or Windows update has caused issues with the intel/Nvidia GPU switching and possible c-performance states. Can you please contact a dell software/hardware engineer. Nothing on my side is causing this problem - it is either driver or BIOS related (PROBABLY BIOS as that is the only thing that has changed the past few weeks). The latest BIOS release was to fix coil wine issues. If this has changed the power management such as the VRM or c-states it could be causing the issue. I did disable the c-states in BIOS and again this made no difference.

I believe the NVIDIA GPU is working but the link between the intel GPU is not functioning properly. The Intel GPU is often running when it shouldn't at the same rate as the NVIDIA GPU. The performance graphs are almost matched.  As I have mentioned I have tested this out with the factory image and then updated all of the drivers and still the issue is the same. It did not happen when I first received the laptop a few months ago...

Upgrading the bios will make the performance worse. Dell downgraded the GPU temp limit from 78C to 74C. It will make your GPU throttle a lot more and clock will be lower. They incorporated it in the new bios without informing the users about it.

> Upgrading the bios will make the performance worse. Dell downgraded the GPU temp limit from 78C to 74C. It will make your GPU throttle a lot more and clock will be lower. They incorporated it in the new bios without informing the users about it.

In addition, BIOS downgrade is blocked!

That's terrible! :Surprise:

I can understand throttling to some degree - but it's soo bad that even 10 year old games can't run at a regular 60 fps on low settings in 1080p !!! what's going on Dell? 

I also believe the Intel/Nvidia GPU switching isn't working, as both GPUs show the exact same use in the performance monitor. I'll probably have to return the laptop, I've tried everything the moderators have said, they've been silent the past few days - probably realised this is a more serious issue not related to the user! :TongueTied:

As for my usage. I've been running Lumion which is a 3D rendering software. Before the bios update my GPU is running at a respectable 1100mhz core clock. After the bios update, it is now running at 600-700mhz. The new bios update just made my laptop unusable. They also blocked bios downgrade and I'm already beyond the 30th day return period. If Dell does not fix this right, I'm making sure my whole company will stop buying Dell from now on and get another competing brand instead.

Hi Mark,

Yeah, I use Adobe CC applications for work. Luckily I have a workstation for my job, however when I need to edit on the go it can be a problem. Videos stutter, audio has pops and artifacts - I almost believe my old Dell XPS 9550 from a few years ago actually performed better...:Hmm:

The problem is the XPS chassis and some of the internals haven't changed over 3 generations. Components are swapped out - but the design can't cope with the demands of the newer hardware. Exactly why a lot of people said not to bother with the i9 version...

I actually think the performance downgrades are to stop the laptop from burning-out early or causing other damage. My old XPS 9550 battery started swelling after a while... go figure :TongueTied:

I may return it if the issue is not resolved or patched soon. Hopefully it's something that can be fixed through optimisation, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm in Australia - we have pretty good consumer protection laws here, so I shouldn't have an issue returning it.

Hi Alan,

As you can see a number of other people are having issues. They have also mentioned further changes made by Dell to slow down the product to unacceptable levels. A user has mentioned they returned the laptop for replacement 3 times - but this still did not resolve the issue. 

If Dell cannot fix the issue and it is found to be a common fault, I will consider taking this to the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) for misleading specifications and releasing faulty devices that do not perform adequately - also wasting my time! Please note this is an independent branch of the Australian Government and has jurisdiction in presenting legal cases against companies and issuing fines. I may also notify Linus media group and Dave Lee to see if they are interested in investigating the issue :Surprise: it appears Dell has managed to outdo Apple in "throttlegate"

I suggest you immediately notify your manager and elevate this issue, also please see the thread below.

https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-15-9570-Video-editing-disappointment/m-p/6190952#M18416

(I have archived these pages)

Bump @Dell-Alan D

I am having the very same issues as OP on my 9570, is there a fix out there?

I'm having the same problem. And no one from dell is responding, that's just sad.

Hi all,

This is indeed BIOS related. It is a very strange GPU temperature bug from 1.3.1 onwards - causing performance issues under 48 degrees. Yes, completely ridiculous! See the recent article below - it also confirms my experience running the Unigine benchmark from other posts. Hopefully Dell will finally fix it now the issue is growing...

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Some-Dell-XPS-15-9570-laptops-may-have-a-BIOS-related-GPU-bug.355026.0.html

Soooo, in the meantime run the laptop "not too hot, not too cold - just right" (seriously DELL FIX IT!)

Hello everyone,

I got a Dell XPS 15 9570, just 5 months back in june/july. And until the first week of November, it was working great.

One day while running benchmark tests I noticed the multicore performance was very low. Upon checking the task manager, my processor utilization wouldn't go above 60-70%. In multicore applications, once my processor utilization went above 35-40% my clock speeds would drop down to 1.5-1.7Ghz and never increased causing slow applications and task execution.

I reset my computer twice(once without and once with deleting the files) but to no avail.
My cooling policy is set to active but my fans are just not running maybe dell changed the cooling policy in the BIOS 1.5.0 update. But on testing the ESAT BIOS testing utility my computer was working fine and in its processor stress tests my fans were running properly.
Running the performance test section in the custom diagnostics of the dell support assist application detects no errors but Cinebench R15, as well as User Benchmark, show the problem(results below).

Test Results:
1) User Benchmark:
                                a) Overall this PC is performing below expectations (26th percentile). This means that out of 100 PCs with exactly the same components, 74 performed better. The overall PC percentile is the average of each of its individual components. Use the charts in the benchmark sections of this report to identify problem areas.
                               

                                b) Processor: With a good single core score, this CPU can easily handle the majority of general computing tasks. Additionally, this processor can handle very light workstation and even some very light server workloads. Finally, with a gaming score of 57.6%, this CPUs suitability for 3D gaming is above average.
                                Actual Results:
                                Intel Core i7-8750H
                                 36,282 User benchmarks, average bench 84%
                                 U3E1, 1 CPU, 6 cores, 12 threads, 
                                 Base clock 2.2 GHz, turbo 2.5 GHz (avg) ~ the turbo average look at that
                                 Performing way below expectations (10th percentile bench 56%):
                                 Single core score: SC Int 116, SC Float 124, SC Mixed 122, 97% 121 Pts ~ Single core is ok
                                 Quad-core score: QC Int 417, QC Float 258, QC Mixed 223, 68% 299 Pts~ Look at this
                                 Multi-core score: MC Int 288, MC Float 324, MC Mixed 306, 46% 306 Pts ~ Look at this

                         c) SSD: 97.9% is a very good SSD score. This drive is suitable for moderate workstation use, it will facilitate fast boots, responsive applications and ensure minimum IO wait times.

                          d) RAM: 16GB is enough RAM to run any version of Windows and it's more than sufficient for nearly all games. 16GB also allows for very large file and system caches, software development and batch photo editing/processing(RAM slowdown has also occurred due to slow multicore speeds

Earlier the overall score always used to be always above the 93rd percentile

2) Cinebench:
On battery(max performance mode): 348
Power cable plugged in(max performance): 395(just a slight increase)

As quoted on https://www.notebookcheck.net/The-XPS-15-9570-with-i7-8750H-CPU-is-almost-twice-as-fast-as-its-predecessor.308578.0.html the score should be around 1050 points, not 390 which is pathetic

Cinebench is a multicore benchmark test still my processor utilization would not go above 60%. It hit 100% first and then in an instant dropped down to 55% and stabilized there. Also look at the clock speeds this is on max load

On reading this dell community forum query on this link: https://www.dell.com/community/Laptops-General-Read-Only/XPS-9550-Always-Slow-Performance-again-the-power-settings-BUG/td-p/5091169
It says that the motherboard has to be replaced. But I am not at the USA right now I'm in another country at the moment and will be here till the next August because of my work demands and unfortunately, I don't have international warranty.

What should I do? I cannot afford to spend on another laptop as my config already cost me $1500. Anyone who can provide any valuable suggestions and solutions please help as this is my brand new laptop.

Note: On running single core tasks the results are just as good as before it gives the same max clock speeds of above 3.6Ghz

@Dell-Alan D