is latest XPS 15 9500 overheating?

Any slim notebook like this one will overheat and throttle if overloaded -- doesn't matter if it's a Dell, HP, Lenovo, Apple, Acer or any other.

These absolutely cannot sustain high speed operation for any length of time.  If you plan to use the system under load for long periods of time, you'd be better served by a desktop system with robust cooling -- and if you need a mobile system that can do this job, you should look into mobile workstations or mobile gaming systems.  Expect a big, chunky system in order to support the cooling needs - this won't be a 3-5 pound notebook, but rather a 9-10 or more pound, luggable system.

From what I understood the overheating of previous generation is flaw which can be fixed. And than you can run games and benchmarks without the throttling. So my question is if anybody have experience running latest xps 15 under load. Please don't tell me laptop for 2500 USD can't do google meet on full-screen without throttling (my case)

hello,

I have exactly the same XPS 15 9560 laptop. Recently (after some update in spring, but I'm not able to identify which one...) I have a similar problem with overheating. I detailed my observation in this post in the community XPS forum. Essentially what I found is that if you disable and then re-enable (as soon as the fans stop) the nvidia driver you get better performances. Apparently, after a reboot, the nvidia gpu is heavily used even if isn't needed. I think there is some problem with the Optimus driver. I tried to downgrade the nvidia driver but I got the same behavior. Could you try to switch off and then on the nvidia driver from the device manager?

g.

I bought xps 15 9560 for 3d modeling and rendering. It was fine before latest bios update. Atm dell start throttling unpredictable at low temperature. The only reason I bought i7  laptop is I need max performance. Now it cant run game more than 5 mins. and 3d rendering gets it throttling with no overheating issues (rendering uses only CPU with no GPU load). Can some one explain me plz why I paid for top end hardware (for that time) in a laptop that have soo many bottlenecks. Throttling drivers don't work correctly because 0.8ghz limit goes too long even if fans slowed down.
Here is some monitoring of v-ray rendering CPU only. As far as you can see it's not overheated but still gets power limit and drops clock speed to 0.8ghz and speeds up slowly for shot period of time. 

Laptop is clean and have a great repasting work with high quality thermalpaste.

I am totally disappointed about about dell! Give me my money back!

Absolutely worst computer for overheating and constant crashing - stock build and only running Office 365.

I have the new 9500 and put it in my bag and when I got home I asked my daugther to get my laptop out my bag. She yelped and let it go back into the bag. It was that hot it burnt her fingers. The case had a touch temperature of over 54 degrees celsius - 129 Fahrenheit. 

I got my reader and see the photo...I have video also. 

Not acceptable at all and who knows if I had not pulled it out would it have caught fire?

Be aware.

I can confirm that this does get toastly... even sometimes just sitting around with the lid closed for some odd reason. If you're doing anything that uses both the GPU and CPU, you would need some kind of laptop cooling solution or it would throttle. Hence, if upgradability isn't one of your biggest priorities/wants, get a macbook

I got the XPS 15 9500 7852 in mid-July and YES it gets so hot. I'm concerned the heat will actually damage the computer, and it radiates heat through my table and actually heats up my room. Even the battery block on the cord gets insanely hot. I elevate it on an empty shoebox but that's not sustainable while I'm working. I will likely get one of those cooling trays, which then negates the use of a thin laptop. I've been putting it on ice packs, not kidding. This happens about every 15-30 minutes if I have more than 3 tabs open and I am NOT doing anything unusual, I don't even use the device to watch TV or stream music at this point because it gets so hot. An irritating use of $2,100.

I have the Dell XPS 15 9500 with the i9 option. I was aware the i9 would probably be unsustainable in a thin and light laptop, but there was no other 8 core option available in the Netherlands. To answer your question: it can get very hot, unless you are willing to sacrifice performance and to research adjusting some hidden settings.

Basically, it all boils down on whether you want to try to get the max performance out of your CPU by allowing it to turbo boost. The stock settings all have turbo boost enabled. Any kind of serious workload, even single-core applications, can easily push your cpu temps to 100c. To make things worse, the fan profile is absolutely ridiculous. The fans do not kick in during loads at all, instead it aims to cool itself down by heavy throttling. Only after the loads, I heard the fans kicking in. I wish I would have more control over the fan profile, I'm curious how much more power would be obtainable with more aggressive setting. The laptop's keyboard and bottom can also get slightly uncomfortably hot, but I did not experience any of the extreme heat issues that some of the others here experienced.

Is there a "solution"? The only proper solution I could think of would be to undervolt and improve the fan profile. Unfortunately, undervolting is blocked by Intel due to plundervolt and I was not able to exert control on the fanse. The only "fix" would be to disable the turbo boost option. This could be done via the BIOS, although that is a bit annoying. Previous versions of windows would allow you to change it in the power plans, but that has been removed. However, by downloading the .reg file here: 

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/107967-add-remove-maximum-processor-state-power-options-windows.html

you can unlock the "maximum processor state power options" in the advanced settings of your power plans. Setting this to any value lower than 100% will disable the turbo boost. This makes a massive difference in my temperatures. A Cinebench R20 stress test does not push my cpu beyond an acceptable 75c, without the fans even kicking in. However, you will definitely notice this in performance! My cinebench score dropped from 3700 to 2400, a substantial reduction... But since I occasionally do heavy simulations for my work that can run multiple days on end, I don't want to let it run at 100c and will have to be satisfied with a slower cpu. Even without turbo boost the laptop performs snappy, but the numbers that the Ryzen 4000 series manage to crank out on, for example, the Asus G14 are painful to watch. If pure cpu performance, manageable temps and a small form factor are your only concerns, I'd recommend that option. The Dell, however, has a much better display, cleaner audio and stronger overall build quality. So far, the perfect laptop still does not exist...

P.S. For me, I started to get nasty conflicts by messing with the turbo boost in the bios, Throttlestop and Dell's power manager, which resulted in multiple blue screens in a single day. In the end I opted to go for a clean install, removing all unnecessary partitions and Dell bloatware. I now have 30Gb more space and less RAM+CPU consumption. Something to consider..

Hello,

I am in the same situation.
I have an "old" Dell XPS 15 9560 with Intel Core i7-7700HQ .

It is NOT usable on Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Premier and most recent video games. Not for lack of performance, but only because it throttles horribly after a few minutes and the CPU is then stuck at 0.78 GHz, even when using a ventilated pad.

To top it all off, a first generation Microsoft Surface Book with a much lower performance configuration in a much more thermally constrained chassis does much better on Adobe Lightroom and I now use it for this purpose.

I was hoping it would be better with the new XPS 15 9500 (2020) and I'm sorry to hear that this is not the case. It's a shame and very big disappointment for a computer of this price and standing.

So after asking around, the best alternative I found was the XMG Fusion 15 (= Eluktronics MAG-15 / Maingear Element). It has an autonomy similar to the XPS 15, a size very close to the XPS 15 (2015-2019) and above all, the cooling of the components is much more efficient, allowing to use all the available power without any time limit. The only negative point for me would be the integrated display which is very far from matching those of the XPS 15 in terms of colorimetry and brightness, something I partly solve anyway by using a good external display and the lack of USB type C port with Power Delivery. I also find the design of the XPS 15 more elegant in general, but it's a bit like seeing "the tip of the iceberg".

I bought the dell xps 15 9500 with i9 in September.  I transferred all my data from my old dell laptop, then loved everything about the computer - the size, the quality of the sound, and especially the quality of the non-glare screen.  I used it for exactly 3 days when the hard drive burned up.  I was in shock to say the least.  I noticed it was really getting hot, and even put it on a cooling tray.  I was not doing any rigorous with it at the time, just watching a YouTube video.    I returned the computer and Dell returned 100% of the purchase price.  I'm not a gamer, and do not need that much speed.  I am even considering getting one with a much slower processor, but probably won't risk it.  If anyone has a recommendation for the next best comparable lap top it would be greatly appreciated.  

I have an XPS 15 9560 and had an overheating problem to the point of having the OS freeze up only after being on for 5 minutes. Solution: I remove the heat sink and remove the old dried up thermal paste and put on new high efficient thermal paste and this helped but only lower the temp 5 degrees centigrade and it would run 10 to 15 before locking up.   What worked  was moving the thermal heat transfer pad on the SSD drive to the heat sink just above the CPU and GPU transferring heat to the bottom metal cover. This lowered the temp 30c to 35c

Why Dell did not do this is a mystery???????????????????????????????????

I just received this XPS 15 9500 today.  Already experiencing the overheating issue. 

Same issue is happening to me, I trusted Dell for 6 years, looking for a more power machine I got the XPS 15 9500 a couple months ago, friends told me: "for that money get a MAC"

I did not pay attention even thou I'm in the Apple ecosystem (iPad, iPhone, watch, etc), now I regret not paying attention to them.

I probably wouldn't have gotten same power for money but for sure a more reliable computer.

I paid almost 2k for a computer that overheats and goes into blue screen "it looks like windows didn't load correctly" after using (rendering in) premiere.

Called 3 times to customer support just to get updates but not fixed.

Looking to return this machine. (if possible )

I love Dell with all my heart and it was the only reason I did not get a MAC but as it is now there is no way for me to continue with the relationship.

Yeah is horrible, it is better to sell it and get something better from other brands that know how to make a welldone computer. Dell did a really bad job with the XPS 9300, 9500 & 9700. The heat does not get out in a proper way because when you open the hinge on the screen blocks the only passway for the heat to get out. Also has a lot of beeping sounds, faulty track pad and the price tag of a used car. It is a really horrible computer and I'm done with Dell and any product they throw at the market. They can no longer make a good computer they are not genuine anymore and there computers really

my 1 year old xps15 9500 runs very hot sometimes, and sometimes not.   It's done this since it was new It doesn't seem to be related to whether it's busy or not.  It'll also run hot when supposedly hibernating.  And quite often it will blue screen when waking from sleep or hibernation.   If I leave it unplugged while it's sleeping, the battery drains out.  Dell support was unable to figure it out.  They even replaced the mother board.  Looks like a design flaw.  I wouldn't buy another XPS unless they clear up these power issues that are widely reported on various forums.