Hey guys, I bought a XPS 15 9500 as my working computer a month ago and am very happy with it!

So what I wanted to ask if there are any kinds of tweaks anyone would recommend? Here would be a few things:

• does it make sense to Undervolt the device? I basically had to do it with my old Raze Blade 14 because of throttling. Throttlestop doesn't seem to work and apparently I would've to change the bios or sth. which I dont really think is worth the effort (temps & fans are fine most of the time!). Anyone having some experience on this?

• so apparently the device has a second NVME slot, would open my device to install an additional hard drive void my warranty? Anything else I' have to think of?

• any soft- or bloatware that should be deinstalled? I already removed the Waves MaxxAudio thingy because I use this machine for audio production and I really don't need some waves software that does something to the sound.

• USB C works fine, but sometimes is a little iffy. F.e. it only charges the battery if its plugged in first and the other stuff like external SSD and USB C Hub (I use a CableCreation USB C hub for my standard USB stuff) afterwards. Is that something to be worried about or just some kind of power issue?

Happy to hear some thoughts! :)

Cheers

My prebuilt PC already had XPS setting enabled, but that's something I had never heard of and would not have know to check.

Are there any other settings that should be checked to make sure that PCs are running at maximum performance?

Thanks!

tl;dr: XPS actually depends on bloatware to function, download this and set it to Cool mode.

Hello,

I come to you with a solution to the overheating issue plaguing the 2015 and 2016 models, assuming there is actually not a HW problem with your machine. There's been countless of Reddit threads and forum posts throughout the years with no actual solution that probably made you put the laptop in the closet and never bother with it ever again. Well, now you can actually repurpose it or give it to your parents.

Here are some things we have all most likely tried:

Fresh Windows install.
Power management tweaking.
3rd party fan and temp control software.
BIOS tweaks.
Battery replacement.
Cleaning the heatsink.
Repasting the CPU.
Undervolting.

So what's the secret formula? Well, at some point, you probably decided to debloat your computer from all the useless DELL software, right? Or you most likely didn't bother to install it again after a fresh Windows install because why would you. Yeah, well as it turns out, one of them is not actually that useless. Two, actually. Screw you MaxxAudio.

Anyway, I preset to you the Dell Power Manager.

Download, install, set to the Cool mode and that's literally it.

No more loud fans and insane temps when you're just browsing the web and doing the very least you can with a computer.

Obviously by this point, the laptops are very old so I still recommend repasting the CPU and cleaning the heatsink to get the best result, but the Power Manager is the major key.

Disclaimer: XPS veterans probably know about is I assume, thought it's weird nobody ever mentioned it in any of the posts. There might also be other weird things going on with your machine, but I hope this will be the final stop and help majority of all those poor souls unfamiliar with XPS machines and their dependency on DELL bloatware trying the figure out why their laptop is insanely loud and hot.

tl;dr: XPS actually depends on bloatware to function, download this and set it to Cool mode.

Hello,

I come to you with a solution to the overheating issue plaguing the 2015 and 2016 models, assuming there is actually not a HW problem with your machine. There's been countless of Reddit threads and forum posts throughout the years with no actual solution that probably made you put the laptop in the closet and never bother with it ever again. Well, now you can actually repurpose it or give it to your parents.

Here are some things we have all most likely tried:

Fresh Windows install.
Power management tweaking.
3rd party fan and temp control software.
BIOS tweaks.
Battery replacement.
Cleaning the heatsink.
Repasting the CPU.
Undervolting.

So what's the secret formula? Well, at some point, you probably decided to debloat your computer from all the useless DELL software, right? Or you most likely didn't bother to install it again after a fresh Windows install because why would you. Yeah, well as it turns out, one of them is not actually that useless. Two, actually. Screw you MaxxAudio.

Anyway, I preset to you the Dell Power Manager.

Download, install, set to the Cool mode and that's literally it.

No more loud fans and insane temps when you're just browsing the web and doing the very least you can with a computer.

Obviously by this point, the laptops are very old so I still recommend repasting the CPU and cleaning the heatsink to get the best result, but the Power Manager is the major key.

Disclaimer: XPS veterans probably know about is I assume, thought it's weird nobody ever mentioned it in any of the posts. There might also be other weird things going on with your machine, but I hope this will be the final stop and help majority of all those poor souls unfamiliar with XPS machines and their dependency on DELL bloatware trying the figure out why their laptop is insanely loud and hot.

I've been noticing that my XPS (specifically the 15-inch model) tends to overheat pretty quickly when I'm running multiple apps or doing anything resource-intensive. The fans kick in loud, and the performance seems to throttle. Anyone else experiencing this? What have you done to manage it better? Are there any software tweaks or cooling solutions that helped you? Would love to hear your thoughts, especially if you've had success with any particular settings or cooling pads. Thanks!

Hi.

I tried tweak window power plan on my claw 8

TDP setting MSI m center 2.0 : manual 30W

Changed 2 things in windows power plan

- Max processor state : 99%

- boost mode : Disabled

with these 2 changed settings

3D mark timespy graphic score result about 4,100 (same result with no tweak)

but cpu score drops to 5,xxx from 7,xxx

game performance

- my diablo4 setting is 60FPS limited and use about 25W, but with tweaks only 20w (same 60FPS)

- KCD2 same result same FPS but low TDP

- CPU temp drops about 10 celsius (80->70)

- every game, 3d mark use only 25W max (no 30W with this tweaks)

- but For CPU bounded game (like MHW), game performance issue (lower fps)

- with tweaks, Max CPU Freq. is limited to 2.2GHz, (GPU is not limited max 1.95GHz)

I am looking for any apps which can switch windows power plan per game.

Thx.

Hello guys, I’ve collected and tested tweaks from both myself and other users on the internet and decided to share them in 1 big easy to read tweak manual.

I made a previous post with some of the tweaks that i have in here, hope you guys dont mind some of the overlap.

This manual should work for most laptops, even non xps line, although certain settings and methods are exclusive to XPS 15 9550 and up.

OP’s specs: XPS 15 9570; i7 8750H (-164mv on CPU & -100 on iGPU), 16GB ram, 512GB ssd, 1050Ti(+200Mhz base& +100Mhz mem)

#First time checks & Fresh windows install This only applies to people who have just received their unit and haven’t verified whether or not there are any obvious defects. If you’ve already used your laptop and seen no fault or errors you can skip this. The reason behind this is to save time, it would be a shame to have gone through hours of setting up windows and updates just to see that there is a defect.

I highly recommend doing a fresh install of windows, preferably before even booting in to the standard Dell image. If you don't have a spare pc to download the software on you can boot on the dell image for now.

Everything you need to know by Western Gents United : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95ZvXhz_0Ck https://youtu.be/lyK_KyIRUZU?t=16s

#CPU undervolt

What is undervolting? Your CPU needs power to run, but often the amount it draws is set too high by the manufacturer or the OEM, this is because not every CPU will run stable at lower power. So they choose to make it run at a higher voltage to there are fewer unstable CPUs.

Most CPU’s can run at much lower voltage than they get supplied at stock, when you undervolt you offset the amount it gets. So if the CPU requests 0.900v and you offset it by 50mv, the CPU will receive 0.850v.

By undervolting you reduce the amount of watts the CPU uses, this is because: voltage x amp=wattage. This means your CPU will produce less heat at the same clockspeeds, or the same amount of heat at higher clockspeeds. A win in either case!

There are 2 main parts to my undervolt tweak: doing the actual undervolts, creating automated profiles to maximize performance/minimize heat.

The undervolt:

• Download and install Throttlestop
• Put the file in ‘’documents’’ or somewhere where you dont delete it by accident.
• Open it [make sure intel XTU isnt running/no undervolt applied]
• Toggle ‘’speedshift -EPP’’ on, then click ‘’FIVR’’
• In the FIVR window toggle ‘’Unlock adjustable voltage’’ on, do this for CPU core, cache and the Intel GPU.
• You undervolt by dragging the ‘’offset voltage’’ slider left, do this for CPU core & cache [use the same amount for both for now]
• Start at -100mv, this should be stable for 99% of all CPU’s out there.
• On the bottom right side click ‘’OK - save voltages immediatly’’ and hit OK.
• On the bottom row click ‘’Turn on’’ to apply your undervolt
• Test stability by running stresstests [aida64 etc] and idling on desktop untill you are sure its completely stable
• Add another -20 mv, or whatever you feel comfortable with.
• Repeat this untill your laptop becomes unstable [Crashes, shut downs] or if you get errors in the ''TS bench'' on the main window of throttlestop.
• If it crashes, up the voltage again untill it becomes stable.

For reference

Use the same process on the Intel iGPU, start at -50mv and use increments of 10-20mv.

Now the only problem is that Throttlestop doesn’t start by itself, open the windows program called ‘’task scheduler’’ .

• Open task scheduler
• Hit ‘’create task’’
• In the general tab: name=throttlestop. Toggle ‘’run with highest privileges’’ on.
• In the trigger tab: hit new and select ‘at log on’’ in the dropdown menu.
• In the actions tab: hit new and click browse; locate your installation folder and select throttlestop.exe.
• In the conditions tab: uncheck everything.
• Hit OK and you’re done!

The automated profiles:

• Open Throttlestop
• On the bottom left click ‘’Options’’
• There are maximum of 4 profiles, you can name them whatever you like.
• I named mine: AC, Gaming, Battery, Low battery.
• Toggle the following items: AC profile, Battery profile, Do not reset FID/VID, Battery monitoring, start minimized, minimize on close, nvidia GPU, Alarm.
• Now fill in the following items: AC profile = 1, Battery profile = 3, alarm: DTS=2 & 4. GPU=57 & 2.
• Basically make sure it looks like this
• Hit OK and then open FIVR.
• In FIVR you will see on the top left 4 profiles, make sure that you reapply your undervolt on profile 2,3,4.
• Profile 1 [AC]: On ‘’turbo ratio limits’’ up the frequency to 40 on 5+6 cores. 41 on 1 & 2 cores.
• Profile 2 [Gaming]: Do the same, but lower it this time to 27 on 5+6 cores. 30 on 1-4.
• Profile 3 [battery] change nothing.
• Profile 4 [Low bat] Lower it to 22 on all cores. - also serves as overheating profile, since it locks clockspeed to 2.2 GHZ.

Results:

• AC: better CPU performance, especially useful when im editting stuff, rendering with premiere etc.
• Gaming: lowered GPU and CPU temps from 76 & 80 degrees to <60 in most, if not all, games. (note this is not a profile to increase performance, but to prevent the CPU from turboing too much and therefore warming up the GPU by proxy. I got 60+ fps on all games i tested with this profile.)
• Battery: -
• Low Battery: Serves as overheating profile and when battery is low, should increase batterylife slightly.

Adjust the profiles for you own usage by changing: ‘’Turbo ratio limits’’ - controls clockspeed [40=4GHZ] in FIVR.

Changing DTS & GPU in Options [DTS is how many degrees away from Tjunction you are, which is 100C for most intel cpus; using no. 2 would be 98C].

With DTS & GPU you control at what temperature it will switch to another profile. GPU above 57? Its switches to gaming mode, CPU 98C? Switches to low battery profile.

#GPU undervolt

This was a tricky one, there is no legit way to undervolt it since dell/nvidia locked the voltage controls; however you can achieve basically the same thing by offsetting the frequency. You heard it right, you can undervolt by overclocking.

How it works:

Instead of dropping the voltage at any given frequency we instead raise the frequency at any given voltage. Achieving the same thing. There are 2 programs you can use for this: MSI afterburner or NV inspector. I tried it on both, and it does the same thing. However I prefer the more lightweight NV inspector.

• Download NV inspector here
• Save NVinspector to documents, just like we did with Throttlestop.
• Open NVinspector [Not to be mistaken by NVprofileinspector]
• On the bottom right click ‘’Show overclocking’’ and hit yes on the warning.
• In the dropdown menu make sure you are on ‘’performance level [3] - (p 0 )’’
• You undervolt/overclock it by dragging the ‘’Base clock offset’’ to the right.
• Note that we’re changing things in Mhz now, not voltage, so we looking at higher numbers.
• I’d suggest starting at +150mhz and working your way up in increments of 20.
• Same thing goes for ‘’memory clock offset’’, but start at +50mhz.
• To save your overclock/undervolt, hit ‘’apply clocks & voltage’’
• Stresstest to make sure its stable
• Hit ‘’create clocks shortcut’’ so it gets applied at log in just like throttlestop.
• Right click ‘’create clocks shortcut’’ to update or delete it.

Note that the temperature slider [default 78] does not save when you change it, i suggest leaving it at default. for reference

-edit after running some quick aida64 tests the difference is as follow:

No undervolt/overclock: 77C @1650mhz

+200mhz: 77c @1780mhz

Aida64 couldnt show me voltage since it monitored the iGPU, bu checking nvinspector showed it uses similar voltages therefor confirming the undervolt.

fan speeds identical on both.

#Other

I contacted dell to replace my wifi chip, which they did for free. I suggest everyone to do this since the Killer wifi chip is far below what should be in a premium laptop like the XPS line.

Download the latest drivers and updates for all your programs, download GPU drivers from nvidia and intel. For the rest you can use Dell.com.

Tweak your nvidia control panel to your ideal settings [there are a billion guides online] and make sure that in ‘’manage 3D settings’’ - ‘’program settings’’ you verify that for apps that don’t require Nvidia GPU you switch it to integrated, do this only if it wrongly chooses Nvidia. If integrated is already set as default, leave as is.

-edit

Since im getting a lot of the same questions:

• What wifi card did you get as a replacement?

Dell replaced it with a intel 8265

• Does this work for x or y laptop/model

The basic steps are the same, just bear in mind the profile description is based on a 6 core CPU so ignore whatever i said for core 5&6 if you have a 4 core (7700HQ, 7300, 8300 etc).

• Will these tweaks increase wear/are dangerous?

No its completely safe, and it will reduce wear if anything. Just use common sense and dont put -300mv because your system will just crash.

And if it crashes because of a too high of a undervolt it should not automatically apply it on next start up, if it does; start windows in safe mode. Alternatively you could skip the auto start up steps for both GPU and CPU untill you've tested the maximum stable undervolt, but I dont recommend this.

Plenty of claims can be seen in online forums that changing power limits of processors improves battery life in laptops. But I couldn't find much in the way of evidence that goes beyond individual anecdotes.

It's easy to see this being possibly true for heavy workloads like games, where an additional 5 fps may not drastically improve usability, but will result in increased power consumption.

But does that hold true for less heavy workloads - say web-browsing, video playback, general office apps (slack/teams, mail) etc?

Are there any reviews that show that reducing power limits (like PL1, PL2 for Intel chips and analogs in AMD) actually help improve battery life (runtime) of laptops for a given workload?