HP Unveils Always-Connected Envy x2 against Surface Pro
Can a 2-in-1 have a good work ethic? This one does.
Arriving this spring, the new HP ENVY X2 is the first 2 – in – 11 to provide the modern standby mode in the Windows 10. This means that even when the system is in a state of sleep, it can also Download E-mail and other data in the background. This system provides an optional LTE so that you can keep the connection without hot spots.
We went hands-on with the Envy x2 ahead of CES 2018, and it looks promising—depending on how HP decides to price it.
HP’s new detachable features a 12.3-inch display (1920 x 1080 pixels) with a Gorilla Glass 4 finish for durability. The fanless design weighs 1.69 pounds and measures 0.31 inches thick. The Surface Pro has a much sharper 12.3-inch screen (2736 x 1824 pixels), though it’s a bit thicker at 0.33 inches.
However, unlike the Surface Pro, HP will include both a keyboard cover and pen when the Envy x2 ships this spring. Those accessories cost an extra $159 and $99, respectively, with Microsoft’s 2-in-1.
We generally liked the Envy x2’s leather-like textured case, which comes in an attractive Oxford Blue. The backlit keyboard offers a solid 1.3 mm of key travel, which made for comfy typing during our brief hands-on session. I also appreciated the little built-in loop for the pen, so it’s less likely to get lost.
However, the bundled case props up the tablet in a single position. Ironically, HP has another Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered Envy x2 on the way with a kickstand that’s adjustable.
In terms of specs, you’re looking at 7th-generation Core Y-Series processors, up to 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of PCIe SSD storage.
HP says to expect up to 16.5 hours of Hp envy 13 series laptop battery life, but we’ll see how well it holds up in our web surfing test. HP’s Qualcomm-powered Envy x2 is rated for an even higher 20 hours of juice, but it also has a weaker Snapdragon 835 CPU and runs the more limited Windows 10 S.
Acer Reveals World’s Thinnest Notebook, 2018 Lineup
Acer’s coming out swinging for the fences in 2018, Swift 7, which is just 0.35 inch thin measurements. The $1699 14 – inch Laptop is becoming more portable because of the 4G LTE connection, and is expected to be in March.
Gamers looking to rock for less than $800 will be interested in the Nitro 5 (starting price $799), which packs AMD’s Ryzen mobile processors and the Radeon RX560 GPU. Acer’s also upgraded the memory from previous versions, giving this machine DDR4 RAM.
The rest of Acer’s new models include a new Chromebook with lots of ports and a new 2-in-1 with Intel’s 8th Gen Core CPUs.
Email While You Sleep: How to Use The Windows 10’s Modern Standby
Even when your mobile phone is technically asleep, it is also downloading e-mail and getting social media updates. Then, when it wakes up your cell phone, press the power button and it will return to normal in a second. Sadly, most laptops, by contrast, need to wake up in just a few seconds, and they don’t download anything in the background.
However, if your computer supports Windows 10’s Modern Standby mode, also known as S0 Low Power Idle, it can download data while it sleeps and/or wake before you’ve even finished lifting the lid.
Does your laptop support Modern Standby?
Many laptops — including many brand-new, premium systems — don’t support Modern Standby. Microsoft doesn’t maintain a list of compatible computers or hardware for users, and most laptop vendors don’t include Modern Standby compatibility on their spec sheets.
We did a quick test of four random Windows 10 laptops in our office: a Microsoft Surface Book 2, a Dell XPS 13 9370, an HP Spectre x360 (8th Gen Core), a Lenovo ThinkPad T470 and a Dell Latitude E7270. Of those systems, only the Surface Book 2 and the XPS 13 support Modern Standby, and the XPS 13 supports only the fast wakes, not the constant connectivity.
You can see a list of the sleep states available on your computer by typing “powercfg /a” at the Command Prompt. If your PC lists “S0 Low Power Idle” as an available sleep state, you’re good. If not, you’re out of luck.
If your computer supports S0 Low Power Idle, you can also use the Powercfg.exe tool to find out if any hardware or software is currently interfering with Modern Standby. Type “powercfg /energy” into the Command Prompt, and Windows will monitor your PC for the next 60 seconds and then provide a list of any devices or applications that prevent your system from taking full advantage of Modern Standby. You may discover that an outdated driver is preventing your PC from completely entering the low-power state.
If you want to see if your Windows 10 device has entered Modern Standby previously and find out which components and applications are using the most power, just type “powercfg /sleepstudy” into the Command Prompt. You’ll get a summary of CPU usage, power consumption, and even the number of IP packets sent and received when your computer was asleep.
Background email and fast wakes
To see how well Modern Standby works, we performed some tests on a Surface Book 2 (13-inch). In both Outlook 2016 and Windows 10’s built-in email client, we received emails with large attachments, even when the laptop was asleep. However, emails that were in the middle of sending when we put the notebook to sleep did not go out. When we initiated a download in the Edge browser, putting the system to sleep caused it to fail.
Microsoft’s documentation says that only Windows Store apps can take full advantage of Modern Standby, so we were surprised that Outlook, which is not technically a Store app, worked. Unfortunately, none of the major browsers is a store app. The store has only a handful of FTP apps, the kind of software many people use for uploading / downloading large files, and the one we tried didn’t work at all.
Even if you aren’t using the connectivity feature, Modern Standby provides much faster resumes. The Surface Book 2 woke from sleep in under a second, while the Spectre x360 took 2 to 3 seconds.
Understanding power states
Most of us are familiar with the classic “sleep mode” in Windows, but the reality is that Windows PCs traditionally supported up to six power states that average users rarely understood:
S0: Traditionally, this has meant “working” with the system fully running. However, the Modern Standby mode is listed as “S0 Low Power Idle.”
S1: This is low-power mode with the CPU on (but set to stop executing instructions) and the RAM refreshed. This power state has largely been phased out and is no longer used in modern Windows devices.
S2: This is a lower-power mode than S1, with the CPU off and the RAM refreshed. This power state has also largely been phased out in modern Windows.
S3: This is the traditional Standby mode, with the CPU off and the RAM set to slow refresh.
S4: This state is Hibernate mode, with the hardware powered off and the system memory saved to a temporary file.
S5: Off
Most current and recent Windows PCs use the S3 power state for default Standby or Sleep mode and the S4 power state when the PC goes into Hibernate mode. Resuming your PC from S3 sleep mode typically takes anywhere from 2 to 15 seconds, and fully resuming a PC from S4 hibernation takes longer, depending on the hardware and how much data was stored in a temporary file from the system memory.
Connected Standby vs. Modern Standby
Microsoft’s first attempt at making PCs wake from sleep faster came with the introduction of Connected Standby mode in Windows 8. However, that early implementation of the technology didn’t work with computers that had mechanical hard drives or hybrid storage, and it didn’t give you as much control over the settings.
Modern Standby improves compatibility with systems based on rotational media and hybrid media by delivering the flexibility to configure the behavior of individual hardware components. Windows 10 also refines the low-power idle state by allowing you to take more control over your network with two different settings: Connected Modern Standby and Disconnected Modern Standby.
Some laptops, such as the Surface Book 2, support both Connected and Disconnected Modern Standby, while others, such as the XPS 13 9370, only let you do Disconnected. When a Windows 10 PC goes into Modern Standby, the system uses the S0 low-power idle state. A Windows driver called the Desktop Activity Moderator (DAM) stops all desktop apps except background tasks from Windows Store apps.
If you set your PC to use Connected Modern Standby, the network is still active, and you will receive Windows updates, calendar updates and even VoIP calls via a Windows Store app. In addition, your laptop or tablet speakers will continue playing music in Connected Modern Standby as long as you’re using a compatible Windows Store app for streaming music.
If you switch your PC to Disconnected Modern Standby, then sleep mode will shut off your network connection. You won’t receive VoIP calls coming in over Wi-Fi, but your PC will still wake from a “real-time action,” such as a calendar reminder or the syncing of a Bluetooth device.
Modern Standby and Battery Life
For most Windows 10 users, the choice between Connected Modern Standby and Disconnected Modern Standby depends on the answer to one question:
Do you need your PC to keep receiving Windows updates and data from Windows Store apps while you aren’t using it, or is it more important to extend your Dell latitude d830 laptop battery life as much as possible?
Sure, staying connected even when you aren’t using your device is convenient, but extending the amount of time between charges of your battery makes Disconnected Standby even more convenient for travelers.
Regardless of whether you use Connected Modern Standby or Disconnected Modern Standby, the S0 low-power idle state is more energy-efficient and allows for faster resume times than the S3 power state that most laptops use.
How to change Modern Standby settings
If you’re using a Windows 10 PC with Modern Standby, you can switch between Connected Standby and Disconnected Standby in the System Settings menu. Select the Power and Sleep tab under System Settings, and uncheck the two boxes under “Wi-Fi” that allow your PC to stay connected in sleep mode.
You may use the previously mentioned “powercfg /a” command line to confirm your current settings for Modern Standby. Your PC is using Disconnected Standby if the Powercfg.exe tool lists the available sleep state as “Standby (S0 Low Power Idle) Network Disconnected.”
Of course, if you want to restore Connected Standby in Windows 10, just check the two boxes under “Wi-Fi” in the Power and Sleep tab of the System Settings menu.
You can also decide whether you want your laptop to enter Modern Standby when you close the lid or if you want the laptop to shut down instead. Go to the Power Options menu and expand “Power buttons and lid” to change your setting.
A better PC from better sleep
Modern Standby is the most advanced sleep mode we’ve seen so far for Windows devices. The new low-power idle state provides much faster wake-ups and the possibility of downloading fresh data from the internet while your computer dozes. Unfortunately, based on our small sample size, few current laptops actually support this mode.
However, in the near future, we’ll see more systems use Modern Standby, including the new Qualcomm-powered laptops, and we’ll have more apps that take advantage of the ability to sync in the background. If your current laptop supports S0 Low Power idle, you can enjoy the benefits today.
Review:Dell XPS 13 (9370)
Dell’s XPS 13 maintains the consumer’s favorite laptop for recent years, due to its beautiful near framed display, light weight and fashion aesthetic. Now, after generations of adherence to the same chassis, Dell’s senior flagship has a new design and slender size and a beautiful white and golden plan. In other respects, XPS 13’s 9370 (999 dollars start, 1249 US $2499 test) also provides an optional 4K display, better camera, commitment to egpus and cooling system, and more continuous performance support.
However, to make its laptop thinner, Dell switched to a smaller battery and got rid of USB Type-A ports. As a result, some users will prefer the older, XPS 13 9360, which is still for sale and is powered by the same Intel 8th Gen Core CPUs.
Specs
| CPU | Intel Core i7-8550U |
|---|---|
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| RAM | 8GB |
| RAM Upgradable to | 16GB |
| Hard Drive Size | 256GB SSD |
Design
If you put the last few generations of the XPS 13 in a lineup, you would not be able to tell them apart, unless you looked at the CPU sticker on the deck. However, the XPS 13 9370 stands out with its new, optional gold-and-white color scheme, along with a slightly slimmer and lighter profile. Dell also sells the 9370 in the XPS 13’s traditional silver-and-black aesthetic.
Though it costs a little bit more ($50 extra on the base model), you’ll definitely want to get the white color, because it’s just plain stunning. The lid and bottom are made from gold-colored aluminum, while the white sides and deck are fashioned from woven crystalline silica fiber.
The deck’s weave-like texture adds an air of sophistication and felt good against our wrists, though not quite as comfy as the soft-touch carbon-fiber deck on older XPS 13s and on the silver model.
No matter which color you choose, the XPS 13 is a little bit slimmer and lighter than its predecessor. The XPS 13 9370 weighs just 2.65 pounds and is a mere 0.46 inches thick at its thickest point (0.3 inches at its thinnest). The last generation XPS 13 9360 weighs 0.13 pounds more and is 0.14 inches thicker. HP’s Spectre 13 is even svelter, weighing 2.4 pounds and measuring 0.41 inches thick. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon tips the scales at 2.49 pounds, but is 0.6 inches.
Ports
Unfortunately, when slimming the XPS 13 down to 0.46 inches, Dell had to ditch the standard, USB Type-A ports and full-size SD card reader that appeared on all the previous generations. On the left side of the XPS 13 9370, you’ll find two Thunderbolt 3 ports, which can charge the laptop or connect to high-speed peripherals. There’s also a Noble lock slot and a battery gauge, which shows the charge level on a series of five white lights.
On the right, you’ll find a 3.5mm audio jack, a microSD card slot and a USB Type-C port, which can output DisplayPort video. Both the Dell XPS 13 9360 and ThinkPad X1 Carbon have standard USB ports in addition to the Thunderbolt 3, while the HP Spectre 13 also lacks USB Type-A connectors.
In a major improvement over the XPS 13 9360, the 9370’s Thunderbolt 3 ports support four-lane PCI connections, so you can use the laptop with an eGPU for serious gaming.
In a major improvement over the XPS 13 9360, the 9370’s Thunderbolt 3 ports support four-lane PCI connections so you can use the laptop with an eGPU (external graphics card) that enables serious gaming. Prior models had only two lanes of PCI connected to their Thunderbolt 3 ports, so they couldn’t work properly with external graphics. We tested the XPS 13 9370 with an Aorus Gaming Box 1070, and it worked.
Display
The XPS 13 7370’s 13.3-inch, InfinityEdge display has bezels that are 23 percent thinner than the almost nonexistent borders on the XPS 7360. Because there’s virtually no frame around the top and sides of the screen, images just seem to pop more.
We tested the Dell XPS 13 7370 with both a 3840 x 2160 (4K, Ultra HD) touch screen and a 1920 x 1080 non-touch screen. Both models offered impressive brightness, color quality and sharpness, though the 4K screen was noticeably better. When I watched the 4K movie Tears of Steel, the neon pink and green lights impressed on both displays, but were richer on the Ultra HD panel. Fine details, such as the wires on a robot’s body and the wrinkles in a character’s jacket, stood out on both panels, and colors stayed true, even at 90 degrees to the left or right.
According to our light meter, the XPS 13 7370 with 1080p screen achieved an impressive mark of 372 nits, while the model with the 4K panel blew us away with 415 nits. Both numbers are significantly higher than the ultraportable laptop category average (290 nits), the X1 Carbon (275 nits) and the HP Spectre 13 (247 nits). The XPS 13 9360 with 1080p screen scored a similar 368 nits.
The 1080p screen on the XPS 13 7370 reproduced an impressive 117 percent of the sRGB color gamut, but the 4K panel was much more vibrant, hitting a full 130 percent. Both numbers compare favorably to the category average (105 percent) and the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (104 percent with 1080p screen). But the 1080p panel is only 5 to 6 percentage points ahead of the XPS 13 7360 (112 percent) and the Spectre 13 (111 percent).
Audio
The XPS 13 7370’s side-mounted speakers deliver audio that’s loud, but rough around the edges. When I played AC/DC’s “Back in Black,” the music was boisterous enough to more than fill our lab, but the guitar and drums were a little harsh and tinny. The pre-loaded Waves MaxxAudio software allows you to fine-tune the equalizer. Disabling MaxxAudio, which is on by default, made the music sound hollow and distant.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The XPS 13 7370’s keyboard offers a solid typing experience, even though the keys are a little on the shallow side. Perhaps because the laptop is so thin, the keys have 1.2 millimeters of travel (1.5 to 2mm is common on mainstream laptops), but they make up for it somewhat by providing a good 72 grams of required actuation force. On the Tenfastfingers.com typing test, I reached a modest rate of 94 words per minute with a 4 percent error rate, which is on the low end of my normal range.
Whether I was double-clicking on icons or highlighting small pieces of text in an article, the 4.1 x 2.4-inch, buttonless touchpad provided extremely accurate navigation, without any sticking or jumping. The left and right click areas provided just the right amount of tactile feedback. The pad also responded immediately and accurately to multitouch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom and three-finger swipe.
Performance
For this review, we tested two different configurations of the XPS 13 9370. The high-end model sported a Core i7-8550U CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and a 4K touch screen, while the mainstream model had a Core i5-8250U processor, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and a 1080p non-touch screen. From surfing the web to light gaming and writing portions of this review, both versions of the XPS 13 9370 handled everything we threw at them, without a hiccup.
Because it uses a new thermal setup with dual fans, dual heat pipes and special thermal insulation, the XPS 13 9370 is able to prevent its processor from throttling as aggressively as many other laptops.
Thanks to Dell’s new cooling system, these laptops were also capable of delivering better sustained performance on long tasks, such as compressing a 4K video or running the same benchmark 10 times in a row.
As they heat up during intense tasks, most laptops slow their CPUs down to cool them down. Because it uses a new thermal setup with dual fans, dual heat pipes and special thermal insulation, the XPS 13 9370 is able to prevent its processor from throttling as aggressively as many other laptops.
We saw evidence of the performance improvement during our video compression test where we use Handbrake to transcode a 4K video to 1080p. The Core i7-powered XPS 13 9370 took just 16 minutes to complete this task. he XPS 13 9360, on the other hand, which had the same exact Core i7-8550U CPU, took 19 minutes and 35 seconds.
We also ran the Cinebench R15 benchmark, which measures processing power by drawing a 3D image 10 times in a row on a few different laptops. The XPS 13 9370 with the Core i7 processor got a score of 679 on the first run (higher is better), which dropped to 635 on run No. 10, a decline of 6.4 percent. Its Core i5-powered sibling, however, went from 666 to 633, a drop of 4.9 percent. When we tried the same task on a Microsoft Surface Book 2 (13-inch)with Core i7-8550U, it suffered a 26 percent decline from first to last run. An HP Spectre x360 with the same Core i7 processor remained perfectly stable, getting a much lower mark of 456 on both the first and final runs.
Using the Dell Power Manager app, you can configure the laptop’s thermal management to offer “Ultra Performance,” with warmer temperatures. We ran Cinebench 15 10 times in this mode, and the scores ranged from 707 on the first run to 655 on the 10th run. Though, those are higher numbers, we also experienced higher temperatures, with the function row hitting a balmy 115 degrees by the end of the last run. We recommend sticking with the default, “Optimized” mode, which gives you the best balance between performance and skin temperature.
When we ran Geekbench 4, a synthetic test that measures processing performance, the Core Core i5-8250U-powered XPS 13 9370 scored 13,254, while the Core i7-8550U-enabled version registered 14,180. The last-gen Dell XPS 13 9360 with the same Core i7-8550U CPU scored a very similar mark of 14,158. HP’s Spectre 13, also with Core i7-8550U inside, scored a lower mark of 13,090. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon and its last-gen Core i7-7600U processor, hit only 8,571.
The XPS 13 9370 with Core i7 took just 1 minute and 6 seconds to match 50,000 names with their addresses in Microsoft Excel. The Core i5 model finished in 1 minute and 15 seconds, while the XPS 13 9360 fell in between the two with 1:08.
The 1TB PCIe SSD in the Core i7-powered XPS 13 9370 took just 13 seconds to copy 4.97GB of files, a rate of 399.4 MBps, while the 256GB unit in the Core i5 model performed the same task at a rate of 339.2 MBps. Both numbers are much better than the category average (232 MBps) and the X1 Carbon (242 MBps). The XPS 13 9360 with 256GB SSD was even faster, achieving a rate of 508 MBps. The HP Spectre 13 (339.3 MBps) basically tied the Core i5-powered XPS 13 9370.
Graphics
WIth its integrated Intel UHD 620 GPU, the XPS 13 9370 is good enough for doing light video editing or playing some games at low settings. Its Core i7- and Core i5-powered models scored 85,616 and 77,584, respectively, on 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited, a synthetic graphics test. Both models were far ahead of the category average (62,573), the HP Spectre 13 (75,114) and the X1 Carbon (68,082). The XPS 13 9360 fell in between the two with a mark of 81,837.
No matter which Dell XPS 13 7370 configuration you choose, you’ll get above-average battery life, but a model with the 1080p non-touch screen lasts several hours longer.
When playing Dirt 3, the XPS 13 with Core i7 returned a frame rate of 66.9 fps, whereas the Core i5 model got a still-strong 56.7 fps. The XPS 13 9360 (56 fps) and the HP Spectre 13 (57 fps) got similar rates, while the X1 Carbon (28 fps) and category average (42 fps) were way behind.
Battery Life
No matter which Dell XPS 13 7370 configuration you choose, you’ll get above-average Dell xps m1330 laptop battery life, but a model with the 1080p non-touch screen lasts several hours longer. The XPS 13 7370 with 1080p non-touch screen lasted 12 hours and 37 minutes on the Laptop Battery Test, which involves continuous surfing over Wi-Fi. The model with the 4K display endured for 8 hours and 53 minutes. Those numbers compare favorably to the ultraportable category average (8:16) and the HP Spectre 13’s time of 6:16.
However, Dell’s slightly older XPS 9360 with 1080p screen lasted a much-longer 16 hours and 5 minutes on our test. That’s because, in making its laptop thinner and lighter, Dell switched from a 60 watt-hour battery on the 9360 to a 52 watt-hour unit on the 9370.
Heat
Both XPS 13 7370 configurations we tried stayed pleasantly cool throughout our testing. After streaming a video for 15 minutes, the touchpad, keyboard and bottom of the Core i7-powered model hit 82, 86.5 and 88 degrees Fahrenheit, all well below our 95-degree comfort threshold. The Core i5 model got similar temperatures of 80, 85.5 and 88 degrees.
Dell’s Power Manager app allows you to configure the laptop’s thermal management for maximum performance, lowest temperature or least noise. We used the default, Optimized setting during most of our testing, and the laptop always felt cool to the touch. However, when we switched to the “Ultra Performance” mode we got slightly higher scores, but the top of the keyboard hit 115 degrees.
Webcam
With the XPS 13 7370, Dell has moved the webcam from the lower left corner of the bezel to the center bottom.
Yes, it’s still a “nose cam” that looks up at you, but because the lens is centered, it gets much better angles. When I shot a selfie, I was able to get my head in the center top of the frame, with the camera looking up at me, by lowering and raising the lid.
Image quality was on a par with other premium laptops; colors like the blue and gray in my shirt were true, and there was only a limited amount of visual noise in the background.
Software and Warranty
Dell preloads the XPS 13 7370 with a few useful utilities and some bloatware. Dell Power Manager lets you tweak the system settings for maximum performance (with more heat and noise), coolest skin temperature, quietest fan noise or a balance among the three. Dell Help & Support offers tutorials and warrant information. Dell SupportAssist checks system health, shows configuration information and helps you download new drivers. Dell remote Desktop lets you remote-control the laptop from another device.
The system also comes with its fair share of bloat. Dell packs on a trial of McAfee LiveSafe and a Dropbox promotion, which gives new users 20GB of free space for a year. Microsoft packs on its standard set of Windows 10 pre-loads, including Minecraft, March of Empires, Bubble Witch 3 Saga, Autodesk Sketchbook and a link to purchase Drawboard PDF.
Dell backs its laptop with a one-year, limited warranty on parts and labor. See how Dell fared on our Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Laptop Brand Ratings.
Configurations
Dell will offer several configurations of the XPS 13 7370, with prices ranging from $999 to well over $2,000. The $999 base model has a 1080p non-touch screen, a Core i5-8250U CPU, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD; the white model costs $50 more.
For $1,249, you get a model with the same screen and processor, but also 8GB of RAM and a 256GB PCIe SSD. The tricked-out, $2,499 model has a 4K touch screen, a Core i7-8550U CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB PCIe SSD. If battery life is your highest priority, get a model with the 1080p non-touch screen, but the vibrant colors on the 4K panel make it an even more attractive choice.
Bottom Line
From its eye-popping 4K display to its speedy performance and beautiful design, there’s a lot to love about the Dell XPS 13 9370. Although still not ideal, its centered webcam is a huge improvement over the left-aligned one on prior models. The 9370’s ability to work with eGPUs also makes it a great choice for people who want to play demanding games.
Consumers who demand the longest possible endurance or who can’t live without USB Type-A ports should consider the XPS 13 9360, which Dell will continue to sell for the foreseeable future. However, if you want the best combination of performance, portability and aesthetics, the XPS 13 9370 is made for you.
The best gaming notebook 2018: T3’s top picks for playing games
We think the best gaming laptop is the current market on the ASUS ROG westerly market. This is surprisingly light and quiet, and the most important thing is to pack an exceptionally powerful casing thread of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 video card as fast as lightning.
It’s unashamedly expensive in terms of price point, but it is simply the best gaming laptop you can buy right now, and to get the best you have to pay for it.
If, however, you are shopping on a more modest budget then we’ve also got some awesome recommendations at lower price points too, including systems from Acer, Alienware, Aorus and more. Simply scroll down to begin.
How to choose a great gaming laptop for you
What you are looking for in a gaming laptop is the ability to enjoy today’s most demanding, graphically intensive games, without having to make loads of settings compromises.
Bad gaming laptops advertise themselves on their gaming credentials, however deliver vastly inferior performance to desktop counterparts. High resolution screens are a nice added bonus too, however keep in mind that high frame rates are far more important, so it is pretty pointless plumping for a laptop with a 4K screen if it doesn’t have the interior hardware to power games on it.
Other things to look out for when buying a gaming laptop include weight and portability – after all you are buying this to carry/transport round unlike a desktop – battery life, which tends to be a fundamental issue with many gaming laptops, and price.
Here at T3.com we think you should be spending a minimum of £800 ($1,000) on a gaming laptop to ensure a good level of performance, and more than £1,600 if you can stretch to it if you want something at the premium end of the scale.
Our pick of the best gaming laptops to buy today
1. ASUS ROG ZEPHYRUS GX501
The Asus ROG Zephyrus is simply an amazing piece of engineering. Despite being incredibly thin and light (2.2kg) it packs an insanely powerful Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card, something made possible thanks to Nvidia’s new Max-Q design tech. From that incredibly high starting point there’s no drop in specs either, with a rapid Intel Core i7-7700HQ partnering up with 16GB of 2,400MHz RAM. The Zephyrus’ screen isn’t 4K, however, it is a wide-view 1080p number with a 120Hz refresh rate, as well as anti-glare finish. The feel of the thing in the hand is pure unadulterated premium, as too under the eyes – the GX501 truly is a remarkable piece of technology.
The only down sides to the Zephyrus are its cramped keyboard and high cost. If you’ve got the money, though, then this is a no-brainer, best-in-class proposition.
2. RAZER BLADE STEALTH
An outrageous combination of sexy, streamlined mobility and serious gaming power, the Razer Blade Stealth ultrabook is unlike anything else on the market.
Despite weighing under 1.33kg (2.93 lbs), the system packs a 7th Gen Intel Core i7-7500U CPU, 16GB of dual-channel memory and a 1TB SSD, and is capable of running for 7 hours straight on battery with a 4K display. What’s more, the system is also compatible with the Razer Core, Razer’s plug-and-play external GPU enclosure, which means incredible desktop-grade graphical power is also delivered when the two are combined.
Throw in the fact that the build quality is also superb, with a super premium CNC milled body from aircraft-grade aluminium, and it quickly becomes obvious that this machine is not just incredibly fast but also insanely desirable.
3. RAZER BLADE PRO
The Razor Blade Pro does what many other gaming laptops don’t, and that is to genuinely deliver desktop-grade performance. The fact that it does this despite being only 0.88-inches thick, packing a gorgeous 17-inch, 4K, multi-touch display, as well as a superb Ultra-Low-Profile mechanical switch keyboard too is just scandalous really. Obviously, the price is sky high and the battery life when used for intense gaming action under 5 hours, however there is no doubting that you are getting one of the absolute best out there right now in gaming laptops, with the Razer Blade Pro’s crazy specs crushing even today’s most demanding AAA, graphically intensive games.
4. ASUS ROG STRIX GL502
Best gaming laptopsAnother entry from Asus makes our top list and, once more, it is easy to see why. That’s because the Asus ROG Strix GL502 comes packing a brilliant and vibrant 1,920 x 1,080 IPS screen and then pairs it with some superb, top-tier gaming hardware. An Intel Core i7 processor and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070, along with 16GB of DDR4 RAM makes short work of any title at that resolution (and often consistently surpass 60fps!) and makes playing games a totally stress-free experience in terms of performance. As you would expect, Asus a32-k52 laptop battery life isn’t stellar, however the rest of this very well priced gaming laptop make it a top contender.
5. ALIENWARE 13 R3
Alienware has such pedigree in the gaming laptop market that, unsurprisingly, its latest R3 refresh of the classic Alienware 13 is an absolute treat for gamers. Configurable with a gorgeous QHD 2,560 x 1,440 OLED screen, as well as some really tasty internal hardware (Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 and 16GB of DDR4 RAM anyone?), the Alienware 13 R3 delivers real gaming power in a super portable, compact-screen-size package. In addition, a new forward-hinge design allows the system to be thinner than past iterations too, with a 0.81-inch (0.22cm) chassis delivering Alienware’s typically cool off-world aesthetic with aplomb. As ever, battery life or weight isn’t the best, however these are minor issues to a really tasty, top-tier gaming laptop.
6. ACER PREDATOR 17 X
Incredibly heavy at 10.03 pounds (4.67kg), the Acer Predator 17 X is certainly not a gaming laptop that you would want to carry around all day, and that’s not even mentioning its bulky power supply either. However, if ultra portability isn’t a major requirement for you (i.e. you’re not going to have to walk round much with it, more commute with it in a car or on public transport), then the 17 X is a really competitive choice of gaming laptop. That’s because it comes packing a desktop-grade Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 (which is a little old now but very powerful), a 4K screen with G-Sync functionality at the top end of the configurator, as well as as much RAM as you can shake a stick at (a max of 32GB DDR4). The price is also very competitive compared to similarly specced rivals.
7. AORUS X5 V6
Aorus doesn’t have the name recognition or pedigree of some of its more established gaming laptop rivals, however, that doesn’t stop it delivering a really tasty system in the form of the X5 v6. This bad boy comes rocking a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 (that’s 8GB of GDDR5 people!), a 15-inch IPS 3K resolution display, and an Intel Core i7 CPU. The design, while unspectacular, is also very slim and easy to carry, and the price lower than other comparable systems. Caveats come in the form of B-grade build quality and rather noisy fans, which whir and hum with intensity when pixels are being pushed.
11 things to tweak when setting up a Windows 10 notebook
Get your new laptop be installed in the way you want it to. There are 11 settings to check or change.
1. Check for updates
Microsoft releases a steady stream of Windows updates. Your new laptop checks for updates automatically, but you can check manually by going to Settings (click the gear icon above the Start button), choosing Update & Security from the left-hand column and then clicking the Check for updates button. (Or just type “updates” into the search box and click Check for updates.) You can update your laptop this way instead of waiting for updates to install the next time you shut down your laptop.
2. Turn on System Restore
It’s a good idea to make sure you have established a restore point should something go sideways with your laptop on down the road. To set up a restore point, search for “restore” and then click Create a restore point. You’ll be taken to the System Protection tab of the System Properties window.
From there you can choose your main system drive (likely the C: drive) and then click the Configure button. Click the radio dial for Turn on system protection if it’s not already on. And then you can choose how much disk space to reserve for your restore points. You don’t need more than 2 or 3 percentage points.
3. Adjust display settings
Congratulations on getting a laptop with a razor-sharp 1080p (or above) display. While your images will look incredibly crisp, text and icons may now be small and hard to read or click. Lowering the resolution won’t help because the resulting image will look fuzzy. Windows 10, however, lets you scale the size of text, icons and apps.
Right-click on the desktop and select Display settings. For Change the size of text, apps, and other items, you can select a higher percentage to increase the size of text in 25-percent increments or click Custom scaling to select your own percentage.
4. Choose a power plan
Your laptop doesn’t need to run at full power all the time. If you want to lengthen Hp pavilion dv4 laptop battery life, you can choose the Power saver power plan. Or you can choose the High performance plan when you’re engaged in serious graphics work. In the middle sits the Goldilocks-just-right Balanced plan. To choose a plan, click the battery icon in the system tray in the lower-right corner of the desktop and click Power & sleep settings. Next, click Additional power settings to select a power plan.
5. Set a default browser
If you want to use Chrome or a browser other than Microsoft’s Edge browser, you’ll need to install it yourself. Of course, if you do that, you’ll likely want to make it your default browser. After installing Chrome, the first time you launch it, it will ask you if you want to set it as your default browser. If you miss that offer, you can go to Settings > System > Default apps and click Microsoft Edge in the “Web browser” section to make a different selection.
6. Set app installation tolerance level
This one is for those who have upgraded to Windows 10 Creators Update or Fall Creators Update. Microsoft has borrowed a page out of Apple’s book with the addition of a setting that lets you control which types of apps are allowed to be installed on your PC. Similar to telling your Mac to install apps only from the Mac App Store or also from outside it, you’ll soon find similar options on your PC. Go to Settings > Apps > Apps & features and you can choose from where you can install apps — from anywhere, only from the Windows Store, or from anywhere but get a warning if they are from outside the Store.
7. Turn on your Night Light
Here’s another Creators Update feature. Staring at an unnaturally blue screen at night can shift your body’s natural clock and make it difficult to get a good night’s sleep. Your phone likely has a way to switch to warmer colors at night and now Windows does, too. In Creators Update, there’s a setting to lower the blue light of your PC. Head to Settings > System > Display > Night light settings. You can schedule it to come on at sunset or manually set hours. You’ll also find a new Night light button in the Action Center to toggle the setting on and off.
8. Show filename extensions
Is that image a JPEG or PNG? A Word.doc or a Word.docx? Windows 10 hides file name extension unless you ask it to show them. To do so, open File Explorer, click View from the top menu and then check the box for File name extensions.
9. Connect your phone to your PC
With the demise of the Windows phone, Microsoft has opened its arms to Android phones and iPhones ($699.00 at Apple). There’s a new Phone section in Settings that creates a meaningful connection between your phone and computer. Click Add a phone and follow the instructions to link your phone and PC. Reportedly, this connection will let you pick up on your PC where you left off on Office files on your phone, but I don’t use Word or Excel or any other Office files on my iPhone. I did install the Cortana app on my iPhone because with it I can read an article in Cortana and then tap a button to open that Web page in Edge on my PC. It’s helpful to send, say, a long-form article from my iPhone to the luxurious dimensions of my Windows desktop, but I’ll first need to get in the habit of using the Cortana app to get my news on my phone.
10. Remove bloatware
Many PC vendors package a new laptop with trial apps, but thankfully Windows 10 offers an easy way to see which apps are installed on your new laptop and a quick way to uninstall those you don’t want. Head to Settings > System > Apps & features and peruse the list. If you don’t want an app, click on it and then click the Uninstall button.
11. Anti-ransomware protection
Windows Defender gets a new weapon in the fight against ransomware. Open the Windows Defender Security Center and go to Virus & threat protection > Virus & threat protection settings. Here, you’ll be able to toggle on a new option called Controlled folder access. It protects you against ransomware attacks that can lock you out of your data. By default, the Desktop, Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos folders are protected, but you can add others. If the setting is grayed out, then you may need to uninstall the trial version of McAfee or another security app that came pre-installed on your PC.
7 Best SSD for Notebooks to Upgrade Windows System
An SSD upgrade allows your notebook to restore life. SSD reads and writes faster than the hard disk, and the money spent on the SSD laptop upgrades will be returned to you. SSD can provide high performance and battery life for Windows laptops. The new Windows 10 laptop has been equipped with SSD; you can upgrade your old laptop from the hard disk to the SSD. If you still carry a laptop with a rotating hard disk, this is the time to switch from HDD to SSD. Regardless of the operating system version, you can replace the laptop’s hard disk drive with a solid state disk.
Once you migrate HDD to SSD for Windows, there will be a considerable improvement in the overall performance of the laptop. Here we listed a couple of SSDs for Laptops, those stand in the top line of the series in terms of speed and performance for Windows Laptops.
Samsung 850 PRO
Sequential Read: 550MP/s, Sequential Write: 520MB/s, Random Read: 100K IOPS, Random Write: 90K IOPS, Port: SATA III (6GB/s) Flash Type: 3D VNAND Flash (MLC)
Samsung Pro is one of best SSD for laptops. This high-performance SSDs are made for Professionals and Hardcore Windows PC Gamers. The 850 Pro delivers up to 2x the speed, density, and endurance of conventional flash. Samsung’s flash memory is fabricated using an innovative 3D V-NAND architecture, which stacks 32 cell layers on top of one another. The result is higher density and higher performance using a smaller footprint and a breakthrough in overcoming the density limits of conventional planar NAND.
Samsung’s V-NAND technology is built to handle a minimum of 150 Terabytes Written (TBW) over the lifetime of the drive, which equates to a 40 GB daily read/write workload over a 10-year period. Samsung Pro’s low power DDR2 cache memory provides high performance while consuming up to 30 percent less power when active and up to 93 percent less power when idle than typical DDR2 or DDR3 memory. Interestingly, this SSD comes with self-encrypting drive technology which helps you protect all your data from accidental deletion or uneven writing and that too without any performance loss. With the crypto erase feature, you can easily erase unnecessary data easily. The 850 PRO’s advanced security complies with the TCG Opal v2.0 standard and is compatible with the Microsoft eDrive IEEE 1667 protocol. This SSD also comes with the dynamic thermal guard feature that helps protect the device from overheating during excessive use. Samsung is offering Samsung Data Migration and Magician software for easy installation and SSD management. This SSD is compatible with Windows 10/8/7/Vista SP1 and above (32/64 bit), Windows Server 2008 (32/64 bit) and Linux.
Samsung 850 EVO
Sequential Read: 540MB /s, Sequential Write: 520MB/s, Random Read: 98K IOPS, Random Write: 90K IOPS, Port: SATA III (6GB/s) Flash Type: VNAND Flash (TLC)
When you consider the best SSDs for Laptop, Samsung will be the top brand and 850Evo fall just behind Samsung SSD Pro series. The 850 EVO SSD features Samsung vertical NAND (V-NAND) technology. This stacks cell layers on top of one another to increase density, performance, and efficiency while creating a smaller footprint. When compared with the conventional Planar NAND technology over a five-year period, V-NAND technology increases endurance, prolongs lifespan, and is more resistant to wear under heavy client workloads.
The 850 EVO creates a high-performance write buffer area that accelerates performance whenever a write operation is underway. To boost performance for up to 2x faster* data processing speeds, you can activate RAPID Mode, a feature that reduces performance bottlenecks by utilizing unused PC memory as cache storage. These features make the 850 EVO ideal for demanding applications such as gaming, graphic and sound design, and data analysis.
SanDisk Ultra II- SDSSDHII
Sequential Read: 550MB/s, Sequential Write: 500MB/s, Random Read: 98K IOPS, Random Write: 80K IOPS, Port: SATA III (6GB/s) Flash Type: NA
SanDisk Ultra II SSD delivers enhanced speed and endurance with sequential read speeds of up to 550MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 500MB/s. This speed good for no-wait boot-up, shorter application load times, and quicker data transfer. In addition to cooler, quieter computing, the SanDisk Ultra II SSD built with proven shock and vibration resistance to protect your drive.
SanDisk’s nCache 2.0 technology optimizes performance by writing everything into the drive’s high-speed buffer before transferring it to the flash array. This innovative architecture enables faster burst speeds. The SanDisk SSD Dashboard gives you real-time visibility into how your drive is performing. This includes cloning software to set up a new drive, tools for disk analysis and firmware update alerts.
Intel 730 SERIES
Sequential Read: 550MB/s, Sequential Write: 470MB/s, Random Read: 74K IOPS, Random Write: 89K IOPS, Port: SATA III (6GB/s) Flash Type: 20nm Intel NAND Flash Memory
The Intel Solid-State Drive 730 Series is built with a specially qualified 3rd generation Intel controller. Performance optimized firmware and 20nm Intel NAND Flash Memory take it a step further by factory overclocking these components for a 50% increase in controller speed and 20% increase in NAND bus speed.
Intel SSD 730 Series delivers extreme endurance of up to 70GB writes per day for five years (compared to the industry, typical 20GB). This provides the peace of mind for anyone requiring dependable up-time from their workstation or gaming rig. Intel’s advanced firmware algorithms provide consistent performance. You can rely on for both compressible and incompressible data types, plus data center efficiency and dependability.
Kingston Digital SV300S37A
Sequential Read: 550MB/s, Sequential Write: 500MB/s, Random Read: 90K IOPS, Random Write: 35K IOPS, Port: SATA III (6GB/s) Flash Type: MLC NAND
A four-channel Marvell controller powers Kingston’s SSDNow UV400. This controller can offer incredible speeds and higher performance compared to a mechanical hard drive. It dramatically improves the responsiveness of your existing system and is ten times faster than a 7200RPM hard disk. UV400 is available in multiple capacities, giving you plenty of space for all your files.
When you talk about SSD benefits, there are no spinning parts involved in the reading mechanism, SSD can load your Windows quicker (less than 15 seconds) than HDD. In addition to this, the apps installed on SSD can open without delay compare to HDD. There is no moving part in SSD that reduce the risk of damage from shock or sudden impact. SSD contains no moving parts and feature efficient design, consumes little battery power. This extends the Dell Inspiron 9400 Laptop Battery life up to 50 minutes more compared to standard Hard Disk Drive drive (HDD).
SSD for Laptop is going to improve the speed and performance of the system. Whether it is a new or old laptop, the high read/write performance of SSDs can make your laptop running faster and loading Windows in a few seconds. Once you invest in SSDs for laptops, you never regret your decision.
The first Always Connected PCs are here and they deliver practically 24 Hour laptop battery life
An ultra thin laptop with a LTE connection and a 24 hour battery endurance seems to be a daydream, but it’s about to change. Today, at the high pass, ASUS and HP launched their first batch of PC, which are all provided by the high pass 835 mobile PC platform.
The concept behind the Always Connected PC is that it brings over several smartphone traits to a PC that emulate the experience you’d get from your phone. For example, the new Always Connected PCs feature instant on capabilities, so that means that the computer turns on instantly without waiting for it to wake from hibernation. The PCs are always connected to the internet via gigabit LTE and a built-in SIM, they provide a full Windows 10 experience and all day battery life. All day battery life means 24 hours – not just 9 to 5, which is what we’ve all grown used to. All of this is made possible thanks to the Qualcomm 835 platform.
The Asus NovaGo is the world’s first Gigabit LTE Laptop. It sports a 10mm thin design, comes with a stylus and is available with up to 8GB of RAM and 256gb of storage. Its Asus a32-k52 laptop battery can last up to 22 hours on a charge, or 30 days on standby. Pricing for the Asus NovaGo will start at just $599 and will go up to $799 for the 8GB / 256GB storage model.
HP announced their Envy X2 which sports a “Tablet” PC form factor with a detachable keyboard. The device itself is made of machined aluminum, it measures just 6.9mm thin and weighs just 1.5lbs. Like the NovaGo, the Envy X2 comes with a stylus and comes running Windows 10. The Hp envy 13 series notebook battery life for the Envy X2 is up to 20 hours on a charge.
Lenovo is expected to unveil their own Always Connected PC at CES next month as well. And AMD was on stage talking about their engineering partnership with Qualcomm. They said that through a partnership with Qualcomm, they’ll be bringing their high-performance Ryzen processors to connected PCs soon. That means that a gaming laptop with similar features to the Always Connected PCS might not be too far off.
But what we’re most excited about is the promise of ALL WEEK battery life which Qualcomm and its partners spoke about. Perhaps the second generation of Always Connected PCs will offer that, so that we can finally leave our power bricks at home. That would be truly liberating.
How to Find Notebook Battery Health on Windows
If you are using a laptop with Windows, you may already know that the battery on the laptop will wear out for some time. Once the health of a laptop battery falls below 30%, it’s good to replace the battery, because you don’t get the performance you want from the battery. So how do you find the health of a laptop battery on Windows?
BATexpert is a free tool which can tell you the current health of your battery on Windows.
It has a clean and simple interface and once you install the tool on your laptop, it fetches all possible information of your battery and lets you know the laptop battery health. The app can provide you the following details.
- Laptop battery manufacturer data decoding
- Charge status of the battery
- Current usage and the charging rate
- Battery type or the chemistry which tells you whether it is Lithium-ion or something else.
- The current temperature of the battery
- Estimated time left before low level warning
If you find your battery health is below 30%, then it is time to get a new Hp 484170-001 laptop battery. There is also a Find new Battery option which takes you to a website, but we did not have any luck finding a battery for our laptop with the serial number. Overall, BATexpert is a simple and yet effective free tool to check laptop battery health.
How to play hard games at DELL XPS 13
For Laptop Magazine’s favorite laptop, DELL XPS 13 package, Intel eighth generation core CPU and high-speed PCIe solid state drive become an attractive performance, strong, over 16 hours of Dell xps m1530 laptop battery life, lightweight packaging.
Because the XPS 13 has only integrated Intel UHD graphics, you might think that it can’t play demanding games. However, with some small tweaks, you can actually run many of today’s top titles and get decent frame rates.
Our Test Config
To see how well the XPS 13 can play games, we performed all the steps below on a 2017 model with a Core i7-8550U CPU, a 1080p non-touch screen, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB PCIe SSD. The steps below should boost performance on any XPS 13, but you’ll get faster speeds from the latest hardware.
Settings Changes That Help in Every Game
While each game is a little different, making the following changes to your XPS 13 will help across the board.
- Download all Windows updates: Go to Settings->Update & Security to make sure you have the latest and that Windows isn’t wasting cycles downloading as you game.
- Kill all background tasks.
- Cap the FPS: If the XPS 13 gets too warm, it may throttle performance, resulting in an unstable game. If you deliberately the limit the frames-per-second to 60 fps on lighter games and 30 fps on more-demanding titles, you can avoid overtaxing the laptop.
- Lower the Screen Resolution: The XPS 13’s display is either 1080p or 3200 x 1800, but it may not be able to push all those pixels in high-end games. Dropping the game down to 720p or even lower can help, provided that the game supports it.
Below, we show how to get the best performance in several popular games when playing on the Dell XPS 13. Let’s start with some of the lighter games that you can expect to play on the XPS 13 without much trouble.
Counter Strike Global Offensive
Originally released in 2012, the multiplayer shooter continues to have a strong player base and is one of the most important games in e-sports scene.
Setting a limit to the FPS is as simple as enabling the dev console in the game options, assigning a button to the console in the keyboard options, opening it in game and typing fps_max 60.
On the lowest settings and a resolution of 1080, the Intel UHD was able to keep up with the 60 FPS target with no obvious drops. Counter Strike Global Offensive’s lowest settings are not particularly bad looking, so you will get an acceptable graphical experience for a game released on 2012.
Rocket League
Originally released in 2015, this football-meets-rocket cars classic is still very actively played by a large number of both casual and competitive players. Rocket League allows you to limit the framerate on the graphic settings screen using a convenient slider.
Using a resolution of 720 and a mixture of performance and quality settings the game maintained a strong 60 fps during test matches, while looking reasonably well. The lack of antialiasing is very notable but not detrimental to the gaming experience.
Overwatch
Originally released in 2016, this multiplayer shooter remains one of the most popular games around. Similar to Rocket League, this game places the FPS limiter right on the settings screen, where you can set it to (almost) any number.
Using the lowest settings — an external resolution of 720p and an automatic internal resolution of 50% — we saw a typical frame rate of 60 fps, with it dropping down to a still-playable 40 fps under intense pressure.
It’s not possible for the XPS 13 to play Overwatch at 1080p, but even on lowest resolutions the game is perfectly legible and playable. The low internal resolution will make pixelation on lines more pronounced but otherwise the game is still visually pleasant.
It is worth nothing that Overwatch is known for its GPU optimization on low end computers, only asking for a modest Intel HD 4400 in its minimum requirements, but it is still impressive to see that the XPS 13 is able to maintain a high level of performance on such a modern, popular title.
Grand Theft Auto V
The PC release of GTA V, from 2015, still boasts one of the most dynamic, largest open worlds in gaming. Its benchmarking tool remains a valid way of testing the gaming capabilities of a laptop, especially on a laptop with an integrated GPU.
Apart from lowering all the ingame settings, dropping the external resolution to 720p and internal resolution to 75%, this game needs a few more settings to tweaks to offer a truly good experience.
GTA V stores its settings in a file called settings.xml located on the documents folder, Rockstar Games, GTA V. One line in particular, ShadowQuality can be set to 0 in order to disable all in game shadows for a significant boost in performance.
With this change, the GTA V was able to maintain close to 60 fps on most sections of its benchmark, only dropping to around 30 to 40 fps during the very intense chase scene at the end. It is worth noting that the benchmark (and some parts of the game) use a lot of RAM and some of these performance issues at the end might be blamed on the game running out of memory. Upgrading your XPS 13 to 16GB of RAM may help.
GTA V has two main vsync modes, one that locks the screen’s refresh rate (60 in our case), and one that locks to half the refresh rate (30). On the XPS 13 we tested (8th Gen Core i7), a normal refresh rate limited to 60 fps is good for most situations, but you might need to use a half refresh rate mode for older models.
Doom (2016)
The 2016 reboot of Doom was released to rave reviews and many people started using it as an example of the graphic level you can achieve when fully utilizing the resources of a proper gaming computer. It is not the kind of game you would expect to run on Intel UHD graphics but in the case of XPS 13, Doom becomes an interesting example due to its use of Vulkan.
In a nutshell, Vulkan is a render API (like DirectX 11 or OpenGL) which is used by a game to render graphics without having to rewrite the entire game for each specific GPU. Vulkan was introduced as the successor to the widely used OpenGL and it allows developers to reduce overhead and work much closer to the GPU for increased performance.
Doom was one of the first large game releases to incorporate Vulkan (via an update to the game in July 2016). Vulkan compatibility on Nvidia and AMD GPUs goes back all the way to devices released on 2012, but in the case of Intel HD Vulkan is only compatible with integrated GPUs newer than Skylake.
The Intel UHD in the XPS 13 falls into this category, so Vulkan can be enabled on the game’s settings screen .
With Vulkan, the lowest settings, external resolution of 720 and the internal resolution to 50% the game maintains something between 40 and 60 fps while roaming around most levels.
In the case of combat, a bit of extra help might be needed to make the game playable. While the game is running you can open the dev console using the button in the upper left corner of your keyboard, under ESC (usually tilda “~”). Once in the console, you can type r_shadowAtlasWidth 32 to disable most of the game’s dynamic shadows for a quick performance boost.
Sadly, there does not seem to be any current way of making this permanent, but you can apply this command quickly when needed by using TAB to autocomplete to the nearest variable every time a new letter is typed.
After removing shadows, I was able to jump into some of the most frenetic battles in the game without ever dropping under 39 FPS, and averages were closer to 45 FPS. Not bad for once of the most intense shooters out there!
Doom has an option for adaptive vertical sync. Adaptive will limit the game to 60 or 30 fps dynamically depending on the game’s performance, or will automatically disable vsync when performance is somewhere in the middle to avoid stuttering.
It is generally recommended that you enable Adaptive vsync.
Destiny 2
I have previously written about some of the steps you can take to get started on Destiny 2 on a laptop with Intel UHD graphics, but some of the quick measures you can take are:
- Configure the battle.net launcher so it closes as soon as you open the game.
- Disable local shadows by going to USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\Bungie\DestinyPC\prefs\cvars.xml and set local_light_shadows to 0.
- Limit FPS to 30 using the Vsync option on the game.
- Reduce internal resolution in the game’s configuration screen.
These changes proved effective on the XPS 13, although I was forced to drop the internal resolution all the way down to 25% in order to maintain a playable frame rate of 30 fps.
Long distance visibility was affected by the low resolution, but the design of the game allows combat to still be possible.
Crysis 3
Crysis games have a historic reputation for requiring a powerful computer to play and Crysis 3, from 2013, is still regularly used a benchmark on modern systems.
Even after dropping all the settings to the lowest and resolution to 1366×768 there are still a lot of things that can be reduced to make this feat possible. Most game variables are located in a file in the installation directory of the game called autoexec.cfg.
Here is the configuration file I used for this test.