Dell Inspiron 15R 5537 : Review and Benchmarks !

[AbhMkh]

So Ladies And Gents,

I bought this laptop back in November

Dell Inspiron 15R Laptop - Mainstream laptops from Dell

Never got around to reviewing it, but now that moment has arrived and I will be doing a review.


I bought the laptop for 68K from a local dell retailer, here are the Specs for all you geeks out there.

Proccy : Intel Core I7 4500U

RAM : 8 GB Samsung DDR3L

Graphics Card : 2 GB AMD RADEON 8850M GDDR5

Hard Disk : 1 TB WDC Scorpio Blue WD10JPVX-75JC3T0

We will have a detailed look at each one of them in a moment, but first things first..Lots of pics !!!!

*i.imgur.com/NCGrDuy.jpg

*i.imgur.com/UqzThD9.jpg

*i.imgur.com/TxhL8YI.jpg

*i.imgur.com/49z9u9c.jpg

*i.imgur.com/HfBvErT.jpg

*i.imgur.com/PFjLNZ1.jpg

*i.imgur.com/Tp8VYt3.jpg

*i.imgur.com/RXzvcLA.jpg

*i.imgur.com/iRLUfyM.jpg

*i.imgur.com/ScrXlBb.jpg


Whoaaaa !, that was nice...Anyways,

Build Quality


In one word "Impeccable", the casing has to be praised for its meticulous rigidness. The blend of aluminum and plastic materials prove to be exceptionally resistant so that almost brute force is needed to dent the surface. The screen is virtually on a par with that and also excels with its stiffness. Two accurately-running, very tightly-pulled hinges have a firm grip on the lid although vibrations can cause it to wobble slightly.Some gaps could be a bit narrower, but I do not have much to criticize otherwise.

Screen


The capacitive touchscreen detects up to 10 simultaneous inputs, responds without delay and works with excellent precision up to the edges.Inspiron 15R only features a simple WXGA screen with 1366x768 pixels. The distribution over 15.6-inches leads to a moderate pixel density of 100 dpi.The glare-type surface results in a subjectively vivid and rich representation.Since it isn't an IPS display, viewing angles are narrow and the screen looks fantastic from only a 90 degree sweet spot.


Keyboard and touchpad

Both are of excellent quality, I really like the clickpad with 2 buttons behaving similar to a mouse, fast typing is possible on the keyboard as it provides excellent feedback.



PERFORMANCE AND BENCHMARKS


Now comes the part you all have been waiting for !. Now the non touch version of this laptop is available for 62K which means it competes with the following laptops in the Indian market.

HP Envy 15-j110TX Laptop (4th Gen Ci5/ 8GB/ 1 TB/ Win8.1/ 2GB Graph) Rs.63990 Price in India - Buy HP Envy 15-j110TX Laptop (4th Gen Ci5/ 8GB/ 1 TB/ Win8.1/ 2GB Graph) Glass Fiber With Silky Soft Touch Aluminium Finish Natural Silver Online - HP: Fli

and this

Lenovo IdeaPad Z510 (59-398016) Laptop (4th Gen Ci7/ 8GB/ 1TB 8GB SSD/ Win8.1/ 2GB Graph) Rs.57850 Price in India - Buy Lenovo IdeaPad Z510 (59-398016) Laptop (4th Gen Ci7/ 8GB/ 1TB 8GB SSD/ Win8.1/ 2GB Graph) Dark Chocolate Online - Lenovo: Flipkart

But since I dont have the benchmark details of these laptops , I will use the following laptops for comparision

Review Toshiba Satellite S50-A-10H Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

Review HP Envy 15-j011sg Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

and to make things a little interesting, I will throw in this as well(Even though this model is not available in India)

Review Asus N550JV-CN201H Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews


What do you think, will the ULV I7 be able to hold its own against these monster quad core I7's and a dual core I5 ?

Lets find out.....


PROCESSOR


Dell installs one of the fastest ULV CPUs in form of the Core i7-4500U. The dual-core processor, based on the latest Haswell architecture, clocks with 1.8 to 3.0 GHz (2 cores: 2.7 GHz maximum). It also features the known Hyper Threading technology which enables processing up to 4 threads at the same time. Intel however did not primarily focus on increasing performance but rather on reducing power consumption. Thus, not only has the TDP of 17 watts from Ivy Bridge been reduced to 15 watts but the formerly external chipset is now integrated into the CPU package. The platform's TDP could thus be reduced by a remarkable 5 watts despite the identical 22 nanometer build process.



Owing to the improved per-MHz performance of the Haswell architecture, this is enough to close in on some former models with a higher clock rate. Averagely, the Core i7-4500U is roughly on a par with the Core i7-3537U, which is approximately 20% in front of the popular Core i5-3317U. Any fears that users are being foisted with allegedly slower, low-power models is absolutely unwarranted considering the marginally higher performance of "standard" 35 watt CPUs (or 37 watts in Haswell).


Cinebench R11.5
CPU Multi 64Bit



Asus N550JV-CN201H( Core I7 4700HQ) : 6.68 points

HP Envy 15-j011sg(Core I5 4200M) : 3.23 points

Toshiba Satellite S50-A-10H(Core I7 4700MQ) : 5.22 points

Dell Inspiron 15 R(Core I7 4500U) : 2.82 points


System Performance


The generous memory configuration should be very satisfying. 2x 4 GB of DDR3L-1600, "L" stands for the lower supply voltage, and a 1000 GB hard drive should please even demanding users.

The storage comes from Western Digital's Scorpio Blue series and does not promise any performance-breaking records with a speed of 5400 rpm. Nevertheless, the transfer rates are quite impressive. Over 85 MB/s in the HD Tune benchmark is remarkable for a 2.5-inch drive. The fairly short access time of only 17.1 milliseconds adds to that as an equally above-average good result



PC MARK 7



Toshiba Satellite S50-A-10H
GeForce GT 740M, 4700MQ, HGST Travelstar 5K1000 HTS541010A9E680 : 3178 Points


Asus N550JV-CN201H
GeForce GT 750M, 4700HQ, HGST Travelstar 5K1000 HTS541010A9E680 : 3395 Points

Dell Inspiron 15R-5537
Radeon 8850M, 4500U, WDC Scorpio Blue WD10JPVX-75JC3T0 : 3363 Points


HP Envy 15-j011sg
GeForce GT 740M, 4200M, HGST Travelstar 5K1000 HTS541010A9E680 : 3128 Points



Graphics Card Performance


The AMD Radeon HD 8850M is a 28nm DirectX 11 graphics card based on the GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture. Built primarily for medium-sized laptops, the card is positioned in the performance category as of 2013

Equipped with GDDR5 memory, the HD 8850M competes with the Nvidia GTX 660M. The DDR3 version of the HD 8850M is expected to be a bit slower, although it could offer higher clock rates. Many games of 2013 can be played fluently in medium or high detail and resolution settings.


Cinebench R11.5 - OpenGL 64Bit


Asus N550JV-CN201H( Core I7 4700HQ/750M) : 53.14 FPS

HP Envy 15-j011sg(Core I5 4200M/740M) : 41.73 FPS

Toshiba Satellite S50-A-10H(Core I7 4700MQ/740M) : 41.38 FPS

Dell Inspiron 15 R(Core I7 4500U/8850M) : 56.83 FPS


3D MARK 2013



Dell Inspiron 15R 5537(Core I7 4500U/8850M) :


3DMark Ice Storm 55834 points

3DMark Cloud Gate 7133 points

3DMark Fire Strike 1700 points


Toshiba Satellite S50-A-10H(Core I7 4700MQ/740M) :

3DMark Ice Storm 58900 points

3DMark Cloud Gate 6824 points

3DMark Fire Strike 1086 points


Asus N550JV-CN201H( Core I7 4700HQ/750M) :


3DMark Ice Storm 73259 points

3DMark Cloud Gate 8142 points

3DMark Fire Strike 1473 points

HP Envy 15-j011sg(Core I5 4200M/740M) :


3DMark Ice Storm 64627 points

3DMark Cloud Gate 5760 points

3DMark Fire Strike 1088 points



Unigine Heaven benchmark (1920x1080, high, default tessellation)



Dell Inspiron 15R 5537(Core I7 4500U/8850M) : 22.5 FPS

HP Envy 15-j011sg(Core I5 4200M/740M) : 14.4 FPS

Asus N550JV-CN201H( Core I7 4700HQ/750M) : 22.3 FPS


GPU-CPU PERFORMANCE : FEW MORE COMPOUND BENCHMARKS


3D Mark Vantage


Dell Inspiron 15R(Core I7 4500U/8850M) : 8842 Points


Asus N550JV-CN201H( Core I7 4700HQ/750M) : 9742 Points


HP Envy 15-j011sg(Core I5 4200M/740M) : 6334 Points


Toshiba Satellite S50-A-10H(Core I7 4700MQ/740M) : 6805 Points



3D MARK 11

Dell Inspiron 15 R(Core I7 4500U/8850M) : 2589 Points


Asus N550JV-CN201H( Core I7 4700HQ/750M) : 2678 points


HP Envy 15-j011sg(Core I5 4200M/740M) : 1947 points


Toshiba Satellite S50-A-10H(Core I7 4700MQ/740M) : 2007 Points


PERFORMANCE VERDICT : BY TAKING INTO ACCOUNT ALL THE GPU/SYSTEM/CPU/COMPOUND/GAMING BENCHMARKS WE REALIZE THAT QUAD CORE/STD DUAL CORE PROCESSORS ARE "OVERRATED" AND THE DELL INSPIRON 15R DESPITE HAVING A "WEAK" ULV CPU IS THE "BEST" LAPTOP MONEY CAN BUY IN THE 55-65K RANGE .



Battery Life

Dell Inspiron 15R 5537(Core I7 4500U/8850M) :


Idle (without WLAN, min brightness): 12h 11min

WiFi Surfing: 7h 23min

DVD : 5h 27min

Load (maximum brightness) : 2h 15min


Dell Inspiron 15R 5537 Gaming Performance


METRO LAST LIGHT(HIGH,1366*768,16 AF,Tesselation : Normal)


Asus N550JV-CN201H( Core I7 4700HQ/750M) : 20.4 FPS

Dell Inspiron 15 R(Core I7 4500U/8850M) : 22 FPS

Toshiba Satellite S50-A-10H(Core I7 4700MQ/740M) : 15 FPS

HP Envy 15-j011sg(Core I5 4200M/740M) : 14 FPS


COMPANY OF HEROES 2(1366*768,HIGH,MEDIUM AA)

Dell Inspiron 15 R(Core I7 4500U/8850M) : 17.5 FPS

Asus N550JV-CN201H( Core I7 4700HQ/750M) : 16.3 FPS

Toshiba Satellite S50-A-10H(Core I7 4700MQ/740M) : 13.4 FPS

HP Envy 15-j011sg(Core I5 4200M/740M) : 13 FPS


Battlefield 4(1366*768, HIGH PRESET)


Dell Inspiron 15 R(Core I7 4500U/8850M) : 35.3 FPS

Asus N550JV-CN201H( Core I7 4700HQ/750M) : 29 FPS

Toshiba Satellite S50-A-10H(Core I7 4700MQ/740M) : 21 FPS

HP Envy 15-j011sg(Core I5 4200M/740M) : 23.7


I will add more benchmarks as and when I try out games.

NOTE : There are a few games like COD Ghosts and NFS Rivals for which AMD drivers haven't been optimized properly, hence playing these games in this laptop will result in unusually low FPS



CONCLUSION



Runtime miracle, office artist, multimedia entertainer: The Inspiron 15R-5537 proved to be an all-round talent.

This laptop fuses a fast ULV CPU along-with a high end GPU.Have that all day presentation and forgot your charger, it will take you through the day. Wanna play some BF4 on high/ultra settings, this laptop will oblige !

In the end it suffices to say that this laptop is synonymous to the word "VERSATILITY".


Cheers!
Abhijit

 

[seamon]

I suggest you make this thread to Dell Inspiron 15/15R Benchmarks/Review/Discussion thread.
I can help you benchmark.
Just few things I noticed:-

1. The laptop's underside feels like it is made of moderately strong plastic and is not impeccable, Y500's plastic feels much more solid and strong.
2. The laptop's gaming performance falls by exactly 50% when AC power is removed. COD: Ghosts dropped from 20 to 10 FPS.

- - - Updated - - -

Alright I found another game which destroys i7 4500U. It's NFS Rivals. I updated the AMD Catalyst Drivers today and tested NFS Rivals.
Core i7 4500 U showed usage between 80-90%. FPS was 30 during low scenes, 20 FPS is moderately heavy scenes and reached a shocking 14 FPS in an extremely demanding scene with lots of shadows. The funny thing was that AMD HD 8850 itself was showing only 80 % usage during that 14 FPS while CPU was ~85% usage by NFS Rivals alone.

This is by far the worst case of CPU throttling the GPU. Even my Y500 with SINGLE GT650M at STOCK clocks produced better results @23 FPS during that exact same "demanding" scene.

Settings:-
Res-1366x768.
Rest:-Ultra.

Yet this performance is still more solid than GT 740M+i7 4700MQ sht.
@AbhMkh Try out Rivals if you can arrange it somehow.

 

[AbhMkh]

I suggest you make this thread to Dell Inspiron 15/15R Benchmarks/Review/Discussion thread.
I can help you benchmark.
Just few things I noticed:-

1. The laptop's underside feels like it is made of moderately strong plastic and is not impeccable, Y500's plastic feels much more solid and strong.
2. The laptop's gaming performance falls by exactly 50% when AC power is removed. COD: Ghosts dropped from 20 to 10 FPS.

- - - Updated - - -

Alright I found another game which destroys i7 4500U. It's NFS Rivals. I updated the AMD Catalyst Drivers today and tested NFS Rivals.
Core i7 4500 U showed usage between 80-90%. FPS was 30 during low scenes, 20 FPS is moderately heavy scenes and reached a shocking 14 FPS in an extremely demanding scene with lots of shadows. The funny thing was that AMD HD 8850 itself was showing only 80 % usage during that 14 FPS while CPU was ~85% usage by NFS Rivals alone.

This is by far the worst case of CPU throttling the GPU. Even my Y500 with SINGLE GT650M at STOCK clocks produced better results @23 FPS during that exact same "demanding" scene.

Settings:-
Res-1366x768.
Rest:-Ultra.

Yet this performance is still more solid than GT 740M+i7 4700MQ sht.
@AbhMkh Try out Rivals if you can arrange it somehow.

Cant download NFS Rivals, will download "Bioshock Infinite", the problem is while I have a 10 MBPS connection the "fair usage limit" is only 20GB(512 KBPS beyond that) so only one game a month .

Try doing NFS Rivals on the following settings and lemme know about the Avg FPS (Lowest+highest/2) you get.


1366*768/high/SSAO(30 FPS limit)

Will post "Bioshock Infinite" benchmarks once I download it.

 

[seamon]

Pathetic results. 30 FPS constant during light scenes, 20 FPS in moderately heavy scenes and 16 FPS in the extremely demanding scene I mentioned earlier.
Average- 22.3 FPS.

It's not even the fault of the GPU, it's the CPU. GPU is only being utilized 50-60%(during that demanding scene). CPU just crossed the 95% sanity mark in this test for a couple of secs and stays usually in the upper 80s.

 

[AbhMkh]

Pathetic results. 30 FPS constant during light scenes, 20 FPS in moderately heavy scenes and 16 FPS in the extremely demanding scene I mentioned earlier.
Average- 22.3 FPS.

It's not even the fault of the GPU, it's the CPU. GPU is only being utilized 50-60%(during that demanding scene). CPU just crossed the 95% sanity mark in this test for a couple of secs and stays usually in the upper 80s.

I dont think that the i7 4500u is the problem because acc to notebookcheck 740m/4500u with forceware 331.82 produced 24 FPS on the same settings.I believe the poor amd driver optimization is the culprit here...I noticed this(sub par FPS levels) a lot in all the COD games...even the older one's.

 

[seamon]

I dont think that the i7 4500u is the problem because acc to notebookcheck 740m/4500u with forceware 331.82 produced 24 FPS on the same settings.I believe the poor amd driver optimization is the culprit here...I noticed this(sub par FPS levels) a lot in all the COD games...even the older one's.

OK NFS Rivals is really making me wanna cry now. I tried the lowest settings. 19 hookin FPS at that "extremely heavy scene". AMD driver optimization cannot be this bad. CPU usage never goes below 80%.
In all the Inspiron 15/15R can play NFS Rivals maxed out when driving in low scenes and unplayable in heavy scenes( I am guessing physics heavy scenes).

- - - Updated - - -

I am guessing notebook check net people never used that scene I am talking about and must have been cruising around the city(not woods) which doesn't demand much and is playable in Inspiron 15/15R maxed out.

- - - Updated - - -

Alright I just tested Bioshock Infinite. Playable at the highest settings possible even with Alternate post processing (FPS gobbler).
FPS Ranged from 25-45 but mostly stays at 28-32 so average FPS is 30.
CPU usage- 30-40%

 

[AbhMkh]

OK NFS Rivals is really making me wanna cry now. I tried the lowest settings. 19 hookin FPS at that "extremely heavy scene". AMD driver optimization cannot be this bad. CPU usage never goes below 80%.
In all the Inspiron 15/15R can play NFS Rivals maxed out when driving in low scenes and unplayable in heavy scenes( I am guessing physics heavy scenes).

- - - Updated - - -

I am guessing notebook check net people never used that scene I am talking about and must have been cruising around the city(not woods) which doesn't demand much and is playable in Inspiron 15/15R maxed out.

- - - Updated - - -

Alright I just tested Bioshock Infinite. Playable at the highest settings possible even with Alternate post processing (FPS gobbler).
FPS Ranged from 25-45 but mostly stays at 28-32 so average FPS is 30.
CPU usage- 30-40%

Lol, And what about the performance of your y500 in "Bioshock Infinite"

 

[seamon]

Lol, And what about the performance of your y500 in "Bioshock Infinite"

Playable with all settings maxed out 1920x1080 40-60 FPS. Post processing alternate.
SLI FTW!!

 

[AbhMkh]

Playable with all settings maxed out 1920x1080 40-60 FPS. Post processing alternate.
SLI FTW!!

Lol,wish they had a 8850m crossfire laptop in India,that would have been epic.

How much on a single non oced 650m ?

 

[seamon]

Lol,wish they had a 8850m crossfire laptop in India,that would have been epic.

How much on a single non oced 650m ?

OK I just tried that with Max Payne 3 installing in the background and even I am surprised by the results.
The single GT 650m without OC(You have my word) is running the game at 28-50 FPS. Average is 32(stays at 32 for 95% of the time) I am completely surprised by the results. It is actually giving more performance than AMD 8850M. I am guessing this is probably due to superb Nvidia driver support. Even I was like WTF!!

- - - Updated - - -

OK I compared both again and looks like when rendering the exact same scene, Y500 was giving exactly 3 FPS more.
My hypothesis is that Inspiron is slowing down because it has a AMD card. Bioshock Infinite uses Nvidia Physx. Physx is being rendered by the CPU in the case of AMD 8850M which may slow down the FPS as a CPU is not good enough to render Physx.

Anyway how much left for you to download? We can test in yours too to get a more accurate comparison.

 

[AbhMkh]

Dell Inspiron 15R 5537 Gaming Performance


METRO LAST LIGHT(HIGH,1366*768,16 AF,Tesselation : Normal)


Asus N550JV-CN201H( Core I7 4700HQ/750M) : 20.4 FPS

Dell Inspiron 15 R(Core I7 4500U/8850M) : 22 FPS

Toshiba Satellite S50-A-10H(Core I7 4700MQ/740M) : 15 FPS

HP Envy 15-j011sg(Core I5 4200M/740M) : 14 FPS


COMPANY OF HEROES 2(1366*768,HIGH,MEDIUM AA)

Dell Inspiron 15 R(Core I7 4500U/8850M) : 17.5 FPS

Asus N550JV-CN201H( Core I7 4700HQ/750M) : 16.3 FPS

Toshiba Satellite S50-A-10H(Core I7 4700MQ/740M) : 13.4 FPS

HP Envy 15-j011sg(Core I5 4200M/740M) : 13 FPS


Battlefield 4(1366*768, HIGH PRESET)


Dell Inspiron 15 R(Core I7 4500U/8850M) : 35.3 FPS

Asus N550JV-CN201H( Core I7 4700HQ/750M) : 29 FPS

Toshiba Satellite S50-A-10H(Core I7 4700MQ/740M) : 21 FPS

HP Envy 15-j011sg(Core I5 4200M/740M) : 23.7


I will add more benchmarks as and when I try out games.

NOTE : There are a few games like COD Ghosts and NFS Rivals for which AMD drivers haven't been optimized properly, hence playing these games in this laptop will result in unusually low FPS

Cheers!
Abhijit

 

[seamon]

Dell Inspiron 15R 5537 Gaming Performance


METRO LAST LIGHT(HIGH,1366*768,16 AF,2X MSAA)


Asus N550JV-CN201H( Core I7 4700HQ/750M) : 20.4 FPS

Dell Inspiron 15 R(Core I7 4500U/8850M) : 21 FPS

Toshiba Satellite S50-A-10H(Core I7 4700MQ/740M) : 15 FPS

HP Envy 15-j011sg(Core I5 4200M/740M) : 14 FPS


COMPANY OF HEROES 2(1366*768,HIGH,MEDIUM AA)

Dell Inspiron 15 R(Core I7 4500U/8850M) : 17.5 FPS

Asus N550JV-CN201H( Core I7 4700HQ/750M) : 16.3 FPS

Toshiba Satellite S50-A-10H(Core I7 4700MQ/740M) : 13.4 FPS

HP Envy 15-j011sg(Core I5 4200M/740M) : 13 FPS


Battlefield 4(1366*768, HIGH PRESET)


Dell Inspiron 15 R(Core I7 4500U/8850M) : 35.3 FPS

Asus N550JV-CN201H( Core I7 4700HQ/750M) : 29 FPS

Toshiba Satellite S50-A-10H(Core I7 4700MQ/740M) : 21 FPS

HP Envy 15-j011sg(Core I5 4200M/740M) : 23.7


I will add more benchmarks as and when I try out games.

NOTE : There are a few games like COD Ghosts and NFS Rivals for which AMD drivers haven't been optimized properly, hence playing these games in this laptop will result in unusually low FPS

Cheers!
Abhijit

I am downloading Metro LL, let's see how much Y500 gives. I can post a screen comparison between Y500 and Inspiron 15 if you want.

 

[AbhMkh]

I am downloading Metro LL, let's see how much Y500 gives. I can post a screen comparison between Y500 and Inspiron 15 if you want.

Sure, dont measure anything manually,use the metro ll benchmarking tool(more accurate results)

 

[seamon]

1366x768, High , AF 16, Tesselation normal.
My results:-
Dell Inspiron 15
Max=50.74
Min=11.15
Average=24.36

Y500
Max=43.90
Min=12.43
Average=22.50

In the next test Physx is enabled along with SSAA and motion blur at normal

Inspiron 15
Max=26.73
Min=2.70
Average=10.99

Y500
Max=29.62
Min=9.09
Average=14.48

The poor result in the Physx enabled test was because AMD cards cannot render Physx leaving the CPU to render Physx which completely crushes it as a processor is not designed to handle Physx well.

 

[AbhMkh]

1366x768, High , AF 16, Tesselation normal.
My results:-
Dell Inspiron 15
Max=50.74
Min=11.15
Average=24.36

Y500
Max=43.90
Min=12.43
Average=22.50

In the next test Physx is enabled along with SSAA and motion blur at normal

Inspiron 15
Max=26.73
Min=2.70
Average=10.99

Y500
Max=29.62
Min=9.09
Average=14.48

The poor result in the Physx enabled test was because AMD cards cannot render Physx leaving the CPU to render Physx which completely crushes it as a processor is not designed to handle Physx well.

With ssaa and phyxs neither laptop is giving playable framerates,only a high end GPU would be able to achieve playable framerates with those settings.With Sssaa and phsyx off inspiron 15r achieved higher framerates than the y500

 

[seamon]

With ssaa and phyxs neither laptop is giving playable framerates,only a high end GPU would be able to achieve playable framerates with those settings.With Sssaa and phsyx off inspiron 15r achieved higher framerates than the y500

Obviously -.-
In the first test it was a matter of GPU bottleneck and AMD 8850M being the better GPU overruled but when CPU comes into picture, the Inspiron 15 is defeated. BTW average 24 FPS is not playable.
In SLI mode, the game is playable maxed(1920x1080 , Everything max, Advanced Physx but vsync off and SSAA off(not required in such high a resolution anyway)) out with FPS ranging from 27-40(mostly 30-33) after some Nvidia Inspector tweaking.

 

[AbhMkh]

Obviously -.-
In the first test it was a matter of GPU bottleneck and AMD 8850M being the better GPU overruled but when CPU comes into picture, the Inspiron 15 is defeated. BTW average 24 FPS is not playable.
In SLI mode, the game is playable maxed(1920x1080 , Everything max, Advanced Physx but vsync off and SSAA off(not required in such high a resolution anyway)) out with FPS ranging from 27-40(mostly 30-33) after some Nvidia Inspector tweaking.

To quote Commissioner Gordon from "The Dark Knight" : "I don't get brownie points for showing off, I have to make do with what I have"

Hmm, looks like I will have to educate you on this topic.You have gotten the concept of "Physics" and "Physx" all wrong.

1. Physics is an integral part of any game.It is implemented in the game using a software API called "Physics Engine".Physx is one of the several physx engines available."Physics is always calculated by the CPU"

2. Nvidia has implemented in its graphics cards a technology called "Hardware Accelerated Physics", it basically means that the physics processing duties are taken over by the graphics card from the processor.Now any game will not use the Nvidia GPU to calculate physics until and unless it supports "GPU Accelerated Physics"...THATS RIGHT ....THE FEATURE has to be explicitly coded into the game.So even if a game is built using the "Physx physics engine" it will not use Nvidia GPU to calculate physics until it supports "Hardware Accelerated Physics" and the CPU will calculate the physics.

Currently only a handful of games(about 15) support hardware accelerated physics, complete list can be found here

List of games with hardware-accelerated PhysX support - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Also you need to manually enable the this feature from game settings(like In Metro Last Light Benchmark).

3. Bioshock Infinite(even if it uses Physx physics engine) does not support hardware accelerated physics therefore the CPU will calculate physics in every case.

In the first test it was a matter of GPU bottleneck and AMD 8850M being the better GPU overruled but when CPU comes into picture, the Inspiron 15 is defeated

THIS STATEMENT IS WRONG, the CPU is always involved to calculate physics.Since Metro LL supports "hardware accelerated physics", only when you manually enable the "use Physx option" the game starts using the GPU to calculate physics.Now when you enable the "Use Physx option" it adds some extra physics to the game, and in AMD systems the CPU has to handle the extra physics thereby resulting in lower FPS levels.

All in all, the "hardware accelerated physics" is just a shady gimmick(thats why so few games use it) from Nividia and in no way proves that Nvidia GPU's are better than AMD GPU's

Cheers!
Abhijit

 

[seamon]

To quote Commissioner Gordon from "The Dark Knight" : "I don't get brownie points for showing off, I have to make do with what I have"

Hmm, looks like I will have to educate you on this topic.You have gotten the concept of "Physics" and "Physx" all wrong.

1. Physics is an integral part of any game.It is implemented in the game using a software API called "Physics Engine".Physx is one of the several physx engines available."Physics is always calculated by the CPU"

2. Nvidia has implemented in its graphics cards a technology called "Hardware Accelerated Physics", it basically means that the physics processing duties are taken over by the graphics card from the processor.Now any game will not use the Nvidia GPU to calculate physics until and unless it supports "GPU Accelerated Physics"...THATS RIGHT ....THE FEATURE has to be explicitly coded into the game.So even if a game is built using the "Physx physics engine" it will not use Nvidia GPU to calculate physics until it supports "Hardware Accelerated Physics" and the CPU will calculate the physics.

Currently only a handful of games(about 15) support hardware accelerated physics, complete list can be found here

List of games with hardware-accelerated PhysX support - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Also you need to manually enable the this feature from game settings(like In Metro Last Light Benchmark).

3. Bioshock Infinite(even if it uses Physx physics engine) does not support hardware accelerated physics therefore the CPU will calculate physics in every case.

In the first test it was a matter of GPU bottleneck and AMD 8850M being the better GPU overruled but when CPU comes into picture, the Inspiron 15 is defeated

THIS STATEMENT IS WRONG, the CPU is always involved to calculate physics.Since Metro LL supports "hardware accelerated physics", only when you manually enable the "use Physx option" the game starts using the GPU to calculate physics.Now when you enable the "Use Physx option" it adds some extra physics to the game, and in AMD systems the CPU has to handle the extra physics thereby resulting in lower FPS levels.

All in all, the "hardware accelerated physics" is just a shady gimmick(thats why so few games use it) from Nividia and in no way proves that Nvidia GPU's are better than AMD GPU's

Cheers!
Abhijit

I knew all that and I think you misunderstood me. I just thought that Bioshock Infinite had hardware accelerated PhysX. I am impressed you actually did all that research just to prove no matter what Inspiron 15/15R is better than Y500. Explain the better performance in Y500 when playing Bioshock Infinte then .

I'll do one more test on Metro Last Light for your satisfaction........PhysX off, Physics on .

- - - Updated - - -

Without PhysX Metro Last Light does little to no damage to CPU anyway so it's safe to assume that a HD 8850M will always beat GT 650M.

Inspiron 15.
Avg=12.84
Max=26.12
Min=7.72

Y500
Avg=11.65
Max=22.10
Min=7.33

BTW this is a nice game ^.^
Playing it with everything maxed out gives an altogether different feeling .

 

[AbhMkh]

I knew all that and I think you misunderstood me. I just thought that Bioshock Infinite had hardware accelerated PhysX. I am impressed you actually did all that research just to prove no matter what Inspiron 15/15R is better than Y500. Explain the better performance in Y500 when playing Bioshock Infinte then .

I'll do one more test on Metro Last Light for your satisfaction........PhysX off, Physics on .

- - - Updated - - -

Without PhysX Metro Last Light does little to no damage to CPU anyway so it's safe to assume that a HD 8850M will always beat GT 650M.

Inspiron 15.
Avg=12.84
Max=26.12
Min=7.72

Y500
Avg=11.65
Max=22.10
Min=7.33

BTW this is a nice game ^.^
Playing it with everything maxed out gives an altogether different feeling .

Well, no hard feelings . The research cleared few of my doubts as well.Also I am not trying to prove that its better than the Y500

WHat I am trying to prove is that this laptop is not an underdog because of the ULV CPU as everybody considers it to be and I think I can say that I have been very successful thus far .

Yeah the game is nice, I like the russian accents


BTW here is a hilarious review of COD Ghosts

Call of Duty: Ghosts | Zero Punctuation Video Gallery | The Escapist

 

[seamon]

I am still looking for a way to OC the 8850m at least to 8870m level because they are basically the same chips. Such a small OC will probably be risk free and the laptop will be oficially in the high end segment.