However, if you need a gaming PC that commands attention, the Alienware Aurora R13 is an excellent choice. To that end, the Dell XPS 8950 is my kind of gaming PC. For a gaming rig specifically, I need it to run modern titles without a hitch. I like flashy rigs as much as anyone else, but those aesthetic qualities don’t usually provide enhanced productivity. Like I said up top, I tend to prefer PCs – gaming or otherwise – with understated and unassuming designs. Both devices feature the sleek, silver design of the XPS 8950. You can also change the latter’s DPI if you feel the cursor moves too slow or fast. In terms of customization, the keyboard has 12 programmable keys while the mouse has five. Similarly, I found the mouse responsive and comfortable to use. The roomy keyboard was easy to type on for long stretches of time. The XPS 8950 comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse. Included keyboard and mouse are solid peripherals.The latter is especially useful in case you need to minimize power consumption to conserve energy (and lower your energy bill). This application has several useful features such as system optimization for performance, sound and visual optimization for streaming content and a power manager. The My Dell app comes pre-installed with the XPS 8950. My Dell app lets you customize key system features.But for my purposes, it delivers the kind of performance I require. Granted, I’m not exactly a power user when it comes to productivity so I wasn’t expecting my average use to make this rig buckle. It never floundered, even when I had over 20 tabs open while running a YouTube video and using GIMP to edit photos. The more powerful Aurora R13 (3:52) and Corsair One (3:28) transcoded video in under four minutes each.ĭespite falling behind its competition in benchmark tests, I found the XPS 3950 a more than capable everyday work computer. In our Handbrake video-editing test, which involves transcoding a 4K clip to 1080p, the XPS 8950 transcoded a video in 4 minutes and 38 seconds, whereas its predecessors achieved the same task in 6 minutes and 26 seconds. As impressive as that is, it’s still behind the Aurora R13 (1,894) and Corsair One (3,006). Regarding file transfer speeds, the XPS 8950 copied 25GB of files from an external drive at a rate of 1,382 Mbps, which is far beyond the XPS 8940’s 439 Mbps. This outstrips its predecessor’s 9,019 score but trails significantly behind the Alienware Aurora R13 (15,329) and Corsair One (17,965). On the Geekbench 5.4 benchmark, which measures a system's overall performance, the XPS 8950 scored an impressive 11,006 on the multicore portion of the test. Given its prowess as a gaming computer, the XPS 8950 is more than capable of handling productivity tasks. Speedy file transfer and video transcoding.Solid performance for everyday computing.Dell XPS 8950 review: Overall performance However, I was pleasantly surprised by Cyberpunk 2077’s performance considering it’s one of the worst-optimized titles. I wasn’t surprised by Doom Eternal’s numbers since it’s such a well-optimized game. Generally, both hovered within the 40 to 45 frames per second range at 4K resolution. These frame rates are quite impressive for a rig costing far less than the above competition - at least in the configuration we reviewed.Īs for my own qualitative testing, I fired up my perennial favorites for gauging performance – Doom Eternal and Cyberpunk 2077. However, it still ran titles at or above the desired 30 to 60 fps range, especially at 1080p resolution. On average, the XPS 8950 didn’t exceed the frame rates achieved by the other computers we compared it to - even its predecessor. For this review, we’ve compared the XPS 8950 to the XPS 8940, along with the Corsair One i300 and Alienware Aurora R13. We benchmarked the XPS 8950 by measuring frame rates in a number of games, both at 1080p and 4K settings, with graphics turned up to "Ultra" presets. The 512 GB SSD drive also delivered impressive loading speeds. This is due to its RTX 3060 Ti graphics card and 16 GB of RAM. Our XPS 8950 review model didn’t disappoint when it came to gaming performance. Replacing the GPU, hard drives and RAM shouldn’t present a problem for most people. But even with my big hands, I didn’t find it overly difficult to maneuver around. All you have to do is remove the screw holding the Kensington lock in place and then pull the side panel away to reveal the rig’s interior.ĭue to the PC’s small size, its internal components are closely packed together. Opening the XPS 8950 is pretty straightforward.
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