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January 25th, 2025 13:23
XPS 17 9730, a year of issues
XPS 17 9730
Good afternoon,
This is more aimed at Dell's developers/programmers, in the (probably pointless) hope that they take note and up their game a little.
The return on investment for a high spec high-cost laptop has been a year of problems.
Not the sort of premium service you would expect or wish for. There seems to be an incompatible working relationship between Dell and their partners, such as Microsoft/Windows, NVidia and Intel, and others.
Or so it seems.
Issues faced over the past year.
BIOS updates tampering / hiding power plans.
Fluctuating GPU performance.
Drop in FPS and Render Latency.
Drop in VRAM CLK performance.
Poor audio performance - intermittent buzzing/crackling during sound tests and playing media.
Only the BIOS update hiding power plans has been solved.
The others remain a painful experience when trying to use the XPS to its apparent potential.
In terms of physical design, air flow for cooling is extremely limited, as the laptop "feet" are negligible, resulting in the base of the laptop, including fans, are practically "kissing" the resting surface such as the desk/table.
As a user, I am having to put in a significantly disproportionate amount of time in to trying to get my device to work to the spec it is designed to.
At the price I paid, I did not expect to be struggling to operate this device.
I hope (but doubt) that Dell improves on future products and services.
Laptop Summary:
Dell XPS 17 9730
13th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13900H Processor (24MB Cache, up to 5.4 GHz)
Memory - 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5 4800MHz
NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) RTX(TM) 4080 with 12 GB GDDR6
Laptop Specs - partial DxDiag:
Operating System: Windows 11 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 22631)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: XPS 17 9730
BIOS: 1.14.0 (type: UEFI)
Processor: 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13900H (20 CPUs), ~2.6GHz
Memory: 65536MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 65220MB RAM
Page File: 13026MB used, 56290MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 12
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: 240 DPI (250 percent)
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
Miracast: Available, with HDCP
Microsoft Graphics Hybrid: Supported
DirectX Database Version: 1.6.1
DxDiag Version: 10.00.22621.3527 64bit Unicode
Graphics Specs ( x 2):
NVIDIA
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Type: Full Device
Display Memory: 44607 MB
Dedicated Memory: 11997 MB
Shared Memory: 32610 MB
INTEL
Card name: Intel(R) Iris(R) Xe Graphics
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Chip type: Intel(R) Iris(R) Xe Graphics Family
DAC type: Internal
Device Type: Full Device (POST)
Display Memory: 32738 MB
Dedicated Memory: 128 MB
Shared Memory: 32610 MB
Current Mode: 3840 x 2400 (32 bit) (60Hz)
HDR Support: Supported
Display Topology: Extend
dlimcher
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February 24th, 2025 04:40
Rob, I have the same machine and also have issues with heat, drivers, and the keyboard being a little different from the 9710 model (I have gone back to using that model as my daily driver as the speed differences aren't too large)
I did have one ramdon question-- have you every noticed if your touchpad was a *little* slow compared to other laptops? It seems like it lags when compared to the 9710 for me and it's driving me a bit crazy.
GrigorG
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May 29th, 2025 16:30
Good idea to post this. I am looking at getting this exact spec myself (as the design is gorgeous), but the cooling is indeed a point that slightly concerns me (I have a 9530/13700H/A370M and it is struggling sometimes). Just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to post this as I almost no one does this and this is one of the only ways (I assume you had already reached out to Dell support with more details on each issue) for Dell to see real world issues with their products and for other people to be aware/share their experiences.