Dell XPS 15 (9550) Review: Pushing The Infinity Edge (Updated)
XPS 15 3DMark Cloud Gate, Firestrike Extreme And Sky Diver Tests
Next up, we have 3D graphics testing with 3DMark Cloud Gate. The Cloud Gate test is aimed at entry-level PCs and laptops, and has two subtests: a processor-intensive physics test and two graphics tests. We run the test suite at its default 1280 x 720 resolution and at default rendering quality settings. Keep in mind that 3DMark Cloud Gate scores aren’t comparable to scores from say, 3DMark Fire Strike (gaming PCs) or Ice Storm (smartphones and tablets).
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In this lighter-duty Cloud Gate benchmark, we have reference data again from all light ultrabook configurations with dual-core CPUs and integrated Intel HD graphics. As such, the XPS 15's GeForce GTX 960M once again absolutely smokes these other less powerful machines. So let's put it up against some tougher competition.
The 3DMark Fire Strike test on its "Extreme" preset, as well as the newer Sky Diver benchmark, push a lot more workload to the graphics engine on board the group of premium and gaming notebooks we have now thrown in the mix with the Dell XPS 15.
Here again, it's a very respectable showing for the 4.4 pound Dell XPS 15. For reference, the HP Omen 15 is a 4.68 pound machine and ASUS' ZenBook UX501 weighs in at 5 pounds even. With similar graphics configurations, but previous generation Intel CPUs on board, the XPS 15 skips past these two competitors and actually starts to hang with the beefier gaming notebooks we tested.
