The G3 is Dell’s entry level gaming laptop, but just how hot does it get, and does this
result in any performance loss? I’ll be taking a detailed look at thermals and seeing
how much we can improve performance with some simple changes.
I’ve got the highest specced configuration, so there’s an Intel i7-9750H CPU, Nvidia
GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q graphics, and 16gb of memory running in dual channel. The G3 is also available
with different specs, including i5-9300H CPU and GTX 1050 or 1650 graphics, so expect different
results with those configurations. You can find examples and updated prices linked in
the description.
On the bottom of the laptop we’ve got some air vents towards the back for air intake,
then air is exhausted out of the back vents towards the left and right corners. There
are a couple of heatpipes shared between the processor and graphics, and I noticed straight
away that the fans look a bit smaller compared to most other machines I’ve looked at.
The Dell G3 allows you to press the G key, or F7, to enable high performance mode. This
slightly raises the power limit of the CPU and also boosts fan speed. Otherwise the Dell
power manager also lets you choose between these modes, and for almost all of the testing
I just left this set to ultra performance.
Thermal testing was completed in an ambient room temperature of 21 degrees Celsius, so
expect different results in different environments.
Let’s start off with the idle results. This was the only test where I changed the settings
in Dell’s power manager. Quiet did run the laptop silently with the fans off, though
as a result it was warmer when compared to the default optimized profile.
The rest of the results are from combined CPU and GPU workloads, and are meant to represent
worst case scenarios as I ran them for extended periods of time.
The gaming results towards the upper half of the graph were tested by playing Watch
Dogs 2, as I find it to use a good combination of processor and graphics. The stress test
results shown on the lower half of the graph are from running the Aida64 CPU stress test
with only the stress CPU option checked, and the Heaven GPU benchmark at max settings at
the same time to fully load the system.
Let’s start with the stress test results at stock down the bottom of the graph. In
this test both the CPU and GPU were thermal throttling. By enabling performance mode which
sets the fan speed to maximum we’re able to slightly reduce the temperatures, however
there was still intermittent thermal throttling it just wasn’t constant. Undervolting the
CPU saw no change to temperatures, but we’ll see how this helped improve clock speed in
the next graph. The cooling pad helped out a lot with this machine, we can see here that
both the CPU and GPU lowered by 13 degrees Celsius.
While gaming I wasn’t seeing thermal throttling in this specific title. Temperatures go up
in performance mode on the CPU despite the increased fan speed, as we’ll see later
the power limit increases which results in more heat and performance, then the undervolt
helps lower temperatures while again the cooling pad makes the biggest difference, dropping
temperatures by 10 to 11 degrees.
These are the average clock speeds for the same tests just shown. Basically there was
power limit throttling in pretty much every test. With the stress tests I mentioned there
was thermal throttling at stock, well there was power limit throttling too. With performance
mode temperatures did improve slightly as we just saw, but the power limit throttle
keeps the CPU performance about the same, however the reduction to GPU thermal throttling
did result in a 100MHz improvement. The CPU undervolt helped the most here as it allows
for better performance within the same power limitations. This is why no CPU clock speed
change was seen with the cooling pad, although it does help improve temperatures by quite
a lot there wasn’t really thermal throttling by this point so no major performance improvements.
That said the GPU tends to see higher performance when using a cooling pad as GPU boost works
better with lower temperatures.
In the gaming results the CPU clock speed in particular at stock was quite low, we’ll
see why in the next graph. Performance mode improves the situation as this increased the
power limit, and again the CPU undervolt helps further, though we’re still not quite able
to hit the full 4GHz all core turbo boost speed of the i7-9750H in any of these tests.
These are the average TDP values reported by hardware info during these same tests.
With the stress tests the GPU power was noticeably lower due to the thermal throttling taking
place there, once this was removed with the other changes it was hitting its 60 watt limit,
as per the green bars. The CPU was hitting the 36 watts defined by PL1 with the stress
tests running, though interestingly while gaming at stock PL1 lowered to just 25 watts
which is why we saw lower clock speeds in this test earlier. Once we enter performance
mode it was again at 36 watts.
It’s worth noting that I leave these tests running for long periods of time, the Dell
power manager software seems to dynamically adjust the power limits based on the workload
in small increments until it settles down. As I’m showing the averages over a half
hour in the case of each stress test, so two hours in total, we’re seeing where it settles
in averages.
These are the average CPU clock speeds while under a CPU only workload. With Aida64 and
just the stress CPU option checked I could only hit the full 4GHz all core turbo boost
speed of the 9750H with the undervolt applied. It’s worth noting that I did see slightly
higher clock speed just by enabling performance mode. We can see why in the TDP graph, basically
at stock there was a 40 watt power limit for CPU only load, and then this raised up to
45 watts in performance mode. I’ll also note that I wasn’t able to manually boost
power limits with Intel XTU. Despite the increase to power limit in performance mode, the CPU
temperature lowered a little as this also increases the fan speed, then the undervolt
lowered this a little further while also improving performance.
To demonstrate how this translates into performance I’ve got some Cinebench CPU benchmarks.
There was just a slight improvement with performance mode enabled, probably due to the higher CPU
power limit we saw in this mode under a CPU only workload, however the undervolt made
the largest improvement. I wasn’t able to raise the power limit, so although thermals
were ok the score is a few hundred points lower compared to some other 9750H machines
that I’ve tested.
As for the external temperatures where you’ll actually be putting your hands, at idle it
was around the normal 30 degrees Celsius. While under combined CPU and GPU stress test
at stock it was getting to the low 50s. While gaming in performance mode it was about the
same, and some of the keys were starting to feel uncomfortable, not too hot to touch,
just not great.
As for the fan noise produced by the laptop, I’ll let you have a listen to some of these
tests.
At idle with the quiet profile set through the power manager software it was completely
silent, then the fans were just audible in the default optimized mode. With the stress
test running or while gaming the fans were pretty close, and quieter compared to most
other gaming laptops, so you do have the option of running quieter at the expense of performance.
With the fans at maximum speed in high performance mode it’s about the same as most other gaming
laptops I’ve tested under this same workload.
Overall the the Dell G3 gaming laptop ran hot, at least in the worst case stress tests
I performed. It is worth remembering that I’ve got the highest specced model, I’d
expect it to run cooler with lower options. Under these workloads thermal throttling was
seen on both the CPU and GPU, however as shown we could improve that by enabling performance
mode and undervolting. While gaming, at least in the single title I tested with in depth
here, the temperatures weren’t actually that bad, no thermal throttling at least,
though that seems to be due to power limit throttling that was happening instead. I’m
guessing these limitations are in place to prevent it from getting even hotter.
I didn’t find the Dell software or latest BIOS to perform GPU overclocking or CPU undervolting.
Given the performance and temperatures we’ve seen here, I think it would be good for them
to implement these sorts of tweaks in future out of the box like we’ve seen other models
such as the Acer Helios 300 offer.
These differences in performance shown aren’t hard and fast rules, there are different factors
which will vary results, primarily the temperature of the room you’re running in, application
of thermal paste, and even the specific hardware which comes down to the silicon lottery. You
may not be able to undervolt or overclock your hardware the same as me, it depends on
the chip and its specific power requirements, so don’t just blindly copy my settings and
do some testing to find out where your stable point is for best results.
It may be possible to further improve temperatures by swapping the thermal paste, however as
this is a review unit that I have to send back I’m not able to change the paste, otherwise
the next reviewer will unknowingly report different results due to what I’ve done.
Undervolting or using a cooling pad are much easier for most people to do than changing
paste anyway, and as we’ve seen these tweaks did help improve performance and temperatures
with the Dell G3.
Let me know what you thought about the thermals from the Dell G3 gaming laptop down in the
comments, and if you’re new to the channel you’ll definitely want to get subscribed
for the upcoming full G3 review.