The Dell G3 is a gaming laptop in the lower end of Dell’s G series, so let’s see how
hot it gets, find out if there’s any throttling, and investigate what can be done to improve
gaming performance.
In my configuration here I’ve got the Intel i7-8750H CPU with Nvidia 1060 Max-Q graphics,
so fairly decent specs for a gaming laptop. It’s also worth mentioning that I’ve got
the 17 inch model here, in theory temperatures may be a little warmer in the 15 inch version
as it’s a bit smaller with less cooling room, but I don’t have it for testing so
I can’t say for sure.
Also keep in mind that the G3 is also available with the i5-8300H CPU and 1050 or 1050Ti graphics,
I’ve got the highest specced G3 here, so in theory this should be worst case for it
as lower specced hardware will probably run cooler.
Thermal testing was completed with an ambient room temperature of 18 degrees celcius, so
expect warmer temperatures in a warmer environment. I’ll also note that it wasn’t possible
to manually modify the fan speed of the G3, so all temperatures were with the fans at
default speeds.
Starting at the bottom of the graph, at idle the CPU and GPU are running cool enough, shown
in light blue. Moving up to the green bar I’ve tested gaming using Watch Dogs 2, as
it uses a good amount of CPU and GPU resources, and this rose the temperatures a fair bit.
If we apply a -0.150v undervolt to the CPU we’re able to drop the temperatures slightly,
shown in yellow.
The stress tests were done by running Aida64 and the Heaven benchmark at the same time
in order to attempt to fully utilize both the processor and graphics. Moving up in the
graph to the red bar there was power limit throttling present, fairly standard with the
8750H CPU under stress test. By applying the same -0.150v undervolt to the CPU in purple
the temperature actually rose slightly, but as we’ll see in the next graph it’s now
performing much better.
These are the average clock speeds for the same temperature tests just shown. The green
gaming and red stress test bars were subject to power limit throttling which is why only
a 3.4GHz average was seen over all 6 CPU cores, but performance was improved with the -0.150v
undervolt applied. In particular, the purple bar shows that we’re very close to getting
the full 3.9GHz all core turbo speed of the 8750H CPU.
These are the clock speeds I got while just running CPU only stress tests without any
GPU load, and power limit throttling was still taking place at stock, although there was
no thermal throttling. With the -0.150v undervolt applied though we’re able to reach the full
3.9GHz all core turbo speed of the i7-8750H CPU, and I’ll also note that it wasn’t
possible to change the power limit from the 45W TDP with Intel XTU.
To demonstrate how this translates into performance I’ve got some Cinebench CPU benchmarks here,
with the older 7th gen 7700HQ just there for comparison. We’re able to improve the score
by over 100 points by applying the CPU undervolt, and no real difference between either in terms
of single core performance, as single core alone isn’t enough to trigger power limit
throttling.
Here are the GPU only clock speeds while under a graphical only stress test both at stock
and with a 200MHz GPU core overclock applied, but it’s worth noting that your CPU undervolting
and GPU overclocking results will vary between chips based on the silicon lottery.
So how does this performance boost actually translate in games? In the games tested the
exact same Windows updates, game updates and Nvidia drivers were installed so there shouldn’t
be any changes other than the CPU undervolting and graphics overclocking. The same -0.150v
undervolt to the CPU was applied as before, along with a 200MHz GPU core overclock and
400MHz GPU memory overclock.
CS:GO was tested with the Ulletical benchmark, and with the changes in place the 1% lows
are slightly higher and average frame rates at max settings are about 7% better, but then
no real change at the other setting levels.
Far Cry 5 was tested using the built in benchmark, and again at ultra settings there was a similar
7% boost to the average frame rates in this game with higher 1% lows all round.
So we’re seeing a little improvement with the CPU undervolting and GPU overclocking
applied, although it will depend on the particular game in question and setting levels in use.
As for the external temperatures where you’ll actually be putting your hands, at idle the
body of the laptop is peaking in the low 30s, quite cool. While gaming the wrist rest was
still cool, but the center of the keyboard starts approaching 50 degrees, and with the
stress tests running we saw a similar result.
As for the fan noise produced by the laptop, I’ll let you have a listen to some of these
tests.
At idle it was almost silent, only just audible. While gaming the fans pick up, but overall
it’s still a fair bit quieter compared to most other gaming laptops, likely due to the
Max-Q graphics, and then about the same results with the stress tests running.
Overall the performance was about what I expected of a laptop like this with the 8750H CPU.
Just to be clear, the power limit throttling isn’t an issue unique to the Dell G3, I’ve
seen this in pretty much every i7-8750H laptop I’ve tested, but as covered here there are
steps we can take to mitigate this and improve performance, namely through undervolting.
These differences in performance shown aren’t hard and fast rules, there are different factors
which will vary results, primarily the temperature 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.
While you could probably improve the temperatures by swapping out the thermal paste, that’s
not something I can test in a review unit. If I go ahead and remove the stock thermal
paste and replace my own, I can't put the old paste back, so the next reviewer would
experience something different from what you'd actually see with the product and unknowingly
report incorrect information due to what I’ve done. Although with that said, power limit
throttling was more of an issue from my testing than heat anyway, but perhaps thermal throttling
could become present in a warmer environment.
Undervolting on the other hand isn't physically intrusive, and as we've seen it did improve
the performance and temperatures in this particular unit with no downside once you’ve got a
stable undervolt. It’s a great way to get back some performance if you’re running
too hot or facing power limit throttling like we were here.
Let me know how much of a performance boost you’ve found by undervolting your hardware
and what you thought of the improvements here, and don’t forget to subscribe for the full
review of the Dell G3 gaming laptop, as well as future tech videos like this one.