Dell XPS 15 9500 4K Poor Windows 11 UI Performance

[savant_]

Hello,

 

I've owned the XPS 15 9500 for about a year and a half at this point. Mine is equipped with the i7-10750h, dedicated 1650Ti and the 4k screen. This laptop is amazing, the battery life isn't bad, the keyboard and the trackpad are amazing, the speakers are very good, and the 4k screen is the best screen I have ever looked at. I decided to update to Windows 11 once I got the notification the update was available, and I have not seen many issues, apart from one that keeps bugging me:

 

The 4k UI performance is absolutely horrible. I saw a similar thing with Windows 10 and HDR enabled: the Windows UI would seem sluggish, running at what I'm guessing is 30-45 FPS. Video playback wasn't better either, 1080p video would sustain 60 FPS, but with evident drops from time to time. 4k video, while seemingly supporting 60FPS, would not run at 60FPS (more like 40). I assumed this was an issue caused by Windows' handling HDR, so I just kept HDR off (it kills the battery anyway).

 

Updating to Windows 11, the UI seems as if I had HDR enabled on Windows 10, except I don't even have HDR enabled. The "beautiful" new animations seem sluggish and delayed. Video playback is fine but watching Netflix with Dolby Vision clearly shows FPS drops during certain moments. Enabling HDR in Windows settings makes the problem worse. Disabling the transparency effects definitely helps, but even this feels slow compared to Windows 10 and my brother's Asus Zenbook 13 (2019). 

 

This issue has bugged me since the day I bought the laptop. I have tried everything that came to my mind: Windows settings, graphics driver settings, DFU reinstallation of graphics drivers, general driver updates (my system is up to date). I went as far as to undervolt the laptop to see if that would help. It did not (but it definitely helped the overall performance and battery life).

 

I have posted this question on reddit and other forums (this is where I got the recommendation of DFU). Now I come here for advice. Is this how the laptop is supposed to perform? That is, is my integrated GPU not powerful enough to drive Windows UI elements at 3840x2400?

 

I am a computer engineering student living in a dorm. This laptop is my main (and only) computer, and I have spent hours over the course of a year and a half trying to fix the outlined issue. Here is what I have discovered:

(Most of these were stated above, but I'll repeat for clarity)

1. DFU helped, a lot. Then I got a Windows update notification for Intel - Display, and it made it worse again, so I DFUd again. This time, the windows update did not make it worse, but something keeps telling me that the first time I did it was better than what I have now (mind you, I did not spend a lot of time before doing the windows update).

2. Undervolting might have done *something*, but it might just be the system being snappier overall that makes me say that.

3. The Intel graphics command center (the new control panel they have) is the smoothest experience I have had on this device. Scrolling this forum does not feel as responsive as that application.

 

The fact that driver updates make the issue better or worse makes me think that this is a driver issue. Has anyone else with the same laptop either experienced the same issue, or is aware of a fix?

 

Thank you

 - an aspiring computer engineer

 

 

[Qyygle]

Welcome to beta testing for Microsoft! I used 11 for all of a day before BSOD crashes and UI jitters sent me back.

 

No, but in seriousness, the Intel UHD graphics on the 10750H aren't great. It's basically the same iGPU from since the Skylake days and it wasn't great back then either. When you say DFU, is that the same as DDU nuking the pre-installed drivers and updating direct from the latest Intel driver set?

Is editing options in power plans still a thing on 11? I don't recall enough to know for sure, but there are regedits in Windows 10 which will allow you to return the power setting options in the power plan settings. (NOTE: Backup any registry entries before hand in case you make a mistake)  

In regedit navigate to here:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings

There's then several items in that, you'll want to hunt through them until you find one that mentions the Intel Graphics Power or something like that (this is an AMD machine, so it'll be different for you)

 

In the entry under that, add a new DWORD entry and title it Attributes. Change the value to 2

 

Now go edit the power plan advanced settings and hopefully a new option appears, for graphics power settings.

 

This is essentially just changing the power settings that may or may not already be available in the Intel Graphics Control Panel app. If you already could do that and changing everything to max performance didn't help, you might just be stuck.

 

As a last resort, you could try nuking everything and doing a clean install of Windows 11, rather an upgrade from 10. Considering this is your only machine, that's probably not an option...

[savant_]

On 3/11/2022 at 12:26 PM, Qyygle said:

Welcome to beta testing for Microsoft! I used 11 for all of a day before BSOD crashes and UI jitters sent me back.

 

No, but in seriousness, the Intel UHD graphics on the 10750H aren't great. It's basically the same iGPU from since the Skylake days and it wasn't great back then either. When you say DFU, is that the same as DDU nuking the pre-installed drivers and updating direct from the latest Intel driver set?

Is editing options in power plans still a thing on 11? I don't recall enough to know for sure, but there are regedits in Windows 10 which will allow you to return the power setting options in the power plan settings. (NOTE: Backup any registry entries before hand in case you make a mistake)  

In regedit navigate to here:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings

There's then several items in that, you'll want to hunt through them until you find one that mentions the Intel Graphics Power or something like that (this is an AMD machine, so it'll be different for you)

 

In the entry under that, add a new DWORD entry and title it Attributes. Change the value to 2

 

Now go edit the power plan advanced settings and hopefully a new option appears, for graphics power settings.

 

This is essentially just changing the power settings that may or may not already be available in the Intel Graphics Control Panel app. If you already could do that and changing everything to max performance didn't help, you might just be stuck.

 

As a last resort, you could try nuking everything and doing a clean install of Windows 11, rather an upgrade from 10. Considering this is your only machine, that's probably not an option...

Thanks for the suggestion Qyygle,

 

I tried following your steps as you suggested, but that did not get me anywhere. I did some research on my own to make the power plan settings show up, but none of the solutions online seem to work for me. I am suspecting this is due to me running on the latest Windows 11 version, as well as Dell's general implementation of Windows on their systems. I do not think these settings are going to help, however. The issue does not seem to be caused by power options being set incorrectly (I have changed other Windows power settings, and they seem to make no difference).

 

Side note: When I said DFU, I mean I booted into safe mode, ran DDU, and then installed latest Intel drivers. Thinking of it now, this is not Device Firmware Update (DFU) mode, even though it accomplishes the same thing, so my statement was incorrect.

 

Yesterday, I got an external monitor for the laptop. The monitor runs at 1080p 144Hz, and it runs amazingly well. The system never felt smoother or more responsive. Here is an observation that actually has me tripping:

When displaying only on the external monitor (1080p), the system is very smooth.

When duplicating the displays at 1080p, the system is just as smooth.

The second I unplug the second monitor, the Dell monitor gets reset to 1920x1200 resolution, and the system becomes slow again.

 

I do not understand what is happening here. I cannot seem to find any issues caused by running a 16:10 display on windows, yet my system becomes sluggish the second I set that aspect ratio. Is there a possibility that this is a display scaling issue?

 

I'm thinking of doing a clean reinstall, but I'll need to buy an external hard drive first to backup my data. I will come back to this thread once I do that.

 

[Qyygle]

Question, does the monitor output get routed through the intel GPU or your 1650ti? Could the 1650 turning on be removing the lag somehow?

Also, is it a straight USB-C monitor or are you using a C-something convertor? If it's a USB-C on the monitor, does it also supply power? Are you having the stutter/lag while plugged in or battery only?

 

There's a possibility somewhere, between windows 11 and Dell/Intel/Nvidia's general shenanigans, the Optimus functionality has been messed up and you're not transitioning between the iGPU and dGPU correctly, leading to lag? When you remove the graphics drivers and reinstall them, did you do both the intel igpu and nvidia dgpu?

[JobinJames]

On 3/11/2022 at 9:48 AM, savant_ said:

Hello,

 

I've owned the XPS 15 9500 for about a year and a half at this point. Mine is equipped with the i7-10750h, dedicated 1650Ti and the 4k screen. This laptop is amazing, the battery life isn't bad, the keyboard and the trackpad are amazing, the speakers are very good, and the 4k screen is the best screen I have ever looked at. I decided to update to Windows 11 once I got the notification the update was available, and I have not seen many issues, apart from one that keeps bugging me:

 

The 4k UI performance is absolutely horrible. I saw a similar thing with Windows 10 and HDR enabled: the Windows UI would seem sluggish, running at what I'm guessing is 30-45 FPS. Video playback wasn't better either, 1080p video would sustain 60 FPS, but with evident drops from time to time. 4k video, while seemingly supporting 60FPS, would not run at 60FPS (more like 40). I assumed this was an issue caused by Windows' handling HDR, so I just kept HDR off (it kills the battery anyway).

 

Updating to Windows 11, the UI seems as if I had HDR enabled on Windows 10, except I don't even have HDR enabled. The "beautiful" new animations seem sluggish and delayed. Video playback is fine but watching Netflix with Dolby Vision clearly shows FPS drops during certain moments. Enabling HDR in Windows settings makes the problem worse. Disabling the transparency effects definitely helps, but even this feels slow compared to Windows 10 and my brother's Asus Zenbook 13 (2019). 

 

This issue has bugged me since the day I bought the laptop. I have tried everything that came to my mind: Windows settings, graphics driver settings, DFU reinstallation of graphics drivers, general driver updates (my system is up to date). I went as far as to undervolt the laptop to see if that would help. It did not (but it definitely helped the overall performance and battery life).

 

I have posted this question on reddit and other forums (this is where I got the recommendation of DFU). Now I come here for advice. Is this how the laptop is supposed to perform? That is, is my integrated GPU not powerful enough to drive Windows UI elements at 3840x2400?

 

I am a computer engineering student living in a dorm. This laptop is my main (and only) computer, and I have spent hours over the course of a year and a half trying to fix the outlined issue. Here is what I have discovered:

(Most of these were stated above, but I'll repeat for clarity)

1. DFU helped, a lot. Then I got a Windows update notification for Intel - Display, and it made it worse again, so I DFUd again. This time, the windows update did not make it worse, but something keeps telling me that the first time I did it was better than what I have now (mind you, I did not spend a lot of time before doing the windows update).

2. Undervolting might have done *something*, but it might just be the system being snappier overall that makes me say that.

3. The Intel graphics command center (the new control panel they have) is the smoothest experience I have had on this device. Scrolling this forum does not feel as responsive as that application.

 

The fact that driver updates make the issue better or worse makes me think that this is a driver issue. Has anyone else with the same laptop either experienced the same issue, or is aware of a fix?

 

Thank you

 - an aspiring computer engineer

 

 

Try to stop Windows Update from installing the Intel Display Driver. It installs a really outdated version of the driver. You can download and use the software "wushowhide". It's a bit difficult to find but try anyway. You can stop Windows from updating the driver using this. Download and install the latest Intel display driver from Intel's website after uninstalling the present driver. Restart and then let me know if the issue persists.

Let me know if you need the wushowhide executable. I can share it with you if can't find it.

Edited March 19, 2022 by JobinJames
Misquote

[Qyygle]

2 hours ago, JobinJames said:

Try to stop Windows Update from installing the Intel Display Driver. It installs a really outdated version of the driver. You can download and use the software "wushowhide". It's a bit difficult to find but try anyway. You can stop Windows from updating the driver using this. Download and install the latest Intel display driver from Intel's website after uninstalling the present driver. Restart and then let me know if the issue persists.

Let me know if you need the wushowhide executable. I can share it with you if can't find it.

You might want to tag this to the OP so he see it instead lol. 

[JobinJames]

11 hours ago, Qyygle said:

You might want to tag this to the OP so he see it instead lol. 

Will do. Thanks.