Dell XPS 27 Touch All-in-One Review
PCMark & 3DMark Tests
First, we fired up some benchmarks by Futuremark. The company, which is based just outside of Helsinki, Finland, started publishing benchmarks in 1998. Since then, Futuremark has developed tests for evaluating standard PCs and mobile devices and continues to update its flagship 3DMark gaming benchmark suite, and PCMark as well.
Futuremark’s PCMark 7 benchmark includes a suite of tests designed to measure the way your computer would perform during typical tasks. It includes an Entertainment Suite, which offers gaming scenarios and tests its media playback capabilities. The benchmark also has a Creativity Suite, in which the system processes images and video. Other tools include the Computation Suite and the Storage Suite. The latter is capable of measure SSDs and hard drives, either individually, or as a whole.
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Futuremark’s PCMark 7 benchmark includes a suite of tests designed to measure the way your computer would perform during typical tasks. It includes an Entertainment Suite, which offers gaming scenarios and tests its media playback capabilities. The benchmark also has a Creativity Suite, in which the system processes images and video. Other tools include the Computation Suite and the Storage Suite. The latter is capable of measure SSDs and hard drives, either individually, or as a whole.
Oh, what a difference a year makes. The Dell XPS 27 Touch smoked the competition in PCMark 7, easily outscoring the XPS One 27, XPS 18, and HP Z71 and leaving the other systems in the dust. Of course, that mSATA SSD inside paired with a 7,200 RPM hard drive helps, as does the faster CPU and discrete graphics. This score is actually better than some recent full-size gaming rigs we’ve tested.
Next up we have some numbers from 3DMark Vantage. With this version of the benchmark, Futuremark incorporated two graphics tests, two CPU tests, several new feature tests, in addition to support for the DX10-class graphics and modern PC hardware. We tested the systems here with 3DMark Vantage's Performance preset option, which uses a resolution of 1280x1024.
As a gaming benchmark, 3DMark 11 puts extra emphasis on your system’s handling of DirectX 11. But it measures more than the graphics card’s performance (the processor can make a big difference to a score, for example) and is a good way to get a feel for a system both as a gaming PC and as a general-use computer. Futuremark recently updated 3DMark 11 to support Windows 8, so if you plan to run this test on your own Windows 8 system, be sure to get the latest version.
Futuremark recently launched PCMark 8, which has several separate benchmarks. The Home test measures a system's ability to handle basic tasks: video chatting, web browsing, photo editing, an similar day-to-day activities. The test is designed to be run on just about any Windows 7 or 8 computer. The Creative test offers some of the same types of tasks, but puts more stress on the system and is meant for mid-range and higher-end PCs. The Work test simulates the workflow of a typical office user. And the Storage test - you guessed it - benchmark's your computer's data storage performance.
Because the benchmark is so new (the free version isn’t even available yet) we don’t have comparison data for PCMark 8 just yet. All the data from the benchmark's separate tests, which provide plenty of detailed feedback, is available in the images above.
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Next up we have some numbers from 3DMark Vantage. With this version of the benchmark, Futuremark incorporated two graphics tests, two CPU tests, several new feature tests, in addition to support for the DX10-class graphics and modern PC hardware. We tested the systems here with 3DMark Vantage's Performance preset option, which uses a resolution of 1280x1024.
When we compared scores reviewing the XPS One 27 last year, the disparity was obvious; now, we can see how much of a jump the new Haswell chip and updated NVIDIA graphics offers. That’s an astounding performance gap between the XPS 27 Touch and the rest of the field.
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As a gaming benchmark, 3DMark 11 puts extra emphasis on your system’s handling of DirectX 11. But it measures more than the graphics card’s performance (the processor can make a big difference to a score, for example) and is a good way to get a feel for a system both as a gaming PC and as a general-use computer. Futuremark recently updated 3DMark 11 to support Windows 8, so if you plan to run this test on your own Windows 8 system, be sure to get the latest version.
The gulf between the XPS 27 Touch and the other systems in our bank isn’t quite as pronounced in 3DMark 11, but it’s still the leader by a fair margin.
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Because the benchmark is so new (the free version isn’t even available yet) we don’t have comparison data for PCMark 8 just yet. All the data from the benchmark's separate tests, which provide plenty of detailed feedback, is available in the images above.
