Dell Dimension XPS: Gaming with all the Trimmings

Game Benchmarks

Dell's Dimension XPS is marketed as a top gaming system, so this will get close scrutiny by many. As you can see, the results are quite mixed. The XPS does very well in Aquamark 3, setting a new high, and also performs well in the new X2 benchmark. Performance is on par with tests of the Asus 875 at 3.2GHz in Unreal Tournament. We then see less than stellar performance in Quake 3, Gun metal 2 Direct X 9.0 benchmarks, and Media Encoding. Since there is no real way to disable the Audigy 2 in BIOS, we suspect part of this discrepancy may have to do with remnants of the Audigy drivers loading even after we disabled drivers in Windows XP. These 3 tests are sensitive to active sound drivers, and we suspect that this may be responsible for these lower scores.

All-in-all, the Dell Dimension XPS performs well in our gaming benchmarks, but as we have seen in other gaming tests, it is outperformed by Athlon64 FX51. Dell tells us the P4EE will also be an optional offering on the Dimension XPS, and this should bring the scores closer to FX levels. However, in our testing of the FX51 compared to the P4EE, the FX51 was still the top performer.

We wouldn't suggest holding your breath for an Athlon64 FX system from Dell, since Dell has never produced an AMD system. If you want an Intel P4 or P4EE gaming system, then Dell provides competitive equipment. If you want the absolute top gaming performance, you can choose an Athlon64 FX system from another vendor. We will soon be testing an Athlon64 FX gaming system from ElitePC, and it will be interesting to compare that machine's performance to the Dell Dimension XPS.