Hello, this thread concerns the Dell XPS 410 that I purchased a few months ago. These are the specs:

Windows Vista 32-bit
Dell DXP061
GeForce 8800GTX 768MB (stock)
E6600 Core 2 Duo (stock)
2GB DDR-SDRAM
309GB HDD 7200RPM
Dell WFP2007, 20.1" monitor @ 1680x1050

All of the drivers are up-to-date. My machine, AFAIK, is completely virus and spyware-free.

After being reasonably satisfied with the gaming performance increase over my previous computer (AMD XP 2400+, 6800GT, 1GB Ram...), I was told by several peeps on another forum that I should really be getting more out of my system, even if it is running Vista. So, my question is: Is my computer truly not performing as well as it should? It's totally cool if the vast majority of you say no, I just got curious after those guys on the other forum told me about it. Here's some info about my framerate and stuff in CS:S, TF2, etc.:

Note: I play all of my source engine-based games on maximum settings.

-Avg. FPS on Stress Test: 152.02

-Typical Framerate in CS:S: anywhere from 50 to 90; it usually hangs around 70.

-Typical Framerate in TF2: anywhere from 30-70; it usually hangs around 40.

-In the Crysis MP Beta, having everything on "high" was unplayable, but it seemed pretty smooth with medium settings.

-In BioShock, I don't know the actual framerate, but I've never really noticed any slowdown. This is with every setting maxed.

-And I might as well throw this out there: 3dMark06 score was 9456. This was the trial/limited version.

Also, my 8800GTX's temps while playing a game are around 78-80°C if that means anything.

So, thoughts? Comments? Opinions? Suggestions? I'd appreciate any of those

download fraps, if you want to find out your bioshock fps and dell computers (though I have no experience with the high end) tend to be a little worse than they seem on paper

try testing with 3d mark, seems to me like you could use the CPU charts and graphics charts + the news and reviews to see what performance they got and compaire it to yours. I have seen many reviews of the GeForce 8800GTX and the E6600 to do a comparison. try replicating the tests for your self with you hardware and if there are major differences then see where that gets you. to be fair though it would be better if you clean installed vista and installed drivers but used 3rd party media i.e. not the recovery disc/partition that came with the system so that there is not dell preinstalled crap.

I agree with pjumpleby. Even if it doesn't help hardware performance gaming-wise, you'll at least have the satisfaction of having only what you want installed on there. I hate prebuilt's standard installs, and if I ever do buy prebuilt (it's happened a few times) the first thing I do is a clean install of my own. (no recovery disks or any of that fruity stuff)

Best of luck to you in figuring out your problems ^_^

oh yeah, dell's are notorious for their bloatware, reformat your hdd and reinstall windows even if it doesn't help with the gaming performance, at least u'll find windows runs faster

vista and dx10 =slow down to start. usually scores 10000s with e6600 and 8800 gtx vista brings down a reasonable 500 points. CS:S you got VSYNC on? it's what happens with it. TF2 not that supported but drivers yet or it's just a normal fps? Crysis is a beta. the card is a little hot but no real issues. There everything is explained.

In Vista with stock settings for everything on a E6600..., I don't see your problem?

If you really wanted more, go to XP increase your cooling and overclock it a little. Otherwise, enjoy what you got.