(For more on DLSS, see our primer.) Before We Start: Some Windows 11 Gaming Variablesīefore we dive in, it’s worth mentioning some of the built-in Windows 11 gaming features, because they may have an effect on our results.įor starters, by default, in the main Windows 11 settings under the Gaming tab, a new feature called Game Mode is active. Also, note that F1 2021 is run twice, but both runs are at maximum settings-the difference is that one run has Nvidia's DLSS image-sharpening tech switched off, the other has DLSS on. The exceptions are Red Dead Redemption 2 and Forza Horizon 5, which we kept at the maximum quality setting just to stress the laptop in another way. To see a wider range of popular games, we also added the demanding Red Dead Redemption 2, and the recently released Forza Horizon 5, to the mix on both operating systems.Įach of these games was run at two visual settings, to provide a scale of performance and differences. These real-world games are Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, F1 2021, and Rainbow Six: Siege. This usual test suite we employ includes two synthetic tests, from 3DMark (the Time Spy and Night Raid subtests), as well as three AAA gaming titles (each on two visual settings). We’re using the same benchmarking games for this project that we normally use in our review process for gaming laptops, and re-running them after upgrading the test machine to Windows 11. Here, however, we are chiefly interested in testing gaming power. You can read up on how we test laptops in general for more on each test we run. Perhaps not maximum specs, but definitely toward the upper end for slim laptops.

The Alienware x15 packs up-to-the-moment components: an Intel Core i7-11800H processor, 16GB of memory, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 GPU.

If any consistent variance in performance will arise between the two operating systems, this deluxe laptop will give us enough hardware overhead to make the margins clear.

The laptop in question here is the Alienware x15, a slim and potent high-end machine. To see if there’s any speed advantage (or disadvantage!) in Windows 11 for gaming, we took matters into our own hands once again: We ran the same batch of gaming benchmark tests, in turn, on the same laptop on each operating system, in a best-case scenario to show any differences. Just before we posted this article, we tested Windows 11 and 10 on a mainstream Dell laptop to see the differences in performance between everyday productivity apps.

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