DELL G3 3590 Gamming Laotop Review
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DELL G3 3590 |
The DELL G3
3590 is Dell’s entry level
budget friendly Gaming Laptop, and Dell G3 3590’s been refreshed for 2019,
so let’s check it out in this detailed review and help You decide if Dell G3 3590’s a laptop you should
consider. Starting with the specs, I’ve got one of the higher spaced
configurations, so there’s an Intel i7 9750H CPU, Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q
graphics, and 16GB of memory in dual channel. For storage I’ve got a 512GB NVMe
M.2 SSD, and a 15.6” 1080p 60Hz screen, though 144Hz is available too. For
network connectivity Dell G3 3590’s
got gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 5. The Dell website says Bluetooth 4.1, but apparently the card installed
supports 5. There are a few different configurations available though, you can
find examples and updated prices linked in the description.
DELL G3 3590 : Design
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DELL G3 3590 : Design |
The DELL G3 3590 is available in Alpine
white with blue accents, or Eclipse black with blue accents, which is what I’ve
got here. The lid is a hard textured plastic with subtle grooves on either side
of the Dell logo, while the interior
is a smooth matte black plastic, and we can see those blue accents all over,
around the touch pad, power button, keys and trim of the machine. All edges and
corners were smooth, and the build quality seemed ok for a mostly plastic
laptop. I measured the weight of the laptop by itself at around 2.4kg, and then
over 3.1 kg with the 180 watt power brick and cables included. The dimensions of
the DELL G3 3590 laptop are 36.5 cm
in width, 25.4 cm in depth, and around 2.1 cm thick. This smaller footprint
allows for thinner screen bezels compared to the older DELL G3, which I measured at around 1 cm on the sides.
DELL G3 3590 : Display
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DELL G3 3590 : Display |
The DELL G3 3590 has 15.6” 1080 p 60Hz WVA
screen has a matte finish, good viewing angles, though no G-Sync. I’ve measured
the colour gamut using the Spider 5 Pro, and my results returned 62% of sRGB
and 47% of Adobe RGB. At 100% brightness in the center I measured 242 nits with
a 840:1 contrast ratio, so lower brightness and colour gamut compared to most
machines I’ve tested, though still alright purely for gaming just not
excellent. This is typically expected from a Gaming Laptop at this price point though. The DELL G3
3590 is also available with a 144Hz screen in the higher end models, so
expect different results with that panel. Backlight bleed wasn’t too bad here,
just some minor imperfections that I wasn’t actually able to notice while
viewing darker content, but this will vary between laptop and panel. There was
some screen flex, but it felt sturdy due to the lid being thick plastic, and I
think this is mostly due to the hinge being in the center of the screen which
allows it to bend more at the ends. I could almost open it up with one finger,
it did get a bit easier over time though. Despite thinner screen bezels
compared to the 2018 model, the camera is still found above the screen.
DELL G3 3590 : Camera and keyboard
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DELL G3 3590 : Camera and keyboard |
The DELL G3 3590’s camera looks ok and it
sounds pretty decent, here’s what typing sounds like on the keyboard and this
is what it sounds like when you set the fan speed to maximum, so you can still
hear me over the fan. The keyboard in my unit only has blue backlighting, it
lights up everything including secondary key functions, however some.
DELL G3 3590 configurations have
optional RGB keyboards. My blue lighting can be adjusted between two brightness
levels by using the F10 key or turned off completely. Like other Dell G series laptops, I wasn’t a fan
of the smaller arrow keys. Typing was fine, though I thought the key presses
were a little shallow feeling. Here’s what typing sounds to give you an idea of
what to expect. There was more flex while pushing down on the keyboard than I’d
like, not too unexpected given the entire plastic build, I did occasionally
notice this while typing too, but it didn’t cause me any actual problems. The
touch pad has precision drivers, was smooth and worked ok, though I thought it
needed to be pressed a little harder than I’m used to. It clicks down anywhere,
well almost, it was much harder to press down towards the top, and it’s got
dedicated left and right click buttons down the bottom. Fingerprints showed up
fairly easily on the black interior, but as a smooth surface they were easy to
clean.
DELL G3 3590 : Ports and Battery
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DELL G3 3590 : Ports and Battery |
On the left
from the back there’s the power input, USB Type-C port with Display Port
support on the 1650 and above models, no Thunderbolt though, HDMI 2.0 output,
USB 3.1 Type-A port, gigabit ethernet port, and 3.5mm audio combo jack. On the
right there’s a full size SD card slot, two USB 2.0 Type-A ports and Noble
wedge lock slot. On the back there are two air exhaust vents towards the
corners, with DELL G3
logo in the middle, while the front is just smooth plastic. The black hard
plastic lid has a textured finish with a blue Dell logo in the center. Underneath there are some air intake vents
towards the back with some blue rubber feet that match the rest of the black
and blue theme. Once inside from left to right, there’s the 2.5 inch drive bay,
M.2 slot for storage just above it, Wi Fi card right next to that, battery
underneath, and two memory slots towards the center. The speakers are towards
the front left and right corners, they sounded ok but a bit tinny, but got
surprisingly loud at max volume, though the Latency on results weren’t looking
great.
Powering the DELL G3 3590 is a 3 cell 51 Watt hour battery, and unlike the G5 and G7 I didn’t see
the option to upgrade. I’ve tested it with the screen brightness at 50%,
background apps disabled, and keyboard lighting off. While streaming YouTube
videos the battery only lasted for 3 hours and 25 minutes, not a great result,
and this was with Nvidia Optimus, so with the Intel integrated graphics in use.
While playing the Witcher 3 with medium settings and Nvidia’s battery boost set
to 30 FPS the battery lasted for 53 minutes in total, however after the first
49 minutes with 6% charge remaining the frame rate dipped to 12 FPS and wasn’t
really usable any longer. The 180 watt power brick that Dell includes with the DELL G3 3590 was plenty for these
specs, I didn’t see any battery drain during any of my testing. Let’s move onto
the thermal testing. Just for a recap of the cooling design, air comes in
through the bottom and is exhausted out of the back vents towards the left and
right corners.
DELL G3 3590 : Performances
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DELL G3 3590 : Performances |
There are a
couple of heat pipes shared between the processor and graphics, and I noticed
straight away that the fans look a bit smaller compared to most other machines
I’ve looked at. The DELL G3 3590
allows you to press the G key, or F7, to enable high performance mode. This
slightly raises the power limit of the CPU and also boosts fan speed to
maximum. I did have some issues with it though. If I didn’t have the Alien ware
Control Center software open when I press the key it would raise the fan speed
as if about to enter high performance mode, then drop back down, here’s what I
mean. With the Alien ware Control Center open the fan speed sticks when
entering this mode, and we can see the G up the top turn blue to indicate that
it’s enabled, so not sure if this behavior is a bug. You’d think this would
also be a button to enable this mode through software, but it’s not, clicking
it does nothing. Otherwise the Alien ware control center also appears to let
you set the fan speed manually, however I couldn’t actually find a way of
applying these changes in a way that worked, and this was with the latest
version of the control center and BIOS at the time of testing, so it may
improve over time. Otherwise the Dell power manager also lets you choose
between these modes, and for almost all of the testing I just left this set to
ultra performance unless explicitly stated otherwise. Thermal testing was
completed in an ambient room temperature of 21 degrees Celsius, so expect
different results in different environments. Let’s start off with the idle
results. This was the only test where I changed the settings in DELL G3 3590 power
manager. Quiet did run the laptop silently with the fans off, though as a
result it was warmer when compared to the default optimized profile. The rest
of the results are from combined CPU and GPU workloads, and are meant to
represent worst case scenarios as I ran them for extended periods of time.
DELL G3 3590 : Processor and Graphics
The gaming
results towards the upper half of the graph were tested by playing Watch Dogs
2, as I find it to use a good combination of processor and graphics. The stress
test results shown on the lower half of the graph are from running the Aida64
CPU stress test with only the stress CPU option checked, and the Heaven GPU
benchmark at max settings at the same time to fully load the system. Let’s
start with the stress test results at stock down the bottom of the graph. In
this test both the CPU and GPU were thermal throttling. By enabling performance
mode which sets the fan speed to maximum we’re able to slightly reduce the temperatures
however there was still intermittent
thermal throttling it just wasn’t constant.
Under volt the CPU saw no change to
temperatures, but we’ll see how this helped improve clock speed in the next
graph. The cooling pad helped out a lot with this machine, we can see here that
both the CPU and GPU lowered by 13 degrees Celsius. While gaming I wasn’t
seeing thermal throttling in this specific title. Temperatures go up in
performance mode on the CPU despite the increased fan speed, as we’ll see later
the power limit increases which results in more heat and performance, then the
under volt helps lower temperatures while again the cooling pad makes the
biggest difference, dropping temperatures by 10 to 11 degrees. These are the
average clock speeds for the same tests just shown. Basically there was power
limit throttling in pretty much every test. With the stress tests I mentioned
there was thermal throttling at stock, well there was power limit throttling
too.
DELL G3 3590 : Gaming
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DELL G3 3590 : Gaming |
In the gaming results the CPU clock speed in
particular at stock was quite low, we’ll see why in the next graph. Performance
mode improves the situation as this increased the power limit, and again the
CPU under volt helps further, though we’re still not quite able to hit the full
4GHz all core turbo boost speed of the i7-9750H in any of these tests. These
are the average TDP values reported by hardware info during these same tests.
With the stress tests the GPU power was noticeably lower due to the thermal
throttling taking place there, once this was removed with the other changes it
was hitting its 60 watt limit, as per the green bars. The CPU was hitting the
36 watts defined by PL1 with the stress tests running, though interestingly
while gaming at stock PL1 lowered to just 25 watts which is why we saw lower
clock speeds in this test earlier. Once we enter performance mode it was again
at 36 watts. While gaming in performance
mode it was about the same, and some of the keys were starting to feel
uncomfortable, not too hot to touch, just not great. As for the fan noise
produced by the laptop, I’ll let you have a listen to some of these tests. At
idle with the quiet profile set through the power manager software it was
completely silent, then the fans were just audible in the default optimized
mode. With the stress test running or while gaming the fans were pretty close,
and quieter compared to most other gaming laptops, so you do have the option of
running quieter at the expense of performance. With the fans at maximum speed
in high performance mode it’s about the same as most other gaming laptops I’ve
tested under this same workload.
Overall the DELL G3 3590 gaming laptop ran hot, at
least in the worst case stress tests I performed. It is worth remembering that
I’ve got the highest speed model, I’d expect it to run cooler with lower
options. Under these workloads thermal throttling was seen on both the CPU and
GPU, however as shown we could improve that by enabling performance mode and
under volt. While gaming, at least in the single title I tested with in depth
here, the temperatures weren’t actually that bad, no thermal throttling at
least, though that seems to be due to power limit throttling that was happening
instead. I’m guessing these limitations are in place to prevent it from getting
even hotter. Next let’s take a look at some gaming benchmarks. I’ve tested
these games with high performance mode enabled, which as a reminder boosts the
CPU power limit and increases fan speed. Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign
mode, and even at ultra settings it was still playing well at above the 60 FPS
sweet spot, while the 1% low wasn’t too far behind, so not really any major
noticeable dips in performance, though we could pass 100 FPS at low settings.
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DELL G3 3590 : Gaming |
Apex Legends was tested with either all settings at maximum, or all settings on
the lowest possible values, as it doesn’t have predefined setting presets. It
was playing alright at max settings,even the 1% low was right on 60 FPS,
though we could boost average FPS by 42% by dropping down to minimum settings.
The Division 2 was tested with the built in benchmark. The 1% low at ultra
wasn’t actually all that different compared to other higher speed laptops I’ve
tested so far, otherwise the average frame rates were looking pretty fair at
all other setting levels in this test. Shadow of the Tomb Raider was also
tested with the built in benchmark, and even at maximum settings we’re still
able to average above 60 FPS, but we’ll see how the DELL G3
3590 and other laptops compare in this game a bit later. Far Cry New Dawn
was tested with the built in benchmark, and as more of a CPU demanding test the
differences aren’t much below other laptops with higher graphics that I’ve tested
as it mostly comes down to the 9750H. Fortnight was tested with the replay
feature, and at max settings it was still running very well, with over 100 FPS
possible with the 1% low not being too far behind, so fairly stable
performance, though we could significantly improve this at lower setting
levels. Over watch is another well optimized game and was tested in the
practice range, again good performance, with the highest possible epic settings
still hitting above 100 FPS even for the 1% low, so running nice and smooth.
CS:GO was tested using the Ulletical FPS benchmark, and as is pretty much
always the case high FPS from this test, and in line with most other laptops
I’ve tested, given it depends more on the CPU and most machines I’ve tested have
the same CPU that’s expected. Even with maximum ultra settings we’re getting
above 100 FPS averages with a 100% render scale while the 1% low isn’t too far
behind, so definitely more than acceptable performance for this test.
Assassin’s
Creed Odyssey was tested with the built in benchmark and seems to be a CPU
heavy test, so as a result the frame rates aren’t too far behind most other
machines I’ve covered recently, and given the game doesn’t really need a high
frame rate to play anyway I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. Dota 2 was
tested playing in the middle lane with an average amount of action going on,
and the results were quite good here, with above 200 FPS at low settings and
still around 150 at ultra without any issues that I was able to notice, again
this one seems to reply more on the CPU so the Max-Q graphics don’t really
matter. Watch Dogs 2 uses a lot of resources, however I can play it just fine
with a stable 30 FPS, and as we’re getting above this for the 1% low at ultra
settings even at maximum it was playing fine, though I’d probably just use very
high settings given the 1% low there is higher than the average at ultra and
you’re not losing much perceivable visual quality.
The Witcher 3 was playable at ultra settings,
still above 60 FPS here with fair 1% low performance, though as a more GPU
demanding game that doesn’t really benefit too much from high FPS I’d probably
just stick to high settings. If you’re after more gaming benchmarks check the
card in the top right corner where I’ve tested 20 games on the DELL G3 3590. Let’s also take a look at how
this configuration of the DELL G3 3590
compares with other laptops to see how it stacks up, use these results as a
rough guide only as they were tested at different times with different drivers.
In Battlefield 5 I’ve got the DELL G3
3590 highlighted in red near similarly speed machines. It’s one of the
lowest results, as expected, the 1660 Ti Max-Q is the lowest powered graphics
I’ve tested in a long time. With that said though, even at max settings it’s
still delivering above 60 FPS with a solid 1% low result too, it’s playing just
fine.
DELL G3 3590 : Specification
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DELL G3 3590 : Specification |
The extra CPU
power from the 9750H is able to put it close to the ASUS FX505DU underneath
with Ryzen CPU in terms of average FPS, but is significantly higher in the 1%
result as that CPU is a fair bit better. These are the results from Far Cry 5
with ultra settings in the built in benchmark. This is more of a CPU heavy
game, so we see a good improvement over the FX505DU just below it, however the
results are otherwise behind the other non Max-Q 1660 Ti machines that I’ve
tested so far. Again this is fair as this is the Max-Q variant and it’s running
with a 20 watt lower power limit too which is worth keeping in mind. These are
the results from Shadow of the Tomb raider with the built in benchmark at
highest settings. Once again the DELL G3 3590 is ahead of the FX505DU
below it despite the FX505 not having the Max-Q 1660 Ti, and this is due to the
lower powered Ryzen CPU that it’s paired with. The other 1660 Ti machines are
again ahead as expected, though interestingly the DELL G3 3590 was hitting the same results as
the thermally throttled 2018 Alien ware m15 with 1070 Max-Q. Overall I think
this configuration of the DELL G3 3590 is providing a decent result. While the
performance does look lower compared to the rest of the machines I’ve recently
tested, it’s not too far below most other 1660 Ti laptops, and when it comes
down to it even at max settings in many games we’re still getting good performance.
The DELL G3
3590 is also available with the i5-9300H CPU, GTX 1050 or 1650 graphics, so
expect lower results with those models compared to what I’ve shown here. Now
for the benchmarking tools, I’ve tested Heaven, Valley, and Superposition from
Unigine, as well as Firestrike, Timespy, Port Royal and VR Mark from 3DMark,
just pause the video if you want a detailed look at these results. I’ve used
Crystal Disk Mark to test the storage and the 512gb M.2 NVMe SSD was getting
decent read and write speeds, expect different results with different storage
options, while the SD card slot was quite slow considering that I was testing
with a V90 card, but still better to have one than not at all. For updated
pricing check the links in the description, as prices will change over time. At
the time of recording in the US the DELL G3 3590 starts at $800 USD for the
lowest specs. The configuration I’ve got here currently goes for $1350 USD, and
interestingly, it’s the same price for the same specs but with the 144Hz screen.
This seems a little high to me considering that it’s got Max-Q graphics, when
you can get either the Acer Helios 300 or Lenovo Y540 with non Max-Q 1660 Ti
for less money, however Dell do regularly run sales so that could change. It’s
a similar story here in Australia, with these specs it’s currently going for
$2200 AUD, the same price as the Helios 300 with better speed graphics but also
it’s already over clocked and under volt out of the box for increased
performance, so unless the DELL G3 3590
goes on sale for less, it's difficult to recommend over the competition,
especially when the Lenovo Y540 is around $500 AUD less here. Let me know if
you’d be interested in seeing the DELL
G3 3590 compared with other models in future videos, I could compare it with
the Acer Nitro 5, Helios 300 or Lenovo Y540 for instance. With all of that in
mind let’s summaries the good and the bad aspects of the DELL G3 3590 gaming laptop. First off I want to acknowledge that
Dell are now listing dual channel memory configurations for all of the DELL G3
3590 options I can currently see on their site which is great from the
perspective of getting better performance out of the box.
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DELL G3 3590 : Specification |
I personally like the overall look of the
machine, maybe I just prefer the blue accents over the overdone gamer red. The
build quality was fine considering it’s mostly a plastic machine, though there
was some flex to the screen and chassis. The gaming performance from these
specs is still quite good despite it having the Max-Q variant of the 1660 Ti. While
we saw that most other higher speed machines I’ve tested were beating it as
expected, it was still performing just fine in most of the games tested even at
higher setting levels, so it’s definitely capable of running games well.
Unfortunately it does run at higher temperatures than I’d like, even thermal
throttling at stock while under stress test, though granted that is a worst
case scenario, I didn’t have these problems while testing select games and as
we’ve seen we could improve this by under volt or using a cooling pad which
made the largest change. Enabling performance mode helped a little as it boosts
the fan speed to maximum, which is a good feature to have available and is
something others like the Lenovo Y540 are missing. This wasn’t without its
problems though, while pressing the G key with the Alien ware Control Center
software closed it didn’t work properly until I first opened the control
center, that may just be how it works but it seems like more of a bug to me
given it sort of starts up then stops, but either way you can still get it to
work. As usual the Alien ware control center itself was a sub optimal
experience, in the latest version I had installed I couldn’t actually apply my
custom fan changes.
DELL G3 3590 : My Opinion
The keyboard
and touchpad were ok, I’d say average, though I really am not a fan of the
small arrow keys that Dell use on their G series machines. Battery life was
lower than I’d like, so you’ll probably want to keep the power brick close by.
The screen quality was noticeably lower in terms of colour gamut and
brightness, it just seemed dim. For just gaming it’ll likely be just fine, most
entry level gaming laptops at the $1000 USD point and below have similar panels,
though I have a higher speed configuration here. Strangely you can get the 60Hz
or 144Hz panel with the i7 and 1660 Ti Max-Q for the same price at the moment,
I suspect the 144Hz panel will be higher quality so makes sense to get that in
this case. Otherwise it’s that price that puts the DELL G3
3590 in a difficult to recommend spot, at least at the time of recording,
as it costs more than other better performing options that are currently
available, however as Dell often run sales this could change from time to time.
If you’re just after an entry level model for the $800 price point though it
should do ok at playing most modern games at 1080p with low to medium settings,
the GTX 1050 isn’t amazing but it’ll get the job done, just check other
benchmarks with it to get a rough idea of what to expect first. I think this is
where the DELL G3 3590 is probably going to make more sense, at the lower
price brackets, rather than with the fully specced out model I’ve tested here.
Let me know what you thought about Dell’s refreshed DELL G3
3590 gaming laptop down in the comments, and if you’re new to the channel
consider getting subscribed for future laptop reviews and tech videos like this
one.
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