Shocked by the low performance of a Q9550...

OK, I thought I made it clear in the first post, but clearly I didn't. I'm gonna edit it so it's dead clear. Answering your questions:

Hi, Jimbo, yes, I've tried that as well, and it's even worse I believe. It's in the first post, but yeah, I've disabled HW acceleration in both Chrome and Firefox, and same result. Also, with HW disabled, my ISP service that lets me watch live TV through internet works even worse, because I see a black screen, not image at all.

Hi Roy, yeah, it could be, but it isn't. First, the integrated GPU for the i5-3210M is the Intel HD 4000. This integrated GPU is worse than the GT610M, and I've set the 610M to decode the videos, I can clearly see that in the task manager, that the GT610M is being used when playing videos.

In any case, the GT730 is way, way better than the 610M or HD4000, so whatever happens in the laptop via GPU, is worse than the desktop. That's why I concluded that there must be something about the CPU.

One other unknown to consider. Dell in many systems uses a custom implementation of Intel chipsets. In those systems (and its not published) with a custom implementation the full capabilities may not be available. OEM Dell video cards are another as they tend to use low power (and lower capabilities) versions not the full retail version.

An example is the old Dimension E510/5100. The chipset (I don't remember the model) according to Intel would work with up to a D965 CPU but the Dell custom implementation limited it to a D945. If a D965 CPU was installed it would not boot.

fireberd said:

One other unknown to consider. Dell in many systems uses a custom implementation of Intel chipsets. In those systems (and its not published) with a custom implementation the full capabilities may not be available. OEM Dell video cards are another as they tend to use low power (and lower capabilities) versions not the full retail version.

An example is the old Dimension E510/5100. The chipset (I don't remember the model) according to Intel would work with up to a D965 CPU but the Dell custom implementation limited it to a D945. If a D965 CPU was installed it would not boot.

Thanks, good point, but mine boots fine, besides the benchmarks apparently show what they are supposed to show, the components perform as they should, and Dell said in a thread that the Q9550 was supported. That's why I decided to benchmark the components, to check if they were performing well, and, afaik, they do, unless someone points out something weird. The 2D mark seems low to me. Yes, my GT 730 is low profile, passive cooled 20W GPU, it works fine in the 25W PCI-E, I thought about that. Anyway, look at how the GT 730 scores against 610M, it destroys it, so no limits applied by the chipset at all.

- - - Updated - - -

OK, something is definitely wrong, now 100%.

I've taken a very weak cheap laptop, 45W charger (that tells you a lot), AMD whatever. In the level of a Celeron. Here's the Q9550 compared to the very weak laptop CPU:
Acer Aspire ES1-523 vs Dell Inc. OptiPlex 755
- Geekbench Browser

As you can see, the laptop has a way worse CPU, and still, it can handle, not 1080p60fps, but 1080p and also 1440p in YouTube. My Dell can't playback even regular 1080p, the sound starts popping and the video freezes a lot.

If there was something wrong with the CPU or GPU, it should have showed in the benchmarks. Yet, the benchmarks seem OK, at least in CPU and GPU. That means there's nothing limits these components, yet still a crappy AMD overcome my system in YouTube. Why? Is it the MoBo?
I'm running out of ideas, nothing of this makes any sense...

What about the network connection?

NavyLCDR said:

What about the network connection?

Works fine, more than 300Mb. In Edge, I repeat, about 50% use both GPU and GPU while playing back buttery smooth a 1080p60fps video in YouTube. It must be something not compatible between the CPU and Chrome or Firefox or the MoBo... I don't know, I'm quite savvy about PC's, but this is really hard to diagnose. Still don't have the slightest what's going on. I've asked a friend of mine to check it with its Q9300 and GT 210, a system that is way worse than mine. But if it works, then it must be my MoBo.

Good day.

What about drivers, specially chipset ones? Where did you get them?

Considering the Dell is XP/Vista era equipment, IMHO I think before I'd start swapping components I'd install a copy of Win 7 and see if it'd play the Vids after updating the drivers. Don't see If you posted what build number of Win 10 you're running ?

I didn't install any drivers at all, I let Windows update install everything. Everything, except the GT 730 drivers, which are the only ones I downloaded manually.

I'm using the latest version of everything, nVidia drivers and Windows 10 as well, 1903, latest build.

I have an Intel Q9550 desktop, with an Nvidia GTX570 GPU and I don't have any problems running YouTube videos at 1920x1080, or problems with Netflix under Windows 10.

pparks1 said:

I have an Intel Q9550 desktop, with an Nvidia GTX570 GPU and I don't have any problems running YouTube videos at 1920x1080, or problems with Netflix under Windows 10.

Perfect! I suppose you are using Chrome, right?

Can you do these tests?

1. Install PassMark and run all test:
PassMark PerformanceTest - PC benchmark software
It's a 30 day trial, but it doesn't matter, simply execute it, make sure your PC is completely task free (loaded, no others programs in background using resources, etc...). I'm mostly interested in your 2D cores and your CPU scores.

2. Install GeekBench and run the CPU test:
Geekbench 5 - Cross-Platform Benchmark

I'd love it if you post your 3 results (Actually, geekbench gives you an URL, share that URL).

Thank you!

You can compare your scores with mines, in the first post.