The mentioned combination of a 6700HQ and NVMe-SSD should also be sufficient for demanding calculations and massive data transfers. Users should be able to expect that for 2,000 Euros (~$2195) though, especially since you can already get the 6700HQ + GTX 960M for around 1,300 Euros (~$1426) in other good notebooks like the Acer Aspire V Nitro Black Edition VN7-792G-74Q4, for example.

The XPS 15 with the i5-6300HQ obviously comes to mind, which only executed the Cinebench R15 loop at 2.8 GHz (Single and Multi), which shows a bad utilization of the single-core Turbo (-15%). The i5 also throttled to 1.6 GHz on battery power, which was unfortunately not lifted when the PSU was attached (only after standby or restart). Dell is already working on a fix according to the manufacturer.

So how does the i7-6700HQ perform, which should be able to hit 3.5 GHz with the Turbo (single-core)? We can see a very agile processor, which not only beats the Haswell 4870HQ of the Apple MacBook Pro Retina 15 but also the identical 6700HQ in the Aspire V Nitro Black Edition VN7-792G-74Q4 (-5%). This is the case in all Cinebench Single-Tests. Our XPS is on par with the Nitro Black Edition in the Multi-Test; our tools show 3.1 GHz.

The i7 runs at the nominal clock of 2.6 GHz on battery power. Unfortunate, but still better than the i5 version with its throttled 1.6 GHz. The transition to mains (attach the connector) is, however, a bit bumpy. We have no other way to describe the following 1.6/1.7 GHz in this case. This is not related to temperature limits, because the throttled clock is quickly increased to 3.1 GHz after the stress test. More information about the stress test is available in the section "Emissions."

The clocks on battery power only change after the BIOS update to 1.1.14. The R15 Multi now runs at 3.1 until the battery is empty! This is the case after around one hour. Officially, the BIOS update only covers the NVMe sleep mode (should improve battery runtimes), but we only noticed an unlimited Turbo Boost. The return to the PSU is now as it should be as well: 800 MHz for one second, after that 3.1 GHz. The clock drops to 800 MHz after you pull the plug, just to climb back to 3.1 GHz step by step within 20 seconds.