Processors
Intel® Processors, Tools, and Utilities
14400 Discussions

How to know what processor features are supported on OEM devices?

humaninside
Beginner
812 Views

Hi there!

So I've been a long time user of Intel products and I've recently had a not so great experience with an OEM device (Dell XPS 15 9500). The issue at hand is that idle states (s3), advertised on the processor spec page, aren't actually supported on this device.

 

I thought there was some kind of certification process from Intel to guarantee that features and performance advertised by Intel is consistent across different OEMs. Is this not/no longer the case?

In the future, if I choose to go with an Intel based device, is there a way to know what features listed on the spec page are going to be present/absent on a device?

 

For reference, here are some discussions on the missing S3 feature. Clearly a lot of users are surprised by the missing processor features:
 - Dell forum

 - Dell forum

 - Dell forum

 - Dell forum

 - Many more discussions


Thanks 

0 Kudos
4 Replies
n_scott_pearson
Super User
788 Views

S3 support is being dropped by most system manufacturers because of Microsoft's arm twisting regarding the use of Modern Standby.

...S

humaninside
Beginner
779 Views
I'm bummed that this is somehow becoming the norm - these new sleep states are useless.

Anywho - from the Intel side of things, there's no guarantee that features of a given processor are "complied to" by the OEM?
0 Kudos
n_scott_pearson
Super User
770 Views

I am not sure how to answer. While I too prefer to use S3, I am told that I should stop being an old curmudgeon and embrace Modern Standby as the future.

...S

0 Kudos
MRoss5200
Valued Contributor I
765 Views

OEMs are not required to use Intel's spec sheet as a requirement. OEMs can add or remove features at will unless they are to follow a system platform spec like EVO or vPro etc...

Even though Intel may say the processor supports a feature, Dell can choose to NOT include support for that if they want. Dell does this quite a lot with their systems. HP does too. I have an HP Omen system that has no overclocking support (not even XMP support for memory) at all in the BIOS even though the CPU supports it. It just depends on how much work the OEM wants to put into a product segment.

 

Just like Legacy Boot support. Current systems can support it if the OEM wants to put in the work, but most do not as it adds a lot of testing of old hardware and software that most people may not even use.

0 Kudos
Reply