XPS 8950, performance sluggish, firmware related?

Have you tried resetting BIOS?

1. Reboot and start tapping F2 when you see the Dell splash screen to open BIOS setup
2. Copy down all current BIOS settings, to be safe
3. Power off, unplug cord from rear of PC
4. Press/hold power button for ~15 sec
5. Open case and remove motherboard battery (check Service Manual for details)
6. Press/hold power button for ~30 sec
7. Reinstall the battery
8. Reboot

Performance from what respect ?

A. From bios startup time ?

B. From Parkdale speed test ?

Can you enlighten more ? 

Until Windows update lists BIOS 1.10 for update, device manager will say 1.9. If you disable UEFI capsule updates in the BIOS, that device manager entry will disappear. As far as the other entries in device manager, I also have the 3 other entries.

I have 1.8 so far, I have not hit the road for 1.9 or 1.10 yet. I generally give at least 2 levels up before I proceed the next one, that being said, let's say I go for 1.9, I will need minimum 1.11 from Dell...that is my rule. These are very costly system, I don't wanna play

General Specs: 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-12900,  32 GB of Ram, RTX 3080, 1TB PC801 NVMe

The performance impact is uniform across all aspects of the system.  Boot up, login and  app startup are sluggish. Compiling code, browser rendering, launching emulators etc.   I ran two benchmarks.  I'm surprised CPU is actually listed as being a potential issue.

Parksdale Test:

NVMe - PC801 NVMe SK hynix 1TB - 51002141 933.4 GB OS (C:): 1756.3 MByte/sec read, 1640.3 MByte/sec write

UserBenchMark GeForce RTX 3080 (1280x720) @ 60

UserBenchmarks: Game 21%, Desk 35%, Work 20%

CPU: Intel Core i9-12900 - 18.2%

GPU: Nvidia RTX 3080 - 92.3%

SSD: Nvme PC801 SK hynix 1TB - 138.7%

HDD: Synology iSCSI Storage 4TB - 34.9%

RAM: Unknown HMCG78MEBUA081N 2x16GB - 46.4%

MBD: Dell XPS 8950

PC Status:

Overall this PC is performing way below expectations (1st percentile). This means that out of 100 PCs with exactly the same components, 99 performed better. The overall PC percentile is the average of each of its individual components. Use the charts in the benchmark sections of this report to identify problem areas.

Processor:

With an extremely low single core score, this CPU can barely handle email and light web browsing. Finally, with a gaming score of 18.2%, this CPU's suitability for 3D gaming is terrible.

Graphics:

92.3% is a very good 3D score, it's the business. This GPU can handle recent 3D games at high resolutions and ultra detail levels

Boot Drive:

139% is an exceptional SSD score. This drive is suitable for heavy workstation use, it will facilitate fast boots, responsive applications and allow for fast transfers of multi-gigabyte files.

Memory:

32GB is enough RAM to run any version of Windows and it's far more than any current game requires. 32GB will also allow for large file and system caches, virtual machine hosting, software development, video editing and batch multimedia processing.

OS Version: Windows 11 is the most recent version of Windows.

I just noticed Task Manager is reporting the processor speed as .38Ghz

I ran Throttlestop 9.5. If I'm understanding this correctly, DB PROCHOT is switched on for  CORE and RING on the CPU.  The core temperatures have not exceeded 27C.  I can't disable DB PROCHOT from the tool.  

I don't have any confirmation that is the cause of the issue, but the issue appeared after I installed it.  I haven't heard anything from Dell and am trying to reopen a support case related to this issue. I'd recommend holding off if possible.

@azoko  do you recommend to not install 1.9 bios ? 

@azoko  Read this for some suggestions to fix slow CPU speed in Win 11/10...

After going through the article, Task Manager is reporting a clock speed of 2.42 ghz. Performance hasn';t  improved.  UserBenchMark test still reports overall CPU perfromance as poor:

"With an extremely low single core score, this CPU can barely handle email and light web browsing. Finally, with a gaming score of 17.9%, this CPU's suitability for 3D gaming is terrible."

Throttlestop is still reporting BD ProcHot limits etc.

@azoko  Did you try clearing whatever version of BIOS is currently installed, as I said above?

Reboot and tap F12 when you see the Dell splash screen. On the F12 menu, select diagnostics and run all of them, including full CPU, SSD, HDD, and RAM tests. Copy error messages, if any...

Open Task Manager and look on Processes tab to see what processes are hogging CPU time.  Look on Performance tab for anything that doesn't look right, eg % CPU time being used, etc.

Look on Task Manager Startup tab to see what and how much junk is loading in the background. And what Boot Time is shown on that Startup tab?

Have you tested performance after disconnecting all peripherals except mouse, monitor, keyboard?

Have you scanned thoroughly for malware lately? Malwarebytes (free) is useful for this.

My 8950 ran fine on BIOS 1.9 and now on 1.10