Dell Updates Alienware and XPS Desktops to 11th Generation Intel Processors

Dell wastes no time in upgrading its flagship desktops to the latest hardware from Intel. The Alienware Aurora R12 and the XPS desktop will both receive the company’s 11th generation processors. You will be able to order both systems on the company’s website on March 18. As we have seen, the new Intel chips, dubbed “Rocket Lake S”, will offer up to 19% increase in performance compared to the latest generation processors. The only downside is that the Core i9-11900K, the more high-end model, offers eight processor cores instead of the 10900K’s ten.

Since single-core performance and high clock speeds are more important to gamers, than multi-core performance, most consumers are unlikely to miss the extra two cores. Intel claims the 11900K is about 14% faster in Microsoft Flight Simulator than its predecessor while playing 1080p at high settings. From a design standpoint, nothing changes with the XPS desktop and the Aurora R12. The former still looks sleek and square, with plenty of design hints from the latest XPS laptops, while the latter maintains the style close to a sci-fi movie.

Strangely, Dell does not yet offer NVIDIA’s RTX 3080 or 3090 with either machine. It could simply be due to stock issues with this GPU. And while the company does offer a Ryzen version of the Aurora, it would be nice to see a similar alternate processor option on the XPS desktop.