Dell XPS 8960 2023, Core i7-13700, 32GB, 512GB SSD + 1TB HDD, RTX 3050, Black

The Dell XPS 8960 pairs a fantastic 16-core i7-13700 and 32GB of DDR5 with a mediocre RTX 3050. It's a strong productivity machine but a weak gaming rig. At $2,129, it's overpriced unless you specifically need Dell's build quality and CPU power.

The i7-13700 is the star here. 16 cores with Turbo Boost up to 5.20 GHz puts it in the top quarter of CPUs in our database, and it'll chew through video editing, code compilation, and heavy multitasking without breaking a sweat. The 32GB of DDR5 at 4800 MHz helps too, landing in the 77th percentile for RAM. Storage is a mixed bag: the 512GB NVMe SSD is fast for boot and key apps, but the 1TB HDD feels like a leftover from 2015. The RTX 3050 with 8GB VRAM is the weak link. It's fine for light creative work and older games, but it sits at the 65th percentile for GPUs, which is mediocre for a tower in this class. If you're doing GPU-heavy rendering or want modern games at high settings, this card will hold you back.

Stacked against the HP OMEN GT22-3080 and Lenovo Legion Tower 7i Gen 10, the XPS 8960 loses the gaming battle badly. Both of those competitors ship with stronger GPUs at similar or lower prices. The Apple Mac Studio M5 Max crushes it in compactness and GPU performance, though you're locked into macOS. The ASUS ROG GM700 is another gaming-focused option that makes the RTX 3050 look silly. Where the XPS 8960 wins is CPU-heavy productivity and port variety, but that's a narrow lane.

At $2,129 USD, this is a tough sell. You're paying XPS build quality and a strong CPU, but the GPU is a budget card that doesn't belong in a two-grand tower. For that money, you could build or buy something with an RTX 4070 or better and still have cash left over. The value proposition only works if you specifically need Dell's reliability and the i7-13700 for CPU-bound work, and you don't care about graphics performance. For most people, it's overpriced.

The Dell XPS 8960 is a weird mix of serious workstation muscle and entry-level gaming graphics. You get a 16-core i7-13700 and 32GB of DDR5, which is a genuinely strong productivity setup. But then Dell pairs it with an RTX 3050, a card that was mid-range two years ago and feels out of place in a machine at this price point.

It's clearly aimed at people who need CPU grunt for work, not gamers chasing frames. The port selection is excellent, storage is a solid SSD plus HDD combo, and the build quality is what you'd expect from Dell's XPS line. Just don't buy this thinking you're getting a gaming rig.

Skip this if you're a gamer or 3D artist. The RTX 3050 will frustrate you within a year, and you can get far better graphics performance for the same money elsewhere. Also skip it if you need a compact machine, this tower is bulky and scored in the 39th percentile for size. And if you're on a budget, there are cheaper ways to get an i7-13700 without paying the XPS premium.

Buy this if you need a reliable Windows workstation for CPU-intensive tasks like software development, data analysis, or video editing where the GPU isn't the bottleneck. The i7-13700 and 32GB of DDR5 are genuinely excellent. But if you want to game or do 3D rendering, look elsewhere. The RTX 3050 is a bottleneck that's hard to ignore at this price.