My lesser laptop performs better?

[2Mourty]

I have two laptops, my main one is a dell xps 15 l501x. Specs are:
i7 740qm turboboost to 2.9 ghz
8gb ram
nvidia435m

My work laptop is a dell Precision m4400. Specs are:
core 2 duo 9550 2.6ghz
4gb ram
quadro fx 770m

My lesser laptop runs dolphin better (I am using 3.5 x64) Why is this the case? I have tried several games (windwaker, Batien Katos, xenoblade, twilight princess, resident evil 4) and my work laptop with lesser specs runs the games more smoothly and at a better frame rate. Why is this? And is there anything I can do to get my main laptop performing better? According to the specs it should be running better on my xps 15.

I use the same settings on both laptops, I can post them if you think it is relevant to an answer.

Thank you for your time.