Aaron44126

I was paying attention as well... Hardware accelerated ray tracing is cool, but it remains to be seen how it will perform compared to competitors. (That Myst demo that they showed looked like it was running at 10 FPS.) Mesh shaders are sort of niche right now but will probably be more and more common in high-end games soon, so good to have that out there. AV1 hardware video decode? About time. I'm a little bit bummed since I purchased my system just a few months ago and there is already an upgrade out! I sort of figured it would be another 3-6 months, and they'd do base M3 first with Pro/Max following some time later. I wonder if they're going to try to settle into a yearly cycle for "M" series chips and MacBook Pros... They already have that going for "A" series chips (iPhone CPUs); M3 is clearly related to A17, sharing all of the same new GPU features. But, meh, new features aside, the CPU performance and GPU performance improvements don't seem to be that substantial compared to M2. It is an iterative improvement. (They kept making verbal comparison to M1 rather than M2 during the presentation, though they would show M2 numbers on the screen.) They did bump it to 128GB RAM at the top, but I don't really need that much RAM. I do really like the "space black" color, though. I'm generally disappointed that there is no SSD option higher than 8TB (which has been the max in a MacBook Pro since 2019). 16 TB might be asking too much still, but they could probably cram in 10 or 12 TB. Also disappointing that the RAM and storage "upgrade" prices did not drop at all compared to M2 systems. Those SSDs don't need to cost that much. I played with the order configurator and there are some odd things in there with regards to RAM. 18GB and 36GB RAM options instead of 16GB and 32GB for M3 Pro (192-bit memory bus?). If you get the low-end M3 Max, you can pick between 36GB and 96GB but nothing in between? Too little, or too much? And the 96GB option goes away if you pick the high-end M3 Max, you have to pick between 64GB and 128GB. I also wonder if Apple will support for ray tracing in DX12 games to D3DMetal in the near future. No word on that yet.

Well, that went well. https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/30/23939639/sam-bankman-fried-cross-exam-fraud [Edit] More from today... https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/31/23940814/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-alameda-customer-funds-fraud-trial

Any quad-core CPU will support four memory sticks. The best would probably be Core i7-4940MX?

Haven't tried it personally but, being on Mac now I've been paying attention to the macgaming Reddit, and it's a pretty common option offered up for playing games on Mac. People seem to agree that it is the best choice for cloud gaming, offering better video quality and lower latency than Xbox Cloud Gaming, Boosteroid, or others.

SBF testified yesterday, but the jury was dismissed and it was just to the judge. It was a hearing to decide what testimony would be admissible to present to the jury today. ...Nonetheless, it didn't seem to go well for him. He spent a lot of time dodging questions with word salad and had to be asked multiple times. I think he's used to be able to talk his way through interviews and whatever with nonsense, but of course here neither Sassoon nor Kaplan would let him do that. https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/26/23934195/sam-bankman-fried-self-testimony-deleted-signal

No. There is currently no way to manually manipulate the fans in 12th gen and later systems.

SBF is going to testify tomorrow! https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/25/23931697/sam-bankman-fried-testifying-ftx-fraud-trial (It has not been clear whether he would or not; it opens him up to cross-examination from the prosecution ...)

These are fun articles on the trial proceedings. Seems like damning evidence plus inept defense for most of it. (The defense hasn't really started their side of the case yet, though.) https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/4/23903986/sam-bankman-fried-opening-statements-trial-fraud https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/5/23905665/sam-bankman-fried-fraud-trial-wang-yedidia-testimony https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/6/23906899/ftx-alameda-sam-bankman-fried-trial-gary-wang-testimony https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/10/23912036/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-caroline-ellison-alameda-research https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/11/23913665/ftx-sam-bankman-fried-fraud-trial-caroline-ellison-testimony-alameda-balance-sheets https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/12/23915108/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-alameda-caroline-ellison-lawyers https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/16/23920125/sam-bankman-fried-nishad-singh-testimony-ftx-trial https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/17/23921745/sam-bankman-fried-nishad-singh-house-loan

The Windows VM performs fine but I'm not doing anything especially intensive. I use Quicken and some office-type apps. I wouldn't expect any graphically intensive to perform great in a VM. It is Windows-on-ARM, which has an x86/x64 emulator built-in that works well, but it doesn't support emulating any device drivers or low-level system apps. So, for example, I have an old Canon printer/scanner that I can't use in Windows on ARM because Canon hasn't provided an ARM driver; and, apps like Macrium Reflect or AnyDVD HD install kernel modules which won't work on Windows-on-ARM until/unless they produce an ARM version of those modules. (You'd have the same limitations on an ARM-based Windows systems like Surface Pro X.) My more intensive tasks, I have been able to run natively in macOS. (Photo work, video encoding, and gaming.) Not saying everyone should go and switch to Mac. There are notable pros and cons for sure. You'd have to examine your workload and see if it is even workable at all to start out with.

I have sworn off Windows as a personal OS since April. (Still use it for work; don't really have a choice.) I was on Linux for two months before getting the MacBook Pro. I am still using a Windows VM to run a few applications, though. The MacBook Pro has downsides for sure (lack of upgradeability, no numeric keypad, and generally having to get used to a new OS with new ways of doing things, different keyboard shortcuts, etc). I bit the bullet and just got a max-spec system and I think I'll be good for six years or so. I'll say that "as a laptop" it is a league above anything that I have seen from a Windows-based laptop. The mini-LED display is brilliant; the system can offer high performance when needed but is silent doesn't operate as a space heater when doing office-type work; and, it can operate on battery power three or four times longer than my Precision could, and without any throttling. I don't see myself going back. I do use Lightroom Classic and I have found the performance on macOS to be much more consistent than I'm used to on Windows, where the app always seemed to be struggling for no apparent reason. Adobe Acrobat, on the other hand, seems to behave notably better on Windows than on macOS to me.

My understanding is that they are the same battery, physically. The "long life cycle" battery disables some fast-charge functions and in exchange it gets a longer warranty. ...Though I would think they'd be different parts because something in the battery would have to tell the system whether it should be using fast-charge functions or not.

I’ll still be hanging out here. And I’m still using Precision for my work system. But, my workplace is looking at Lenovo systems. I am due for a refresh next year and I’m not sure what will happen yet. I recommend that you use the latest version available from Dell unless you have a specific need for something newer from NVIDIA. You can check the latest one for your system at dell.com/support. Note that NVIDIA maintains multiple driver branches for business GPUs. A driver may appear to be “old” by version number but still be current on security updates.

Yes, it will run, but obviously you can’t move it around…

Battery error. Fully disconnect the battery until the replacement arrives.

That, I believe, is the dGPU power cable. He'd only have to unplug that because it is "in the way". The two small ones would have been the fan power/sensor cables.

I think re-seating the battery cable is the correct first choice. Replacing the heatsink assembly and bottom cover should not have messed anything else up... the problem likely came from messing with the battery cable. The battery cable can indeed be detached from both ends but I have never messed with anything other than the motherboard end. I would start with that end first and leave the other one alone unless the problem is still occurring after a re-seat. Holding the power button down for a long time will reset the BIOS settings to default. (It also might not work at all if you have a BIOS password set.) I don't see why this would be necessary if things were working fine before the parts replacements.

If there is not a heat pipe in the way, you could probably just drill a hole where you need to put a screw ...? I don't know the details of this situation. I was under the impression that high-end NVIDIA GPU heatsinks were cross-compatible between the 7730 and 7740. If the two screws that line up happen to be opposite from each other, it might be fine; you just need "good enough" contact with the GPU die, these GPUs are so power-limited that it is pretty hard to overheat them. You can try calling Dell spare parts dept. in your region and see if they will sell you a heatsink. They sometimes have parts like this for very reasonable prices. When I got a M6700 heatsink "upgrade" (two-pipe version for the CPU vs. the one-pipe version that mine came with) the price I got from them was something low like $12. Granted, that was like ten years ago... I believe the phone number in the U.S. is 800-372-3355. Otherwise, you are looking at aftermarket sites like eBay, PartsPeople, TaoBao, ...

So I have been able to get nvlddmkm.sys to calm down before by going to NVIDIA control panel and setting the power management mode from "automatic" to "prefer maximum performance", not globally, but for a specific application that I was using. This would be under "Manage 3D Settings", then the "Program settings" tab. This would potentially slightly increase power draw (+ heat, noise), but I think the NVIDIA GPU constantly changing power states is part of what causes DPC latency from its driver. Wondering if you still have the same issue with an external monitor connected, because at least based on the screenshots that you shared above, that seems to cause wdf01000.sys to calm down a lot.

Yeah, I am/was a Dell Precision guy and I fought with this on and off for years, thinking I had it sorted only to have it crop up again after a driver or Windows update. Sad to see it seems to impact many high-end laptops. Also, I started typing "wdf0" into DuckDuckGo search and the first suggestion that popped back was "wdf01000.sys latency", so must not be a standalone issue! I ran across this thread, and on the second page someone suggests making sure that certain audio processes do not run on cores 0 or 1, maybe that will help. I myself have sworn off using Windows for my personal system about six months ago and I have never run into anything like this on Linux or macOS. (My work system is still Windows, but I do back-end dev work, audio doesn't really matter.)

Looks like they have now closed the loophole more fully, server-side. Windows 7 & 8 keys will not activate even if you can use them to install. https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/11/23913107/microsoft-windows-11-block-windows-7-8-keys-upgrade-activation

Classic DPC latency causing audio drop-outs... In a nutshell — Background processes running at the lowest level (mostly device drivers, but also perhaps OS processes or security software) can grab hold of the system to do work, causing everything to freeze. They should "release" control quickly enough that you do not notice that anything happened (1ms or less). You might notice something visually if such a process keeps the system held for, say, 2-5ms (since a 60 Hz monitor needs frames generated at 16ms), but that is enough time to run the audio buffer dry and create a noticeable audio blip, especially if you are trying to do real-time audio work. The whole system freezing issue might be a more extreme version of this. To get a hint as to what is causing this, download "LatencyMon" and run it while you work. (The text at the top of the linked page sort of explains this issue.) Just hit the "Play" button and leave it running in the background. After some time has passed (or you observe one of your audio blips), hit "Stop" and then go take a look at the Drivers tab. They should automatically be sorted with the worst offenders on top. For a system running smoothly we would not want to see any "highest execution time" values higher than 2ms or so. Next step would be to take a look at this list (which will be a list of .sys files), figure out what the worst offenders correspond to, and then see if there is anything you can do to fix it. Example — ndis.sys is part of the Windows network stack, and if it is showing high on your list then it could be an issue with your network driver. Try using Ethernet instead of Wi-Fi, or vice versa, to see if that makes the problem go away. If so, you know which device driver you need to fight with.

Yeah, I have a six-year-old phone here myself. I haven't really seen a need to replace it — until now... I am replacing it in the next 3-4 weeks. Apple has ended "latest OS" support at six years (though it did just get another security update earlier today and I expect those to continue for a while yet), and it is starting to occasionally have some strange long-delay / lock-up behaviors when doing trivial tasks; I think the flash storage might be starting to flake out. Though really, I see the mobile landscape as having matured to the point where, unless you really like having the latest-and-greatest, constant upgrades aren't really warranted and you should be able to be fine with a phone for 5+ years, as long as you start with a good one. Sort of like the PC landscape hit I'd say 10-12 years ago or so. (All the better if phone makers can keep the software updates coming for longer!) Though on the other side, there's the money factor; The Verge notes that Pixel 8 Pro has some software features that Pixel 8 doesn't for no apparent reason other than "just because", and there will always be an incentive to limit support for new features to new phones just to prop up sales. Another example would be Microsoft who is (seemingly) trying their darnedest to prop up falling PC sales by messing with OS support. Looking back to the Windows 11 launch in 2021, they didn't offer it to or officially support any PCs that were more than ≈3 years old at the time of the launch, with no good reason given on why a 6th-gen or 7th-gen system (with a TPM even!) couldn't run it just fine, what the heck. Rumors persist that Windows 12 is coming "next year", we'll see if they pull that again .....

Eh. Cool, but "security updates" isn't exactly the same as full OS upgrades.

Regarding Pixel 8‚ I saw that Google is committing to seven years of OS support and also parts for repairs, a tremendous bump up from what you typically see from an Android phone. Maybe things are shifting. (If only Samsung would follow suit.) https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/9/23910082/google-will-stock-pixel-8-spare-parts-for-seven-years

Does no one know about the "Files" app ...? These days, you can use the "Files" app on the iPhone, connect to a file share on your laptop via SMB, and copy/paste files from the file share to the local file system. This is what I usually do if I want to move a bunch of video files to the phone for offline viewing with an app like nPlayer. (The "Files" app can also be used to deal with files on external storage like a USB drive or an SD card, if you have the appropriate adapter hooked up to your phone.) It's still a little clunky because of the small screen and touch UI for dealing with files, but I'd consider it a step up from having to use the file transfer mechanism in iTunes.