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Aaron44126

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Everything posted by Aaron44126

  1. Aaron44126
    I checked some more today. It is being capped at 85W (PL1) but only running CPU cores are topping out at around 81 °C. HWiNFO reports power limit as the performance limiting factor. It seems that there is thermal headroom. Need to play with ThrottleStop… Can’t say why performance at 85W seems not much better than 55W in the ASUS system.
  2. Aaron44126
    Did the repaste today. Pretty straight-forward. To get the heatsink out, there are the obvious eight screws (four CPU and four GPU) plus three holding the fan assembly in, and the two little cables that run the fans. The whole thing comes out as one unit. I cleaned off the old paste with isopropyl alcohol. Some photos: Bottom side of the heatsink. Delta fans... CPU & GPU. I used Arctic MX-4 for the repaste. Maybe not the absolute best but it is pretty well liked, and I've used it in other systems so I'm comfortable with it. I also took the opportunity to blow dust out of the fans. After about one month of use it had accumulated a visible but not ridiculous amount of dust. (I plan to blow it out about once every four months as I did with my M6700.) I ran Cinebench again (multi-thread, 10 minutes, "ultra performance" Dell thermal profile) and got 15488. Slightly better than last time but nothing game-changing.
  3. Aaron44126
    I happened to notice this and joined the meeting at around 1:15 PM U.S. Eastern (17:15 UTC). I missed the beginning bit. Basically, different Dell reps went through the different Precision models from this generation (3000, 5000, 7000) and some light Q&A. Most of the information was stuff that we already know. One specific that I noted — When asked about OLED panels in the Precision 5000 series, Dell rep Albert Scovel mentioned that there were quality issues with the Precision 5540 OLED panel (burn-in, compatibility, ...) and so they have dropped OLED from the Precision 5000 line. Noting that commercial laptops are expected to be on for many hours every day, they have not felt comfortable enough with any of the current OLED panel offerings to bring them back to Precision 5000. .........I've been worried about burn-in in particular; I'm very interested in moving to OLED for whatever my next successor laptop is, but only if burn-in isn't a concern anymore. It was mentioned that steps were taken to address burn-in in Precision 5540, but I guess it wasn't a full fix. We'll see what happens with the Precision 7670 OLED. Hard to get excited right off the bat because issues will probably take many hours of use to crop up. ...I can't wait for microLED in laptops to be a thing... When asked about CAMM and standardization, Dell rep Alex Tyltin mentioned that JEDEC has given some "positive feedback" but that's really all that was said about it. In the chat, @Dell-Mano_G also mentioned that they are working with the JEDEC standards board. It was noticed by the Dell reps that there is interest in more information on CAMM and they will look into setting up a webinar just for that. When asked about HX (7000 series) availability, Dell rep Alex Tyltin acknowledged the delays, noted that they are monitoring the supply chain situation and said that "aspirationally" they hope to see the supply chain issues resolved and backlog cleared out by October, stressing that this is more of a goal than a promise. (A number of users in the chat mentioned similar stories to what we are seeing here; estimated delivery dates being pushed out to late September.) He also mentioned that indeed they were originally aiming for a May launch. He also indicated that they have no intention of dropping the 17" workstation offering in the near future. @Dell-Mano_G Is there some place to be notified of these webinars in advance?
  4. Aaron44126
    Process Lasso. https://bitsum.com/ I generally don't bother a whole lot with killing Windows background stuff. Set your game/app to run at "above normal" priority and background tasks will be CPU-starved and have to wait, if the game needs all of the CPU resources. Process Lasso can handle setting priorities for certain programs. You can also have it change the Windows power profile when certain programs are run. High performance / noisy for games and slower CPU speed / quiet for light desktop use.
  5. Aaron44126
    Following rumors from the past couple of weeks, Samsung announced the 990 Pro SSD just now. Available in October, with capacity up to 2TB. It is a PCIe4 drive, not PCIe5. $179 for 1TB $309 for 2TB (More expensive than the prior models... I feel like Samsung usually makes the new model cheaper, at least if they are not moving to a better interface.) A 4TB model will be available next year. https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/24/23319258/samsung-990-pro-ssd-speeds-heatsink-ps5 (Shame that I just bought the 980 Pro for this laptop, but, I think I'll be fine to stick with it rather than upgrade.)
  6. Aaron44126
    Display panel replacement Today, I had a tech stop by and replace the display panel. The part that Dell sent was an entire display assembly with the display panel installed in it. So, the bezel, aluminum backing, hinges, cables, webcam... everything was replaced. There are two cables running from the motherboard to the display enclosure; one is labeled "eDP" so it would be the display signal, and I guess the other one is for the webcam / microphone array. ...Makes sense why the part would be hard for them to come up with right now; it's not just a panel, it's the entire display assembly for this machine. The heatsink had to be removed to replace the display enclosure. There are screws holding the hinges in that are underneath the heatsink and heat pipes. (The repaste job that he did was "passable" at best. He did not clean off the old paste and I'm not sure what new paste specifically he put on. I have my own paste and thought about asking if I could clean and repaste myself while he was here, but I was under a time crunch when he arrived, so that will have to wait for another time. I'll repaste myself when I can find time, maybe this weekend.) The good news is that the new panel doesn't have any stuck pixels. I took it to a dark room to check carefully and I can't find any pixel issues. One issue resolved. The new panel does still support variable refresh rate (I was wondering about this a bit since it is not an "official feature" as far as I can tell). I also checked and can confirm that G-SYNC is not supported. To use VRR with this panel, you must have Optimus / graphics switching enabled and pipe the graphics through the Intel GPU. (Here's a decent Reddit post about it.) I asked the tech about the "bent" heatsink and he thinks that it is normal. I'm inclined to agree after looking at it closely. I don't know why the image in the service manual doesn't appear to have the same bend. @win32asmguy should be getting his system "soon" and I'm interested to see what someone else's CPU performance is like... I will also run benchmarks again after repasting sometime in the next few days.
  7. Aaron44126
    Well then, boo.
  8. Aaron44126
    I got the one with no SSD door. That part has been circulating on Taobao/eBay since February. 😕 (@win32asmguy, did you get the SSD door on yours?) Who knows how long that guy has been waiting... [Edit] Actually the 7670 bottom panel that showed up on Taobao did have an SSD door. It's still there. Looks like a SmartCard version as well but not sure if it is thin or performance chassis. ————— I have a 10a-2p appointment to have my display panel replaced, finally.
  9. Aaron44126
    Comes down to what you need. XPS 17 / Precision 5770 does have two drive slots. If you are good with 8TB total storage / 64GB RAM / a-bit-less-powerful NVIDIA dGPU, then you will probably be fine with one of these systems. (If you plan to install a high-capacity aftermarket SSD, you'll want to make sure that you get one that is not "double-sided". A number of 4TB drives and all 8TB drives currently available are double-sided and likely won't fit in this system.) To me, the main downside would be a less powerful dGPU, but depending on what you use it for, that might not matter at all. There's also no ability to output directly from the dGPU — everything has to go through the Intel GPU with graphics switching (Optimus), AFAIK. A less capable cooling system means that the CPU performance won't be quite as fast as what you could get in a thicker system. Oh, and the keyboard. No numeric keypad is really a dealbreaker to me. Otherwise, it would be a great system, I'm sure. The 16:10 display is actually a draw; a bit more working space without a bigger footprint. If you do get the Precision 7770, you'll probably be waiting a while for it. I'm hopeful that the issues with the Precision 7770 will be worked out in time, one way or another, but that is potentially even more time/hassle to deal with. ———— Once again, no tech available to install my 7770 replacement display panel today. Maybe tomorrow...
  10. Aaron44126
    Just a note that I think the Precision model numbers are wrong, did you mean to start them with "5"? I.e. Precision 5550/5750, 5560/5760.
  11. Aaron44126
    Yeah, I noticed a bit after posting that the heatsink photo from the "unboxing" doesn't match the photo from the service manual. I thought that maybe it was the non-dGPU version, but this guy has a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.
  12. Aaron44126
    Wish they had left the NVMe heatsinks on in one of the photos, but you can see the M.2 2230 drive with "extender" adapter. Also there was some discussion over the "deformity" in my 7770 heatsink, it looks like some of the heatpipes are bent or "raised up" as they go by the dGPU. (They don't look that way in the service manual.) The Chinese review 7770 has the same thing. It also appears that there is something similar going on here with the 7670. Maybe it is "normal" after all. Though the "bend" in these doesn't seem quite as extreme as the 7770 examples. For reference, 7770 heatpipe. ———— Also, while I'm at it, I'll note on my display panel replacement... I got word yesterday that display panel was shipped to the local depot, so it should have been installed today. But, I got a note today saying that they don't have a tech available in my area so I'll have to wait another 1-2 business days. (I get that there are multiple complicating factors, including me not being available the first time they wanted to do the appointment... but now we are looking at 23 days for "next day service", if they get to it on Monday. What if this had been something that more impacted daily use of the system?)
  13. Aaron44126
    If Optimus is on, the USB-C ports follow the setting in the BIOS for "discrete graphics controller direct output mode". If it is on, the USB-C ports are connected to the dGPU. If it is off, they are connected to the iGPU. (This has been the case in Precision 7000-series systems for several generations now.) I'm not sure about the HDMI port, haven't tested it yet. In previous generations it was always connected to the dGPU, regardless of any BIOS setting... but it was also physically on the dGPU (not the motherboard), which is not the case this time. (There is no DisplayPort or mini-DisplayPort on these new systems. You can use a USB-C adapter.)
  14. Aaron44126
    Here in the U.S. it all depends on where you live, the situation is different everywhere. The main issue as I see it is that there is no competition. In most metro areas, there is just one major (cable) provider offering high speeds. Sometimes you have a second choice for getting wired Internet to your house but it often isn't really a choice because the speed difference is enormous (i.e. ADSL vs. cable). Cable providers tend to carve up the map and avoid competing with each other so that they can keep prices where they want them, set arbitrary monthly data caps, and apply other anti-consumer policies that end users can't do anything but accept. ...But at least they are offering gigabit (download) speeds in most areas these days, if you're willing to pay over $100/mo for it. Many rural areas don't even have a cable provider so they are limited to whatever can be piped over a traditional copper phone line. (These would be the "maybe 25 Mbps" users I was referring to in the previous post. If you're not close to a node then it's probably more like 5-10 Mbps.) Things are changing a bit as residential fiber rolls out to compete with cable. Fiber providers often offer gigabit for $70-$80/mo so it is causing some market disruption for cable providers. But that rollout is not moving fast at all and most markets don't have access to residential fiber, there is still only one fiber provider in most areas that do have it, and there is definitely no incentive for ISPs to roll fiber into rural areas. They tend to target the most densely populated areas so that they can get the most bang for their buck when doing the rollout. The U.S. is never at the top of lists like this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Internet_connection_speeds There's always stuff going on about the government giving money to ISPs to build out infrastructure in underserved areas, and then nothing really happening with that. I'm sure there are success stories here in there but that is also something that is going nowhere fast. I understand that some places in Europe have rules like different ISPs are (required to be) allowed to use the same physical infrastructure, so residential users can choose between multiple providers to sign up with. That leads more quickly to higher speeds and lower prices.
  15. Aaron44126
    It never ends... (RE: Replacement display panel) I wonder what happened to the one that they were prepared to install on August 8, while I was out of town? More Final Fantasy XV last night and the battery was not engaged to help out this time. I was sitting in a different spot and using a different 240W PSU. I'm wondering if maybe the one I was using the day before is having an issue where it cannot provide enough power, and that's why the battery drain started? Neither of them is the one that came packaged with the system. Anyway... More investigation required.
  16. Aaron44126
    I know people here in Michigan who don’t have any real option other than AT&T copper (“maybe” 25 Mbps … under ideal conditions, and pitiful upload speed). Wireless options are popping up to service people in this situation (5G and Starlink), I’m not sure how good those would be with the low latency required for cloud gaming.
  17. Aaron44126
    Can also just add this tag to the HTML header and point it to any image file that you like on the server... I think one problem is we don't really have a logo or anything, so what icon should it be? <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/path/to/image.png" />
  18. Aaron44126
    Spent some time gaming on the Precision 7770. I played Final Fantasy XV. Had to do some tweaking but got things running at pretty solid 60 FPS, with 4K/DLSS, and pretty high graphics settings. It's not the newest title but DLSS looks pretty great on the 17" panel. This was my first time messing with DLSS. I was not able to notice any sort of artifacting. (This isn't the best game port, lots of people report stuttering issues; maybe not the best game to start out with but I've been wanting to play it for a while. The biggest thing that I found to help keep the framerate stable is turning off motion blur in the game graphics settings.) Anyway, I noticed a few things. The battery light came on just a little bit into gameplay. I checked, and sure enough, the system battery is draining during gameplay (presumably to provide extra power to the system which can't draw enough from the 240W adapter). ...Also, all of the CPU cores maxed out at 100 °C at some point during the first few minutes of playing. After about an hour of gameplay, the battery was down to 78%, so it must be drawing somewhere in the ballpark of 20W. Fine with me. I very rarely go for more than two hours at a time. Also, I noticed that if the "thermal mode" is set to "quiet", then the NVIDIA GPU won't go past the P3 power state, even if you try to force it with NVIDIA Inspector. It tops out at around 350 MHz. Definitely not good for any moderately intense game but would be fine for some casual or older titles. (I need to work out a way to automatically switch thermal modes when firing up a game. For now, I will just manually switch to "performance" when I start playing and then back to "quiet" when I'm done.)
  19. Aaron44126
    Nope, Advanced Optimus is not supported.
  20. Aaron44126
    I think it's a matter of expectations, really. NVIDIA and Intel are both pushing power limits higher and higher. These days, CPUs in particular are pretty much designed to overheat, for a temporary boost of speed that is not meant to be sustained. You can't expect a laptop of this size to be able to fully power the CPU and GPU at the same time when they both want 150W. As long as you are OK with the limitations, it could still be a good buy. Still a bit sad that people who aren't paying attention won't know that the "same" CPU/GPU isn't going to get the same performance between systems. The difference between Precision 7670 and 7770 could even be noticeable (especially looking at 7670 "thin chassis"). There should be better labeling/marketing to make it clear how much performance to expect, showing expected sustained power levels or something, so that you can compare between systems more easily.
  21. Aaron44126
    NVIDIA control panel says 150W limit, but it seems to be practically limited at 130W. (Less if the CPU is also busy. GPU+CPU share a power budget of somewhere around 170W.) I have mixed opinion on CAMM. I can see that something needs to happen with SODIMM or it won't make it to the end of the DDR5 cycle. Dell is taking the right steps in trying to get a new standard out there that addresses the issues and that everyone can hop on. It will be a process that could take a few years — CAMM will have to be approved by JEDEC, then other laptop manufacturers will need to negotiate patent agreements with Dell. The pipeline for designing a new laptop is about two years to begin with — other manufacturers wouldn't even be taking CAMM into consideration at present, so if everything up front goes at blistering speed, I still wouldn't see other laptop makers offering CAMM in their systems before late 2025. If Dell is successful, it will be better for everyone (eventually), and there should be many manufacturers offering CAMM modules. If they are not and some other standard takes over, then it'll just be harder / more expensive to ever upgrade the memory in these systems... (Worst case, SODIMM disappears without an agreed-upon replacement. Most manufacturers move to soldered memory exclusively, and a few move to their own unique "standard", either something entirely unique like CAMM or a proprietary/modified version of SODIMM... this all being similar to what happened with MXM GPUs.)
  22. Aaron44126
    I've been following Precision launches closely for over a decade and this is the oddest one by far. I'm sure there are more, but sitting here at almost six weeks in, I'm only aware of two 7770's in the wild (mine, and the guy who did the Chinese review), and no 7670's at all ... and for order status, of the people posting here, (other than me) only one 7670 has gotten to "In production" status (@terrato, a week ago — should wrap up soon if his timeline ends up similar to mine). ...And honestly I sort of feel like I have a "beta" system, with the defective display and seems-to-be defective heatsink assembly. Precision is supposed to have additional QC with systems going out in the launch window. (As an update, it looks like the display will finally be swapped out later this week and I'm waiting for that to be settled before I start asking about the heatsink assembly.) So, just as well wait and let this settle out; hopefully they will solve whatever production issue is holding these up within the next few weeks. And hopefully the next units that we see arriving have less issues. (Also, despite this, it's not like HP or Lenovo have gotten theirs to market any faster.) 😕 Other than the SSD, RAM, and keyboard, it looks like we have the same system. No idea why a few systems got out and most others haven't.
  23. Aaron44126
    Fingerprint reader option forces the SmartCard option so you won't see this in any of the variants. Probably, SmartCard support is included with any ControlVault configuration so they figured they might as well just include the slot. The non-SmartCard chassis still has a gap in the same spot to allow for "prying" the bottom cover off, so the chassis wouldn't look much different either way.
  24. Aaron44126
    Process Lasso works well for this purpose. It basically lets you set priority and affinity rules and Process Lasso will apply them as soon as it sees a matching process running. (You can set affinity from Task Manager but it will not "stick" if a process is restarted.) There are a number of options to set rules for processes. You can use the executable name or something specific like a part of the full path or even command line options passed to the executable when it was run. There are some "gotchas", you have to be a little bit aware of how Windows passes affinity around. If a process with limited affinity starts another process, the affinity will be carried over. For example, if you were to set File Explorer (explorer.exe) to run on E cores only, any programs you start from File Explorer would inherit that affinity and also run on E cores only. There are also a few system-level processes that you can't mess with, like MsMpEng.exe (Windows Defender). They get to use P cores if they want to... ———— August 15, the day I'm supposed to get my display panel replaced (second attempt), and ....... parts are not available, so I have to wait some more. [Edit] August 16, I was just given an ETA of "tomorrow" 8/17 for the part to be in. So, hopefully I can still get it replaced this week.
  25. Aaron44126
    Yes… This is specific to 7670 with performance chassis. They didn’t make a version with the SmartCard reader but without the SSD door (so it appears).
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