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Aaron44126

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Everything posted by Aaron44126

  1. 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.)
  2. Aaron44126
    Nope, Advanced Optimus is not supported.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.)
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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).
  9. Aaron44126
    Confused, is it thermal throttling at an idle/desktop workload ("always"), or just while gaming or under 3D workloads? Seems like thermal throttling wouldn't necessarily be an issue if you're still getting higher performance than you were with the old vBIOS (as long as it is not wasting power when it shouldn't be).
  10. Aaron44126
    I haven't tried this myself but I think it would be fine. I think it would be best to skip the 1.10.x and 1.11.x versions anyway as those are the ones that Dell kept pulling down.
  11. Aaron44126
    Precision doesn't have a memory whitelist and it is generally happy with third-party modules. Issues tend to pop up when trying to use very high speed modules (XMP configurations), or if you are using mismatched modules (i.e. trying to add modules to upgrade the shipped configuration rather than just replacing all of the modules) — which appears to be what was happening here. In this case I would use a tool like CPU-Z to determine the speed and timings of the preinstalled modules and purchase new modules that match those specs exactly (or the exact same module model as the preinstalled ones, if you can find it). Online memory upgrade configurators generally don't work this specifically, unfortunately.
  12. Aaron44126
    I'm running 1.14.0 on the Precision 7560, it has been fine for me. To disable BIOS updates from being applied through Windows Update, go to BIOS setup and turn off the setting for "capsule firmware updates" (under Security I think?). You can disable all driver updates through Windows Update through other ways. I would personally have this replaced, though I doubt a few bent fins will really impact performance much if the air can still get through them. They're right at the end so they might not be getting much airflow from the fan anyway. It would be easy to get that replaced if you show them the photo. You can ask them to send the part only, and they might. They've done it for me before upon request (i.e. keyboard replacements). If you want to repaste and they do end up sending a tech, depending on the tech, they might be willing to let you repaste while performing the heatsink replacement or they might even be willing to repaste for you using the paste that you have on hand. (I've had both of these happen before as well.)
  13. Aaron44126
    SSD door is apparently required if you got the "performance chassis" and also a SmartCard or fingerprint reader. (They don't offer a performance chassis with the SmartCard reader but without the SSD door. Adding a fingerprint reader automatically forces the SmartCard option.) If you think about it, there would have to be eight versions of the bottom cover so (...given the challenges that they seem to have had just getting this system ready to go...) it makes sense that they're not all immediately available. Thin chassis / no SmartCard reader / no SSD door Thin chassis / SmartCard reader / no SSD door Thin chassis / no SmartCard reader / SSD door Thin chassis / SmartCard reader / SSD door Performance chassis / no SmartCard reader / no SSD door Performance chassis / SmartCard reader / no SSD door Performance chassis / no SmartCard reader / SSD door Performance chassis / SmartCard reader / SSD door Anyway, right, they can't make changes to the system build after the order is put in. You'd have to cancel and reorder to change it.
  14. Aaron44126
    With screen brightness at 90%, Optimus on, 10+ apps open, and no particular effort to minimize power use (other than using Process Lasso to make sure background tasks stay on E cores as described earlier), I am getting about four hours of battery life. I'm sure that it could do much better with lower screen brightness and some tuning, but I rarely use the system away from power, so four hours is totally fine with me.
  15. Aaron44126
    BIOS update 1.5.6. https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=D0RFG Fixes: - Firmware updates to address security vulnerabilities including (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures - CVE) such as CVE-2022-0778 and CVE-2022-32482. Updated without issue. It did have the scary "black screen with no activity" for a minute or so after the firmware update completed and before the laptop started the normal boot process. (I'm sort of used to this with Dell firmware updates these days.)
  16. Aaron44126
    Tamper protection just shows a warning in the BIOS to inform you that the case has been opened. You can install whatever SSDs you want without voiding the warranty. But, Dell has the option to require that you put the system in its original configuration before performing warranty service.
  17. Aaron44126
    Haven't had time to do any more performance testing. I have had a "fun" experience getting my display panel replaced... Got word on Friday (8/5) that my replacement display panel is in and they want to do the replacement on Monday (8/8) — today. But, I'm traveling this week so I'm not at home for the tech to stop by and replace the panel. I asked to delay by one week so that I can have the panel replaced next Monday (8/15) when I am back. But... they're only allowed to hold onto the parts for five days, so the longest that I could delay for would be until Friday (8/12) and then they have to send the part back. Which means, I have to basically cancel the service order and put a new one in. In the meantime, my display panel will be shipped around between warehouses unnecessarily. Hopefully, it's not the only spare one that they have on hand now and there won't be any delay with my second service order. The timing was perfectly bad. If they had the display panel ready one day earlier then I could have had it replaced before I left. If they had it ready one day later then I could have delayed the service until Monday (8/15). Not really Dell's fault (though a slightly longer delay period where they could hold onto the part for cases like this would be welcome...). Still seriously considering a replacement of the heatsink assembly but I would still like to see what some other ones look like "in the wild". I do have my 7770 with me so I might find some time to do some testing while traveling. I want to try an extended load on the GPU and see if it has any trouble sustaining 130W, and a CPU/GPU combo load to see if I can replicate what showed up in the Chinese review (55W cap on GPU).
  18. Aaron44126
    Should be fine, especially if temps are below mid-80s. Without a custom vBIOS it will not let you overclock that far. I ran Quadro K5000M in M6700 overclocked for years with no issues.
  19. Aaron44126
    ...You can also just copy files via network share like you would with any other two PCs on the same LAN.
  20. Aaron44126
    Huh. Never seen that one before. I'm going to say it looks like it would "probably" work. Might need some thicker thermal pads for those VRMs ("R15") so that they actually contact the heatsink. Turing requires M6800 with eDP panel (not LVDS) or Optimus enabled at all times.
  21. Aaron44126
    Think you'll still have the issue. Even though there are only two of those, they are in the "Maxwell positions" and not the "Kepler positions". I have comparison photos here. They just left off one that goes where that yellow sticker is. The issue is going to be with the left-most R22 in this picture. It is scooted too far to the center of the card (compared to Kepler) and will hit a protrusion from the heatsink.
  22. Aaron44126
    You should be able to just copy/paste files between host and VM as well (while the VM is running). I've done it with both Hyper-V and VMware Workstation. (It does require support software in the guest OS; you might have to install a Hyper-V support package for older versions of Windows running in Hyper-V.)
  23. Aaron44126
    I'm not able to discern any "stroboscopic effect" waving my hand in front of the 7770 (4K/120Hz) panel at low brightness. I checked with MonInfo; looks like it is an AUO panel. (Seems like it wouldn't be that hard to make an OLED panel without PWM since it doesn't even have a backlight... but I've seen stories of OLED panels that do have it and I'm thinking that you probably know the situation better than me. We'll see once someone actually gets one.)
  24. Aaron44126
    Did you get the cheapest SSD, 256GB? .....Did most everyone else? I wonder if getting the 512GB instead is part of the reason that my system came early.
  25. Aaron44126
    A few updates for today. Thermals. Nothing yet. I'm trying a few different avenues to see if I can get information on whether the "bend" that we are seeing in the heatpipe is "normal" or not (without actually opening a support case just yet). Display. I've been given an August 10 date for availability of the replacement display panel. I'll be traveling next week so I won't have it replaced then, but hopefully I can get it on the schedule for August 15. Fans. I've made necessary changes to Dell Fan Management to prevent the fans from powering off. In "consistency mode", you can set an RPM threshold. If the fan speed falls below this threshold, the program will load the CPU to nudge the fan speed up. The CPU load thread is very low priority and shouldn't impact anything else running on the system (...though there should not be much running if it wants to run the fans at such a low speed...), and it stops as soon as the fan speed rises above the threshold. It also won't occur if the system is running on battery power. This effectively prevents the fans from shutting off, at the cost of a little bit of power. I've found that 1010 RPM is adequate to prevent the fans from shutting off, but this value might vary by unit. I'll share this update in the DFM thread in a few days, once I've had a chance to polish it up some. I also want to tweak it to distribute the load between cores more randomly.
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