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Think there will be a new 15" xps 2-in-1? Is the 16" inspiron the closest model to buy now?

1.7.1 right?

Many thanks. If it were a codec issue though, could it play fine on the intel gpu on the same machine and not on the nvidia gpu?

What are the advantages of "Hybrid Graphics mode with Direct Output" over Hybrid Graphics mode?

Updated the 850 mb Dell driver from 1236 to 1278 (nvidia version 512.78) but no change. I'm not sure if I'm extremely underwhelmed by the new nvidia A1000 GPU, or if it is just an odd driver issue. I have no issues with an nvidia M3000M playing the same video in either windows media player or photos app on a different laptop.

Interesting. Under Display, Graphic Settings, Graphics performance preference I added Microsoft Store App and selected Photos. Set to "High performance" GPU: NVIDIA RTX A1000 Laptop GPU and video in photos or media player was still choppy after a second or two. Set Photos to "Power saving" GPU: Intel UHD Graphics and the video is smooth all the way through, no issues. Just noticed there is a driver update available from 1236 to 1278 so I'll try that asap. Have been using photos to view mostly photos but the occasional drone video that is in the mix; I uninstalled the movies and tv app on my last three laptops because I never used it (don't do much video), but I guess that would explain why no one else noticed the driver that shipped with the laptop having choppy video... because everyone else is probably using movies & tv app I guess.

New Dell Precision 7770 with nvidia A1000 gpu. For some reason a .mov file from a dji drone stutters when played with Windows Photos app or Windows Media Player. It plays kind of ok for a few seconds, and then becomes a "slide show" with about 1/2 second between frames. .mov file is 3840 x 2160 resolution, 100090 kbps data rate according to properties. Total file size is 892 MB and it's playing from an SSD. I can play it in another application smoothly on the 7770, but I've never encountered (at least in recent years) simple windows photos and windows media player not playing a video smoothly. Same .mov file plays smoothly on a Precision 7710 when viewing it with microsoft photos app. I don't see any setting to adjust to address this - any ideas?

I believe with a tape measure the latest Precision 17" is only 5/8" less wide than the widest 77x0 17" precision. However, my subjective opinion is that it appears skinnier and less wide due to the combination of the new hinge design and the curve of the back panel.

Will give it a try. The description in bios threw me off: Edit: added: Just gave it a try, and I don't think cool is going to work on my system. The keyboard area is cooler. The fan noise is constant but too loud for my liking when it's idle, with nothing running but windows itself, but running Windows Defender Scan I'm seeing CPU speeds reported by task manager 1.35 to 1.75 Ghz right now for the last couple minutes. Windows Defender just finished its run, and cool is the slowest for me yet: Cool 8 minutes 30 seconds (Trying to beat the previous generation Precision which clocked 5 minutes 36 seconds doing the same task)

Changed back from Ultra Performance to Optimized and the Windows Defender full scan completed faster with it set to Optimized Ultra Performance 6 minutes 8 seconds Optimized 5 minutes 51 seconds Previous Generation Precision set to Optimized 5 minutes 36 seconds These results are each not what I expected. I still really like this laptop, but I hope a bios update can tweak things a bit in terms of performance. Also a minor note, not for performance but for focus -- and I believe has been stated earlier in this thread and led to the fan control, etc. tweaks -- but I don't like the "voom voom" ... of the fan when you do something simple like open an amazon tab in a web browser when on Optimized. The previous Precisions did a smooth job for me in terms of acoustical ramping up. They'd ramp up when cpu hit 100% so the fans would sound like a jet, but somehow the little "voom voom" and then off again when opening a browser tab is distracting to me on this one. A little tweak there would be nice and greatly appreciated too if possible.

I mostly use mine for light loads and I like the near-silent operation, so I leave mine set as shipped, at Optimized which I think is the same as Balanced. I just did a test and changed it to Ultra Performance which makes the fans audible all the time. At the start of a full Windows Defender Scan, I saw the cpu graphs more "normal" (like previous precisions where all would go to 100%). With fan mode Optimized I see only a few cpus at 100% and the rest idle (parked) during more of the early part of the scan. However, half way through the scan after having all cpus pegged near 100% most of the time, with fan mode Ultra Performance, I see 8 of the 16 performance cores go to parked, and the full scan ended up taking 6 minutes and 8 seconds with fan mode set to Ultra Performance.

Un.... believable! So in September I decided to buy a new Precision so I could send this one into dell to be serviced. I figured it would require a motherboard swap or something drastic since firmware updates and other attempts had not solved it for 10 months of trying. Right after I decided to buy a new Precision, I saw something kind of vaguely related to this issue at: However, it wasn't my specific issue: That fix said it involved wake on lan and my issue occurred with the lan totally disconnected. It also said that fix involved an issue that happened after "the force or abnormal shutdown" and my issue happened after normal shutdowns, no forced or abnormal shutdown recorded by windows or bios. So I decided to go ahead with the new Precision build and then troubleshoot this issue. On October 14th, bios 1.16.0 was released for the now "old" machine. So after getting my new machine setup, I decided to update bios to 1.16.0 today before sending it in. And it appears this may resolve this issue... at least I haven't been able to recreate it yet! 1.16 doesn't mention anything related, so not sure if 1.16 or 1.15 included the fix, or if the fix is tangential or derivative from the fix implemented in 1.15. I did notice after installing 1.16.0 that when I try and recreate the issue by setting the system time to the 18th of the month, 8:20 am (so I can see if it will happen at 8:24:11 on the 18th), if I click Apply and exit and let the machine boot into windows, and then shutdown, and enter bios again, the system bios either auto-updated to the current time or hadn't accepted the time change to the 18th. When I was troubleshooting this issue extensively a few months ago, I never had that happen. So something has definitely changed in the system clock function. (before I recreated the problem both shutting down from windows and then seeing it auto-turn-on-by-itself, and also with all ssd drives physically removed entirely) If I set the time now after bios 1.16 to the 18th at 8:20, then exit, it prompts me to save changes, and I choose yes, and if I then power off with the power button and then enter bios again the time is still the 18th. And I let it tick past 8:24 powered off, and it didn't power itself on now. After waiting 10 months with several firmware updates, I didn't think this issue would be resolved short of a motherboard swap. I guess I can't complain that I didn't have to send this one in, but the timing is amazing. Anyway, if someone at Dell fixed this issue in the latest bios, either directly or as the side effect of fixing the other issue noted, THANK YOU!

Windows defender scan runs slightly faster on previous generation Dell Precision with 8 physical cores (16 with hyperthreading) than on latest generation with 16 physical cores (24 with hyperthreading) Previous generation Precision: 5 minutes 36 seconds 986,702 files scanned Latest generation precision: 5 minutes 45 seconds 896,187 files scanned Installations have identical software installed, and identical SSD installed. Latest generation has slightly less to scan because no intermediate software updates or downloads on the SSD... yet it takes slightly longer despite the extra cores, newer cpu generation, etc.

Real world I'm seeing a single core load (exporting a very large tiff file from a vector graphic to a raster image which is a single threaded operation and pegs one core while I wait for the menu to switch from optimized to adaptive) hover around 4.27 to 4.37 Ghz and a momentary peak at 4.43 Ghz in windows task manager.

Yes 1.6.3

On the previous Dell Precision, BIOS had "Maximum Clock Speed" 5.50 Ghz and that CPU was only rated for a maximum speed of 5.0 Ghz according to Intel. So the previous generation Precision laptop had that number 10% higher than Intel's advertised speed, and the new one has Maximum Clock Speed 12% lower than Intel advertised speed.

Yes, I turned on Intel Turbo Boost Maximum Technology 3.0 and rebooted and it's still showing Max Clock 4.40 Ghz The BIOS Maximum Clock Speed: 4.40 Ghz seems to be static - have not seen it change yet.

I don't know -- I guess first I have to figure out if that is a hard coded "setting" or a "report" in the dell bios. The previous generation dell precision had "Max CPU clock" 10% higher than the speed Intel advertised for the max boost of the CPU, whereas this current generation has it 12% lower than the Intel advertised max speed, so it has me really curious what that bios entry means.

Got my second memory stick, shipped very quickly (thanks Dell!) I think I may have a defective back panel though as opening the chasis, very very carefully, another of the black tabs broke off. I opened the previous generation 7760 to move an ssd at the same time, which is now a year old and had no issue. Never broke a tab on the previous generation 77x0 before. The 7770 on the other hand took 10 minutes to carefully try and open, and again a small black tab broke off. Seems like the tab plastic is very brittle, which I'm not thrilled about for a 3k+ computer. Now the memory -- Doing a simple compression test, I'm getting a 47% increase in speed! So definitely, dual channel is the only way to go! Thanks for the heads up in this thread... nice boost for $300.

The previous generation had the Maximum Clock Speed in bios faster than the maximum clock speed advertised by intel, so I'm not sure what to make of the latest generation having the bios maximum clock speed in bios only 88% of the intel advertised cpu speed ??? Not sure what that bios entry controls (?) (or measures?), or if it makes any difference, but it seems odd.

Is it possible to use Window's 10 backup -> create disk image and then restore that to newer dell hardware? Will windows 10 adapt to different driver requirements of the new hardware? Will the windows 10 license/activation cope with the laptop hardware changing from dell to different dell? Will other software typically detect a hardware change and invalidate its license requiring reinstallation?

I have the i9, so went ahead and ordered a second stick from Dell as it is in stock today. Hopefully will see a nice improvement from the second memory stick going from single channel to dual channel too! Thanks!

When assigning drive letters to internal hard drives, should a and b still be reserved -- they used to be for floppy drives, but not sure if there is a reason to not use them for internal drives now with windows 10 and later that floppies don't exist...

OK, thanks! That sounds phenomenal -- can't believe I missed something so significant when configuring the machine with one SODIMM if it's that much. The Dell module is out of stock now, but for that kind of boost, I think it's worth keeping an eye on it when it comes back in stock for a quick upgrade! Thanks!

Might be worth getting a second stick of RAM. I have a single 16 GB SODIMM. I don't really need more than 16 GB of memory, but what % improvement do you think I'd get by only adding a second stick of memory?