Precision 7670 & 7770 pre-release discussion (Alder Lake)

[Aaron44126]

New CPUs showing up in online benchmarks today.

 

Core i5-12600HX (4P+8E), Core i7-12850HX (8P+8E), and Core i9-12950HX (8P+8E).

 

Previously, i7-12650HX (6P+8E) and i9-12900HX (8P+8E) have also been observed.  Between the 8P+8E offerings, the i7 and i9 have different cache configurations; the difference between the two i9 CPUs is not immediately clear to me, they appear to have the same cache amount and same base/boost clock speeds.  (Maybe they are the same and Intel just hadn't settled on branding yet.  Or, maybe the boost clock will just be just a little bit higher for the 12950HX.)

 

https://www.vaughantoday.ca/core-i9-12950hx-i7-12850hx-and-i5-12600hx-demos-revealed/

[Aaron44126]

New NVIDIA mobile workstation GPUs announced at GTC!  https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2022/03/22/rtx-tackle-pro-workflows/

 

Digesting, will edit this post with comments shortly...

 

[Edit]

 

[Edit 2]

First off, the RTX A4500 specs previously listed on TechPowerUp were wrong.

 

Going bottom-up:

T1200 → RTX A1000

CUDA cores: 1024 → 2048 (same as mobile RTX 3050)

vRAM: 4GB (no change)

 

RTX A2000 → RTX A2000 8GB

CUDA cores: 2560 (no change) (same as desktop RTX 3050 or mobile RTX 3050 Ti)

vRAM: 4GB → 8GB

 

RTX A3000 → RTX A3000 12GB

CUDA cores: 4096 (no change) (slightly higher than desktop/mobile RTX 3060)

vRAM: 6GB → 12GB

 

RTX A4000 → RTX A4500

CUDA cores: 5120 → 5888 (same as desktop RTX 3070, and slightly higher than mobile RTX 3070 Ti)

vRAM: 8GB → 16GB

 

RTX A5000 → RTX A5500

CUDA cores: 6144 → 7424 (same as mobile RTX 3080 Ti, but not as high as desktop RTX 3080)

vRAM: 16GB (no change)

 

Sooooo...

RTX across the board now.  Bottom end 1000-level gets a nice boost with double the CUDA cores.  I think the 4000-level came out really good with a healthy CUDA core boost (15%), actually pretty close to the RTX A5000, and double the vRAM of the RTX A4000 to boot.  We'll see what prices are like, but assuming that they are pretty much in line with the A4000, that seems like it would be the "sweet spot" for those who want to do graphics work or gaming on their workstations, with vRAM no longer being a reason to spring for the 5000-level card.

 

RTX A5500 came out exactly like I expected.  It has an insane CUDA core count, 7424 (21% over A5000, 26% over A4500), the same as the RTX 3080 Ti (mobile).  It's not a maxed out GA103S though (7680 cores).  Pity the vRAM did not get bumped as well but I think that is a limitation of the architecture.

 

Since even an A4000 could hit the power limit with 5120 cores (and plenty of thermal headroom), one wonders what the point of bumping the CUDA core count nearly 50% higher is, unless there are plans for workstation manufacturers to also raise the power limit in a non-trivial way.  I've been hoping that the case designs that we are seeing are gearing up towards this.  (Otherwise, I wonder if the A5500 will have trouble breaking 70 °C at full load?  :-P)

 

TGP values don't seem to be available at the moment?  I can't find the NVIDIA PDF data sheet.  (Not that it matters that much.  We'll need to know what power limits Dell has set specifically.)

 

NVIDIA says that these will be landing in mobile workstations "this spring".

 

NVIDIA also announced a Hopper datacenter GPU.  (Will consumer GPUs this fall get Hopper or Lovelace?  Looks like Lovelace references just popped up in HWiNFO.)

 

[Edit 3]

For reference, NVIDIA's mobile workstation GPU announcement last year came on April 13.

 

[Edit 4]

Found the NVIDIA spec sheet, updated the graphic above.  A5500 is listed as up to 165W TGP.

ECC memory support is also new this generation, I think?  I know that there were some mobile Quadros that featured it "back in the day" (before Kepler, at least) but it has been missing for quite a while now.

 

[Edit 5]
New NVIDIA drivers support A1000 and A4500, but not A5500….

https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/187238/en-us

 

[Edit 6]

Downloaded NVIDIA driver 512.15.  There are no references to the new GPUs in the Dell INF file.  I'll be keeping an eye out...

[win32asmguy]

One would hope the A5500 mobile would have been 310-bit/20GB or even 384-bit/24GB memory, similar to the higher end desktop parts but at lower TDP. Asus/Nvidia proved a laptop using a chip like that was viable with the ProArt Studiobook One W590 over a year ago.

 

It is great that these new 7670 / 7770 chassis have USB-C and USB-A on both sides.

[Aaron44126]

Tangentially related...

Dell just launched XPS 15 and XPS 17 systems with Alder Lake H.  (These would presumably be nearly identical to Precision 5570 and 5770, basically other than dGPU choices and maybe ECC memory support.)

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/dell-xps-15-xps-17-intel-alder-lake-h

 

Specs are basically as you'd expect...  Up to Core i9-12900H (6P+8E), up to 64GB of DDR5 RAM, individual SSDs up to 4TB (two NVMe drives can be installed).  XPS 15 can be configured with Intel Iris Xe graphics, GeForce RTX 3050 or 3050 Ti, and XPS 17 has an option for GeForce RTX 3060.  Pre-configured with Windows 11 only.

 

XPS 15 gets three screen choices: 1920×1200 (FHD+), 3840×2400 (4K+), and an interesting in-between one 3456×2160 ("3.5K").  XPS 17 just gets FHD+ and 4K+.

 

They are available to order immediately, but XPS 17 + GeForce RTX 3060 won't be available until sometime in April.

 

https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebooks/sr/laptops/xps?appliedRefinements=30232,39795

 

(Guessing that they won't be offering Intel Arc graphics, or they would have waited until next week to announce them.)

[Aaron44126]

It looks like Dell is doing some sort of event on March 31, the day after Intel, so some sort of announcements could drop then too…

https://delltechnologiesexperience.virtualevents-hub.com/?linkId=156437996

[Asleep]

11 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

It looks like Dell is doing some sort of event on March 31, the day after Intel, so some sort of announcements could drop then too…

https://delltechnologiesexperience.virtualevents-hub.com/?linkId=156437996

Is Dell Mano G still in the workstation group? Has he found NBT yet?

[Aaron44126]

@Dell-Mano_G has created an account.  I am going to make sure that he knows about the URL change once it happens and hopefully he will stop by for Q&A (after there is an official announcement).

[Asleep]

4 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

@Dell-Mano_G has created an account. 

Excellent!

[Aaron44126]

Dell Precision 5470 leaked spec sheet.

https://www.ithome.com/0/609/962.htm

 

Notable —

• Intel Arc graphics option.  (Intel Arc presentation coming from Intel on March 30.)  No idea if A30M Pro would be "better" or "worse" than the RTX A1000.
• No option for Windows 10... but I think "with DGR" refers to downgrade rights.  It might be the case that we see Windows 10 support for this generation of systems in the form of drivers, but you won't be able to configure the systems at order time to ship with Windows 10.  (...Likely an OEM agreement restriction from MS.)

[serpro69]

15 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

(...Likely an OEM agreement restriction from MS.)

 

It very much appears to be so. I just can't buy that they don't offer Win10 purely out of compatibility issues with Alder Lake, but at the same time offer Ubuntu 20.04

[charles]

On 3/28/2022 at 10:09 AM, serpro69 said:

 

It very much appears to be so. I just can't buy that they don't offer Win10 purely out of compatibility issues with Alder Lake, but at the same time offer Ubuntu 20.04

 

I decided to register on the forum just to reply to the stupid poorly informed post above.

 

@serpro69 Please understand that Ubuntu is: (1) open-source, (2) fully modular. Therefore Ubuntu 20.04 can be fully compatible with Alder Lake, whilst Windows 10 can not (unless Microsoft decides to gracefully bless poor users with an update). This is the beauty (and one of many huge advantages) of Linux in professional applications, you can update kernel and get your “old” system compatible with the newest hardware.

 

FYI Dell provides customs kernels for Ubuntu, so Ubuntu 20.04 on Dell machines will be compatible with Alder Lake, unlike Windows 10 that does not support Thread Director.

 

[addabis]

2 hours ago, charles said:

 

I decided to register on the forum just to reply to the stupid poorly informed post above.

 

 

And I have decided to register on the forum just to let you know that this part was stupid unnecessary, as is this post.

 

In any case, can someone point me to info about 76xx being a thing?

[charles]

42 minutes ago, addabis said:

 

And I have decided to register on the forum just to let you know that this part was stupid unnecessary, as is this post.

 

In any case, can someone point me to info about 76xx being a thing?

 

It was necessary. There is a lot of discussion in this thread around software support, so it is useful to put the record straight.

 

Windows 10 does not support Alder Lake and Microsoft pushes hard to propagate Windows 11, so it is very unlikely Thread Director (and other features) will be added to Windows 10. Microsoft wants to serve you even more ads and collect even more of your data…

 

Dell will not wait for Microsoft to add Alder Lake features to Windows 10, Precision 3x70, 5x70 and 7x70 workstations should be released as soon as parts are officially released by Intel (Arc Graphics and later HX processors).

[Aaron44126]

1 hour ago, addabis said:

In any case, can someone point me to info about 76xx being a thing?

 

Earlier in this thread.  There are photos of the chassis.

https://notebooktalk.net/topic/23-precision-7670-7770-pre-release-discussion-alder-lake/?do=findComment&comment=3054

 

1 hour ago, charles said:

Windows 10 does not support Alder Lake and Microsoft pushes hard to propagate Windows 11, so it is very unlikely Thread Director (and other features) will be added to Windows 10. Microsoft wants to serve you even more ads and collect even more of your data…

 

Dell will not wait for Microsoft to add Alder Lake features to Windows 10, Precision 3x70, 5x70 and 7x70 workstations should be released as soon as parts are officially released by Intel (Arc Graphics and later HX processors).

 

Never expected Dell to wait for Microsoft for anything.

 

The business with Dell not making Windows 10 available is a new thing which (IMO) seems like it must be because of OEM restrictions from Microsoft.  Windows 10 has been around for a while so it hasn't been an "issue" lately, but I could point back to:

• Dell Precision 7X20 (2017) was offered with Windows 7 (2009) preinstalled
• Dell Precision M4700/M6700 (2012) were offered with Windows XP (2001) preinstalled

They know there would be a strong interest from users for sticking with Windows 10 for now (especially among business users), which is likely why there is mention to DGR/downgrade rights in the spec sheet above.

 

I've been very interested to see what Dell (and other OEMs) do about this "situation".  And I've been talking about it in this thread because the situation with Windows 10 and Alder Lake will be of high interest to some users considering purchases of new Alder Lake systems.  Windows itself does offer some degree of "modularity" in the sense that most of what is needed to support a new hardware platform with an existing version of Windows is just a proper set of drivers, which are not on Microsoft to produce (and which is why these examples that I have posted here worked).

 

Microsoft wants to keep people moving forward so they have added artificial restrictions to move things along.  This started with them blocking Windows Update on Windows 7/8 on systems with newer CPUs, in 2016 I believe (Intel 7th-gen CPUs).  Dell offered Precision 7X20 with both 6th- and 7th-gen CPUs specifically so that people would have a Windows 7 option available.

 

So, today, as for "compatibility" between Windows 10 and Alder Lake...  You can't really argue that they are incompatible, even if Thread Director support is not backported.  Numerous users have confirmed that Windows 10 runs fine on Alder Lake.  Thread Director is the wrench here because support for it comes from Windows itself and not from a third-party driver.  But, Windows 10 is aware of and runs on hybrid CPU architectures (support added for Intel Lakefield).  Really, the only real downside is Windows 10's "unfortunate" default behavior for scheduling high-CPU low-priority processes (Handbrake example).  I've discussed that all already.

  

4 hours ago, charles said:

I decided to register on the forum just to reply to the stupid poorly informed post above.

 

@addabis was right.  Discussion is fine, disagreement is fine, but insulting other users not fine.

[charles]

37 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

I've been very interested to see what Dell (and other OEMs) do about this "situation".  Windows does offer some degree of "modularity" in the sense that most of what is needed to support a new hardware platform with an existing version of Windows is just a proper set of drivers, which is not on Microsoft to produce (and which is why these examples that I have posted here worked).

 

That is unfortunately incorrect. Thread Director implementation (and other hybrid architecture features like multiGPU between iGPU and Arc dGPU) is not a matter of drivers. For example, process scheduler is an integral part of the kernel.

 

You can not add Alder Lake specific features (like Thread Director) to Windows 10 without Microsoft. Microsoft and Microsoft only could add those features to Windows 10, which they are not going to do. Drivers are not enough.

 

In terms of compatibility, Windows 10 runs on Alder Lake without a problem, but will not be supported and will not have access to Alder Lake-specific features.

[Aaron44126]

14 minutes ago, charles said:

That is unfortunately incorrect. Thread Director implementation (and other hybrid architecture features like multiGPU between iGPU and Arc dGPU) is not a matter of drivers. For example, process scheduler is an integral part of the kernel.

 

Well understood regarding Thread Director support not coming from a driver — I stated as much towards the end of my post.  This is specifically why I said "most of" in the segment that you quote.  And what I've also been trying to get at is — Windows 10 doesn't support Thread Director (presently) but it doesn't matter as much as Intel/Microsoft would have you think, judging by independent tests.

 

The other features that you mention, having to do with GPU support, will likely not factor in to many (but not all) of the new Precision configurations, especially on the 7000-line.  If you buy a system with an NVIDIA dGPU then it will work just as well with Windows 10 as it will with Windows 11 from that aspect.

 

Dell could certainly limit systems with Arc dGPUs to Windows 11 only... if they were allowed to offer Windows 10 at all.  There's precedent for offering systems with unsupported features anyway — I can point back once again to the Dell Precision M6700, which was offered with Windows XP, but also supports NVIDIA Optimus (that doesn't work with XP).  XP users were expected to disable Optimus in the BIOS and run with the dGPU only.

[charles]

2 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

Well understood regarding Thread Director support not coming from a driver — I stated as much towards the end of my post.  This is specifically why I said "most of" in the segment that you quote.  And what I've also been trying to get at is — Windows 10 doesn't support Thread Director (presently) but it doesn't matter as much as Intel/Microsoft would have you think, judging by independent tests.

 

You are right, but keep in mind that will change. At the moment the Thread Director does not make a huge difference because most software does not take advantage of the hybrid architecture. Over time more and more software will be designed with efficiency cores and performance cores in mind, and then the difference between OS supporting Thread Director (Linux 5.18 and Windows 11) vs not-supporting (Windows 10 and Linux below 5.18) will be very substantial.

 

2 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

The other features that you mention, having to do with GPU support, will likely not factor in to many (but not all) of the new Precision configurations, especially on the 7000-line.  If you buy a system with an NVIDIA GPU then it will work just as well with Windows 10 as it will with Windows 11 from that aspect.  (Dell could certainly limit systems with Arc dGPUs to Windows 11 only... if they were allowed to offer Windows 10 at all.)

 

NVIDIA drivers are atrocious, especially on Linux but even on Windows, so hopefully Intel will bring some fresh air to the GPU industry.

 

Bottom line is that if you want to use systems based on Intel Core 12th or AMD Ryzen 6000 processors, you should use Linux or, in case your work requires Windows, seriously consider Windows 11.

[Aaron44126]

31 minutes ago, charles said:

Bottom line is that if you want to use systems based on Intel Core 12th or AMD Ryzen 6000 processors, you should use Linux or, in case your work requires Windows, seriously consider Windows 11.

 

Agreed.  I hate this conundrum, ha.  In the past, I have been a champion of new versions of Windows.  Here I am pushing for Windows 8, which despite its unfortunate UI, actually brought a number of legitimate improvements with it.

 

Windows 11 brings more baggage along with it than actual improvements (IMO).  This is the first time since XP that I have not upgraded right away.  Everyone has to decide for themselves if the new "features" and hardware support outweighs the downsides of Windows 11.  This scale will likely tip over time — for example as more software starts making use of P vs. E cores as you say, and also as Microsoft continues to bring new actual features to Windows 11.  Users can always stick with Windows 10 for now and upgrade later when it makes more sense — you aren't locked in to a certain OS when you pick up a new system.  (And if the upgrade never "makes sense" then I guess a switch to Linux might be worth a serious look.)

 

Myself, I will wait for the next Windows LTSC release and then likely upgrade right away, and at that point just figure out what I am going to do about anything that still gives me misgivings.

 

Back to the topic at hand.  The Intel Arc presentation is in less than three hours.  More news relating to the new laptops (of some kind of another) is likely coming today...

[addabis]

22 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

Earlier in this thread.  There are photos of the chassis.

https://notebooktalk.net/topic/23-precision-7670-7770-pre-release-discussion-alder-lake/?do=findComment&comment=3054

 

Thanks, I noticed that, but I hoped there is more information/rumors. Well, since 75x0 does not have enough GPU power for me and 77x0 does not fit into my Pelican backpack (yeah, priorities...), maybe this would be the one :-).

 

47 minutes ago, charles said:

 

It was necessary. There is a lot of discussion in this thread around software support, so it is useful to put the record straight.

 

I have specifically meant only the part with "stupid" in it. I more or less agree with the rest.

 

[charles]

43 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

Windows 11 brings more baggage along with it than actual improvements (IMO).  This is the first time since XP that I have not upgraded right away.  Everyone has to decide for themselves if the new "features" and hardware support outweighs the downsides of Windows 11.  This scale will likely tip over time — for example as more software starts making use of P vs. E cores as you say, and also as Microsoft continues to bring new actual features to Windows 11.  Users can always stick with Windows 10 for now and upgrade later when it makes more sense — you aren't locked in to a certain OS when you pick up a new system.  (And if the upgrade never "makes sense" then I guess a switch to Linux might be worth a serious look.)

 

As a Windows user for 20 years and Linux user for another 10 years, I can see a trend. Microsoft was a software company – making crappy software – but software company nevertheless. Since around 2015 Microsoft is morphing into a data/advertisement company, and Windows is evolving accordingly.

 

Windows was never a good piece of software, but can you imagine full telemetry on Windows 2000 or ads in the Start Menu on Windows XP? Or the requirement to have a Microsoft account just to log into your local computer?

 

In the past, there was no difference for Microsoft whether you purchase Windows XP, Vista or 7 as long as you paid for the license. Now user data is the the product, so Microsoft is pushing hard on Windows 11 and they will try to reserve all new features for the newest version.

[Aaron44126]

  

3 hours ago, addabis said:

Thanks, I noticed that, but I hoped there is more information/rumors.

 

All I have are the chassis images and references to the system model number from various documentation.  I can only speculate on what the specs will be like...  That's in the top post in this thread.  I have a variety of news alerts set up so if anything new pops up, I should hear about it pretty quickly and I'll repost here.

 

2 hours ago, charles said:

As a Windows user for 20 years and Linux user for another 10 years, I can see a trend.

 

While I might not be on quite the same page with regards to the "crappiness" level of Microsoft software...  (Oh, they have their moments, but they've kicked out some quality stuff too)...  This is quite on point regarding the direction of Windows, well said.

 

——————————————————————————————————————————————

 

Watched the Intel presentation, which ended up being a pre-recorded video that they just dropped on schedule ... not a live presentation.  About 20 minutes long.

 

They're launching new "Arc A series" GPUs for laptops, split into three groups:
Arc 3 – Thin & light laptops – Available now
Arc 5 & Arc 7 – Beefier laptops – Available in "early summer"

(Desktop GPUs will also be available in the summer.)

 

Specific GPUs launching now:

A350M - 6 Xe cores, 6 ray tracing units, 4GB vRAM
A370M - 8 Xe cores, 8 ray tracing units, 4GB vRAM

 

They're claiming that popular titles can run at 1080p/60FPS on the A370M.  No comment on what detail/settings levels they are using to achieve that... but the gameplay that they showed did look nice and fluid.

 

Future GPUs:

 

They did not compare performance with offerings from NVIDIA or AMD.  You can only use this to sort of gauge the relative performance of the Arc GPUs but not performance compared to GPUs from other vendors.

 

They talked up XeSS which we've known about for a while.  XeSS also won't be available until summer and it will require game devs to specifically support it (like DLSS).  It wasn't mentioned in the presentation, but XeSS doesn't require an Intel GPU to use.

 

Takeaway —

• Glad to see another player in the dGPU space, maybe "for real" this time (even if I don't plan on getting an Intel dGPU anytime soon... competition is good).
• Disappointing (but not surprising) that they're only launching the low-end GPUs right now, and the midrange/high-end GPUs are still months out.
• The Dell Precision 5470 leaked spec sheet above mentions an "A30M Pro" Arc GPU.  I wonder if that was supposed to be A350M or A370M, or if that one line refers to both GPUs, or if the workstation ("Pro") GPUs will have slightly different branding / model numbers?
• They (very briefly) showed systems from HP, Samsung, Lenovo, ASUS, and Acer in the presentation.  The first laptop shipping with an Intel Arc GPU is the Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro.  There didn't seem to be a big pile of system announcements happening all at once like we often see when Intel drops a new mobile CPU line.
• Nothing (yet) from Dell as far as I can tell.  Dell announcements may be held until tomorrow, when they are having a thing.  There are a lot of speakers so I guess it will be multiple hours long.  I don't have time to watch it live but I'll be looking out for system announcements in my news feed...  (Not expecting anything on Precision 7X70 just yet but the 3000 and 5000 lines are now fair game I'd say.)

[AL123]

10 hours ago, charles said:

 

It was necessary. There is a lot of discussion in this thread around software support, so it is useful to put the record straight.

 

Windows 10 does not support Alder Lake and Microsoft pushes hard to propagate Windows 11, so it is very unlikely Thread Director (and other features) will be added to Windows 10. Microsoft wants to serve you even more ads and collect even more of your data…

 

Dell will not wait for Microsoft to add Alder Lake features to Windows 10, Precision 3x70, 5x70 and 7x70 workstations should be released as soon as parts are officially released by Intel (Arc Graphics and later HX processors).

Just registered on these new forums to add my experience/ observations. 

I've not seen it listed anywhere that alder lake is not supoorted on windows 10 yes it lacks thread director but I haven't seen much difference in my testing of Windows 10 and 11 on the latest 12th Gen Intel CPUs. 

 

Also Precision Desktop Workstations such as the 3660 come with Windows 10 through downgrade rights I.e it comes with a Windows 11 license but Windows 10 pre installed and I would expect the same for laptops

 Sure there may be some things Linux or Windows 11 does better but that doesn't help if your apps don't run on it or your business is standardised on Windows 10

See
https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/workstations-isv-certified/precision-3660-tower-workstation/spd/precision-3660-workstation

 Ive personally tested i7-12700k and i9-12900k desktop CPUs in Windows 10 and 11 with CAD, FEA, CFD and CPU based rendering applications and so far I'm inclined to believe the thread director doesn't make a huge ammount of difference performance was almost identical in my tests. 

 

To me so far it in my testing it has seemed to be more about how the software supports alder lake. Many apps will need updates to fully utilise this new architecture or prevent it incorrectly using the e cores only. My results varied from fully utilising P and E cores with no tweaks needed while other  apps launching secondary processes e.g. To mesh/ run the simulation running on E cores only. This was the same in both Win 10 and 11.

 

I managed to find  some workaroundd so far high performance power plan/ plugging dual screens or raising the process priority to above normal in seemed to sort it but am feeding back to the developers.

 

The Workaround depended on the application and not all applications that used secondary processes had the issue or even the same issue!

 

Still early days in testing, I plan to test process lassoo also see of that can help. 

 

 But the main thing is we are talking enterprise level systems here I am 99.9% sure Windows 10 being offered on the majority if not all of latest generation of Precision laptops. 

 

 Some of the bigger  companies I work with only just got off Windows 7 completely, big companies generally have little appetite for Windows 11 yet, I'd expect atleast a couple more years of downgrade licenses being preinstalled options from OEMs like Dell. 

See also 
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-10-21h2-supported-intel-processors

12th gen Intel Desktop CPUs are listed as supported.

 

Expect more news soon on Precision laptops that should put minds at rest 🙂

 

[Aaron44126]

 

48 minutes ago, AL123 said:

I've not seen it listed anywhere that alder lake is not supoorted on windows 10 yes it lacks thread director but I haven't seen much difference in my testing of Windows 10 and 11 on their latest 12th Gen Intel  Precision Desktop Workstations such as the 3660 through downgrade rights I.e it comes with a Windows 11 license but Windows 10 pre installed and I would expect the same for laptops

 

Welcome, and thanks for posting.

 

There goes my supposition that Microsoft is blocking Windows 10 preinstalls on Alder Lake systems.  I didn't realize that 12th gen desktop Precision systems are available now.  And sure enough, there they are, shipping with Windows 10.

 

Went to check the support site and they are offering drivers for both Windows 10 and Windows 11.

 

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens with the laptops.

 

(At work, we also just finally got rid of the last Windows 7 deployments earlier this year.)

 

I actually just purchased a Process Lasso license last week.  Very nifty tool.  (To anyone unfamiliar — you can use this tool to set priority or affinity settings for an EXE/process and have them automatically applied every time that process starts.)  I'm actually planning to use it sort of in reverse, to make sure that certain background processes that like to occasionally gobble CPU cycles are constrained to the E cores only.  But, it could be handy to keep apps off of the E cores if they are having performance trouble.

 

——————————————————————————————————————————————

 

...Anyone know of a good way to get new hardware/system announcements straight from Dell?  Their news site and blog seem to be useless for this purpose.  As an example, there is no mention of the Alder Lake XPS 15 & XPS 17 refresh that just happened recently at those locations.  Yet, every article that I have read says something along the lines of "Dell has announced the availability of the new XPS 15 & XPS 17 systems...".  They must have some sort of press outlet that I'm not seeing.  Would have been nice to know about the launch of these Precision desktops without having to go constantly look at what's for sale.  It didn't even appear on the more general tech news sites that I follow.

 

——————————————————————————————————————————————

 

Just got this parcel delivered...  Got a good deal on this drive and wanted to hop on it.  Plan to use this as my system drive in the Precision 7770, in the hopefully not-too-distant future.  (Still need to pick up some high-capacity data drives as well.  Haven't fully settled on which model to get.)

 

Spoiler

 

[Dell-Mano_G]

Hello everyone.  Yes, I have an account on this site.  

[Reciever]

I havent heard any rumblings from Dell but I do have some executives visiting the workplace tomorrow. From what I understand though they arent very related to my line of work so I may not even see them, let alone ask about Windows 10 support.

 

That being said my clients tend to buy in bulk and hold for some time. Fanciest thing I go through is probably Precision 7820's