Dell Pro Max 16/18 Plus (2025 model) pre-release discussion — MB16250, MB18250

[AL123]

5 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

The GPU card fits in the top-right area (viewing from the bottom), a custom form factor DGFF card like they've been doing for several years now. It can be seen in the manual. (Tossed some pictures from the manual in the spoiler block below.)

 

The only new thing here to me is that it appears to be double-stacked over part of the motherboard (but not directly above the CPU). You can see the double-stacking best in the second-to-last image in @AL123's post above. Stacking the dGPU card on top of the motherboard is not that new, it was standard design when Dell was using MXM cards (2017 systems and earlier), but this is the first time that I have seen it since they switched to DGFF.

 

When the Qualcomm AI thing is available, my understanding is that it will also be a DGFF card fitting in the same space, so you'll have to pick between it or an NVIDIA GPU.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

I’d certainly like a better idea of how this stacking is arranged, not brave enough to take these apart any further though! 
 

I can try and take some more pictures around that area when I am back in the office though. 

[AL123]

5 hours ago, yslalan said:

Well, it’s kind of hard to say. Those AI Chips are not a new model (advertised as dNPUs). In the Pro Max-Plus series, Dell is using the solution from Qualcomm shipped in H1 2021 (a pair of AI 100 Pro chips), but four years have already passed, and there hasn’t been much presence in industrial usage.

ah didn’t realise it was that old,  perhaps the first gen might be a bit limited but hopefully a sign dell are looking to innovate.

 

i think the NVIDIA spark / Dell Pro Max GB10 will make more sense, 128GB or 256 if you join two together 

https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/products/workstations/dgx-spark/
 

so small you could jsut pop in your bag,

 

5 hours ago, yslalan said:

Well, it’s kind of hard to say. Those AI Chips are not a new model (advertised as dNPUs). In the Pro Max-Plus series, Dell is using the solution from Qualcomm shipped in H1 2021 (a pair of AI 100 Pro chips), but four years have already passed, and there hasn’t been much presence in industrial usage.

 

[MyPC8MyBrain]

40 minutes ago, win32asmguy said:

they made a decision of function over form here

I’m not sold on the idea that this form will hold up under sustained heavy loads. Mobile chassis designs already have minimal wiggle room, and if the trade-off here is improve latency over optimizing thermals, I’d take optimizing thermals—because once temps spike, latency will happen anyway. Lower latency isn’t much of a win if the rest of the system is cooking itself. That’s not just counterproductive, it’s self-defeating in the long run.

[yslalan]

7 hours ago, AL123 said:

small you could jsut pop in your bag

Yea, I am awaiting news about the Nvidia N1x SoC, which is based on the same architecture as GB10 but targeted towards the laptop market. Hopefully, it's Linux and Windows on Arm compatible. 

[AL123]

14 hours ago, yslalan said:

Yea, I am awaiting news about the Nvidia N1x SoC, which is based on the same architecture as GB10 but targeted towards the laptop market. Hopefully, it's Linux and Windows on Arm compatible. 

Ah I hadn’t heard about that one, would be more aligned with the dominance NVIDIA have in that market along with partnership Dell have with them.

 

perhaps the focus on AI will also mean we will see a mid life increase in graphics memory per ampere mobile where they doubled many of the capacities of the range IIRC. just not sure if the memory density will allow for that in such a small space to cram them in and cool the chips. 

[MyPC8MyBrain]

While SoCs do offer real engineering advantages in terms of performance per watt, the business model they enable is a major contributor to the growing e-waste problem and the erosion of consumer freedom.
 

SoCs in personal computing are, in my view, an abomination—a step in the wrong direction for the average user. They exist not because they serve the long-term interests of consumers, but because they maximize profit, streamline manufacturing, and reinforce planned obsolescence.
 

The trade-off is clear: ownership, control, and product longevity are sacrificed for short-term efficiency and corporate margins.

[AL123]

15 hours ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

While SoCs do offer real engineering advantages in terms of performance per watt, the business model they enable is a major contributor to the growing e-waste problem and the erosion of consumer freedom.
 

SoCs in personal computing are, in my view, an abomination—a step in the wrong direction for the average user. They exist not because they serve the long-term interests of consumers, but because they maximize profit, streamline manufacturing, and reinforce planned obsolescence.
 

The trade-off is clear: ownership, control, and product longevity are sacrificed for short-term efficiency and corporate margins.

 Certainly not ideal, but what did surprise me is what NVIDIA is doing with local AI  is making it more affordable for once. With GB10 it’s  ~$3k for 128GB (2bn parameter models)  or $6k for 256GB if you link two together.  won’t be as fast as a system with one or more 96GB RTX 6000 Blackwell but less costly and more capacity. Perhaps I’ll give them a pass on using a SoC in that case. Storage is user upgradable, but the memory is soldered 

 

I hope that CAMM memory will see wider adoption and make it less necessary to have soldered ram. Sometimes it’s the chip makers decision e.g new AMD strix point/ halo have apus with soldered memory In the AMD versions of the base Pro Max 14/16. I believe tthat is the only option due to AMD choices, but more often it’s the manufacturer, Dell, HP, Lenovo….. choice. 
 

I really don’t understand why for instance Dell are using LP-CAMM on their entry level Pro Max 14 but soldered memory on their Pro Max 14 & 16 Premium devices. They really aren’t that much thinner to make be believe soldered is necessary, given the pioneered CAMM modules this is very disappointing.

 

Apple seem to have gained some advantages from their SoC approach for and I’m fine with a combined APU, if it’s genuinely better, but would be nice to have upgradable memory if CAMM was fast enough and no excuse for non upgradable storage. Not sure apple will ever do this thouge,  even user upgradable storage has gone by the way for no justification I can see just greed, just add gen 5 m.2 pcie slot .

 

we have to use windows due to certain pro applications, but for teams like our video/ marketing macs would make sense, the snag other than supporting 2 different OS,  is either paying through the nose for storage or having loads of external drives that are harder to control from a IT perspective 

[SvenC]

Still no review from the new Dell Pro Max Plus 16/18.

 

We'll order a Pro Max Plus 18" tomorrow. 265HX, iGPU only, CSoDimm (1x 16GB to upgrade myself to 2x 32GB). Should be delivered in 3 weeks, according to our sales rep.

[AL123]

2 hours ago, SvenC said:

Still no review from the new Dell Pro Max Plus 16/18.

 

We'll order a Pro Max Plus 18" tomorrow. 265HX, iGPU only, CSoDimm (1x 16GB to upgrade myself to 2x 32GB). Should be delivered in 3 weeks, according to our sales rep.

Will be interesting to see how the iGPU version performs,  from the manual it looks like the heatsink is different. The Pro Max 18 with RTX 4000 I have runs the Ultra 9 CPU at sustained power of around 100W (PL1 = 98W) 

 

 

[SvenC]

2 hours ago, AL123 said:

Will be interesting to see how the iGPU version performs,  from the manual it looks like the heatsink is different. The Pro Max 18 with RTX 4000 I have runs the Ultra 9 CPU at sustained power of around 100W (PL1 = 98W) 

 

 

How long does it run on battery on low use? Does it get hot on medium or high load?

[AL123]

3 minutes ago, SvenC said:

 

How long does it run on battery on low use? Does it get hot on medium or high load?

Early days for testing not  used it much for day to day work jsut a bit of benchmarking; but had More time with the lower pro max 16 with intel h series and that certainly seems much better than earlier core i7/i9 

 

On the pro max 18 plus so far pleased with the temps under high load, chassis doesn’t seem to heat up the same way as previous gen, 

[MyPC8MyBrain]

our sales rep called me last week to let me know they are running specials on the new 16/18 pro max's internally for limited time, it seem they proactively trying to push these out.