Dell Precision 7670 & Dell Precision 7770 owner's thread

[brunooo84]

is there a way to restore all the values set with setup_var to the default factory values? 

[MyPC8MyBrain]

19 minutes ago, brunooo84 said:

I'm just confused about why TS doesn't make any difference for me

did you switch off secure boot option in bios?

 

  

12 minutes ago, brunooo84 said:

is there a way to restore all the values set with setup_var to the default factory values? 

run setup_var and apply default values 

setup_var CpuSetup 0x10E 0x1   # Overclocking lock
setup_var CpuSetup 0x43 0x1    # CFG lock

[brunooo84]

I switched it off to run the utility to run setup_var but set it back to on to boot windows

[MyPC8MyBrain]

2 minutes ago, brunooo84 said:

but set it back to on to boot windows

i believe you want to leave it off,

[brunooo84]

4 minutes ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

did you switch off secure boot option in bios?

 

  

run setup_var and apply default values 

setup_var CpuSetup 0x10E 0x1   # Overclocking lock
setup_var CpuSetup 0x43 0x1    # CFG lock

 

yes yes, I just wanted to know if there's a way to restore everything to their factory values in case I mess up with other values

[MyPC8MyBrain]

1 minute ago, brunooo84 said:

restore everything to their factory values in case I mess up with other values

re-flash/restore your bios

[brunooo84]

2 minutes ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

i believe you want to leave it off,

jsut did it... no difference again. Also, TS shows all my offsets as zero...

[MyPC8MyBrain]

6 minutes ago, brunooo84 said:

jsut did it... no difference again.

thats odd!
did you change other values beside cache ratio?
i suggest scroll back find my posts with under clock i applied to my system and use that as your baseline,
i run all my tests posted here with the same under clock setting i did not need to further change them,

they run very stable and never crashed here for me at any point,

[brunooo84]

5 minutes ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

thats odd!
did you change other values beside cache ratio?
i suggest scroll back find my posts with overcoking i applied to my system and use that as your baseline, i run all my test posted here with the same setting i did not need to further change these they run very stable and never crashed here for me at any point,

yes I used your settings I think?

https://notebooktalk.net/topic/632-dell-precision-7670-dell-precision-7770-owners-thread/?do=findComment&comment=16250

 

[MyPC8MyBrain]

  

23 minutes ago, brunooo84 said:

yes I used your settings I think?

nop you did not, i am not @Aaron44126 😄 
follow hyper links i added to this post they will take you back to all previous posts containing info relevant to undervolting the 7x70 platform

[MyPC8MyBrain]

10 hours ago, win32asmguy said:

Thats in the top 5% of for short burst CPU performance for any laptop.

i am running everything thus far with a single 8GB SODIMM stick which puts the system in single channel mode, makes me wonder how much more can the system improve in dual channel mode 

[brunooo84]

1 hour ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

  

nop you did not, i am not @Aaron44126 😄 
follow hyper links i added to this post they will take you back to my previous posts containing all info pertaining to undervolting the 7x70 platform

turns out it seems like TS doesn't work with virtualization enabled... when I disabled it in bios it works, I even got some blue screens playing with the sliders

 

now TS also shows the offset values and not zeros anymore, but I need virtualization enabled so not much I can do I think

[Aaron44126]

14 minutes ago, brunooo84 said:

turns out it seems like TS doesn't work with virtualization enabled... when I disabled it in bios it works, I even got some blue screens playing with the sliders

 

now TS also shows the offset values and not zeros anymore, but I need virtualization enabled so not much I can do I think

 

Yeah, this is what has been putting me off from working with it.  I think that you can do "some" things but undervolting specifically is locked out.  Someone told me that you can disable virtualization, find the right voltages, and then set them with appropriate setup_var variables and it'll work even if virtualization is enabled.  I haven't taken the time to figure that out yet.

 

Also, it's not really virtualization turned on in the BIOS that messes you up here.  It's just having Hyper-V enabled in Windows.  (Or, that's my understanding.  Also something I haven't taken the time to poke with.)  If you don't need Hyper-V, then turn it off and you might be in a better spot.  I'm a VMware guy, myself... but now I need to keep Hyper-V on for WSL.

[brunooo84]

6 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

Yeah, this is what has been putting me off from working with it.  I think that you can do "some" things but undervolting specifically is locked out.  Someone told me that you can disable virtualization, find the right voltages, and then set them with appropriate setup_var variables and it'll work even if virtualization is enabled.  I haven't taken the time to figure that out yet.

 

Also, it's not really virtualization turned on in the BIOS that messes you up here.  It's just having Hyper-V enabled in Windows.  (Or, that's my understanding.  Haven't tried it.)  If you don't need Hyper-V then turn it off and you might be in a better spot.

I don't have hyper-v enabled but I need virtualization for wsl and android emulators... I will try to figure out setup_var values to set it and try later, but I can't have virtualization disabled

[MyPC8MyBrain]

40 minutes ago, brunooo84 said:

turns out it seems like TS doesn't work with virtualization enabled

i find it hard to believe, either way that's an application level issue not a system wide or remotely close to be an issue!

 

26 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

Someone told me that you can disable virtualization, find the right voltages, and then set them with appropriate setup_var variables and it'll work even if virtualization is enabled.  I haven't taken the time to figure that out yet.

indeed you can set your final undervolt setting directly in bios with setup_var so it is low level implementation and permanent, i still fail to make a logic connection how virtualization effects TS,
i have these settings for my system if you want me to post (look for "Voltage Offset" in bios dump),

[brunooo84]

17 minutes ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

i find it hard to believe, either way that's an application level issue not a system wide or remotely close to be an issue!

 

indeed you can set your final undervolt setting directly in bios with setup_var so it is low level implementation and permanent, i still fail to make a logic connection how virtualization effects TS,
i have these settings for my system if you want me to post (look for "Voltage Offset" in bios dump),

 

could you post your values? I would give it a try, also, is this possible to set the turbo group ratios with setup_var as well?

right now the best settings for my system is 45 for P cores and 35 for E cores... but I will check this again after I apply the new thermal pad

[brunooo84]

how is your 3080 ti performing? I just tried to play hitman 3, and it's getting around 20 fps in 4k, scoring just under 70k in geekbench... my desktop rtx 2080 (not ti) beats it scoring almost 120k!

[Aaron44126]

8 hours ago, brunooo84 said:

turns out it seems like TS doesn't work with virtualization enabled... when I disabled it in bios it works, I even got some blue screens playing with the sliders

 

8 hours ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

i find it hard to believe, either way that's an application level issue not a system wide or remotely close to be an issue!

 

No, this a well-known thing.  The virtualization support blocks access from the OS to some low-level registers that ThrottleStop needs to be able to manipulate for certain functions.  (I thought that it was just having Hyper-V enabled in Windows, but maybe it is having virtualization enabled in the BIOS at all.)

  

4 hours ago, brunooo84 said:

how is your 3080 ti performing? I just tried to play hitman 3, and it's getting around 20 fps in 4k, scoring just under 70k in geekbench... my desktop rtx 2080 (not ti) beats it scoring almost 120k!

 

I've found that 4K gaming in newer titles probably isn't going to work out, except with maybe a good DLSS implementation to push it over the edge.  I've been having decent results with 1440p (...and I can't really tell the difference).  I published some 3DMark numbers on the second post in this thread.  Not surprised if a Turing desktop card can beat it.  It basically boils down to the "low" power limit for this GPU compared to the power limits that you see in desktops (especially if it has to "share" with the CPU).

 

I’m also going to try undervolting the GPU, which I don’t expect to be transformative but will help a little bit.

[TwistedAndy]

12 hours ago, brunooo84 said:

I just restarted my machine, ran the tests again but this time without opening TS and the results are exactly the same... I must be doing something dumb and TS is not working at all or for some reason it doesn't make any difference to my machine?

 

You need to disable VBS in Windows (Virtualization-Based Security), You can keep the virtualization and Hyper-V enabled.

 

The setting is called Memory integrity:

[Aaron44126]

6 hours ago, brunooo84 said:

how is your 3080 ti performing? I just tried to play hitman 3, and it's getting around 20 fps in 4k, scoring just under 70k in geekbench... my desktop rtx 2080 (not ti) beats it scoring almost 120k!

 

Oh, if you have the "Cool" thermal profile set...  Try with "Ultra performance" instead.  I wonder if Dell is further limiting the NVIDIA GPU power level like they are with the "Quiet" profile.

 

You could check with NVIDIA Inspector and just looking at the P-State.  P8 is the lowest performance and P0 is the highest.  In the "Quiet" profile it will not go to a higher performance state than P3 and that is definitely noticeable in games.

[1610ftw]

14 hours ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

no I don't, I applied LM TIM (if scroll back you can see my posts and pics),
my unit is going back to Dell soon, in prep i removed my LM TIM and re-applied Kryonaut TIM,

 

 

MyPC8MyBrain: Gets fastest CB R23 of all members in this thread on his 7670 (!) and then returns it because he thinks It's not good enough 😄

[MyPC8MyBrain]

@1610ftw 
i worked at getting that score it didn't just fall out of the sky,
its a fun habit of mine to see how far a certain pc can be pushed,
there's allot more that goes into this, undervolting is the least and last tweaking element in my setup,

i recently had 11900HK XPS 17 i also dialed in to the highest score on 3DMARK,
you can check you will see my handle name with highest score next to it for that cpu,

i returned that unit and got this instead, initially i got a great deal on a refurbished XPS 17 unit,
when it arrived there were allot of scuffs and dings all over and the worst part the screen had a wobble,
i could fit my fingernail between the screen back shell and the screen itself, 
 

cosmetics aside i did my thing with that unit too just to see what its potential is,

i have to admit i loved that unit and would have kept it if it wasn't botched or if Dell offered an exact replacement,

 

long story short i was always eyeballing the 7670 upcoming line as soon as they were out i was ready to order,

but they didn't have the sodimm module available so i waited until it finally became available and placed my order,

two weeks into me waiting for my order to be built with top of the line specs,
NVidia comes out with Lovelace architecture showing effectively twice the performance from previous generation,
followed by Intel announcing and releasing Raptor Lake architecture with additional 8 E-Cores and faster DDR5 support,

i just specked a brand new system with top of the line components and two weeks later before i even get to enjoy it its already old news hardware wise, i usually commit 5-10 years with each personal laptop driver i don't like switching,

 

if this machine didn't have issues i would have kept it, but it does have issue,

the high CB score comes with unmanaged heat premium that throttles,
i am not fully comfortable committing the next 10 years to this unit,

i don't feel thermal design in this unit is sufficient or robust enough to host the HX CPU line,
i will be waiting for the upcoming 8x80 line with the hope they design it with proper vapor chamber that can manage demanding thermals, if they keep this flimsy heat pipe design for the new Intel Raptor lake CPU's i will reluctantly look into a Razer Blade solution instead,

to be fair and to DELL's credit and true fashion...
before i started tinkering with this unit i already called them to complain about idling at 76c and few other anomalies i observed with this particular unit, they immediately offered a complete brand new replacement which i agreed too, its one of the reasons i am addicted to DELL for over 22 years now,
and why i bought and supported hundred of thousands of their machines over the years, 
a replacement is on its way, i have not yet fully walked away from the 7670,

we will see.

 

[Aaron44126]

23 minutes ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

NVidia comes out with Lovelace architecture showing effectively twice the performance from previous generation,
followed by Intel announcing and releasing Raptor Lake architecture with additional 8 E-Cores,

 

Waiting for new stuff to trickle down is always a bit sad.  We won't see Lovelace or Raptor Lake in the Precision 7000 line until June/July 2023.

 

I thought about waiting one more year for Lovelace, but I was just tired of waiting for "the next thing" which is always right around the corner.  (I already pushed back my system purchase a year to get Alder Lake.)  I'll also be surprised if it gets anywhere near 2× performance improvement on the mobile side.  It seems that on the desktop side, that has been achieved in part by jacking up the power requirements.  DLSS 3 is really interesting, though, and can effectively (nearly?) double the framerate in games that support it.

 

I might try my hand at a GPU upgrade in the future, if it is feasible.  Precision 7X80 will likely use the same chassis, so its GPU cards might fit in to 7X70.  Now that I know how to change the laptop's subsystem ID, it should be possible to drop in a newer GPU without having to worry about NVIDIA INF mods (and thus tripping certain DRM/anti-cheat software).

[MyPC8MyBrain]

16 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

The waiting game is always a bit sad for stuff to trickle down

like yourself I've been waiting for several years now for the perfect platform to move on to the next few years,
i was elated with my 7670 specs and looking forward to falling in love with it,
then Jensen announced his new GPU, and Intel with their new CPU's and faster DDR5,
i felt like a rookie who didn't do his homework when i learned these were coming out shortly,

 

16 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

We won't see Lovelace or Raptor Lake in the Precision 7000 line until June/July 2023

ouch, i don't know that i want to wait another year for the next iteration,
 

[Aaron44126]

15 minutes ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

ouch, i don't know that i want to wait another year for the next iteration,

 

Possibly they could arrive as early as May, but the cadence is getting pretty predictable.

Right now, this new stuff is only available in desktops, and that will be the way that it is through the holiday season.

CES 2023 will have both NVIDIA and Intel teasing their new products in laptops.  Maybe we will see GeForce "4070" / "4080" in laptops and some Raptor Lake H systems in February/March.

Raptor Lake HX will be held back until late April / early May.  And Precision "7X80" will launch some weeks after the Raptor Lake HX reveal, not right along with it.

 

...Obviously, this is just speculation on my part, but I laid out a similar timeline for Precision 7X70 a year ago and it more or less came to pass.  Of course, marketing people do their own thing; back then I didn't know about the Alder Lake branding shakeup and the splitting up of the "H" and "HX" lines...  What I am referring to as "Alder Lake H" in that post turned out to be "Alder Lake HX", and "GeForce 3000 SUPER" just turned out to be "GeForce 3000 Ti" laptop GPUs.  Also not anticipated was whatever manufacturing issues caused Dell to delay these systems from May all the way until July.  (Dell even stated on their Precision deep-dive event that they had intended to launch these in May.)

 

I think it's almost time to spin up a Precision 7X80 pre-release thread.  🙂