Dell Precision 7670 & Dell Precision 7770 owner's thread

[Aaron44126]

49 minutes ago, 1610ftw said:

That is a fantastic deal if Dell would sell the interposer for the classic RAM separately in case one needs more than what Dell put in.

 

Note, swapping from CAMM to SODIMM is a little more complicated than that.

 

(They should be selling CAMM modules separately at some point on the memory upgrade page, but it doesn't look like that has started yet...)

[vooze]

Hi all

 

Thanks for all your great comments. I buy laptops for work (working as jack of all trades sysadmin @ 100-ish people company) and just bought like 5 of these (7670) all with i9, 32GB CAMM, 1TB SSD etc, A3000 (so the thich cassis) but have also ordered 2 with A2000 to see the thinner model.

For my "own" I started applying the IA AC LoadLine tweaks, which seems to push C23 from around 14,5K to 17K in 10 min run. Do you think we can expect Dell to fix this in a later bios, or is this something I should do for my 5 users?

I also did the undervolt unlock, but it keeps crashing no matter what, like others have said. Seems there is  some work to be done with Alder Lake here.

 

About the fans. Have anything noticed a difference between Ultra Performance and Optized? Seems to be almost the same profile in this model, where the 5770 it was 45 vs 55 w PL2, so a little difference there, but seems to be 75W here no matter what.



 

[MyPC8MyBrain]

40 minutes ago, vooze said:

which seems to push C23 from around 14,5K to 17K in 10 min run

not a bad result for the platform, try disabling hybrid mode for improved results,
the 12950HX has been seen clocking 23k for 10min loop,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlyBV7JdvRU&t=732s
best i scored with the 7670 i think was around 20k for 10min and 19k for 30min loops,

 

40 minutes ago, vooze said:

we can expect Dell to fix this in a later bios

highly doubt it,

 

40 minutes ago, vooze said:

did the undervolt unlock, but it keeps crashing no matter what

follow steps here

[1610ftw]

On 11/4/2022 at 8:47 PM, MyPC8MyBrain said:

i missed that bit completely in his video, i just read off the image he posted there,

 

Got an answer on Jarrod's site:

He basically does 3 10 minute runs back to back with just enough time to capture the results.

So if he gets for example runs of 24, 23 and 22K he will then average that to 23.

 

He is also keeping the temps steady in his room at 21 degrees which makes his scores very much comparable.

 

 

[vooze]

4 hours ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

highly doubt it,

 

Why would they not be able to fix some values IA AC LoadLine, in a new bios, if they made a mistake?
 

4 hours ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

follow steps here

 

I actually did try to follow your guide, but it fails/BSOD after:

 

5. in "FIVR Control" Section, select "CPU P Cache", than check in "CPU Core" Section below "Unlock Adjustable Voltage"

6. Click Apply than OK on the bottom right of FIVR window

 

 

[MyPC8MyBrain]

21 minutes ago, vooze said:

Why would they not be able to fix some values

these values are pretty much intended, they opted for these values from factory,

 

21 minutes ago, vooze said:

I actually did try to follow your guide, but it fails/BSOD after

hmm... 
is hybrid display mode off in bios? (with it on we noticed reduced cpu performance)
are you running ultimate/high performance power plan in bios as well?
(you prob want to make sure you are on ultimate power plan in bios, you can balance it back with a classic windows power plan "balanced" or "power saver" for daily usage with all available power unrestricted for both cpu and dGpu)

 

if all still fails you can report your TS crash issue on this thread.

[vooze]

1 hour ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

these values are pretty much intended, they opted for these values from factory,

 

 

Why would they opt for something that gives less performance? While I don't fully understand IA AC LoadLine, it does seem to lower voltage a bit and gives a higher C23 score.
 

 

1 hour ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

is hybrid display mode off in bios? (with it on we noticed reduced cpu performance)
are you running ultimate/high performance power plan in bios as well?
(you prob want to make sure you are on ultimate power plan in bios, you can balance it back with a classic windows power plan "balanced" or "power saver" for daily usage with all available power unrestricted for both cpu and dGpu)

Also, I did just try both turning hybrid gpu off + setting power mananger to ultra performance. Always the same 17k-17,5K in a 10 min run. It keeps at 75W at 80-85C, no difference.

 

 

[Aaron44126]

Audio driver update.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=XX43G

 

"Fixed the issue where there is no sound from the speaker when only partial driver is updated through the Windows update."

...I guess this is why I generally don't allow driver updates through Windows Update.

[DarginMahkum]

Today I got my offers from two 7770 configurations from the Dell rep that I was in touch with last time I got the XPS17. Not a "US refurbished" price but still better than nothing. 😉

 

As said, I would like to order with iGPU only. Does it make a big performance drop using only the iGPU (as I guess it will use power from the CPU budget)?

 

And any Linux users that succeeded to disable the dGPU completely?

[Aaron44126]

24 minutes ago, DarginMahkum said:

As said, I would like to order with iGPU only. Does it make a big performance drop using only the iGPU (as I guess it will use power from the CPU budget)?

 

And any Linux users that succeeded to disable the dGPU completely?

 

dGPU "should" be fully powered off when it is not in use, as long as you have hybrid graphics enabled in the BIOS, so it won't be any different than an iGPU-only configuration if you aren't using the graphics.  I think that Linux support for proper hybrid graphics behavior is pretty good now; @Ionising_Radiation knows this space pretty well and maybe can chip in with specific things to look for...

[DarginMahkum]

2 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

dGPU "should" be fully powered off when it is not in use, as long as you have hybrid graphics enabled in the BIOS, so it won't be any different than an iGPU-only configuration if you aren't using the graphics.  I think that Linux support for proper hybrid graphics behavior is pretty good now; @Ionising_Radiation knows this space pretty well and maybe can chip in with specific things to look for...

The problem is with completely disabling it, as somehow if the dGPU is not completely disabled, the eGPU starts stuttering. I have this issue both on Windows and Linux, and on Windows eGPU stuttering stops if I disable the dGPU. On my Blade 17 and Linux, I couldn't manage to disable it with ACPI calls. This is mainly why I want to switch to a laptop where I can either disable the dGPU or completely remove it out of the equation. 7x70 are the only powerful laptops where I can choose a dGPU'less system.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

8 hours ago, vooze said:

I did just try both

did you try undervolting from there with hybrid off and ultimate power in bios, still crashing?

 

  

44 minutes ago, DarginMahkum said:

I couldn't manage to disable it with ACPI calls

setup_var CpuSetup 0xE 0x0      # Enable ACPI S3 Support (default 0x1)

[Reshen]

Just received my 7670!

 

Beautiful chassis and the touch screen is beautiful.

 

But....just doing the initial setup this thing got so dang hot! Never had a precision that did that. I propped up the machine to give the underside vents and it seems to help. How the heck one would use this on their lap is unfathomable.

 

Running cinebench without changing anything. I share those results shortly.

 

Then I'll work through this thread and see if my experience is any different.

 

Holding thumbs 🙂

[Aaron44126]

On 11/8/2022 at 8:09 AM, Aaron44126 said:

Audio driver update.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=XX43G

 

This audio driver update caused a mess for me.

 

I was left with the "Waves Audio Service" (WavesSysSvc64.exe) stuck in the "Starting" state.  In Task Manager, I can see that it was stuck in an endless loop or something, gobbling up an entire CPU core.  I do have working audio, but because the service is messed up, audio controls in Dell Optimizer are non-functional and the system won't even notice when I plug in headphones and cut over.

 

I uninstalled the Realtek audio driver, ran DDU for good measure (it can clean up Realtek audio drivers now), and installed it again.  This process probably involved four reboots and in the end I was left in the same situation, with the messed up service.

 

So, I uninstalled the new driver and installed the previous one.  Still messed up.  Not sure what to attempt next.  I kicked off System Restore and I'm rolling back to a restore point from before I ran updates yesterday.  (My past experience is that System Restore can take hours to do its job.)

 

Dunno what's going on here.  Dell also updated the Realtek audio driver on the Precision 7560 — same version number as the new one that dropped for Precision 7770, but a different file to download — I installed that and it is working fine on the 7560.

[Reshen]

Balanced Settings:

 

 

Performance Settings:

 

 

Seems to be similar to what others have found. So next step is a repaste of the CPU/GPU?

 

[1610ftw]

22 minutes ago, Reshen said:

Balanced Settings:

 

 

Performance Settings:

 

 

Seems to be similar to what others have found. So next step is a repaste of the CPU/GPU?

 

 

I would first exhaust all other options in the bios and with Intel XTU or Throttlestop.

 

I think that others have mentioned that you should be able to sustain 75 to 80W in a longer Cinebench run and if you can get that then a repasting will probably not bring that much of an advantage. Your Performance settings are not much better though than a 7760 with the 11800H so there is the possibility that you got a real lemon in the heatsink department. 

[Aaron44126]

9 minutes ago, 1610ftw said:

I think that others have mentioned that you should be able to sustain 75 to 80W in a longer Cinebench run and if you can get that then a repasting will probably not bring that much of an advantage.

 

Eh.  For me, the repaste definitely helped move from "thermal throttling" to "power throttling" territory (meaning I would be able to get more performance out with Throttlestop).  Assuming you are comfortable with doing it, it doesn't take very long to do so nothing to hurt by trying.

[Reshen]

What really bugs me right now is the heat. The top left corner is really hot even on the keyboard side.

 

The right side is fine. Is there a chance a fan is not working?

[Aaron44126]

9 minutes ago, Reshen said:

The right side is fine. Is there a chance a fan is not working?

 

Both of the fans are on the right side...  The left side only gets some passive airflow from internal air circulation.  The top left is also where the hot CPU is.  I can also tell that the left side of my 7770 is warmer than the right (but it's not in "uncomfortable" territory).

 

I recommend looking into disabling turbo boost to keep fans/temperature more under control when you are not running high-CPU loads.  (See "turbo boost toggle" link in my signature.)

[1610ftw]

13 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

Eh.  For me, the repaste definitely helped move from "thermal throttling" to "power throttling" territory (meaning I would be able to get more performance out with Throttlestop).  Assuming you are comfortable with doing it, it doesn't take very long to do so nothing to hurt by trying.

 

At least where I live I would only do that when I have tried everything that does not include opening the laptop. Not worth the hassle when performance is actually pretty good and there may be a bit of an issue with opening and repasting when this is a possible return/exchange candidate.

[Reshen]

I've been installing software: ANSYS, Simcentre, Solidworks etc. Machine is cool and quiet now. Big Relief.

 

Now for the joy of getting around all the high DPI scaling issues 🙂

[Aaron44126]

6 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

So, I uninstalled the new driver and installed the previous one.  Still messed up.  Not sure what to attempt next.  I kicked off System Restore and I'm rolling back to a restore point from before I ran updates yesterday.  (My past experience is that System Restore can take hours to do its job.)

 

System Restore failed after two attempts.  (Not Dell's fault, it's on Microsoft.  System Restore was saying that it couldn't delete my iCloud Photos folder.  Huh?  I deleted it myself and ran SR again, and this time it said that it couldn't restore the same folder from the restore point.)  I ended up restoring a system image.  (I capture a full image every week with Macrium Reflect, and it so happens that an image was captured yesterday morning.)  That caused a little bit a mess that I had to clean up with regards to BitLocker but once finished... but at least my audio services are working properly again.

 

I'm now thinking hard about buying the paid version of Macrium Reflect and doing daily incremental backups.  Seems like it would be super handy to be able to restore or browse the image for a particular day, and since System Restore doesn't even work right......

[DarginMahkum]

I still didn't order mine, as my mind was shifting between the other options and 7*70. Looks like Lenovo P16 out of the box has a considerably better performance but has no option for no dGPU, has only two nvme slots, and no ethernet. HP Fury G9 also doesn't have no dGPU option. Haven't seen many benchmarks either. I am also not sure if the support from Lenovo and HP is as good as Dell.

 

Also looks like I might be able to completely turn off the dGPU on 7770 even if I go for a dGPU configuration (sometimes it is good to have a basic CUDA processor in the system).

 

Then there is Asus 17 SE but my hand is already burned from depending on a gaming laptop for work.

 

Hmmm... I need to sleep over my thoughts again.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

2 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

I'm now thinking hard about buying the paid version of Macrium Reflect

been an avid user of Acronis True Image for backup and restore solutions for over 20 years now,
highly recommended.

[Aaron44126]

1 hour ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

been an avid user of Acronis True Image for backup and restore solutions for over 20 years now,
highly recommended.

 

I used Acronis True Image for many years, but have more recently switched to Macrium Reflect.  Acronis True Image installs too much background stuff if you install the full software package for doing live image backups (instead of just relying on bootable media).  Macrium Reflect's WinPE-based recovery environment is really nice for loading all of the custom drivers that you need for disk and network access.  It's also really easy to do very specific partition moving/sizing operations when doing a recovery or disk-to-disk clone.  ...And it's free, but if you pay for it to get the extra features, they don't release version upgrades that you need to pay for nearly as often as Acronis does.