Dell Precision 7540 and 7740 Owner's Thread

Hello everyone,

I'm planning to buy 7740 with 4k display, Rtx4000,
Seperatelly i'll buy 4x16gb 3200mhz non-ecc ram, 1tb samsung 970pro.

I use only cad programs and play game time to time. Siemens nx and solidworks. I make analysis not very often.
I know i need single core and the quickest one. I'm in conflict with this 2, prices are close.

Intel® Core™ Processor i9-9980HK, 8 Core, 16MB Cache, 2.40GHz up to 5.00GHz Turbo, 45W
Intel® Xeon E2286M, 8 Core Xeon, 16M Cache, 2.40GHz up to 5.00GHz Turbo, 45W, vPro

Which one would you prefer?

 

Just get the i9 unless you need ECC or vPro. Oh, and with your 3200mhz ram be sure to order from a place that can do a return with no fee. Other users here have had trouble getting aftermarket 3200mhz ram to work. Kingston HyperX 2666 CL15 does work fine.

 

They are the same. The difference is that the Xeon supports ECC memory. If you do not need ECC memory then get the i9.

 

What about this one?
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2666MHz-Memory-Computers-M471A4G43MB1/dp/B07N124XDS

 

That module should be the one dell actually uses so i don't think you will encounter any compatibility problem (dell generally uses oem ram from brands like samsung, sk hynix, micron)

Samsung M471A4G43MB1 is 2666mhz@cl19
HyperX HX426S15IB2K2/32 is 2666mhz@cl15

Lower latency is better but you won't notice any dramatic improvement in generic use.
If you need 64 GB of total ram, go for 2x32 gb samsung ram.

-Looking at current amazon prices for both of them, you can save some money going for samsung rather then hyperx.
-2x32 configuration puts less stress on memory controller than 4x16.
-You'll still have room to add 2 other sticks should you ever need 128 GB in the future (remember to put those initial 2x32 GB sticks under the keyboard slots to avoid any strange metallic sounds while typing).

 

I saw this driver update this morning, and not sure if its a typo or not but maybe the RTX 4000 / RTX 5000 are coming to the 7540?

https://www.dell.com/support/home/u...de=wt64a&productcode=precision-17-7740-laptop

 

Those cards will not come to the 7540. Dell's NVIDIA driver packages are shared between the 7540 and 7740, so that is why those cards are listed.

[Edit]
Nevermind, I didn't read the "Fixes and enhancements" section. That's crazy. I'm still highly skeptical. The system has a lower power limit (180W vs 240W) and the higher-level cards would definitely hit a limit there. Maybe they would sell such a system with a 240W adapter. Previous claims from Dell were that putting the 3000-level Quadro in was already pushing the system to the limit (thermally speaking). If they do start offering them, I suspect we'll see a situation like we had last-gen with the P3200, where the card had a lower power limit (and thus lower clock speeds) in the 7530 than in the 7730.

We'll see.

[Edit 2]
Out of curiosity, I downloaded the driver and inspected the INF file. It does indeed have RTX 4000 and RTX 5000 entries for the Precision 7540 (926) in addition to the 7740 (927). @Ionising_Radiation, figured you would be interested...

Code:

NVIDIA_DEV.1EB5.0926.1028 = "NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000"
NVIDIA_DEV.1EB5.0927.1028 = "NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000"
NVIDIA_DEV.1EB5.1926.1028 = "NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000"
NVIDIA_DEV.1EB5.1927.1028 = "NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000"
NVIDIA_DEV.1EB6.0926.1028 = "NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000"
NVIDIA_DEV.1EB6.0927.1028 = "NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000"
NVIDIA_DEV.1EB6.1926.1028 = "NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000"
NVIDIA_DEV.1EB6.1927.1028 = "NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000"
NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.0926.1028 = "NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000"
NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.0927.1028 = "NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000"
NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.1926.1028 = "NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000"
NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.1927.1028 = "NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000"
NVIDIA_DEV.1FB8.0926.1028 = "NVIDIA Quadro T2000"
NVIDIA_DEV.1FB8.1926.1028 = "NVIDIA Quadro T2000"
NVIDIA_DEV.1FB9.0926.1028 = "NVIDIA Quadro T1000"
NVIDIA_DEV.1FB9.1926.1028 = "NVIDIA Quadro T1000"

 

Oh snap. Maybe I can sell my P3200 + RTX 3000 for a cool $1700 total ($600 for P3200, $1100 for RTX 3000), and get myself an RTX 4000 or even 5000. This is noice, as Jake Peralta would put it. Oddly enough, the latest official NVIDIA Quadro driver, 440.97 does not have these listings.

@Aaron44126, I get a feeling Dell is placing these GPUs in the 15" Precision to compete with the crop of newcomer manufacturers to the workstation space, because Razer, MSi, Asus, et al have Quadro RTX 5000s in 15" machines that are thinner than the 7530/7540.

 

Lenovo Thinkpad P53 actually has both rtx 4000 and rtx 5000 as well (the 80w variant of course).
But it has 230w power adapter regardless of the gpu chosen.
.
I can see Dell offering the same 240W from 7740 for their new 7540 units with only either one of those gpu and still keep 180W if rtx3000 is selected during configuration.

 

I just hope the new models are still DGFF. The PCB was already pretty tight on space so I am not sure what they have done to fit the additional memory chips for the 256bit RTX 4000 and 5000.