Dell Precision 7560 & Precision 7760 pre-release discussion

Great, thanks a lot - might buy the faster RAM then and sell the slower sticks on ebay.

 

Well, I'm not completely sure but I know that Dynamic Boost 2.0 is on many other gamig laptops. So the 7760 and a 110W gaming laptop should be a wash though only benchmarks can determine that.

Using the example of a desktop RTX 4000 and 2070, in Blender Cycles, performance seems like a wash, but the 2070 has a slight advantage possibly due to the Quadro having ECC memory.

 

Indeed, it seems likely that GeForce 3070 mobile systems would also be able to boost above "TDP" if there is thermal/power headroom. I would expect 3070 mobile and RTX A4000 mobile to perform similarly, given a system of similar class in terms of power and thermals.

Random side thing, not entirely Precision-related:
A new Quadro/RTX Enterprise driver branch was released today, version 470.
https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/176854/en-us

It features WDDM 3.0 support, which would be for the upcoming fall 2021 Windows release ("Windows 11"?); unusual to see NVIDIA roll something like this out so early (as a non-beta release). I guess maybe there will be a beta release of Windows 11 available immediately after the reveal tomorrow?

 

hi

I don't think anyone knows for a fact that it will work since no one will have these before August 1... But, I sure hope so since it's a pretty costly waste of ecc ram otherwise

 

90% of my heavy computer usage is with Adobe Lightroom Classic. I shoot and process hundreds of photos per day so a speed increase directly correlates to increased productivity and shorter days. I'm feeling the need to upgrade from my existing 7730.

Can anyone help me chose between the CPU and GPU options that are available for the 7760? This link provides some general recommendations for CPU and GPU options for Lightroom: https://www.pugetsystems.com/recomm...ightroom-Classic-141/Hardware-Recommendations. I'm not knowledgeable enough about CPU and GPU options to pick equivalents that are available for the 7760.

I have 64 GB of RAM in my 7730. Will that be compatible with and appropriate for the 7760? (I'd have to check which third-party memory I installed.)

Lastly, my range of Samsung M.2 SSD drives will be compatible, correct?

Thanks for any advice.

 

Do you mind putting the specs of your 7730 to give us a better understanding of what you currently have?

Here are some generic recommendations:

CPU: at least 8 cores, I would recommend the i9 as the CPU is the only component that can't be upgraded.
GPU: A4000 seems to be the sweet spot; for photo editing, you probably won't need the 16gb vram that the A5000 has (test how much vram editing uses up to decide between the two)
RAM: the RAM in your 7730 should be able to be swapped in your 7760, but I would say get some new faster ram. Crucial 3200mhz CL22 ram should work in the 7760.
Storage: any M.2 2280 drive should work, note that the 7760 doesn't have 2.5 inch drive bays.

It would also be helpful if you could describe which part of the editing process is slow/needs improvement

 

Here's my current system:

Dell 7730 Intel Core i7-8850H
Intel UHD Graphics 630
Radeon Pro WX 4150 (I have Lightroom using this one)
4K internal display + two external monitors
64 GB RAM
Samsung 970 PRO 1 TB
Samsung 970 PRO 1 TB
Samsung 970 EVO 2 TB
Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB

I'm eying the i9-11950H 8 Core.

Yep, from what I've read Lightroom doesn't use a lot of VRAM so I'm thinking the RTX A4000 w/8 GB GDDR6 should work nicely.

My eyes are already watering from the sting of the system I've specced out. With only 8 GB of RAM it's already at about $6500 Canadian. Am I better off buying additional memory elsewhere and not ordering it from Dell with the system?

Thanks for confirming that. I switched to M.2 drives a few years ago, so all good there.

The pain points break down to three parts:

1. By far the worst pain is while editing. I often have to wait 5-10 seconds for the computer to catch up before I can continue on the next image. Multiply that wait by a few hundred images per day, every day, and over the course of a week, a month, or a year it's a lot of lost time. While Lightroom is known to have a slow and inefficient code base, faster hardware should help.
2. Importing/building previews.
3. Exporting.

Thank you for the help and advice.

 

I just opened it up to check. I have DDR4-2666 CL18 memory installed. Task Manager shows it's running at 2400 MHz.

 

You know, that might just be Lightroom being Lightroom—it's slow on all the machines I've used it on. The 8850H and the 7730 is no slouch, and personally I wouldn't upgrade it until 2024.

Also, if you're looking for a GPU upgrade, why not just buy a Quadro RTX 4000 off eBay, and pop it in? Straightforward upgrade, and a LOT cheaper than buying a new machine, of which you may or may not see a benefit. Depending on how many connectors the WX 4150 has (I think it only populates two), you may need one more DGFF connector and the Quadro RTX 5000 heatsink (Dell calls it "NV-256").

Total cost is 858 + 30 + 147 = CAD 1035. This is less than a sixth that of a brand-new 7760 as you have configured it, and you get to keep all your OS configuration, etc etc. Maybe spend half a day disassembling your 7730 to upgrade the GPU and edit the driver configuration file, and install the drivers.

 

Following up on others' posts:
I also recommend the top CPU (i9, not necessarily Xeon) because you can't upgrade it and Lightroom does a lot of CPU-heavy operations.
I'd check GPU utilization while you are using Lightroom, I know that it uses it for some features but I don't know if it uses it all that much. (You can see it in Task Manager "Performance" tab, or if that doesn't look good, GPU-Z should show the GPU load on the "Sensors" tab.) If GPU utilization is light... You probably don't need RTX A4000 if Lightroom is really all that you're going to use the dGPU for. A2000 or A3000 may be more than adequate. (I rather doubt that Lightroom would use all that much vRAM, and RTX A2000 is otherwise on par with the prior-generation Quadro RTX 4000...)

(Oops, realized after writing that RTX A2000 isn't available in the 7760. And I think the price difference between A3000 and A4000 is not that great. So maybe A4000 is the way to go after all...)

Sourcing RAM: It would be "cheaper" to source it elsewhere, but buying it from Dell will get you warranty coverage and really less hassle all-around in terms of taking the time to find and test a compatible module. I prefer to get memory from Dell for that reason these days. (I still prefer to get SSDs separately; Dell's prices are atrocious and unlike RAM modules, you can safely assume that "any" M.2 SSD will work fine in the system.)

There's no reason you can't keep your OS/configuration when moving to a new system. Just clone or move your drive over into the new system. Windows will notice that it has been moved to new hardware and do a device discovery at first boot. After you're at the desktop, do new driver installs and remove any old ones that you don't need anymore. I've done this many times without issue. My Precision 7530 has been running a Windows install that was set up on a Precision 7510 for its entire life.

(This used to be a pain point with Windows 7 and earlier, which would BSOD if it was moved to new hardware, requiring a pretty specific sequence of tricks to work around... Windows 8 added the boot-time detection of a hardware swap. Precision systems being so similar to each other probably helps, but I've even done Intel to AMD migrations in this manner and that's been fine.)