Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

I don't think those programs benefit from a pro card vs a gaming card. I would look at systems with uprated gaming type GPUs. In general gaming GPUs provide more bang for the buck when you are using consumer focused programs. The pro GPUs are typically based on the consumer GPUs but they have enabled specific instruction sets that are really only used by the pros and not gamers. They deliberately gimp the consumer stuff so those who really need the pro features pay the pro GPU prices.

 

Could be true, however there's also some evidence showing otherwise, see below where a Quadro beats the hell out of the parallel GTX card (in Sketchup of all things, that is):

 

What about the GT 750M?

 

Yeah, it would not fit on the comparison (only 3 items allowed)...

Here you go:


Note however that a higher G3D rating not necessarily translates to maximum 3D CAD performance.

 

You have the 4GB version of the 7750?

 

Actually I have the "only 1GB" version....

 

I have no doubt that the pro cards make a difference for some applications. I wouldn't have assumed Sketchup was one. That video is a good one. It really shows how in many cases the Quadro isn't worth the extra cost but for a few apps, presumably the ones that really use the Quadro specific features, the difference is huge. That still gets back to my point, make sure your applications really use the quadro card before buying a system with one. The XPS-15 is nearly the same system for less money. I think there are a few other ultrabook like systems from companies like Sanger that offer more powerful GPUs for M3800 money. I'm very happy with my M3800 and Dell in general so it would take a bit to get me to look at the lesser known companies but I think they are worth mentioning just for thoroughness. The biggest complaint I would have with the M3800 today is that it has hardly been upgraded in 1.5 years. The screen is better (4k vs 3.2K) but that might be hitting the marginal benefit range. The GPU is unchanged and in exchange for the more flexible PCIe port (Apple Thunderbolt port) you lose a left side USB port (I commonly use both left side USB ports). All in all it's better but only mildly so yet I don't know that the price has dropped much. I think Intel might actually be to blame. My understanding is the 5th Gen quad cord i7s aren't out yet and Dell is likely waiting for those chips before doing a system wide upgrade.

 

Then I would try and find some benchmark scores specifically for that model. Given the alternatives you're looking at are a year or more newer, I'd expect them to outperform the older card.

 

Yep the Sager NP7339 (Clevo W230SS) is not bad. It's GTX 960M graphics card has about the same performance as my HD 7750 desktop card.

However, there is no HDMI 2.0, no Displayport and neither Thunderbolt -- so no external 4K @60Hz! And no touchscreen either.

 

More benchmarks.

3D:


2D:


Note how the Quadro K1100M seems to be (much) better than the GT 750M in everything but "DirectX" and "Fonts & Text". Could be influenced by the different CPUs however: the GT 750M is accompanied by an i7-4700M@2,4GHz, the Quadro by an i7-4800M@2,7GHz.