Dell Precision M6700 Owner's Review

Interesting, since the M6700 block diagram shows "DP redriver" and eDP to internal screen to drive the 10-bit display, while the M4700 has two block diagrams, the 8-bit one corresponding to what is actually for sale and a 10-bit one (corresponding to the withdrawn PremierColor version) with eDP to 10-bit LVDS converter.

 

I believe it is same as the m4600 design, it have 2 different boards. m6700 board have both connection on same board.

 

I would have expected them to be the same, too. But the M6700 block diagram does not have the eDP to 10-bit LVDS.

 

...so tempting but I may feels it after my buddy's ordered the Dell Precision M6700 i7-3940XM 32GB Ram Quadro K5000M 4GB 256Gb SSD 3Yr... I'm become excited

 

Yes! That worked nicely for me.

Interesting that I was in sRGB mode, exiting PremierColor produced no obvious change, but restarting it after renaming the directory gave eye-searing max-brightness Full mode.

 

Hi guys

Just received my dell m6700 laptop. Nvidia k5000M 32gb ram.

Everything is working great the only issue I am having is with the display. I got the 17.3 rgb ips screen matte.

When I create a gradient white to black or any other color, I get extreme banding in every color gamut except for default where I get only slight banding using premiereColor. It makes it completely useless for any graphic design or visualfx work which is what I use the system for. Full and srgb are the worst

I also have a slight issue with the finger print reader not working after the computer puts itself to sleep automatically. It won't recognize my scan. If I manually put the computer to sleep the finger print reader works great

Has any of you came across any of these issues. I love the m6700 system otherwise and would love to get this resolved seeing the system is only 2days old

Thanks
Jason

 

How are the gradients being generated - are they raster or vector? Looking at the SVG test suite on my 6700 IPS display I can see clear banding in the raster images, because the color resolution of the display reveals the limited precision of the raster images. The vector gradients look nice and smooth.

 

Hi Chris

The gradients are being created through Photoshop, and AE (using the effects/generate/ramp). I was talking to dell pro support and they said this should not be the case. premiere color is suppose to be a color calibration. It shouldn't effect gradients. Why should you see the banding on a full gamut IPS display that makes no sense to me. If that's the case how is a graphic designer suppose to work on a display that creates banding in gradients? It makes is useless if my honest opinion. I hope it just something wrong with my screen.

Are you saying that I have to create my gradients as vector instead of raster. I have a dell precisoin m90 laptop that I had for 6 years now and it's still going and their are no banding issues in the gradients.

Can you please verify if you think it's a problem with the screen or is this a limitation with this screen?

Thanks for all your help on this
Jason

 

Hi Chris

I just tested this in Adobe Illustrator. I created a vector based gradient and I still see extreme banding. What do you think could be the problem here? I have a feeling it has to do with the premiereColor software and the nvidia Drivers not being compatible. Because their are some Nvidia drivers that won't even work with the premiereColor software. Default is the only way I can get my gradients to look somewhat smooth and clean with hardly any banding or if I just uninstall the premiereColor software which puts the display into a default color gamut

Does anyone know what could be going on here. Since the machine is only 2 days old they are building me a brand new system but I'm afraid the new system is going to have the exact same problem.

Thanks,
Jason

 

In Photoshop, what color model are you using and what bit depth (8 or 16 bits per component)? Are the gradients being expotrted to some graphics format 9if so which, and what settings) or are you referring to the in-program display? Has Photoshop been set up to use a 10 bits display or is it using 8 bits (the default)?

It could, actually. Various lookup tables and shaper curves could introduce banding or other discontinuities, depending on how they are done and at what bit depth.
But equally, the banding could be in the actual image you are viewing. So we need to find out which it is.

A wide gamut screen can indeed introduce banding, if the bit depth is not sufficient. This is why its important that the IPS screen is 10 bits per component, not 8, and that all parts of the chain from graphic card to screen are 10 bits throughout. (Which is the case, for the M6700, but is not the case on some computers).

No, I am saying that there are multiple causes of banding. it could be the screen or the color management system; or it could be the drivers; or it could be that the banding is actually in the image you are viewing.

This is why I mentioned vectors; because they are interpreted directly they have the chance of being smoother.

Bear in mind that the M90 (I used to use one of these too, until recently) has a much worse screen - it is a TN display at 6 bits per component with dithering to fake 8 bits. The gamut is rather less than sRGB. One reason you could be seeing banding is because the old screen was not good enough to see clearly the banding in the image, or because the dithering masked it.

I don't think it is an inherent problem with the screen, because I am looking at a smooth gradient right now on my IPS 6700 and there is no banding either in Full or in sRGB. I think it is more likely that the banding is in the image data you are viewing. But it could also be that PremierColor is set up differently on my machine and yours, or that the color profiling on mine is different than yours.
I also don't know as well as i would like how exactly PremierColor switches between different gamuts and how it does the conversion.

In summary, I am saying there are several possible causes and we need to find out which it is, in order to fix it.