Latitude 7450 Owners' Thread

Notebookcheck has a good breakdown of the 840M's performance. The 840M seems to be at least 2x as fast at a minimum over integrated graphics.

Anecdotally, my discrete graphics version of the e7450 runs most games I've thrown at it on low settings at 720p. I'm currently enjoying Fallout 4 and my FPS generally stays above 30FPS. Not perfect, but good enough for the portability of this laptop. I will admit that I have been looking at the new XPS 15's 960M for a bit smoother playing experience while gaming in hotels during business trips.

 

Need advice looking at some dell outlet units with the gt840m
1366 x 768 vs 1920 1080

whats the diff in battery life with different screen resolution
is 1080p worth the extra 1xx-2xx pounds

 

I am unaware of any significant battery life difference between the 768 and 1080p screens (unlike the difference between the 1080p vs 4k screens on the XPS 13 & 15).

Go for the 1080p. It is a much nicer screen and is IPS vs the 768's TN. This means much better viewing angles and colors. The 1080p is definitely worth it.

 

For me, the big advantage of the dGPU version of the E7450 is the better quality fan which means that there isn't a jet engine noise when the CPU is under load. One day, there may be an M.2 SSD which fits the WWAN slot but until then you can drop in a Dell 5570e WWAN card (much cheaper than the official option for the E7450).

The FHD panel is well worth the extra cost. Primarily because it is a good quality display (much better viewing angles and also brighter (300 nits compared to the low res panel's 200 nits) and secondly because you can get more information onto the screen.

There will be a marginal battery life penalty due to more pixels but this is negligible compared to the backlight power consumption (keep the brightness down if you want good battery life). I have been impressed by the E7450's battery performance and if it is not long enough for you then a spare battery is easy to carry around and change (and the E7440's battery fits fine and may be cheaper).

John

 

Thanks guy 1080p it is then

 

I've read your comment about the differences in fan between the dGPU version and the integrated graphics version. Do you have a dB reading for the non-GPU version other than the comment that it sounds like a jet engine noise under load? Is the noise really that bad compared to its predecessor E7450?

 

I don't have a suitable meter in my collection of equipment and I don't know how scientific measurement would quantify the different frequencies of the fan noise.

Subjectively, the normal E7450 fan (which looks the same as the E7440 fan) whines when the CPU is under load whereas the fan on the dGPU is more like a purr or the sound of rushing wind which I find to be far less intrusive. But maybe my ears are over-sensitive to high frequency noise: I hate those blown air hand driers increasingly found in washrooms.

John

 

can't we just buy the dgpu fan/heatsink and put it in a regular e7450/e7440 maybe even in an e7240/e7250 (are they different length from the 240/250 series?

 

The dGPU heatsink wouldn't fit because the internal layout is different between the iGPU and dGPU versions. Here is a photo of the inside of the latter. The dGPU fan also looks to be bigger.

In fact, the whole internal assembly is different. The heatsink and fan on the iGPU version are easy to access and remove but look difficult to remove on the dGPU version (and last time I looked the disassembly wasn't covered in Dell's documentation).

John

 

Hey guys!

I've got the 7450 (iGPU because the dGPU version was (or still is?) not distributed in Germany) for half a year now and I'm quite content with it. The only thing I'm a bit annoyed of is the high pitch noise coming out ot the notebook while processing (coil whining?). I can reproduce this issue e.g. just by simply scrolling down the page in my browser. Is there anybody else with the same problem or even better with a solution for that?

Phil