M2800 released

Forgive me if this is old news, but I see that the M2800 is now available on the web site.

Apparently Dell had announced the pending release a few weeks ago, advising that it would start at $1,199. And so it is... after a 30% "discount" from $1712.96.

They're offering four versions with the high end model at $1,629 (after the "discount").

The tech specs suggest that it is the same chassis at the E6540.

I couldn't find the tech specs on the U.S. site, but they're on the Canadian site.

Dell Precision M2800 Workstation | Dell Canada

 

It'll be interesting to see if it suffers from the same throttling issues that the 6540 seems to be plagued by. Perhaps they've reworked the cooling, but I'm not optimistic.

 

I thought it would be 12 inch... disappointed.

 

So what are the specs of the AMD FirePro M4170? Does anyone know?

Judging by the E6540, it should be a 8790M, perhaps with different clocks, but it would be great to know for sure...

 

NotebookCheck has now reviewed both in nice detail, including ambient temperature. There are enough differences that it looks like the performance may be improved, possibly either through higher fan speed, or lower GPU clocks, or invisible improvements in the heat pipe/radiator, or some combination.

(Prime95 +Furmark @>1hr)	CPU Clock	GPU Clock	CPU Temp	GPU Temp	Case Temp (in Rm Temp)	Load Noise
E6540 review (July 2013)	1.1 – 1.7 GHz (throttled)	850 – 900 MHz	98 °C	87 °C	54 °C (in 23.7 °C)	40.7 – 41.3 db(A)
M2800[br][/br]review[br][/br](July 2014)	[url=http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Precision-M2800-Notebook-Review.120156.0.html#c1577223]2.5 GHz[br][/br][size=1](on battery:[br][/br]800MHz at start)[/size][/url] [TD][url=http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Precision-M2800-Notebook-Review.120156.0.html#c1577229]780(?) – 900 MHz[br][/br](not stress test?)[/url] [TD][url=http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Precision-M2800-Notebook-Review.120156.0.html#c1577223]98 °C[br][/br][size=1](screen-[br][/br]shot)[/size][/url] [TD] [TD][url=http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Precision-M2800-Notebook-Review.120156.0.html#c1577236]59.3 °C (in 20 °C)[/url] [TD][url=http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Precision-M2800-Notebook-Review.120156.0.html#c1577234] 39.8 – 43.2 dB(A)[/url] [/TD][/TD][/TD][/TD][/TD]

[TD][TD][TD][TD]

However: The M2800 test was at a lower ambient temperature (and maybe different humidity). The tests were performed by different reviewers (so may be measured in different environments with different instruments). Their stress test is to run Prime95 (maxing out the CPU) and Furmark (maxing out the GPU) at the same time, but drivers are known to recognize Furmark and downclock in that case, so it might pass this test but still throttle on another workload. So room for some doubts remains.

Maybe not the best machine for frequent long combined CPU+GPU compute tasks: 98 °C is still high enough that one wonders if it could shorten the life of the CPU, and 72 °C exhaust could hurt. But many tasks stress only one or the other, not both CPU+GPU at the same time, or do so only for short periods to render a view, so it may work well for these tasks.

[quote="landsome, post: 9634804"]So what are the specs of the AMD FirePro M4170? Does anyone know?

Judging by the E6540, it should be a 8790M, perhaps with different clocks, but it would be great to know for sure...[/QUOTE]

NotebookCheck reports
[QUOTE][url=http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Precision-M2800-Notebook-Review.120156.0.html#c1577229]M2800 Review: Graphics[/url] ... FirePro W4170M ... sibling of the AMD Radeon HD 8790M, which has been adjusted for professional tasks. 2 GB GDDR5 video memory, 128 bit memory interface and 825 MHz core clock are the official specs of the AMD FirePro W4170M. Our tools, however, show a slightly higher core clock of 900 MHz. [/QUOTE][/td][/td][/td][/td]