Maybe a next generation Precision (xx70?) pre-release discussion thread?

Greetings! I don't post often yet I do rather frequently check the messages here.

May I ask whether it's time yet for a discussion thread for the *next* generation of Precision mobile workstation laptops? Might be a little bit too early of course.

I'm much interested because that might much impact my buying decisions. I don't mind waiting for the next generation of technologies to roll out (Alder Lake / Rembrandt / DDR5 / possibly PCIe 5.0 as well?) but I would also be happy to get a 7560 model for now if the wait won't be short (e.g. not until 2023).

I hope there'd be much information available as of CES 2022. However as there're still a few months before that happens, any updates (maybe even rumours?) could be helpful.

 

I'm especially interested in this one because I'm planning to finally replace my aging M6700 with a Precision 7770. This is an especially interesting release, IMO, with the introduction of the first hybrid CPU architecture (Alder Lake's "big/little" cores), DDR5, and PCIe5, as you mentioned. I considered getting a 7760, but all of this stuff dropping at once prompted me to wait another year. (A bit disappointing that we'll be getting recycled or barely-upgraded NVIDIA GPUs, as there's no way that Lovelace GPUs will be ready in time, but oh well — Ampere is still pretty great.)

Timeline expectation: Precision 7X70 systems will most likely see release in second quarter 2022.
* Dell follows Intel's CPU refresh cycle, so we have to wait for Alder Lake CPUs. (High-end laptop CPUs, specifically.)
* Intel will formally unveil Alder Lake CPUs later this month, and they will become generally available in November — but for the holiday season we will only be seeing Alder Lake desktop CPUs and low-end laptop CPUs. (Desktop Alder Lake CPUs are already showing up in secondary marketplaces. They're ready, and leaking out.)
* At CES 2022 in January — or right around then — Intel will unveil high-end laptop Alder Lake CPUs (typically "H series", though they might be changing that name), launching later in first quarter 2022.
* (NVIDIA might also reveal GeForce 3000-series SUPER GPUs around this time; these would serve as the basis for refreshed RTX GPUs in the next-gen Precisions; but the performance improvement over current GPUs will be small, less than 10%.)
* Precision systems will become available to order perhaps 6-8 weeks after other systems with "Alder Lake H" CPUs go on sale. (There is typically such a delay for workstation-class systems, waiting for the Xeon CPUs to be ready among other things.)

Intel (and thus Dell) have been on a pretty solid yearly upgrade cycle for the H series CPUs for a few years now, with new CPUs dropping in April and then the Precision systems being available to order in June or sometimes late May. This year, though, it looks like the turnaround cycle for Alder Lake is going to be a bit faster. We might see "Alder Lake H" as early as late February or sometime in March, and then a Precision launch as soon as late April or sometime in May. Any earlier than that would be stretching it, I think. (And remember, it could be 5+ weeks between when the Precision systems go on sale and when people actually start receiving them, with order lead times as they are.)

If you look at the past pre-release threads I think you will find that my timeline guesses are generally quite close to what actually happens; however, there's always a chance that I'm off in either direction...

On the Dell side specifically, we're due for a chassis refresh (they normally use the chassis for two generations and then switch it up). They could throw in other surprises. For example, this year we saw them add a 120Hz 4K panel in the Precision 7760, which no one really expected. With everyone going for 120 Hz now (iPhone, Surface, etc.), it's becoming more common and I wouldn't be surprised to see it in the 15" 7570 next year.

 

Hi Aaron, I see your forum title being "Notebook Prophet" and you really ARE one (and maybe the best of your rank)!
Much appreciated for the detailed info and I'd love to keep watching really closely for any further news.

 

My concern would be the type-C 240W charging capability. TB4 dock is next.
I don't like the new keyboard power button feature, but that is not a deal breaker.

 

Regarding USB-C 240W charging... I'm not sure how quickly this stuff moves from "in the spec" to "implemented". (Precision 7X70 will have been in design since early/mid 2020 so it might be too late to add it, unless they were really on the ball and prepared for it before it was actually added to the USB-C PD spec.) I hope that they keep the barrel charging port for a while. I have so many "old" 240W bricks that I'd like to keep in use.

 

me too i have like 7 bricks. i am ok with the round port, i just hope the new dock can be connected with only 1 cable and not 2 cables like now. Current setup I need 2 bricks to power the laptop and the dock. it would be nice to reduce them by half.

 

I too have built up a few 240W bricks over the years. But one change that I would like is for the barrel end of the cable to be more resistant to breaking. While I do sometimes move around with the laptop still plugged in, if I'm carrying the laptop, I always make sure to always grab the charger past the barrel to prevent (more like delay) breakage there.

 

Given supply chain disruptions, let me throw out a suspicion that we're either (A) going to get a 3rd generation without a chassis refresh, or (B) going to have really, really short supply when these first came out.

 

Noticed that this leaked slide has been running around, indicating that Alder Lake H could be launching this year and not waiting until CES for an announcement. We should find out about that soon. Intel is set to do a proper unveiling this week, on October 27. Intel's announcement will probably be followed immediately by system announcements from many vendors.

Spoiler

One point to note is that this slide only mentions Alder Lake H45. (Rather, it mentions the ADL-P platform with CPUs going up to 45W TDP.) Previous leaks have also mentioned an Alder Lake H55 line (TDP of 55W). H45 will top out at 6P/8E cores, while H55 would have 8P/8E. So, this would seem to mean that H55 will be launching after first quarter 2022, or maybe it won't show up at all. In the case of the former, the Precision 7X70 timeline still basically follows what I outlined above; in the case of the latter, it could show up a good deal sooner. I don't think we'd see them in 2021, but... maybe late January or sometime in February?

Just a thing I noticed and figured I would toss out. I personally expect that H55 is still a thing and we'll see it mentioned at CES. I'll be watching the news closely this week in any case.

[Edit]
Actually I guess there's also the question of, assuming H55 is still a thing, whether Dell would offer H45 or H55 (or both) in their next-gen Precisions? I've been assuming H55 but there's no evidence for that. The CPUs are already well pretty well thermal/power limited at H45 (...they actually go way higher than 45W for turbo boost). I don't think that I'd have a complaint about getting a system with a H45 CPU but I'd still like to see them offer H55.

 

Yes, the performance of H45 seems already impressive: https://wccftech.com/intel-alder-la...n-the-apple-m1-max-smokes-amd-5980hx-11980hk/