Next Generation Dell Precision Mobile Workstations press release

I think what Aaron is wondering about is whether or not the external outputs are wired to the dGPU or the Intel GPU. With the M6800 they are wired to the dGPU, meaning that it always turn on when you plug a display into either the HDMI or Displayport. I'm guessing that the 7710 is wired the same way.

 

When my dGPU was not working all I had was iGPU. I think I had my external monitor plugged into display port and was still working without dGPU. Meaning that I think the display port can use the intel gpu. But yesterday was kindof crazy and I could have my facts wrong.

I'm not sure but I think the follow screenshot indicates my ASUS using the Intel GPU while plugged into display port. Man I'm so confused, I'm just happy my machine is working.

 

What's with the VGA port in the M5000M square? Is it attached to a dock? And why are there three displayports total? If one of them is the HDMI, is the other USB C? This is confusing...

I'm curious about this mainly because with the Thinkpad P70 (and M6800), external displays wired to the dGPU are really buggy when using Linux + Optimus. If they are wired to the iGPU in this case, that would make these more linux friendly.

 

Mine isn't in a dock at the moment, i think they used generic image in that screen capture. pretty confusing really. The display tags (asus and internal) are what float above the dgpu and igpu in that physx screen. But I'm not sure what the screen is trying to say. I have no idea. is blue bubble pointing to the dgpu and what is the hairline wires going to the iGPU? I'll need to experiment

Edit* I'm beginning to understand that physx engine screen. The blue bubble box indicates which GPU will supply physx to the displays connected to whichever GPU via particular port type. In the above screen capture it was showing that the M5000M was providing PhysX to the two displays connected to the Intel GPU. If I changed the drop down selector box and choose CPU the blue bubble's arrow that was pointing to the M5000M goes away. Meaning that the dGPU no longer is providing Physx to the displays that are connected to the intel GPU. Implying that the Asus uses Intel GPU when connected to display port. If I unplug the Asus from the display port, the green box displaying "Asus Pb278" dissapears, as would be expected. I think this is Optimas at work connecting the Asus to the Intel unless the power of m5000m is needed, and regardless which GPU is powering the display, the dGPU could still be setup to provide physx engine even if Intel GPU is powering the display. Clear as mud.

 

That is very cool that they are using the intel GPU to drive the mini displayport on the machine.

Another person in the Precision 7510 thread mentioned it ran Linux pretty well (using the AMD card) and I wonder if this is part of the reason why. I suppose the Sputnik team probably also has the ability to get Dell to address bios issues. Maybe Dell is a better choice for a Linux compatible laptop than Lenovo at this point...

 

There's still an option in the bios to turn off the iGPU though, so I wonder if the external outputs can switch just like the built-in display can?

 

here is directx diagnostic showing the external connected by display port is using intel gpu
Optimas could still bite you if Nvidia decides to use it's GPU. There is a BIOS option to disable optimas and AMDs similar feature (forgot it's name). But then it would probably be dGPU all of the time. I learned that the hard way when I switched it off in the BIOS but my quadro was not working at the time. Zero display and no way to see even the BIOS screen to change it back. Had to pull battery and CMOS coin batt to reset. Thanksfully that worked



internal:


Quadro unused at the moment:

 

Yep, the mDP is definitely using the iGPU on the 7710. Any chance you could check the same information for the HDMI port? The USB-C port is going to be a pain because you will need an adapter like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Thunderbolt-Compatible-DisplayPort/dp/B00X4S5DKC

I am very curious how Linux would run on this machine. It is easy to just disable the dGPU in hybrid graphics mode. Even if the mDP were the only usable output it would be more than enough it it were a reliable experience.

Technically HP also offers their Zbook 17 G3 without a dedicated GPU. I have no idea how well the Thunderbolt 3 ports work when just using them as a Displayport under Linux, but if it worked, this could be an even better option.

 

In previous systems, some outputs are hardwired to the discrete GPU so they will run on the discrete GPU whether you have graphics switching on or off. What I'm curious about is which (if any) outputs behave like that on the new systems. From the NVIDIA screen shot above, it looks like at least some of the dock connectors will be driven always by the discrete GPU.

 

I'm very interested in this too.