Precision 7530 & Precision 7730 owner's thread

Even if you can attach 330w PSU, won't the VRM on the DGFF just overheat?


If it doesn't overheat and throttle down there's potential for permanent hardware damage.



Seeing as the DGFF's mylar sheet covers everything except the core, VRAM, and some inductors led me to believe that the VRM isn't or just barely cooled.

You have to also remember that Quadro cards even with their Max-P (normal TDP) variants are made with less TDP compared to their GTX counterparts even though the core is the same.

The MSi on the other hand, they use GT73/5's MXM PCB which can actually handle 150+ (their 1080 is rated at 180 or 190w, with an external power cable). That's way more robust than DGFF.


Plus, since DGFF outputs directly from the card itself and not through the motherboard, there might be some bios inconsistency.





Rule of thumb when crossflashing is to make sure the cards are as close to one another as possible, which isn't the case here.

 

According to NotebookCheck, the 4K panel is a Sharp LQ156D1.

Furthermore, @Aaron44126 did mention the panel number here

 

That is 7530 and he is asking about 7730...

Someone could attach the Alienware 330W and see what happens. I suspect that the system wouldn't even try to utilize it.

 

:facepalm:

You're absolutely right. I guess we'd just have to ask Dell about the part number, then.

 

Well at least you Dell Pres folks get a 240W power supply. We ZBook G5 folks have to slum with a 200W supply.

 

EC limitation most probably.

No more getting "free" performance, just be a good goy and buy the next gen laptops for a few % extra performance from (((us))) :^)

 

Well, the Precisions have DGFF...

Edit:

@THX_Jedi, looking through Panelook, there are only two panels that satisfy the IGZO UHD requirement, from this search. Only Sharp panels are IGZO, so it's either the LQ173D1JW31 or the LQ173D1JW33.

 

We'll have to wait until next gen (looking like early next year) before we know if that means anything...
Alienware Area 51m also has "DGFF" but it is totally different

 

Well, let's hope Dell sticks to their word, eh? I'd like to see a Quadro RTX "2000" or "3000" in my Precision in a couple of years. Would be nice to finally have a properly upgradeable notebook.

 

To be clear, unlike the chatter around the DGFF in the Alienware Area 51m system, Dell has never to my knowledge stated or offered up the suggestion that any Precision system could be upgraded beyond the generation of GPUs that launched with it, even with the DGFF discussion that happened around the launch of this generation. After all, Dell has no business reason to offer these sorts of upgrades (they'd rather sell you new systems, and most Precisions are generally sold in bulk to companies rather than one-off to individuals), honestly it's pretty nice that they don't whitelist GPUs like some other manufacturers do. The reason given for the switch to DGFF wasn't to maintain upgradeability, it was simply so that they could maintain swappable GPUs and avoid soldering the GPU chip to the motherboard, which would greatly increase the number of motherboard types they would have to produce. (They already need a different motherboard for every type of CPU since that is soldered; if the GPU was soldered as well they'd need one for every CPU/GPU combination and they'd probably have to limit the possible CPU/GPU combinations to keep that under control.)

If they use the exact same card dimensions, power requirements are the same, and component locations are [mostly] the same in the Precision 7X40 cards, then maybe next-gen GPUs will "happen to work" in the 7X30 systems, and that would be cool (if you can find anyplace to buy the new ones from). That's how it was with MXM cards in prior generations; Dell didn't go out of their way to block any particular card, so newer ones would "happen to work" if there wasn't any drastic change in the BIOS/vBIOS. Of course an upgrade wasn't a sure thing there; an INF modification is nearly always needed on the NVIDIA side (because part of the PCI device ID comes from the motherboard and NVIDIA fully specifies the device ID for each system the cards were officially offered in, in the INF), which means you have to deal with working around Windows's driver signing requirements; M4600/M6600 can't upgrade beyond NVIDIA Fermi cards because of a pretty simple BIOS issue with the ACPI table or something that Dell has no inclination to fix; Pascal cards don't work in the M6700/M6800 because of vBIOS ACPI initialization issues (except for a very specific vBIOS that we found for the Quadro P5000); and newer AMD cards work in the M6600/M6700/M6800 but don't trigger fan control based on temperature properly.

When Dell called the Alienware cards "DGFF" it became obvious that they are not treating "DGFF" as a "standard" like MXM was. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the next generation of Quadro RTX "DGFF" cards is substantially different, physically, blocking any notion of a potential upgrade. Especially if the next-generation Precision includes a chassis redesign.

Sorry to be a downer but trying to keep expectations in check
Even if the card turns out to be the same (looking), a brave soul will have to try to make the swap and see if there are no blocking BIOS issues or the like before we can know for sure whether or not an upgrade is possible. It could be months after the next-gen systems launch before we know.

I'd sort of rather seem them adopt the Alienware DGFF card form factor for future generations. It's be a shame for this generation as it would kill upgrade potential for the 7X30, but long-term it would allow for a larger pool of cards to be available and also it would allow for the option to purchase cheaper GeForce cards and install them in a Precision. Dell has also offered up allowing other manufacturers to use their Alienware DGFF spec, which would allow cross-manufacturer upgrade potential if anyone bites, which we previously had with MXM cards. If a particular form of DGFF becomes "entrenched" then they will be more likely to stick with it across several generations.