Precision 7530 & Precision 7730 owner's thread

So, I guess I should be posting this here:

I've got my replacement Precision 7530 coming in tonight (6-10pm UTC+8), and the Quadro RTX 3000 DGFF coming in tomorrow. Anyone wants to guess how much I paid for it?

Spoiler: Price

225 SGD including 7% GST = 163.50 USD.

Not even kidding. I triple-confirmed with the sales rep. This is for a mobile GPU, where MXM modules go for typically 2× to 3× the price of equivalent desktop cards. Even the desktop RTX 2060 and 2070 are nearly 2× as expensive. This is like the best trade deal in the history of trade deals, maybe ever.

 

Where did you get the card? Did you get it straight from Dell or from other sources?

 

Direct from Dell. Quoted the part number to them, requested a quote and confirmed the payment some hours ago.

Part numbers are in this comment in the 7540 thread:

 

That price is nuts. Nuts. You should start a business selling them on eBay.
Guess we'll know if the upgrade works soon. Usually we have to wait for next-gen cards to appear on eBay (several months after the new systems release).
Get ready to have to start modding the NVIDIA driver INF file every time you want to upgrade the driver.......

 

Indeed!

I hope not. We'll see tomorrow, I suppose, after I finish my data structures and algos finals in the afternoon. I suppose everyone here will have to wait maybe 15 more hours...

 

Oh, I can basically promise you that you'll have to do it. In the Precision, the hardware ID for the GPU is derived from which GPU card you have and which motherboard model you have. Sometimes you can get away without and INF mod for a GeForce cards and desktop cards (NVIDIA will leave out the "SUBSYS" part of the hardware ID so it can match any motherboard), but for the mobile Quadro, NVIDIA always sticks fully qualified hardware IDs in the INF file.

Example hardware IDs from GPUs in my systems...

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1CBB&SUBSYS_08311028
Quadro P1000 in Dell Precision 7530.
(10DE = NVIDIA, 1CBB = Quadro P1000, 0831 = Precision 7530 Optimus on, 1028 = Dell)

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13F8&SUBSYS_153F1028
Quadro M5000M in Dell Precision M6700.
(10DE = NVIDIA, 13F8 = Quadro M5000M, 153F = Precision M6700 Optimus on, 1028 = Dell)

The latter combo doesn't show in any INF files from NVIDIA or Dell, because Quadro M5000M never shipped in the Precision M6700. I have to swap my ID in for the Precision 7710 one, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13F8&SUBSYS_06DA1028.
(06DA = Precision 7710 Optimus on)

So basically what I have to do is a find and replace in the INF file.
VEN_10DE&DEV_13F8&SUBSYS_06DA1028 => VEN_10DE&DEV_13F8&SUBSYS_153F1028
(Note: there will be multiple occurrences.)
You will have to do something similar to swap in the Precision 7530 ID for the Precision 7540 one.

Changing the INF file breaks the signature. You have to pick one of three things to get it to install.
* Boot with "Disable driver signature enforcement" enabled (only has to be done for the driver install, you can boot normally afterwards)
* Boot with "Test signing mode" enabled (similarly, only needed for driver install)
* Sign the modified driver yourself and then you do not have to change the boot configuration

I just made a batch file that does the INF find-and-replace and handles the signing so installing new drivers is a snap.

 

Eager to try the WD19DC dock; as I mentioned up above we are getting three of them at the office.
I was hoping to be able to test one this week and offer feedback. However, I was informed by the IT department that the order didn't actually go through until today. I'll be out of the office next week so I won't be looking at them until around August 12 (assuming that Dell gets them shipped out promptly).

 

So, some observations on my replacement system (which was configured to the same specs as my old one):

1. The Toshiba XG5 256 GB drive was replaced by a Samsung PM981 drive. I am somewhat taken aback—did they put a Class 50 drive in by accident?
2. The LG LP156WF6-SPB1 display has been replaced by an AU Optronics B156HAN06.0 display. Both are full HD, 6-bit (ugh), and the AUO display appears to have a harder, rougher matte coating, leading to (apparently) worsened contrast, but colours appear to be deeper.

The two notebooks are otherwise identical. I should also note that the Quadro P3200 in this has a 70 W power limit, whereas the one in the old notebook had a 65 W limit. Small difference, but let's see how it plays out.

I can also reproduce the strange Lightroom power behaviour in this notebook (though that may be because I re-imaged this from my previous drive, versus installing Lightroom from scratch).

 

If you prefer the old display, you should be able to swap them before shipping the old system back. (Dell has allowed us to do this on previous systems at the office.)

 

Ah, no. I don't have the old one any more. It was parallel collection/drop-off, so I sent in my old machine as I received the new one. Neither is worse than the other, and the AUO display definitely has 'deeper' colour, if that makes sense. I'm just holding off until I get the Quadro, then I can buy a 120/144 Hz 40-pin display and do both brain and eye surgery in one fell swoop.