Precision 7530 & Precision 7730 owner's thread

And here we go: The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 DGFF:

 

Those are GDDR6 chips alright.

 

I can't believe you actually got it (for that price )
It seems that you actually got the card before any Precision 7540/7740 systems started to ship.
And you will be the first person to attempt a cross-generation Precision DGFF graphics upgrade.
Looking forward to results

If it doesn't work you are not even out that much, you could probably sell the card on eBay in a few months for a tidy profit.

 

Aaaand it is in:






Imgur album (same images as above) here.

For some reason, I'm not seeing the warranted improvements in performance: a mere 30% above the P3200, and instead of 2304 CUDA cores, both NVIDIA's driver and GPU-Z only detect 1920.

3DMark also appears to lock itself to 60 FPS when it runs in Optimus mode. The driver doesn't appear to install under Discrete-Only (@Aaron44126, right you were), and I am far too lazy to deal with this right away. Probably will fiddle with INF editing and signing next week. It works, though, which is great.

 

Hmm, quite sure that I've had 3DMark running above 60 FPS with Optimus on. Though it could be a limitation of some sort from later Intel GPU drivers, maybe it forces vsync or something. (My Intel HD Graphics 4000 is rather dated at this point.)

See:

Spoiler

Anyway. Really glad to hear that it works. Hopefully Dell sticks with this standard for a while.

Where did you get drivers from? Are they from NVIDIA, or ones Dell posted for the 7540? Surprised if it worked in Optimus mode with no INF mod, that means that NVIDIA has left a "generic" RTX 3000 profile in the INF somewhere (or one specifically for the 7530 / Optimus on). This might change after a few updates.

[Edit]
Since you are on 431.70 I am assuming that you got them directly from NVIDIA. I have the non-DCH ones unpacked and all of the RTX 3000 entries are fully qualified so I have no idea how you installed it without a mod, unless the DCH driver package is different in this regard.

Code:

$ grep "VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36" *.inf
nvblwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.860C.103C% = Section096, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_860C103C
nvblwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.860E.103C% = Section098, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_860E103C
nvblwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.860F.103C% = Section108, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_860F103C
nvblwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.8611.103C% = Section110, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_8611103C
nvblwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.860C.103C% = Section096, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_860C103C
nvblwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.860E.103C% = Section098, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_860E103C
nvblwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.860F.103C% = Section108, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_860F103C
nvblwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.8611.103C% = Section110, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_8611103C
nvdmwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.0926.1028% = Section259, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_09261028
nvdmwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.0927.1028% = Section259, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_09271028
nvdmwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.1926.1028% = Section271, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_19261028
nvdmwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.1927.1028% = Section261, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_19271028
nvdmwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.0926.1028% = Section259, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_09261028
nvdmwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.0927.1028% = Section259, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_09271028
nvdmwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.1926.1028% = Section271, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_19261028
nvdmwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.1927.1028% = Section261, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_19271028
nvltwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.2297.17AA% = Section189, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_229717AA
nvltwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.229B.17AA% = Section189, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_229B17AA
nvltwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.2297.17AA% = Section189, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_229717AA
nvltwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.229B.17AA% = Section189, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_229B17AA
nvmiwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.1272.1462% = Section166, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_12721462
nvmiwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.1274.1462% = Section168, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_12741462
nvmiwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.1277.1462% = Section168, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_12771462
nvmiwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.1272.1462% = Section166, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_12721462
nvmiwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.1274.1462% = Section168, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_12741462
nvmiwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.1277.1462% = Section168, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_12771462

Cutting it down to just the Dell ones.

Code:

nvdmwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.0926.1028% = Section259, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_09261028
nvdmwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.0927.1028% = Section259, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_09271028
nvdmwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.1926.1028% = Section271, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_19261028
nvdmwi.inf:%NVIDIA_DEV.1F36.1927.1028% = Section261, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F36&SUBSYS_19271028

Guessing that
0926 = Precision 7540 Optimus on
0927 = Precision 7740 Optimus on
1926 = Precision 7540 Optimus off
1927 = Precision 7740 Optimus off

In any case, I would recommend downloading the latest regular driver from NVIDIA and modding it as I described above, and see how it works then.

 

I got the DCH drivers from NVIDIA, and used the 'Have Disk' method. It installed no problem under Optimus, but not when the discrete GPU is the only one connected.

I'll try this on Tuesday, maybe, as I will be on holiday over the weekend. I also think I rather nudged the fan connectors, and they refuse to stop whirring, so I'll have to re-seat them. Tearing down the Precision is honestly quite arduous and I don't look forward to it, sigh.

At any rate, thanks very much for the information I'll have to figure out how I should go about modifying the INFs come next week.

Furthermore, Lightroom no longer saves power when minimised.

EDIT: I realised how straightforward the edit would be, and ended up doing it anyway. Drastic boost in performance, by another ~1000 points.

 

Let me summarise what I've done:

1. Purchased the Quadro RTX 3000 DGFF2 (DGFF2 for the 7530/7540, DGFF3 goes in the 7730/7740) from Dell, for a particularly exorbitant price
2. Replaced the Quadro P3200 in my machine with the RTX 3000 DGFF
3. Performed the INF mod as @Aaron44126 mentioned (remember to do this twice, for Optimus on and off, thanks so much for the insight, @Aaron44126)
4. Benchmarked, results here.

Easy 25-30% performance improvement over the Quadro P3200.

Also note that after the INF mod has been performed, the power draw drops, again! when Lightroom is opened and minimised.

 

Is the CUDA core count still "wrong" with the INF mod done?

 

Yep.

I am inclined to believe now that the GPU actually only has 1920 cores. Unfortunately, I don't have an X-ray imaging set-up on hand to verify this, given that one can't find them outside of physics labs and hospitals. Maybe it's time for a chest x-ray.

 

I agree, but it is rather strange, because the 2304 number was widely reported (I figured it came from NVIDIA but I can't actually find it on their web site so maybe not).

Do post back if you manage to solve the fan whirring issue. I'm wondering if it is a BIOS thing and not because the connectors aren't in right. Seems odd that it would happen to both fans if it was a mistake like that. There have been other Precision GPU upgrade stories that came with fan issues. You could try overriding the BIOS behavior and see what happens (see signature link).