Precision 7530 & Precision 7730 owner's thread

Hallo there.
I need to upgrade the ram in my 7730.
Are 3200 sodimms already stable?
If not waht are the best options?
Thinking about 32gb.
Thanks

 

I picked up a used 7730 the other day. I've had my eye on getting one since last summer, when I picked one up and had to return it due to faulty fans. This one, I didn't read the description carefully enough and ended up with 32GB single channel ram and a M.2 sata drive. Oops. Both of those were easy enough to remedy and the price was still worth it.

Specs:
i7-8850H
64GB Ram (2x32GB, 2666)
1TB M.2 NVMe, 512GB M.2 sata
p4200 GPU
97Wh
IGZO 4k panel

I ran some initial benchmarks and even after upgrading to dual channel ram, GPU performance was kinda bad. I was starting to wonder if I'd somehow gotten a Max-Q version of the P4200. Low 5000's for Time Spy and ~13000 for Fire Strike. I thought it might be related to the 4K panel and tried running them on an external monitor. Bingo! With a moderate undervolt, CPU performance is quite good. Not much you can tweak for the P4200, but its still quite nice:

Time Spy 5801
Fire Strike 14706

The P4200 will occassionally peak into the 115W territory, but normally runs 95W to 105W during the benchmarks.

I've tried running the benchmarks on the laptop 4K panel and it seems to cost about 10% performance, regardless of optimus settings and desktop resolution/scaling. (The tests seem to run the panel at native resolution regardless of desktop settings and scale the output to match)

I'm not sure where the extra latency is coming from. Even running with optimus disabled didn't seem to help much. The panel is absolutely awesome, so it's tough to complain too much.

 

So, I installed the AUO B156HAN10.0 display in my 7530. It looks great, and it's far brighter than the old B156HAN06.0 display. However, there are so many issues that make it a complete deal-breaker. I do hope I can solve them; if not, I just sent ~$110 down the drain, and I'll have to get a more garden-variety display.

1. Brightness adjustment does not work on Linux, full stop. It worked absolutely fine on the previous display. I get a feeling this has to do with the 10-bit-ness of the display; there exists a DisplayDepth = 30 option that can be written to xorg.conf, but I cannot log in to KDE after that.

2. Using Optimus or the dGPU only, brightness control does not work if Windows is in SDR mode (Settings -> Display -> HD Colour OFF). The display is locked to maximum brightness, of 500 nits. My eyes hurt now.

3. When the above HD Colour option is enabled,

1. With Optimus enabled:

• brightness control works, but the steps, unlike the original display, are not smooth and they are not monotonically increasing/decreasing (stepping from ~50% brightness to ~60% brightness on the bar actually reduces the actual screen brightness.
• There are strange backlight shenanigans going on: darker parts of the display have their backlight completely turned off altogether, and this gives the display an uneven brightness. This effect is most visible in games where light text on dark backgrounds prevail. I'll upload a video shortly.

1. With Optimus disabled:

• The display is completely borked. Before a clean driver upgrade (442.19 -> 442.50), half the display did not work, and the other half was glitched and grainy, and the edges of the display appeared to burn in. This effect could be perceived even through a shutdown, and this makes me think pixel voltages/timings were seriously messed up. I wish I had taken a picture, because this is really telling.
• Now, however, I see a blank screen with the backlight on. Nothing else.

 

So, I have found the Dell Recovery media occasionally installs all of the drivers properly. For me, it's a 1/3 chance so far (admittedly on my XPS 7590, which I keep polluting your Precision owner's lounge with).

it even has a 3/15 chance of actually installing Windows and bringing it up to a working point!


As Aaron44126 recommended, just use the Microsoft installer. Only things that are harder to find again are useless trinkets like the Dolby Vision Win10 app, and Google will still get you there, anyways.

Given your experience with the Dual Cable docks, would going to a single cable dock and using a regular DC barrel jack charger be preferable?

 

I am surprised you got that AUO 144hz panel even partially. Back about three years ago a few of us owners of the Eurocom Tornado F5 went through a few display options trying to find an upgrade from its 60hz Gsync LG panel. Sadly the AUO options all seemed to have incompatible backlights that needed bios changes to properly support. My guess is the Chimei N156HHE-GA1 would likely be more compatible if you do not mind the vertical viewing angles of TN. I tested the N173HHE-G32 C3 and it works in hybrid and dedicated graphics modes, supporting the same uniform brightness curve in both. Brightness control also works in Linux and MacOS as well. These panels definitely need to be calibrated though. The factory calibration is pretty poor.

 

Yikes. Thanks so much for that information. Is this a problem common to 144 Hz AUO displays in general? My current display is also from AUO (B156HAN06.0, garden-variety 1080p 60 Hz 6-bit); maybe I could reverse-engineer the backlight timings and controls.

I considered this, but TN is a deal-breaker. I find that vertical viewing angles are very important on a notebook—given that their displays hinge vertically. Thanks, though.

I've been looking at the BOE NV156FHM-N4J; basically BOE's equivalent of the AUO 10-bit 144 Hz HDR panel. Contrast ratios are even better on this panel. The Lenovo Legion Y740 15" features this display (unlike the AUO I bought—should've been a telltale sign) according to comments both here and on Reddit.

 

It is only really an issue if the panel has significantly different backlight electrical specifications. I think the Chimei panel I am using is fine because it is very similar to the B173ZAN01.0 (which MSI used in the GT73VR, and Dell also uses as the 7730/7740).

Are there any 8-bit, 144hz, ~300nit IPS panels you have considered? I would try one of those first before spending more money on a 10-bit 500nit panel. An 8-bit 144hz panel could still be a fine upgrade. Some of those AUO panels also have a pretty harsh anti-glare coating which really hurts image quality.

 

Plenty of options from all manufacturers here; the 8-bit options honestly all look more or less the same to me (except the NV156FHM-N4G, which apparently suffers from PWM issues). I'm not sure what to choose, if I do. I might get the AUO 07.0 because it has mounting holes, even though it's older than the rest, and I don't need to resort to using double-sided tape to hold down the display.

 

You can also buy a broken panel or very cheap one on ebay and remove the frame to use in the new panel. But I guess that would make the upgrade expensive

 

That seems like a good bet. I was thinking maybe the B156HAN08.0 as I believe Dell ships it as a config option for the Alienware m15 R1. I have looked at disassembled ACPI DSDT and SSDT's and there are very many similarities between the Alienware and Precision lines. They may have accidentally included support for those Alienware panels just from the firmware using a common code base.