Precision 7740/ 7540 specs / release date

4.5 GHz is acceptable. Considering getting one for the upgrade

Also, does anyone know why Precision doesn't use AMD Ryzen? Ryzen has more cores and price is significantly lower.

 

The 'more cores' CPUs that you're talking about are full-fledged desktop CPUs. All of AMD's notebook offerings are rather lacklustre. Furthermore, AMD right now is using an inferior process with fewer cores and lower clock speeds (see: R7 3750H, 3700U) for its notebook CPUs. This will likely change over the next year or so, but for anyone who needs a new notebook right now, Intel has the goods.

These Precisions are already pushing it in terms of thermal capacity; put something like a 3700X or a 3900X inside and the CPUs will be severely thermally limited.

It likely will work, but you'll have to modify the driver INFs, because your motherboard would be that of a 7450. As @Aaron44126 mentions, the Quadros in the Precisions have complete hardware IDs comprising of their own device ID, plus the subsystem ID, which is where you'll have to make edits. Details here.

And then you'll have to either boot in unsigned mode, or self-sign the modified drivers.

 

i9-9880H
https://www.mobile01.com/topicdetail.php?f=241&t=5794379
https://attach.mobile01.com/attach/201905/mobile01-1b6d420ed43e1884f6b0e4fc486382b3.jpg

i9-9980HK
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Power...rce-GTX-1650-OLED-Laptop-Review.428748.0.html
https://www.notebookcheck.net/fileadmin/_processed_/7/6/csm_undervolt_08083aeef9.png

Actually all 8 cores turbo boost frequency for 9880H is 4.1 Ghz.
But we have to consider an important aspect.

If you look at this link:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...ore/9th-gen-core-mobile-processors-brief.html

Intel defines tvb as follows:

"Intel® Thermal Velocity Boost (Intel® TVB) is a feature supported on the
Intel® Core™ i9-9980HK processor, Intel® Core™ vPro™ i9-9880H processor, and Intel® Xeon® E-2286M processor which opportunistically and automatically increases
clock frequency by up to 200 MHz if the processor is at a temperature of 50°C or lower
and turbo power budget is available."

and about 'Maximum Processor Frequency Up to 5.0' specifies the following:

"Includes the effect of Intel® Thermal Velocity Boost (Intel® TVB), a feature that opportunistically and automatically increases clock frequency above single-core and multi-core Intel® Turbo Boost Technology frequencies based on how much the processor is operating below its maximum temperature and whether turbo power budget is available.
The frequency gain and duration is dependent on the workload, capabilities of the processor and the processor cooling solution."

So in a best case scenario (where we have no thermal and no power limit problems) all those max frequencies are just 'marketing stuff' as no notebook on this planet will ever be able to stay as low as 50°C while running intensive single or multi threaded workloads.

Tech websites also give contrasting info about this topic.

For instance anandtech (https://www.anandtech.com/show/1425...l-the-desktop-and-mobile-45w-cpus-announced/2)
says:
"Both the 9980HK and 9880H supports Intel’s Thermal Velocity Boost, giving an additional 100 MHz if the thermal performance
of the hardware allows it."

so REAL TB (1core) frequency is 4.9 Ghz for 9980hk and 4.7 Ghz for 9880h.

Instead notebookcheck (https://www.notebookcheck.net/9980HK-vs-9880H_11341_11348.247596.0.html)
about 9880h says:
"The 4.8 GHz can only be reached using the "Thermal Velocity Boost" which allows one core to boost
to 4.8 GHz (+200 MHz) as long as the CPU temperature is below 50°C. Multiple cores can be boosted +100 MHz below 50°C (not verified)."

So REAL TB (1core) frequency is 4.8 Ghz (and not 4.7 Ghz)

While they seem to agree about 9980hk:"The 5 GHz can only be reached using the "Thermal Velocity Boost" which allows one core to boost
to 5 GHz (+100 MHz) as long as the CPU temperature is below 50°C. Multiple cores can be boosted +100 MHz? below 50°C (not verified)."

If we take Intel website as the only reliable source, that 4.1 Ghz 8cores tb value for i9-9880h should actually be (in an ideal scenario like i said above) either 4.0 Ghz or even 3.9 Ghz (remember: intel says "up to 200 MHz" on both "single-core and multi-core Intel® Turbo Boost Technology frequencies")

About Xeon-E2286M, i was not able to retrieve any info about it, but previous gen 8950hk and 2186m (guess what ? they support tvb, so this same story applies to them too !) have same identical turbo boost values (they're both 6c/12t cpus with 12 MB L3 cache):

8950HK--->http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachments/tsbench-png.175216/
2186M--->http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachments/upload_2019-6-4_21-24-7-png.175167/

Since both i9-9980HK and 2286M are 8c/16t cpus with 16 MB L3 cache, i wouldn't be surprised to see 2286M with same identical 9980HK turbo boost frequencies as well.

 

Will get you part number on the motherboard. Planning to upgrade to 32GB Samsung DDR4. I ran Cinebench R20 for multicore and got results ranging from 3116 to 3463. Not sure how good these numbers hold.

 

WOW, thank you for such a detailed explanation!

So surprised that the CPU frequency on all-core run is increased by so little over the years.

My 3940XM on the six year old M6700 does 3.5 GHz with 4C/8H stress run.

I have no idea how much performance can the 0.5+ GHz bring in...

 

Not really surprising when you realise that the marketed TDP of notebook CPUs have stayed constant at 45 W, when real practices indicate that running six 14 nm cores at 4 Ghz draws around 90 W, and running the more recent Intel CPUs at desktop speeds, exceeding 5 GHz, draws well in excess of 150 W, sometimes even 200 W.

No notebook (except perhaps the thickest and bulkiest of the lot, the Clevo P870 and the MSI GT75/76) will be able to manage and dissipate that much power. In fact, the 45 W TDP is just that: marketing. On the 7540 and 7740, the default long-term power draw is 60 W, and the short-term limit over 28 seconds is 90 W.

 

Interesting. Haven't upgraded my Precision for a long time.

I remember 3940XM is 55W. So the TDP has been lowered over the years?

Another reason why I haven't upgraded my M6700 for a long time is, looks like there is no RGB LED backlit 10-bit screen any more.

Current screens are 8-bit at most.

How good is the 1080p and 4K screens on 7740? 10-bit and 8-bit seem a big difference on spec.

I have to convince myself if upgrading is the right choice...

 

According to hwinfo the 1080 screen on my 7730 is 6-bit.

I upgraded from a M6600 and am extremely happy that I did. The 7730 is easier to carry around, faster and quieter.

The fingerprint reader is still crap as far as I am concerned, but I am very happy that I made the change.

I guess it depends on what you use it for etc., but being able to have 4 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSDs gives you massive storage potential with an incredible boost in speed.

 

Do you actually use the 10-bit feature on your screen? Almost all apps don't output more than 8-bit color so the 10-bit doesn't actually get you anything.

They were saying that the 4K panel in the 7540 is HDR, but it doesn't look like that is the case for the 7740 4K panel.

 

Tried updating the RAM to 2x16GB, used HX426S15IB2K2/32 (HyperX with 2x16 GB, 2666 MHz and CL15 17-17 timings).

The system didn't even post.

I am not going to get a Crucial set with 2666 MHz but CL19 timings. Crucial says it's compatible with the 5540, I hope this extends to the 7540.