Article introduction

This article is the third of the DELL Precision 7760 Review series. 

The original text is in Chinese, and it was translated by Google.Please understand that there are some unsatisfactory words!The original text can be viewed at https://www.song1118.com.

This article has 40 pictures with nearly 4000 words, divided into the following chapters:

New and old

Upgrade

Problem

Retest

Wait

New and old

Three months ago, on August 4, 2021, the author issued the previous article "DELL Precision 7760 Evaluation Serial 2". At the end, the author declared:

In the "DELL Precision 7760 Evaluation Series 3" 10 days later, the author will continue to test the 7760 after upgrading the storage. The content should include the memory, hard disk and overall performance of the 7760, the stress test, stability test, working temperature and Battery life, etc.

As a result, a full 100 days have passed, and the author only released serial 3 today...Here, I apologize to the readers who have been waiting for a long time!

Why have to wait so long? There are three reasons:

1. Not enough time;

2. Encountered a problem;

3. Waiting for the opponent.

There is not enough time, so there is no need to say more. Anyway, the test is full of details, the article is endless, the more pictures, the more pictures, and ultimately the author and readers are submerged in these evaluation articles. In short, after all, testing, production and viewing takes a lot of time. .

The problems encountered are rather strange, and are described in detail in the upgrade chapter below.

The waiting opponents are naturally the opponents of the three major PC brands at the moment-namely ThinkPad's P series and HP's ZBook Fury series-unfortunately the author has been waiting for three months, or only the ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 And P17 Gen 2, HP ZBook Fury 17 G8 still did not arrive...

After 100 days, the official drivers provided by DELL Precision 7760 have been updated a lot. The BIOS version has also been updated from 1.2 at the time of hand, through 1.4, 1.5 to 1.6. At the same time, the benchmark software used by the author for testing also appeared. Lots of updates. In this way, the test content after the beginning of this article will be partly repeated.

Will there be big differences between the old and new data? This is a very interesting question.

Upgrade

Since the main hardware configuration of this DELL Precision 7760 (hereinafter referred to as "7760"), such as the CPU, GPU and screen, are currently the highest optional configurations, the author can only upgrade it in storage.

The hard drive upgrade is very simple. I first installed a 2TB Samsung 980Pro SSD, and later installed a Western Digital SN850 2TB NVMe SSD, and also tested to fill up 4 SSD slots.

The memory upgrade is not easy. I checked the official information and clearly indicated that the 7760 supports the use of DDR4-4366 memory. Therefore, the first time I placed an order on the DELL official website and purchased two 16GB DDR4 3466 memory, after nearly two After months of waiting, I finally received a courier from Kingston:

The author wiped his eyes: Yes, it was sent from Kingston Technology Electronics Co., Ltd. in Shanghai Free Trade Zone, but at the same time there is a DELL logo on the top.

Open the package, and there is a paper DELL memory installation manual. The memory box also has the official DELL label, and the memory stick is also affixed with the official DELL label.

Then the other side of the memory stick is labeled with ADATA...

In this way, the two DDR4-3466 memory I ordered on the DELL official website were made by Kingston using ADATA pellets, and then Kingston shipped them on behalf of DELL and delivered them directly to the author. It seems that DELL With the cooperation of many upstream manufacturers, the material management system of the company seems to be able to achieve zero inventory...

Problem

Then, before the 7760 was preparing for the memory upgrade, there was a problem:

The 7760 I bought has a DDR4-3200MHZ 8GB memory pre-installed at the factory. In Serial 2, I installed two 32GB DDR4-3200MHz SK Hynix memory. The performance has been normal during the test.

After that, because other models of laptops require these two 32GB RAMs, the author will shut down, open the bottom cover, disconnect the built-in battery, remove the two 32GB RAMs, and then reinstall the original single 8GB RAM according to the safety operation regulations. Memory, everything is restored, boot, the result is: black screen without any display, keyboard backlight can be bright but no response to the keys, the power status indicator flashes amber twice and white flashes four times.

After inquiring official information, the information of this startup fault light is as follows:

When the DELL notebook computer has not installed the memory correctly, or there is a problem with the installed memory, the power status indicator will continue to show the fault status indicator: amber flashes twice and white flashes four times.

After this fault condition occurs, you cannot continue to the next step, you can only forcibly shut down by pressing the power button for a long time.

Since all the operations of the author are done in strict accordance with safety regulations, the first choice of the problem is set on the memory stick, so I replaced multiple and multiple brands of memory, and also adopted four memory slots for 7760. Try Various combinations of memory installation methods are all ineffective, and the fault remains.

After troubleshooting the problem with the memory stick, I tried to power off the 7760 and press the power button for a long time. After trying to discharge it, it could be solved, but it still didn't work.

Next, I want to remove the built-in motherboard button battery of the 7760 and perform a thorough discharge and reset of the BIOS. However, the motherboard button battery of the 7760 is installed deep in the fuselage, located between the motherboard and the C surface, and cannot be directly accessed. It takes a lot of effort to disassemble and remove the motherboard to proceed. The author gives up decisively with limited time.

Finally, after some twists and turns, the problem was finally solved. The method is very simple: commission someone to disassemble the machine, take out the button battery, and completely discharge the motherboard. In theory, it is through complete discharge to remove a certain part of this 7760 motherboard. This kind of abnormal hardware protection status-because this 7760 comes with a three-year accident insurance, the author will not worry about this, it is important to quickly test.

After the two DDR4-3466 memories arrive, install them in the bottom slot:

When I turn on the Windows 10 task manager and check it, it shows that the memory is still 3200MHz?

So move the two DDR4-3466 memory to the slot under the C-side keyboard and install it, and then turn it on to check:

Start AIDA64 and HWiNFO64 to view, it shows that the memory is still running at 3200MHz;

However, HWiNFO64 has accurately identified that the memory is produced by A-DATA, and the parameters also show that it is DDR4-3466/PC4-27700.

After some research, I finally found the BIOS Setup----Performance----OverClocking featur----Extreme Memory Profile, that is, BIOS setup----performance----overclocking feature----extreme memory configuration File, found the "XMP 1 profile1" option, after opening it, the memory XMP is enabled.

Tip: Without installing DDR4-3466 memory, this "OverClocking featur" option will not appear in the 7760 BIOS System Setup, and the official technical documentation does not mention this.

As a result, the official senior technical engineer of DELL was tossed to death by the author and did not find this option, because when he researched, he was only researching in the virtual 7760 BIOS Setup, even the actual 7760 was not available, let alone the installation. DDR4-3466 memory...

Retest

After solving the above problems and completing the upgrade of the storage system, I am naturally looking forward to the new performance of 7760.

At the same time, in order to compare with the ThinkPad P15/P17 Gen 2 with 128GB of RAM, the author also installed the 4 DDR4-3200 ECC memory access on the ThinkPad P17 Gen 2 on the 7760, in order to achieve fairness as much as possible. Contrast.

Note: The test data of 7760 in this article will also be used in the article "ThinkPad P15 Gen 2&P17 Gen 2 Comparative Evaluation Serial 3" planned to be issued next week. In this article, the test data of ThinkPad P15 Gen 2&P17 Gen 2 will not appear. stay tuned.

Therefore, the following partial test data of 7760, its memory configuration has three types as follows:

• A----2 x 32GB =64GB @3200MHz, the BIOS version is 1.2.2;

• B----2 x 16GB =32GB @3466MHz, the BIOS version is 1.6.1;

• C----4 x 32GB =128GB @3200MHz ECC, BIOS version is 1.6.1;

CPU

In theory, the upgrade of the storage system generally does not have a significant impact on the performance of the CPU.

However, with the continuous upgrade of the BIOS provided by the 7760, the 7760 tested by the author has gone through 1.1.2 at the factory and upgraded to 1.2.2, 1.4.0, 1.5.0, and up to the latest 1.6. 1. The author found that it seems that the new version of the BIOS has an impact on the performance of the CPU-----enhanced functions: it improves the stability of the system. (Enhancements:- Improved the system stability), for this to suppress the performance of the CPU?

Cinebench R15/R20/R23

As for the evidence, the author has passed countless actual tests and found that this 7760 CPU performance test can no longer reach the high scores when it left the factory. From the scores of Cinebench R15/R20/R23, the performance It fell by about 10%.

The author tested this 7760, from July to now, for a full five months, the data obtained by the test is as high as 22GB.

Of course, it is not ruled out that during the five-month test, the continuous upgrade of related drivers or Windows 10 will also have a certain impact on this;

However, Cinebench R15/R20/R23 does not have any upgrades, and every time the author tests, it is restored to the official system factory pre-installed state. The obtained system and test environment can be said to be exactly the same and very pure, which has been ruled out. The influence of drivers, software and systems;

Moreover, at the beginning of July, the ambient temperature during the 7760 test was often as high as 30 degrees Celsius. Now in December, the ambient temperature is often below 20 degrees Celsius. It is only reasonable for the 7760 CPU to perform better.

3DMark CPU Profile

The results of the 3DMark CPU Profile test also showed performance degradation. The results obtained in the July test and the December test are as follows:

The maximum thread score, 7041 and 6424, respectively-a decrease of about 8.42%;

16 thread scores, 6912 and 6435 respectively-down by about 6.90%;

The single-thread scores were 971 and 954, respectively-a drop of about 1.76%.

Cinebench R15 Multi Loop

In the 50-cycle test of Cinebench R15 multi-core performance that tests the stability of the CPU during long-term and high-load operation, the i9-11950H on this 7760 has multi-core scores in the three states of A, B, and C, respectively as follows:

The peak values are 2004.91, 1885.37 and 1852.62 respectively;

The bottom values are 1824.90, 1797.91 and 1740.57 respectively;

The average values are 1871.87, 1857.72 and 1836.63 respectively.

In the above score curve comparison chart, the score curve of state A is red, B is white, and C is yellow.

It can be seen that the initial peak of the A state is the peak, while the peaks of B and C only appear in the latter part. In the end, the three curves are entangled and interlaced, and there is no obvious high or low. The final average value is around 1850, and the difference is very small.

In this way, the latest version of the official BIOS 1.6.1 said: "Enhanced functions, improved system stability", what is said is true. Although the CPU performance has lost its explosive maximum value, in the long run, there is no difference. , It seems acceptable.

GPU

This 7760 is equipped with NVIDIA RTX A5000 Laptop GPU. Check the information as follows. The maximum power of the graphics card is 130 watts.

Similarly, upgrading the memory to DDR4-3466MHz should have no effect on the performance of the graphics card.

However, since it has been tested for 5 months, I don't care about the additional time for two more tests.

3DMark

Use the 3DMark benchmark software to test the 7760 in the three states of A, B, and C, and compare the obtained graphics scores with other comparison models. The results are as follows:

The total score of the three states of 7760 is around 49,000;

B and C are lower than the BIOS version 1.2.2 of A, only about 1%;

The B state of the 3466MHZ 64GB memory of the same BIOS version 1.6.1 is about 1.24% higher than the C state of the 3200MHz 128GB ECC memory;

This may be a slight impact on CPU performance, or it may just be a measurement error.

Because it is a benchmark test of general graphics performance, the 3DMark graphics score Total of 7760 is not as good as the total score of ASUS Rog S17 GX701 (ie Ice Blade 5 Plus) using RTX3080;

And DELL Precision 7560, which also uses RTX3080, has a total score of only about 90% of 7760 because its body is one size smaller;

In addition, using the previous generation mobile version of the professional graphics card RTX 5000 and other comparison models, only about 73% of the 7760 total score.

Port Royal

But in the same 3DMa In the Port Royal benchmark test of the rk sub-item, which can basically eliminate the impact of CPU performance, the pure graphics score of 7760 in the three states of A, B, and C is another situation in comparison:

Remarks: In the author's evaluation, the Port Royal test results are always compared separately, but not in the 3DMark comparison. The reason is that not all graphics cards support Port Royal.

Taking the A state as a benchmark, the score of the C state of the 3200MHz 128GB ECC memory of BIOS version 1.6.1 is 0.49% higher;

BIOS 1.6.1 version 3466MHz 64GB memory B state score, 3.43% higher;

0.49% can be regarded as a measurement error. Is 3.44% caused by the increase in memory to 3466Mhz?

Compared with other comparison models, the difference is the same as the 3DMark link, so I won't repeat it.

VRMark

Using the VRMark benchmark test, the 7760 three-state scores are as follows, and the test score comparison is basically the same as the 3DMark link, so I won’t repeat it.

It can be seen that although there are differences between the different BIOS versions and different memory configurations, the differences are small and can be ignored.

SPECgpcViewperf 13

As a mobile workstation using professional graphics cards, the 7760 has finally come to the part of professional graphics performance testing that must be carried out. Tested with SPECgpcViewperf 13, the scores of 7760 three-states, compared with other models are as follows:

At this time, the advantages of higher capacity memory are manifested:

128GB memory in C state, the total score is 4.24% higher than A state;

The advantages of higher frequency memory are also manifested:

State B of 32GB DDR4-3466 memory has a total score of 4.92% higher than State A;

Similarly, the advantages of professional graphics graphics cards over consumer graphics cards are also fully expressed:

The total scores of ASUS Rog S17 GX701 and DELL Precision 7560 using RTX 3080 graphics cards are only about 50% of 7760.

And the comparison model using the previous generation mobile version of the professional graphics card RTX 5000, the total score is only about 84% of the 7760.

SPECgpcViewperf 2020

In the updated version of the SPECgpcViewperf 2020 v2.0 benchmark test, the scores of the three states of 7760, the comparison between the self, and the comparison between other models are similar to those of the SPECgpcViewperf 13 above:

128GB memory in C state, the total score is 2.91% higher than A state;

State B of 32GB DDR4-3466 memory, the total score is 3.60% higher than State A;

The total score of ASUS Rog S17 GX701 and DELL Precision 7560 using RTX 3080 graphics card is only about 54.5% of 7760.

Using the previous generation mobile version of the professional graphics card RTX 5000 comparison model, the total score is only about 82% of the 7760.

The above graphics performance test results and comparison show that the overall graphics performance of the RTX A5000 on the 7760 is much higher than that of the previous generation RTX5000. With the support of the new platform, there is an increase of about 25%. (General purpose is about 27%, professional performance is about 20%)

At the same time, it is undeniable that the larger memory capacity and higher frequency can bring certain graphics performance improvements, but it will not be too obvious.

Storage

RAM

The 7760 has 4 memory slots. Although there are only 2 16GB DDR4 3466MHz memory, the same as using 4 32GB DDR4-3200 MHz memory, it also meets the dual-channel requirements.

Using AIDA64's cache and memory benchmark test modules, the memory cache performance of the 7760 was tested in 5 states. The 5 states are:

• A----2 x 32GB =64GB @3200MHz, the BIOS version is 1.2.2;

• B----2 x 16GB =32GB @3466MHz, the BIOS version is 1.6.1;

• C----4 x 32GB =128GB @3200MHz ECC, BIOS version is 1.6.1;

• D----2 x 16GB =32GB @3200MHz, the BIOS version is 1.4.0;

• E----2 x 16GB =32GB @3466MHz, the BIOS version is 1.5.0;

The test results are as follows:

It can be seen that in these 5 results, the difference in CPU cache performance is very small and can be ignored;

Comparing D and E, and B and C, as the operating frequency increases, the read, write, and copy performance of the memory is improved, but the latency of the memory also increases, which is a normal phenomenon.

Compare A, D, and B, the three are the same operating frequency of DDR4-3200, and their memory latency (Latency) is not much different;

When operating at 3200MHz, the CL-RCD-RP-RAS of the memory is 22-22-22-52 CR1;

When operating at 3466MHz, the CL-RCD-RP-RAS of the memory is 24-24-24-58 CR1.

hard disk

The 7760 has 4 M.2 SSD slots, and the three M.2 2280 SSD slots at the bottom left corner (equivalent to the lower right corner of the C-face palm rest), all of which only support PCIe 3.0 x 4 transfer mode.

Only the M.2 SSD main slot near the memory location is the only slot that supports PCIe 4.0 x 4 transfer mode.

This 7760 factory defaults to enable intel VMD hard disk mode, so when the number of hard disks is satisfied, RAID 0, 1 or 5 can be formed. Under Windows, you can use Intel Optane Memory and Storage Management to operate, or in BIOS Systen Setup to make settings.

It should be noted that since the 7760 factory defaults to enable the intel VMD hard disk mode, if you use CrystalDiskInfo to detect it, the transfer mode cannot be displayed at present.

This 7760 is pre-installed with a 256GB SSD, the model is Micron 2300, and is a PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD. The performance of the test is as follows. The AS SSD Benchmark score is 2863 points, and the results are normal.

The author has replaced the Samsung 980Pro 2TB NVMe SSD that supports PCIe 4.0 and installed the system. When it is installed in a slot that does not support PCIe 4.0, its performance is tested as follows. The AS SSD Benchmark score is 7614 points, which is normal.

When the Samsung 980Pro 2TB NVMe SSD is installed in the main slot that supports PCIe 4.0, its performance is tested as follows. The reading, writing, IOPS, and latency performance have been greatly improved, and the AS SSD Benchmark score has risen to 8316 points.

In addition, a Western Digital SN850 2TB NVMe SSD that supports PCIe 4.0 is installed. When it is installed in a slot that does not support PCIe 4.0, its performance is tested as follows. The AS SSD Benchmark score is 7412 points, slightly lower than Samsung 980Pro, and the results are normal. .

When the Western Digital SN850 2TB NVMe SSD is installed in the main slot that supports PCIe 4.0, its performance is tested as follows. The reading, writing, IOPS and latency results have also been greatly improved, and the AS SSD Benchmark score has increased. To 7912 points, it is also slightly lower than Samsung 980Pro.

Using PCMark 10's Full System Drive benchmark test, under 3200MHz memory, the 7760 hard drive combinations in the following states were tested:

Samsung 980Pro 2TB SSD is used as the system disk and test disk, with a score of 2100;

Micron 2300 256GB SSD as the system disk + Samsung 980Pro 2TB SSD as the test disk, with a score of 2233;

Micron 2300 256GB SSD was used as the system disk and test disk, with a score of 1049.

Above, everything seems to be normal.

At the same time, after enabling DDR4-3466MHz memory, Samsung 980Pro 2TB SSD was used as the system disk and test disk. The PCMark 10 Full System Drive benchmark score increased from 2100 points when the memory was running at DDR4-3200MHz to 2241 points. An increase of 6.71%.

It can be seen that the operating frequency of the memory has a significant impact on the performance of the hard disk, but in daily use, the author believes that the user is basically unable to perceive it.

SD card reader

The 7760's full-size SD card reader is located on the front right side of the fuselage, with a full storage design, so there is no need to worry about SD sticking out.

The SD card reader is produced by Realtek and uses PCIe x1 to connect to the PCH.

Installed 32GB Lexar 2000x SD card and 1800x microSD plus original micro SD to SD card sleeve respectively, tested with ATTO Disk Benchmark, the results are as follows:

(Note: These two cards belong to the Lexar Professional 2000x SDHC/SDXC UHS-II Cards GOLD Series, the latter is no longer officially sold)

The peak reading rate measured using these two cards reached 271MB/s and 256MB/s respectively;

The peak write rate reached 252MB/s and 206MB/s respectively;

At the same time, the IO/s achieved is also very good.

This shows that the performance of this 7760 SD card reader is very good and it works normally.

In summary, the 7760, which spans 5 months before and after the test, has finally been tested for the unilateral performance of its CPU, GPU, and storage hardware after the BIOS, driver, hard disk, and memory upgrades.

Summarizing the above test results is:

The performance of this 7760 CPU is fairly good, and its stability is obviously better than that of DELL Precision 7560 using the same CPU;

The GPU performance of this 7760 is very good, and the performance has been significantly improved compared with the previous generation flagship RTX5000;

The 7760's storage solutions are very complete: 4 memory slots, supporting DDR4-3466MHz memory is a highlight; 4 PCIe SSDs can be built in at the same time and support three kinds of RAID; the performance of the SD card reader is also very good.

Wait

At this point in Part 3, the text has exceeded 5000, and there are 40 pictures. In order to prevent readers from watching fatigue, Part 3 ends as usual.

In the next "7760 Review Part 4", it will be the 7760's comprehensive performance, pressure test, working temperature, battery life and other related test results, and make the author's evaluation of the 7760.

And before the "7760 Review Part 4" is released, we still need to wait for the author's "ThinkPad P15 Gen 2&P17 Gen 2 Comparative Review Part 3" to be released.

At the same time, the evaluation at the end of "7760 Review Part 4" should not be the author's final evaluation of the 7760, and the final evaluation still needs to wait.

why?

Because the author's "ThinkPad P15 Gen 2&P17 Gen 2 Comparative Review" also has Part 4...

Now that we have been waiting for almost 6 months, it is not bad to wait for another week or two. Patience readers, please continue to sit back and wait...

Stay tuned!