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February 2nd, 2022 19:00
Seeking 7760 advice: CPU/GPU/Memory
Sorry if this is posted in the wrong group... I am seeking advice on a new purchase.
My workflow: I am a photographer by trade. I require speedy throughput, I copy and move up to 4000 images weekly. I process large 40gb+ image files using mostly Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom Classic. Currently very little video or 3D rendering. I use multiple internal SSDs and variety of external SSDs, and I run 2 external monitors.
Sales initially recommended XPS-17 9710. But this setup just throttles the machine config'd with i9 and NVIDAI GeForce RTX 3050 Ti., below: the current XPS which has stability connectivity issues and limitations, both with and without the dock (WD19DCS).
Sales now recommends this 7760 17" mobile workstation with XEON processor, (retail pricing $11k)
Dell Mobile Precision Workstation 7760 CTO 210-AYYC
Intel Xeon Processor W-11955M (8 Core, 24MB Cache, 2.60GHz to 5.00GHz, 45W, vPro) 379-BELS
Thermal For Graphics 490-BGQS
NVIDIA RTX A5000 w/16 GB GDDR6 490-BGRC
17.3" IPS UHD, 3840x2160, 120Hz, Anti-Glare, Non-Touch, 100% Adobe,500 Nits, HDR400, IR Cam/Mic,WLAN
391-BFZQ
64 GB, 2 x 32 GB, DDR4, 3200MHz, Non-ECC, SODIMM 370-AFXT
M.2 2280 1 TB, Gen 4 PCIe x4 NVMe, Solid State Drive
My questions:
1. Is the XEON processor or CORE i9 better to support my workflow?
2. With XEON processor, is ECC memory required to suypport error correction?
3. this the i9 processor a good alternative, or is this less powerful machine:
11th Gen Intel Core Processor i9-11950H (8 Core, 24MB Cache, 2.60GHz to 5.00GHz, (45W), vPro)
with 64 GB, 4 x 16 GB, DDR, 3466MHz SuperSpeed, Non-ECC, SODIMM
Anoyone have any advice would be much appreciated... Any photographers out there??
yho
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February 2nd, 2022 22:00
Xeon W-11955M and i9-11950H both have same level of performance. Xeon one has ECC RAM support, while i9 doesn't support ECC RAM. If you don't want ECC RAM, you should select i9 instead of Xeon for saving money. If you want error correction, select Xeon one, and then you can ECC memory on laptop
rwzeitgeist
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February 3rd, 2022 15:00
Another discussion you might find interesting concerns the real-world performance differences between the A4000 and A5000 GPUs. Apparently Dell set the power limits for those GPUs to the same value, with the effect of limiting the potential improvement when using the A5000's additional CUDA cores.
A post by Aaron44126 archived from a now-closed forum discusses the issue in detail:
Dell Precision 7560 & Precision 7760 pre-release discussion
The bottom line: If your workload heavily uses CUDA cores the performance difference between an A4000 and an A5000 is probably pretty small. Aaron44126 suggests the difference is in the range of 5%.
I also see that Dell's recommendation for a GPU in a laptop when the user's usage is "Image Editing and Prepress Page Design" is a T1000! And for users doing "Film and Video Editing, Multimedia DVD/Blu-ray Authoring" the recommendation is an RTX A4000.
On the other hand when discussing Lightroom's using of a GPU NVidia says, "For better performance including accelerated AI Enhance Details: GeForce RTX 3060, NVIDIA RTX A3000 or higher."
Knowing what I know now I would order either an A3000 or, at most, an A4000.
MTNShootR
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February 3rd, 2022 00:00
Thanks and I agree. When would I need ECC memory for image processing? XEON and ECC memory is more for servers and graphics acceleration and 3D rendering, right?
rwzeitgeist
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February 3rd, 2022 09:00
I'm a serious amateur photographer, and a retired software developer. I edit primarily using Lightroom Classic.
Last summer I purchased a Precision 7560 to replace my 7530:
I use this laptop mostly when I'm away from my dual screen desktop, e.g., when traveling. I chose a 15" machine because (a) I find that for my usage a 15" screen is adequate, (b) I don't need the additional SSD slot, and (c) all my bags handle nothing larger.
I regret not getting at least the A3000. Lightroom defaults to basic acceleration with the RTX A2000. Before my purchase I didn't see Adobe's footnote that says full acceleration requires at least an RTX A3000.
I benchmarked the machine using PugetBench's Lightroom benchmark. I saw my best score, 975, using Lightroom's default basic acceleration. Forcing full acceleration dropped the score to 943.5! The only other directly comparable benchmark result is for a Precision 7750 with an i7-10850H and an RTX 4000: 867.5. Yes, my newer CPU and slower GPU slightly outperformed a system with a one generation older CPU and better GPU. While the benchmark result depends in part on drive performance their results don't record drive details. When I compare the detailed results I do see that my 7760's storage subsystem outperformed the 7750's, so that would also be a factor.
Adding 3rd party memory tends to be a hassle. I've seen a fair number of people encounter reliability issues when the 3rd party's performance doesn't exactly match what Dell delivers. I avoided this by purchasing all the RAM from Dell. On the other hand, populating the machine with additional SSD storage tends to work quite well. I've experienced no issues with my Samsung SSD, and I rarely see other people describing problems with 3rd party SSDs.
IMNHO you don't need ECC memory, which means you don't need a Xeon processor.
muto
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February 3rd, 2022 14:00
I think that you have received good advice from the people that responded.
I would add that the Precision 7760 has four internal NVME slots that you can use as four entirely separate drives or you can configure for raid.
Also, the system can be ordered with or without a door on the bottom to make swapping out the nvme drives quick and easy (which also means theft could be quick and easy so they sell a version without the door).
Dell charges outrageous prices for their 1 an 2 TB drives but there is nothing stopping you from adding your own, particularly if you get the machine with easy access door.
Same goes for memory. They charge way to much for memory. I understand the convenience of ordering it with the system but when you get over 32gb is it just insultingly expensive and i would add my own. To go from 32gb (2x16gb) to 64gb (4x16) is a $400 bump in price when the best class a memory could be had for under $150 full retail. To go from 32gb (2x16gb) to 128gb (4x32gb) they want over $1,700 when you could buy 4x32gb for $600 (and have their original 2x16 worth $150 to use someplace else).