Precision 7560 & 7760 Owners' Thread

Thanks for stopping by to post your impressions. Glad to see some data from the RTX A5000. Compared to the A4000, it appears to perform a little better than the ≈5% margin that I was expecting... barely.

Can either of you comment on what 1080p gaming looks like on the display (maybe with NVIDIA integer scaling enabled)? Can you tell that it is blurry/blocky or does it look similar to a 1080p native display (if you don't look too close)?

(I'm still fine gaming in 1080p on my M6700, 4K seems overkill for this screen size, but maybe I will change my tune on that once I actually see it in person. This system might struggle to do 4K at high settings on new/big titles, but it seems like it will be killer at 1440p or 1080p. Still definitely want 4K for "work".)

 

Here are my first impressions with my Precision 7760:

I will preface my first impressions by saying that I probably have a less common use case for this machine and am definitely on the younger side age-wise (I never put my real age on websites). I use it for video editing in Davinci Resolve and some 3D work in Blender. Basically, take what I say with a grain of salt.

This review won't be centered around benchmarks too much as future updates may change performance beyond margin of error and also because I'm still getting used to the system's thermal behavior.

Ease of disassembly:
I have had the computer for a few days and have opened it up 2 times to upgrade storage and RAM. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't super hard (instructions for the 7760 on keyboard removal were vague and didn't mention to pull on the keyboard and backlight ribbon cable tabs, so I had to reference the 7750 manual).
I really miss the M4800 bottom cover which was so easily removed... looks like Dell won't go back in that direction disassembly wise.
Having clips on the bottom cover also makes them prone to breaking; I broke a few on the bottom panel which is quite annoying since that means the margin of error for disassembly/assembly is very low.
I also miss the removable battery on the M4800 because a screwed in battery is one more thing to remove during disassembly.

Build quality:
The build quality is good... but for a thick mobile workstation, it seems slightly lacking. My main problem is the flimsiness during disassembly which includes broken clips, and as another user experienced, a bent bottom cover in the port area from disassembly. Not ideal.
Other than that, it's very stiff in every area.
Hinge: it feels sturdy, but the top part of the palm rest flexes when the hinge is moved. Also not ideal. Other than that, the hinge is a solid A+.

It's not too thick, and very manageable for a 17 inch laptop. I don't see why I would need anything more portable since I usually put it down on a table.

Weight of my system (with 2 RAM modules and 2 drives): 7.58 pounds
240W charger weight: 1.7 pounds

Keyboard:
One of my favorite areas. Having a numpad is very useful for the times when I need it.
I like the way that the key clicks feel. They aren't loud, but they feel very "loud" and clicky. They don't feel mushy at all despite them being quiet. There is something quite satisfying about typing on them. Since I play piano a lot, I am very used to banging on keys and this keyboard definitely feels like (and encourages) heavy typing with it's high actuation force following by a quick and crisp bottom out. I'm no keyboard expert but I love this keyboard.
On the Precision 7760, I can get 137wpm on 10fastfingers.com compared to 133wpm on my XPS. I also have less errors on the Precision due to the harder actuation force requiring more effort to press, therefore reducing accidental soft key presses.

Trackpad:
As pointed out by others, the trackpad feels amazing. The size is also perfect. Despite the "bigger is better" trend with trackpads, I'm glad Dell has decided to keep the trackpad as big as possible without causing frustration from accidental clicks and cursor movements when typing. It's the exact same size as my XPS 15 7590, but just with dedicated click buttons so the actual tracking surface is slightly smaller.
Click buttons: Having a middle click button in 3D software is so useful. I finally don't have to use an external mouse just to use 3D software. Compared to my XPS, the trackpad clicks are much softer (my XPS clicks loud enough to get annoying). I'm definitely partial to separate trackpad buttons as I grew up with them and have used them until recently with my XPS 15 7590.

Speakers:
I'm pretty sure I would classify as an audiophile. I don't have the fanciest gear, but with the right tuning, my Sony 1000XM4's sound extremely good. And they are wireless and light. I loved my M4800 for it's loud but not the most clear speakers. When I got my XPS 15 7590, I winced at the speakers each time I used them. With the right eq, they were barely passable, but I would absolutely not listen to them instead of headphones unless I'm getting paid money to do so. However, the precision 7760's speakers are excellent. Quite loud (too loud to have them at max volume 2 feet away from the display), and extremely clear. There is obviously still distortion at 100% volume, but compared to my M4800, the distortion in the 7760's speakers is very little. Basically, the speaker quality is good enough to use for a little instead of headphones, and the shortcomings (lack of bass, not too much stereo separation) are forgivable.

Display:
I'm not a gamer and this is the first time I have used a 120hz display. I immediately noticed the very low pixel response time (the 4k display in the 7760 seems to be the same as the 4k display in the Alienware X17). When scrolling through webpages, the pixel response times as well as the 120hz refresh rate allow text to stay readable.
The only game that I "play" is BeamNG, and the screen definitely looked better than the screen in my XPS 15 7590. Part of it was the larger size, but I think I could tell the 120hz refresh rate as well as the better pixel response times.

Webcam/microphone:
The webcam is... bad. I'm pretty sure it's worse than the one on my XPS.
The microphone is better, it on the top of the display meaning that it shouldn't pick up too much keyboard and clicking noises (the XPS had the mic right below the very loud clicking trackpad which was horrible)

Performance:
I left this section for last because I'm the least comfortable talking about this since I have had little time with the computer.
So far, the computer has been incredibly fast. As in out of this world fast compared to my XPS 15 7590.
It's very noticeable when scrubbing through a video timeline as well as moving around in the 3D viewport. It's so fast that I can't believe I survived with my XPS 15 7590.
Here are some benchmarks that I did (will update to include more benchmarks tomorrow):
Geekbench 5: i9-11950H: 9,570
TimeSpy (64GB RAM): 9,792 (GPU: 9,637, CPU: 10,782)

For anyone wondering, DellFanCmd doesn't seem to work with the 7760 presumably because of updated fan control. @Aaron44126 might be able to update it so that it works with these systems.

Overall, the computer has it's flaws but those are somewhat forgivable by the impressive performance (and productivity) increase that it has gave to me. I have 5 years of ProSupport Plus just in case if I have any issues with the computer, so hopefully it should be relatively trouble free.

 

I don't know what it is unfortunately. Once I use it more, I might have more of a breakthrough. At this point, it's more of a feeling, based on some real results - on some typing tests, I can type a lot faster on this keyboard than the 7730's keyboard.

I still think I can eek out more on that Time Spy score... however, it does seem to be about a 10% improvement over the A4000 from what I've seen. Though still not worth the $1k upgrade, if you're using it for just gaming. I upgraded to the RTX A5000 for a few reasons this time around. One, I had quite a bit extra to spend on this laptop this time around and I want a really solid machine over the next 3ish years. I also wanted to ensure I got the top GPU for any AI/ML work I want to do, while there are some AI/ML benchmarks, there aren't a lot. I may post some here if anyone is interested. And finally, my Precision 7730, I opted for the P4200, which a somewhat regret. I often maxed out the memory on that with my day-to-day workflows and I wanted to ensure that wasn't the case this time around. With the RTX A5000's 16GB, I don't see me running into this type of issue anytime soon.

I don't know if I have Integer Scaling enabled or not - I'll check and try it out if I don't. I'm guessing not though based on my initial findings... My current analysis is that 1080p is fairly meh and appears pixilated beyond what I'd prefer, though it's like a soft pixilation if that makes sense. At1440p it's okay generally. 4k is, naturally, the best. Nearly every monitor I have is 4K these days, but I do have access to a 1440p that I could try to see how it looks comparitively.

 

Integer scaling looked perfectly crisp to me (for 1080p), though I haven't tried it in games since I don't game, and thus don't have a baseline to compare it to.
It might have been in 4k the whole time though...
I think the GPU might even be fine in 4k if you turn down some settings (can't confirm it on any new game though)

 

I know 8GB is overkill for many use cases, but I am very close (7.5GB) to reaching the 8GB limit in certain scenes and videos. Concerningly close considering that swapping to RAM will cause a significant performance drop.
If I really need the 16GB VRAM, I can just sell my A4000 if someone wants to buy it and get an A5000. That should cost me less than $1000.

 

Integer scaling is not enabled by default... you can find it in NVIDIA control panel (only if Optimus is disabled), select "Adjust desktop size and position" on the left and look at the scaling modes. It "should" make 1080p look more like a native display since it would just be doing pixel doubling and not "blurring" to scale the image up to native resolution, but I have a feeling it will make it look sort of blocky instead.

I'll have all 4K panels within 12 months (native 1440p doesn't interest me that much). Just looking at options for improved performance on games when needed and what the trade-off is like. I'm also really interested in DLSS as it will help bridge the gap to 4K. It's just not available in that many titles.

 

I think I found the culprit in task manager. Any idea on what that process is?

Name of the process when I click "search online": ntoskrnl.exe System

 

I’m hoping for some help from those with a long Precision workstation history…

I bought my M6700 a few months after it was announced (2012!) I got the second most expensive CPU and the second most expensive graphics card. It was overkill for my uses, but I wanted a tank that would last me a while. I had a spinner hard drive complete failure a couple of years ago that was replaced with a SSD, installed Win 10 and upgraded the memory. The hinge has been an issue for a while, structurally that was its Achilles heel. It still works, you just have to be gentle with it. Never had to have Dell repair it in the 4 year warranty period. It had been rock solid for me for almost 9 years now, but it’s beginning to show its age: fans are spinning up more and I’ve gotten a few BSOD lately. It’s time for my 6700 to become my backup system.

My question for those who had M6600/6700/6800 and have the 7760, is the build quality and parts quality of the 7760 on par with what my M6700 had?

Might be too soon for this question, I can ask later or go in a different direction, but any input will be appreciated.

 

I had a M6600 back in the days (and still use it to this day actually). Then finally upgraded to a 7730 and now a 7760. I've also had multiple Precisions (7510, 7530) and Latitudes (6520, 7390 2-in-1) at work. The 7760 seems to be the best build experience I've seen so far in an Dell laptop I've had. Now, I've only had it for a few days and my experience might be biased on the fact I've had the other laptops over years. Either way, this is a well built laptop and I would not hesitate against telling someone otherwise.

 

The "System" process is the Windows kernel. All driver CPU time also falls under this process. Note that "drivers" don't just have to be for hardware devices; system-level software (monitoring tools, antivirus, ...) can also load drivers. It sort of has its own process management system going on inside of it which requires additional work to dig into.

Two approaches which I can think of:
1. Download Process Explorer. Find the "System" process, right-click on it and go to "Properties". Go to the "Threads" tab, sort by CPU, and see if you can get a hint as to what is going on from the "Start address".
2. Check this. A bit more involved.