Precision M4600 Battery Life with FirePro

Good luck! I hope you guys get it to work!

 

That makes sense. But isn't the panel backward compatible with 8-bit output? Is there any way to disable 10-bit color in order to enable Optimus?

When you say you are still looking at it, is there any hope at all that Optimus can be enabled in the future via a driver/BIOS update, or is it out of the question?

Thanks!

 

It basically has to do with the way that the video signals travel from the GFX card to the display and the way that Optimus operates. This all requires special routing and hardware in the motherboard. Customers who purchase the IPS RGB panel want 10-bit support, I would guess, if not then why purchase a 10-bit panel? You just can't switch the routing of the video signal on the fly dynamically without the proper hardware installed on the motherboard and as I stated earlier there is only so much real-estate on the MB.

 

Being able to manually switch in the BIOS would be a perfectly acceptable alternative to me. What are the odds of that being available in the future?

I only ask because I'm getting dangerously close to cancelling my order. This machine seems more like a desktop replacement and I was hoping to get something a little more battery friendly.

 

It makes me wonder if there is more real estate on the m6600 motherboard to add in multiplexers? It would be ironic if the less portable of the two notebooks got optimus and IPS! I sure hope so because I want the larger laptop.

Optimus aside is there a way to shut the quadro cards off via a bios switch and just use the on-die graphics? That way if you knew you were in a situation where you needed better battery life (airport/travel) you could go into the bios and switch it. That would be a perfectly viable solution to the problem and it wouldn't have any of the quirks that I heard optimus has.

 

On the IPS display.

I have seen the same thing with the E6520. When I have it docked and hooked up to my U2410 over displayport, Optimus is disabled (not in the bios, but on the fly) and I only get the Nvidia Quadro card. My assumption is that the behavior is caused by the 10 bit output to the monitor. When I first got the E6520, it would not even display the Dell Post screen on DVI or Displayport - only the VGA. If I disabled Optimus in the bios, which forced it to only use the Quadro, I got the post screen on the DVI or DP output.

Everything I have read in the datasheet for the new core processors http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/datasheet/324803.pdf says that they can only do 8 bit video from the IGP. Optimus routes everything through the IGP when it is enabled, so the bottleneck is there. You also have to remember that Optimus forces the IGP and GPU to share resources to make the transition seamless between them - which means you go down to the 8 bit lookup table.

Right now 10 bit panels are still very rare in laptops. Intel probably didn't see the benefits outweighing the costs associated with supporting anything above 8 bits. Most panels are only 6 bits.

My opinion is that if the IPS panel is 10 bits and can display 1024 shades of red, green, and blue - you would want all of those shades. 8 bit is 256 shades of rgb, so you only have 1/4th the color color fidelity when you lose those 2 bits.

One possible solution would be to allow for switchable graphics in the BIOS, but we in the outside world have no idea of what that would do to the panel and the color management software Dell is supposed to be releasing for these. I am just glad to have the option of having the IPS panel. I am patiently waiting for budgets to shake out so that I can buy one.

On battery life.

The sites that you have open may have a large effect on the battery life when you are casually browsing. Disable Flash and see what kind of life you get. I know its a pain, but Flash kills battery life plain and simple. Most of the video cards do 10:1 ratios of full power to idle power. Having GPU acceleration running in Flash means that your GPU is probably not able to idle down.

You should also try to get your OS running as efficiently as possible. Go to Black Viper's site and read up on tweaking your services and task scheduled apps.

You might also try running the Max battery life power scheme.

Your screen pulls around 5 watts, another 5 for a platter hard drive, 4-55 watts based on processor and load at the time, 5-75 for the video card, and maybe 5 for everything else. You end up with a min of 19 watts (assuming SSD drive) and a max of 97 which is battery limited. 5.1 hours if your efficient, 1 if your not. You could get even more (6-7 hours) if your wireless was able to lower power and get the machine down to 14 watts average. Please remember, this is overly simplified, but you get the idea.

 

Well, I cancelled my ordered today because of the no-Optimus/IPS issue and I'm probably going to stick with the W520 for it's better battery life and slice option. The BIOS switching would've appeased me, but without any kind of definite answer of it ever coming, I don't want to risk getting stuck with the machine past the 30 day return policy.

 

Thanks for your reply, Dell-Mano_G!

So, if I am reading it correctly, it's very unlikely that the problem can be fixed by a software upgrade. Right?

If I remember this correctly, you mentioned that the issue with Optimus and the IPS panel is only present in the m4600. If so, how was it addressed in the m6600? Does the m6600 support 10-bit colors when Optimus is enabled? Or does the Optimus force 8-bit colors? I am curious.

I guess it depends on what you use this computer for. For graphics designers, yes, it might be important to have 10-bit color enabled all the time. But the rest of us would be ok with a switch in the BIOS: Optimus while traveling and 10-bit color when editing images.

 

I wouldn't even need optimus while traveling, just the integrated intel graphics on full time. 80% of the time my computer will be at home on a docking station running the discrete graphics.

 

Does Dell offer a slice for the M4600? I'm sure the battery life would be comparable when comparing just the main battery with the regular TN panel and Optimus. In my experience (and as stated in my other thread), I find that Lenovo still has the poorest quality of panels, while Dell has the best (ie. Mx400 and Mx500 before the IPS panels came out).

Unless I've misunderstood Optimus, it's basically switchable graphics. From your statement, it would seem you DO need it if you want to use integrated graphics at all, else on the go, you will be running on your discrete GPU.