Precision M4600 Battery Life with FirePro

Makes me wonder if Lenovo went the 8 bit route with their panel. Would be a shame to lose those extra bits. When I went and looked on Lenovo's site, I don't see IPS as an option on the display - so it might not matter.

I also need to seek out some tests on the Lenovo to see if it does have better battery life. I have noticed people with 6 cell batteries posting M4600 run times. The 60whr battery will not run as long.

I know its not exactly apples to apples, but the 60whr battery on an E6520 with the i7-2720, Quadro NVS 4200 and 1920x1080 screen will easily do 4+ hours on a charge. We are seeing 7+ with the 97whr. These are in very real world conditions on machines being checked out by students for use in the library.

Beware of throttling on the W520.

 

Optimus is seamless switchable graphics that switches based upon the requirements of the applications you are running at any given time. Basically the Nvidia GPU is tied to the Intel GPU and they can switch back and forth instantly. The result is that the Nvidia GPU can be powered off when not in use, saving battery power. What I want is a simple bios option to shut off the Nvidia GPU entirely and let the computer default to Intels GPU. I would go into bios and use that switch when I know that I will be traveling etc.

 

As far as I can see on the Dell web site, the 6600 offers the FHD, but not the IPS. That would explain why Optimus works with the FHD 6600 and the FHD 4600, but not the IPS 4600. I think there is a lot of Thinkpad W520 owners who would love to have the option of an IPS screen, even if that means no Optimus. Precision 4600 owners are very lucky they have have a choice! But if you need IPS, there is a trade-off...I wonder, can the external gpu be turned off in the bios, and so let the machine run in a travel mode or for quiet desktop computing (ie. giving the Intel 3000 gpu the floor)?

 

I am right there with you on the bios switching. The video switching on an original Alienware M17x is so glitchy that this is how we switch between the two GPUs in that machine - in the bios. The newer Optimus switching works seamlessly for me in the E6520.

What I would not want is a compromise on the color fidelity of the IPS panel. The regular screen offers an over 70% color gamut which should cover sRGB. For most people that are not graphic designers, photographers, videographers, or animators, the regular display will be likely suit their needs.

The people that really care about a color managed workflow will not want anything to ever change in that workflow. CRT monitors offered great color, but had to be calibrated weekly if not daily due to their color fidelity drifting over time and temperature. LCD panels were much more stable, portable, easier on the eyes, and ditched the radiation of CRTs. Color fidelity on the desktop monitors caught up over time. CCFL TN panels were washed out, dim, and usually had color casts. WLED helped things a lot. RGBLED backlit 8bit panels were a huge step up, but still had more narrow viewing angles. 10 bit ips panels on a portable computer has been a holy grail for me for years. Finally - no tradeoffs with a desktop monitor. I can not tell you what a big deal this is to me.

Right now I have an 18 month old M6500. When my battery was new, I could get over 3 hours on a charge. These days its down to around 2:30 due to battery wear.

The new 2nd gen mobile dual and quad cores are capable of drawing much less power than the first gen. I have seen just under 5 watts in the new quad cores and around 3 watts in the new dual cores. My hope is that the new video cards are also able to idle down their power consumption.

The way I see it, even without Optimus, I should get longer battery life than I am seeing now. Between the reduced power consumption and the move up to 97whr batteries my guess is that I could get around 5 hours to a charge. 5 hours on a no compromise desktop replacement.

I get it, we all want a computer that will do everything and do it right now. I want it. I want 7-8 hours on a charge. I want no compromises on the color fidelity of the display. I want the machine to be fast. If I have to give up one of those three things, its going to be losing 2 hours of battery life.

 

So this is an amateur question but...

I am planning on getting the IPS display when it comes out for the 6600. What happens when I plug in 2 external monitors that only support 8bit? Will the precisions IPS drop to 8 bit or will the external monitors down sample the 10bit signal to 8bit leaving 10bit color intact on the precision?

I am a web designer but I often do branding etc and I want to make sure that color schemes and logos I create will print well. I only need one high end IPS via the m6600 to create the original content on.

 

Can someone please post photos of the AC Adapter that comes with their workstation?

 

It looks like a fairly standard adapter only a little larger. Its a brick haha. I can post a picture tomorrow morning if you really want one.

 

its a really boring adaptor, looks generic. and a big step back from the old one. the old one not only looked nicer, it had a strap to tie up the cables, and i liked the fact the connector that goes into the laptop had a blue LED on it to indicate it is on. That way i dont have to hunt around the floor to check if the plug is switched on, and also its easy to find it in the dark.

 

Regarding the power adapter, if it's anything like the one for my M6600, not only is it a brick, it's a cinder block! The thing is huge! There has to be a way to shrink these down. I think I'm going to develop an aftermarket micro high power adapter that'll fit in the palm of your hand and add that nifty neodymium magnet attachment to the computer, like Apple's macbooks have, instead of sticking it into a hole. There's no reason, besides cost, that they can't engineer something much smaller but capable of the same power delivery. And don't blab about heat dissipation; properly designed, there shouldn't be much waste heat to dissipate.

 

I put a picture up on the M4600 thread of the power adapter.