And despite a year's worth of build up for Ryzen, and crushing performance on multithreaded workloads these should be targeted at, Intel still has a lockout. Bad news for AMD, and consumers. I'm sure it was a fair tendering process!
I mean Dell offers AMD chips in all of their other product lines including the servers and optiplexes including an exclusive on threadripper for alienware, so they are perhaps one of the last vendors you would want to say are locking AMD out.
However ryzen is a bad fit for workstations currently. They don't have the flexibility intel does in this tier. The new c series chipset is amazing for workstations and while intel has a marginally lower core count they still have better single thread io and a close enough core count. Also this tier isn't exactly price sensitive anyway, infact even a fully loaded system is typically a trival cost compared to the software licensing.
Also vendors were complaining that AMD didn't release anything to them until basically last minute. Workstations like these are certified to work with X products which is part of their increased costs and that certification takes time.
Well, it's a fair concern considering Dell played an EXCLUSIVE roll in totally fucking AMD during the Athlon 64-era. Dell was the only major OEM not to carry AMD chips during a time when Intel clearly had inferior performance, efficiency, prices, and platforms. Because Dell had a controlling share of the market and their reluctance to reject what were essentially bribes from Intel, AMD never sold the numbers they should have, and the lost revenue had a decade-long effect funding R&D. It resulted in them being forced to spin off their manufacturing, and lacking leverage to acquire ATI at fair market value (they grossly overpaid for ATI partly because of their market position/worthyness.)
The real irony was the first AMD Dell system was an Alienware PC, only because Dell acquired Alienware in 2006. Not surprisingly, just months later, Dell started releasing AMD PC's of their own.
Right now, though, it's actually safe to speculate AMD likely can't produce enough chips for demand and that has OEM's scared off, which is why you only see them in boutique systems targeted at non-mass-market (gaming, VR, engineering, science, etc)
We all want AMD to succeed, even Intel. After all, without AMD, where would Intel get all their good ideas from? Without AMD64, Intel would still be trying to shove Itanium and Netburst up our asses.
@DanNeely not a typo 2560x1400 is correct. few reasons. 1) value prop is that Canvas is down for doing activities, monitor is up for viewing activities so preserve investment in current high-res monitor infrastructure while adding new functionality with Canvas; 2)didn't want to eat up all the graphics bandwidth on the compute device so users outside of the digital content creation space can connect it to a biz-class machine; 3) making price accessible for a wide variety of users as glass is custom for us and 4k resolution would push price too high for intro offering
It's a weird panel size because generally the panels are 2560x1440, so they had to find a weird panel that has 40 less pixels in height instead of using a standard 2560x1440 panel that are widely available.
Lol ChrisWare, you just made up a bunch of stuff. :) Anyhow you can go look on Dell, this was a typo, its a standard QHD screen so its 2560x1440 not 2560x1400.
I like XPS don't get me wrong but having the rugged plastic and beefy body adds value. It might look less "premium" but for people who don't have a choice to baby their hardware it has a lot more utility than a ding-able aluminum finish.
XPS was never a Workstation laptop. It was always a tweener system between Insperon and Alienware. Eventually became the consumer/executive, ultrabook, and then now back. I mean if you go back far enough it was the gaming system prior to purchasing Alienware and for a couple years they were just offering both at the same price for the same specs.
Point being it was never a "workstation" system. Latitude is the business system but that is more about connectivity and ruggedness. The workstation lineup for desktop and laptop has always been the Precision and there are still a lot of differences (outside the Core Duo and Core 2 Duo days) than the base platform that the Inspiron/Latitude/XPS lineups share.
They still have the 6.5 pound ones if you want. I happen to unfortunately have the M4800 for work, lol.
I think they started including XPS 15 builds under the precision brand once quads fit in that thinness, or around then, but the chunksters still exist if you need Firepros and such.
Because that's hard to do by changing the BIOS ;) It's just an XPS, but hey they went the extra mile and made a Dell 20th-anniversary wallpaper for it...
All current Xeons support ECC, it's just that they rebrand the consumer-motherboard that only supports Non-ECC as "professional" because it's cheaper and they can still charge for that "precision"-label.
What's your weight class for a "middle ground"? This XPS/Precision is 4.5 pounds, the M series (like the M4800) was 6 pounds, none are as heavy as the chunkiest gaming laptops from 2005 but there's certainly some above the weight class of a thin and light XPS, not sure what you mean.
It has the most powerful 45W quad core CPUs available, and a Quadro M1200 so it's got excellent CPU performance and middling GPU performance. It stays cool and usable under most workloads but you do get throttling if you max out both the CPU and GPU for an extended time. If you're doing that regularly I'm afraid you're stuck with one of the old school paving slab Precision workstations, but if not it's nice to have the option of something that isn't massive and heavy.
The main point of the Precision 5520 over an XPS15 is for people who need a Quadro for compatibility and support purposes but don't want to carry one of the absolute paving slab mobile workstations that otherwise come with them. It's a small niche, but I'm glad they've filled it! It sucks that this year the 5520 has the older Maxwell based GPU while the XPS15 gets a Pascal GTX1050. I'm sure next years inevitable 5530 will get a GPU upgrade.
You also get better warranty options and faster CPU options. Mine has a 5 year NBD on site warranty and accidental damage cover. Base warranty is 3 years NBD on these. Standard XPS15 warranty is 1 year Collect & Return, and the upgrade options are limited and expensive.
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Ej24 - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
I just ordered a Broadwell based Precision 5810 workstation for work last Friday...Hairs_ - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
And despite a year's worth of build up for Ryzen, and crushing performance on multithreaded workloads these should be targeted at, Intel still has a lockout. Bad news for AMD, and consumers. I'm sure it was a fair tendering process!Kraszmyl - Thursday, August 3, 2017 - link
I mean Dell offers AMD chips in all of their other product lines including the servers and optiplexes including an exclusive on threadripper for alienware, so they are perhaps one of the last vendors you would want to say are locking AMD out.However ryzen is a bad fit for workstations currently. They don't have the flexibility intel does in this tier. The new c series chipset is amazing for workstations and while intel has a marginally lower core count they still have better single thread io and a close enough core count. Also this tier isn't exactly price sensitive anyway, infact even a fully loaded system is typically a trival cost compared to the software licensing.
Also vendors were complaining that AMD didn't release anything to them until basically last minute. Workstations like these are certified to work with X products which is part of their increased costs and that certification takes time.
Samus - Thursday, August 3, 2017 - link
Well, it's a fair concern considering Dell played an EXCLUSIVE roll in totally fucking AMD during the Athlon 64-era. Dell was the only major OEM not to carry AMD chips during a time when Intel clearly had inferior performance, efficiency, prices, and platforms. Because Dell had a controlling share of the market and their reluctance to reject what were essentially bribes from Intel, AMD never sold the numbers they should have, and the lost revenue had a decade-long effect funding R&D. It resulted in them being forced to spin off their manufacturing, and lacking leverage to acquire ATI at fair market value (they grossly overpaid for ATI partly because of their market position/worthyness.)The real irony was the first AMD Dell system was an Alienware PC, only because Dell acquired Alienware in 2006. Not surprisingly, just months later, Dell started releasing AMD PC's of their own.
Right now, though, it's actually safe to speculate AMD likely can't produce enough chips for demand and that has OEM's scared off, which is why you only see them in boutique systems targeted at non-mass-market (gaming, VR, engineering, science, etc)
We all want AMD to succeed, even Intel. After all, without AMD, where would Intel get all their good ideas from? Without AMD64, Intel would still be trying to shove Itanium and Netburst up our asses.
DanNeely - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
"2560x1400", weird panel size or typo?ChrisWare - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
@DanNeely not a typo 2560x1400 is correct. few reasons. 1) value prop is that Canvas is down for doing activities, monitor is up for viewing activities so preserve investment in current high-res monitor infrastructure while adding new functionality with Canvas; 2)didn't want to eat up all the graphics bandwidth on the compute device so users outside of the digital content creation space can connect it to a biz-class machine; 3) making price accessible for a wide variety of users as glass is custom for us and 4k resolution would push price too high for intro offeringpeterfares - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
It's a weird panel size because generally the panels are 2560x1440, so they had to find a weird panel that has 40 less pixels in height instead of using a standard 2560x1440 panel that are widely available.FreckledTrout - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
Lol ChrisWare, you just made up a bunch of stuff. :) Anyhow you can go look on Dell, this was a typo, its a standard QHD screen so its 2560x1440 not 2560x1400.ChrisWare - Wednesday, August 2, 2017 - link
good catch you are correct 1440. my apologiesBrokenCrayons - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
It's probably a typo. Cnet and other sites are reporting 2560x1440 for the screen resolution.Gunbuster - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
I remember when they actually made workstation laptops instead of bios flashing an XPS...willis936 - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
I like XPS don't get me wrong but having the rugged plastic and beefy body adds value. It might look less "premium" but for people who don't have a choice to baby their hardware it has a lot more utility than a ding-able aluminum finish.Inteli - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
They still do. The Precision 7520 & 7720 are proper workstations instead of slightly different XPS laptops.Topweasel - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
XPS was never a Workstation laptop. It was always a tweener system between Insperon and Alienware. Eventually became the consumer/executive, ultrabook, and then now back. I mean if you go back far enough it was the gaming system prior to purchasing Alienware and for a couple years they were just offering both at the same price for the same specs.Point being it was never a "workstation" system. Latitude is the business system but that is more about connectivity and ruggedness. The workstation lineup for desktop and laptop has always been the Precision and there are still a lot of differences (outside the Core Duo and Core 2 Duo days) than the base platform that the Inspiron/Latitude/XPS lineups share.
tipoo - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
They still have the 6.5 pound ones if you want. I happen to unfortunately have the M4800 for work, lol.I think they started including XPS 15 builds under the precision brand once quads fit in that thinness, or around then, but the chunksters still exist if you need Firepros and such.
aktariel - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
The link to Dell’s website for Precision pricing/ info is broken.LostPassword - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
That precision link is broken. I have the older one with the quadro m2000m. Doesnt look like the m1200 is a big upgrade.johnp_ - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
Still no ECC memory on the Precision laptop :(Gunbuster - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
Because that's hard to do by changing the BIOS ;) It's just an XPS, but hey they went the extra mile and made a Dell 20th-anniversary wallpaper for it...tipoo - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
I'm assuming this is the type of Xeon that's pretty well a consumer part, rather than one that supports ECC?johnp_ - Wednesday, August 2, 2017 - link
All current Xeons support ECC, it's just that they rebrand the consumer-motherboard that only supports Non-ECC as "professional" because it's cheaper and they can still charge for that "precision"-label.TheinsanegamerN - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
That precision looks nice, but with such a slim body, it will either be a hot bed or will not have very powerful hardware.Why is it that workstation laptops are either far too thin or are as big as a gaming laptop from 2005? There is a middle ground, but nobody uses it.
TheinsanegamerN - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
Seriously, it is .44" thick. Why not do a .8 or .9 think laptop with decent internals or battery yet still light enough to lug around?tipoo - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
What's your weight class for a "middle ground"? This XPS/Precision is 4.5 pounds, the M series (like the M4800) was 6 pounds, none are as heavy as the chunkiest gaming laptops from 2005 but there's certainly some above the weight class of a thin and light XPS, not sure what you mean.davidedney123 - Wednesday, August 2, 2017 - link
It has the most powerful 45W quad core CPUs available, and a Quadro M1200 so it's got excellent CPU performance and middling GPU performance. It stays cool and usable under most workloads but you do get throttling if you max out both the CPU and GPU for an extended time. If you're doing that regularly I'm afraid you're stuck with one of the old school paving slab Precision workstations, but if not it's nice to have the option of something that isn't massive and heavy.Laxaa - Wednesday, August 2, 2017 - link
Is the QC on the Precision line better than on the XPS line?tipoo - Wednesday, August 2, 2017 - link
Support at least is.davidedney123 - Wednesday, August 2, 2017 - link
The main point of the Precision 5520 over an XPS15 is for people who need a Quadro for compatibility and support purposes but don't want to carry one of the absolute paving slab mobile workstations that otherwise come with them. It's a small niche, but I'm glad they've filled it! It sucks that this year the 5520 has the older Maxwell based GPU while the XPS15 gets a Pascal GTX1050. I'm sure next years inevitable 5530 will get a GPU upgrade.You also get better warranty options and faster CPU options. Mine has a 5 year NBD on site warranty and accidental damage cover. Base warranty is 3 years NBD on these. Standard XPS15 warranty is 1 year Collect & Return, and the upgrade options are limited and expensive.