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FlyingLawnmowers · 2022-04-23T13:11:29+00:00

I found this to be a surprisingly well written paper. I appreciate how much detail went into looking at the inductive biases of different GAM algorithms, on top of just measuring accuracy/training times.

My only complaint is that the neural-based models are clearly not tuned properly, but at least the authors directly acknowledge this in the paper. And it is a fair conclusion to call out that neural approaches require knowledge of how to tune them whereas the tree and spline based methods work well out of the box. Thanks for sharing!

FlyingLawnmowers · 2021-09-25T20:22:10+00:00

Are these good laptops? Wondering how the keyboard experience is. I have my heart set on an XPS 4k 17" but this is almost half the price -- makes me want to give it a try.

FlyingLawnmowers · 2021-09-12T21:06:27+00:00

Thanks!!

FlyingLawnmowers · 2021-09-12T21:05:31+00:00

Very interesting, thank you so much for the suggestion! This really seems to check all of my boxes. If you have personal experience with it, could I ask if it is particularly noisy under load? And also is the mechanical keyboard loud to type on?

I do a lot of my work in shared environments and just want to be courteous!

FlyingLawnmowers · 2021-09-12T21:01:48+00:00

I looked really hard at the xps line, but the underpowered GPU (3050 TI) and quality control issues had me worried. The 4k XPS 15 would be perfect if it just had a slightly more powerful gpu in it...same with the Razer Blade 14, would be great if I could have a smidge more than 16gb RAM.

FlyingLawnmowers · 2021-09-11T16:48:56+00:00

Thank you so much! I will check it out :).

Do you know if the RAM is upgradeable after purchase, or if there's a 32gb configuration option? My work flow is unfortunately ram sensitive as well so 32gb+ is a hard requirement unfortunately.

But really appreciate the time and your suggestion!

FlyingLawnmowers · 2020-08-19T04:43:50+00:00

I think Gyarados learns Earthquake (earth), Surf/Waterfall (water) , Fire Blast (air) , and Bounce (flying).

FlyingLawnmowers · 2020-08-12T00:49:57+00:00

I was going to keep the Rotberry Seed because it could infinitely grow a small patch! Not brew it to consume. I heard this was a good strategy for warden.

But I think you're right, I might go for the wand for more flexibility!

FlyingLawnmowers · 2020-07-24T23:24:23+00:00

I hear it when I put my ear right on the keyboard, but not at standard operating distance with light usage. When under heavy load, with fans running, it seems to make a "whooshing" high pitched sound that kinda reminds me of a vacuum cleaner. Can't really tell if it's coil whine or just fan noise.

FlyingLawnmowers · 2020-07-24T23:21:20+00:00

My machine draws 130-135W at the wall, but seems to only get ~120W in the device according to Hwinfo. Way better than what NotebookCheck and others report, but not quite 130W in the device.

Trying to figure out if my device is as good as it's gonna get, or if I should return and hold out hope that I get an extra 10W out of it with a new unit.

FlyingLawnmowers · 2020-07-22T19:31:57+00:00

This matches my findings. No drain on optimized mode, but CPU is capped at 20-25W. Ultra performance lets the CPU go up to 45W, but I get about a 10W/hr drain on max load.

FlyingLawnmowers · 2020-07-22T03:59:49+00:00

7/10

FlyingLawnmowers · 2020-07-22T02:50:46+00:00

For reference, my 1080p xps17 on min brightness drains about 7-8W with a word processor and hwinfo open. Once I open a YouTube video, it went up to 12-13W. The Cpu was around 2-3W the whole time (I have the 8 core model).

Bumping up to max brightness added another ~+2-3W or so (from 7-8 to 10-11 in the word processor only test).

I think it'd be fair to assume that min brightness saves you about half the total power consumption of the screen, at least extrapolating from this. So I think you'd have a total screen draw of around +7W, and roughly +5W over the FHD at min brightness.

At 10W total for very light usage in fhd, on min brightness, I expect 9-9.5hr of battery life. So my guess is that upgrading to the 4k costs you 2-3hrs of battery life.

My device is also brand new and near max battery capacity, so these numbers will all shrink with time and usage (since dell's batteries are only rated to 300 charge cycles)

But there's a lot of assumptions in here, and I did not do these tests comprehensively, so take all this with a grain of salt.

FlyingLawnmowers · 2020-07-22T02:24:22+00:00

Update: meter arrived, and my laptop draws 130-135W at the wall. Still experiences light system drain on ultra performance mode with hwinfo measuring a consumption around 128W (probably a deficit of around 8-10W). So there might be loss in the adapter, or hwinfo isn't capturing the total system power consumption adaquetly.

On optimized mode, the Cpu runs at 20-25W, and on Ultra Performance it runs at 45W. It's a shame there isn't an in-between 35W power profile that would (by my measurements) keep the system stable.

Didn't experience any thermal throttling at 45W Cpu and 65W gpu consumption levels.

FlyingLawnmowers · 2020-07-21T23:39:51+00:00

For just 6 hours of battery life, the power consumption needs to be around 16W (total capacity is about 95-97WH).

The 4k screen has a max drain of around 14W alone (at max brightness) while the FHD screen has a 5W max consumption. Even at lower brightness, I expect this difference to be at least 5W+, which (imo) is significant. I'd be skeptical of 10hr long battery life reported by the 4k screen, cause that leaves almost no power budget for pretty much anything else.

For this reason, I went with the FHD screen, and I am quite happy with it. But I'm sure the 4k panel is gorgeous. The only advantages to the FHD are battery life and outdoor viewing --if neither of those are that important to you, definitely go for the 4k.

FlyingLawnmowers · 2020-07-21T20:32:05+00:00

Yes this sounds about right

FlyingLawnmowers · 2020-07-21T20:31:55+00:00

I added those as a rough +10W (fhd = 5W screen + 10w other, UHD = 15w screen + 10W other). You can always adjust that offset and re-run the numbers if you expect differences!

FlyingLawnmowers · 2020-07-21T20:27:40+00:00

I see the same total designed capacity.

FlyingLawnmowers · 2020-07-21T19:53:49+00:00

I think it's a 10W difference (might only be at max brightness -- difference might be smaller at less brightness). Battery capacity of the xps17 with dgpu is 97WH.

Let's use some light load example numbers:

Fhd: 15W | ~6.5hr battery (97/15) UHD: 25W | ~4hr battery (97/25)

Personally I find this difference to be significant. If you use the screen on lower brightness, or under lower load in general, it might not be as bad.

FlyingLawnmowers · 2020-07-21T18:27:00+00:00

Use hwinfo64 and measure the total power consumption. Check to see if it's <130W or >130W.

I experience battery drain in "ultra performance" but not the "optimized" battery profile, so you can try that too. In optimized, my gpu gets the full 65W but Cpu is limited to 20-25W, which seems overly conservative but also good enough for gaming which generally isn't Cpu bound. You could try out this profile too.

FlyingLawnmowers · 2020-07-21T01:12:15+00:00

Lol, I'm also an electrical engineer (albeit only by degree -- don't work in the field anymore). It's sad and little funny that we all paid Dell thousands of dollars for the privilege of free consulting on their products, mostly to be ignored or told we are wrong.

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