User experience on Dell Precision 7520

[kamgel]

Hi everyone,
I am planning to buy a mobile workstation or a laptop mainly for handling geospatial data in particular SAR images. Dell new precision 7520 model with 16GB RAM, 1TB HDD, intel i7-7700 processor with nvidia quadro M1200 seems like a good option but lenovo y520 laptop gives somewhat similar configurations with less price. Can anyone share their user experience with dell 7520?

 

[jaguarskx]

Part of the reason why the Dell cost more is the nVidia Quadro M1200. Quadros are considered to be "workstation GPUs" because they are designed to do double floating point calculations a opposed to single floating point calculations that gaming GPUs like the nVidia GTX 10 series can do.

Depending on how precise you need to calculate the position of an object (or objects) that will dictate whether a "gaming" GPU is good enough for your needs or if you need to get a "workstation" GPU. For example, if your precision tolerance is within 10 meter of the actual location, then I would think a gaming GPU would be good enough. If you are looking something that is a bit more precise such as 3 meters (or whatever is allowable for civilian use), then double floating point precision is desirable. For military or air traffic control applications I would say double floating point calculations are mandatory (and likely involves other technologies that a simple civilian has absolutely no access to).

 

[hang-the-9]

There are a few other bonuses with getting a real "workstation" system, the software is also designed for accuracy vs speed, and some business and things you work on may require a specific system setup that has been validated for use, which often means workstation video cards. When I worked on radiology computers in a hospital, the video cards and monitors had to both be certified for use and calibrated. Just sticking in some $50 card will not do.