Featuring Intel’s neural processing unit, five new Precision laptops and two new desktops will be available next month.
Today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Dell announced the latest additions to its Precision workstation lineup with five new laptops and two new desktop computers.
The Dell Precision 3490, 3590, 3591, 5490 and 5690 laptops will be available on March 12, 2024. The Precision 3680 Tower and 3280 compact form factor (CFF) desktops will be available on March 26, 2024.
Here’s everything we know about the workstations so far.
Precisions target AI with new Intel NPU
One big focus of Dell’s new workstations is enhanced support for artificial intelligence (AI) workloads. A significant upgrade to the 2024 Precision lineup is that the workstations all incorporate the latest generation of Intel Core or Core Ultra CPUs announced in December 2023, which now include what Intel calls a neural processing unit (NPU) for AI workloads.
The NPU is a specialized processor optimized for handling complex mathematical computations integral to artificial neural networks. NPUs are optimized for data-driven parallel computing, making them highly efficient at demanding processing tasks such as background blur, eye tracking and picture framing, machine learning algorithms, massive multimedia data transformation for videos and images, and large volumes of data for neural networks.
Dell Precision 3490 laptop
The Dell Precision 3490 is a 14-inch mobile workstation that Dell says will be excellent for multitasking across collaboration, business and office applications. It can be equipped with the Nvidia RTX 500 Ada Generation GPU, which was also announced today.
|
Specification |
Dell Precision 3490 |
|
CPU |
Intel Core Ultra 5 125U to Intel Core Ultra 7 165H |
|
Discrete GPU |
Nvidia RTX 500 Ada Generation |
|
Memory |
8 to 64 GB |
|
Storage |
256 GB to 2 TB |
|
Battery |
3-cell, 42 Wh or 54 Wh |
|
Weight |
3.1 lb |
Dell Precision 3590 laptop
The Dell Precision 3590 offers similar specs to the 3490 but with a larger 15.6-inch display.
|
Specification |
Dell Precision 3590 |
|
CPU |
Intel Core Ultra 5 125U to Intel Core Ultra 7 165H |
|
Discrete GPU |
Nvidia RTX 500 Ada Generation |
|
Memory |
8 to 64 GB |
|
Storage |
256 GB to 2 TB |
|
Battery |
3-cell, 42 Wh or 54 Wh |
|
Weight |
3.6 lb |
Dell Precision 3591 laptop
The Dell Precision 3591 is another 15.6-inch laptop that offers the next step in performance compared to the Precision 3590. It includes a more powerful selection of CPUs and discrete graphics cards including the new Nvidia RTX 2000 Ada Generation and the just-announced Nvidia RTX 1000 Ada Generation.
|
Specification |
Dell Precision 3591 |
|
CPU |
Intel Core Ultra 5 135H to Intel Core Ultra 7 185H |
|
Discrete GPU |
Nvidia RTX 500, 1000 and 2000 Ada Generation |
|
Memory |
8 to 64 GB |
|
Storage |
256 GB to 2 TB |
|
Battery |
4-cell, 64 Wh or 6-cell, 97 Wh |
|
Weight |
4.0 lb |
Dell Precision 5490 laptop
The Dell Precision 5490 is a thin and light 14-inch mobile workstation that offers a high-performance Intel Core Ultra CPU and Nvidia GPU alongside a better display than the 1920×1080 screens of the new 3000 series laptops. The Precision 5490 has a 16:10 aspect ratio and up to 2560×1600 resolution with a touchscreen.
|
Specification |
Dell Precision 5490 |
|
CPU |
Intel Core Ultra 5 135H to Intel Core Ultra 9 185H |
|
Discrete GPU |
Nvidia RTX 1000, 2000 and 3000 Ada Generation |
|
Memory |
16 to 64 GB |
|
Storage |
256 GB to 4 TB |
|
Display |
1920 x 1200 or 2560 x 1600 (touchscreen) |
|
Battery |
4-cell, 72 Whr |
|
Weight |
3.3 lb |
Dell Precision 5690 laptop
The Dell Precision 5690 is a 16-inch workstation that Dell says has the smallest footprint of any 16-inch workstation with AI-based optimization. It’s the most powerful of the five new Precision laptops announced today, offering up to the Nvidia RTX 5000 Ada Generation discrete GPU and the option of a 4K OLED touch display.
|
Specification |
Dell Precision 5690 |
|
CPU |
Intel Core Ultra 5 135H to Intel Core Ultra 9 185H |
|
Discrete GPU |
Nvidia RTX 1000, 2000, 3500, 4000 and 5000 Ada Generation |
|
Memory |
16 to 64 GB |
|
Storage |
256 GB to 4 TB |
|
Display |
1920 x 1200 or |
|
Battery |
6-cell, 99.5 Whr |
|
Weight |
4.8 lb |
Dell Precision 3680 Tower desktop
One of two new Precision desktops, the Dell Precision 3680 Tower is an entry-level workstation that Dell believes punches above its weight, calling it “the world’s fastest workstation for single-threaded tasks” in their product announcement blog.
|
Specification |
Dell Precision 3680 Tower |
|
CPU |
14th Gen Intel Core i3-14100 to Intel Core i9-14900K |
|
Discrete GPU |
Nvidia T400 to RTX 6000 Ada Generation or AMD Radeon Pro W6300 to W7900 |
|
Memory |
8 to 128 GB (4 DIMM slots) |
|
Storage |
Up to three M.2 slots (256 GB to 1 TB SSD) and up to three SATA HDDs (1 to 4 TB) |
Precision 3280 Compact Form Factor
The Dell Precision 3280 Compact Form Factor (CFF) is meant for small spaces. In its product announcement blog, Dell calls the 3280 CFF the “the world’s smallest workstation that supports Tensor Core GPUs.”
The tiny workstation will support up to the Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Generation graphics card and has up to 64 GB of memory and 8 TB of storage. Dell has yet to release any other specifications.
Pricing and availability of the new Dell Precision workstations
In line with other recent hardware announcements, Dell’s launch of these new workstations is focused around AI (the new laptops even include a dedicated key for launching Microsoft Copilot).
“Every company that wants to remain competitive will implement AI in some way, and AI PCs will be central to that,” Sam Burd, president of Client Solutions Group at Dell Technologies, said in the Dell press release. “From running complex AI workloads on workstations to using day-to-day AI-powered applications on laptops, the AI PC will be an important investment that pays dividends in productivity and paves the way to a smarter, more efficient future.”
While this is certainly an important consideration for engineers, the incremental improvements over the previous generation of Precisions are a welcome upgrade for more traditional workflows such as CAD and simulation.
Dell hasn’t yet announced pricing for the new workstations, but both the laptops and desktops will be available in March.
