Dell Precision Optimizer - information, download, and FAQ

The Dell Precision Optimizer home screen shows how the following resources (highlighted in red) are being used:

• Memory
• CPU
• Storage
• Graphics

Figure 02: Dell Precision Optimizer Resource Utilization

 

The needle of the speedometer shows the current utilization of memory, CPU, and storage. This data is refreshed every 2 seconds. If Dell System Tracking had ever been enabled on this system, you may also see a green portion in the speedometer arc. The green portion (if present) represents the previous utilization average read from the last Dell Smart Tracking report.

Current Graphics utilization is displayed by the needle on the horizontal bar.

The left side of the home page (highlighted in red) displays the currently active and inactive profiles for select applications. A Profile is a collection of system settings that are grouped together to optimize the Dell Precision workstation’s performance for your application. You can activate or deactivate a profile. Multiple profiles may be active simultaneously. Even after you exit the Dell Precision Optimizer user interface, the selected profiles remain active.

Figure 03: Dell Precision Optimizer Profiles

 

Dell Precision Optimizer has several application-specific profiles to help improve the user experience. These profiles are disabled by default. You may have to enable the profile for your given application (if available in Dell Precision Optimizer) to see its benefits.

New application profiles are made available through the Optimizer system updates, which are available in the System Maintenance module or "Check For Profiles."

Figure 04: Dell Precision Optimizer System Updates

 

The bottom left side of the home page (highlighted in red) displays the number of software updates available for your system. Dell System Updates are specific to Dell Precision Optimizer and your system's hardware and software configuration. Windows Updates are available within your operating system. The updates are grouped into three categories.

• Critical
• Recommended
• Optional

No. Dell Precision Optimizer software has been especially designed to optimize the performance of your Dell machine. Dell Precision Optimizer will not run on any non-Dell system.

Dell Precision Optimizer will not install on operating systems other than Windows 7 or Windows 8. Windows Vista or earlier versions are not supported.

Dell Precision Optimizer includes a copy of Dell Data Vault in the installation package. If another copy of Dell Data Vault is found to be preinstalled, the Dell Precision Optimizer installer aborts. Please uninstall Dell Data Vault before attempting to install Dell Precision Optimizer again.

This is not a cause for concern. Graphics utilization is not available on some Dell systems. Based on the configuration of your system, this data may not be available.

Some of the Dell Precision Optimizer policies change system attributes that require a reboot before the changes can take effect. When this happens, the user is informed and given an opportunity to reboot the system. You can decide to reboot later but the changes applied to your system will become effective only after you reboot. Some examples of policies that require reboot are those that change Processor Hyper-Threading, Processor Cores so forth

Some of the Dell Precision Optimizer policies change system attributes that require the ISV application to be restarted before the changes can take effect. When this happens the user is informed and given an opportunity to restart the ISV application. You can decide to continue using the application but the changes applied to your system will become effective only the next time the application is started. Some examples of policies that require application restart are those that change NVIDIA settings.

You may have two different active profiles that contain policies that change the same system attributes to different values. When such a situation is detected by Dell Precision Optimizer, the policies are aborted and the user is notified. Dell Precision Optimizer determines a policy conflict at application runtime, not policy selection.

To avoid such a situation, you must not activate conflicting policies simultaneously. Such policies are meant to be enabled one at a time to optimize the system for ISV applications running in different modes. If you get a policy conflict message, please disable one of the profiles.

"Check for Updates" or "Apply Updates" may fail if you do not have an Internet connection or if the Dell server is not reachable. Check your network connection and try again after some time.

You may also see this failure because of a conflict with some other application that updates your system, like the Dell Client System Update software. If this happens, please retry the operation after closing other applications and associated update scheduler.

Not all software updates require the system to be rebooted. If you get this message, it means that the software update that was applied can only become effective once your system is rebooted. Save all your data and close all running applications before rebooting your system.

Dell Smart Tracking is a powerful tool and has been extensively tested to ensure that it does not adversely impact your system’s performance or battery life. However, remember that it is a tracking tool meant to be used as needed. You should not need to keep it enabled always.