Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

Which driver is this? Intel has a Wireless_17.13.11_Ds64.exe (9.91MB), and a Wireless_17.13.11_s64.exe (99.1MB) on their site. Which one do I get?

Speaking of drivers, are there new Intel graphics drivers available from Intel that install on the M3800? Or are we stuck with the ones provided by Dell?

 

As described in the "Which file should you download?" blurb under those options on the download page, the "Ds" packages are drivers only; the "s" packages include PROset software.

Intel's latest GPU drivers install if you use the Device Manager "Have Disk" option rather than telling it to search a folder for updated drivers or using Intel's included installer, and they do work once installed that way. But short of that, the ones on Dell's site are still the latest that install the normal way.

 

Thanks! ...

 

I just bought a UP2414Q today to use with my M3800. I know that there have been issues with driving 4K@60Hz, but hoping that they are mostly resolved with current Intel drivers. Do you have the latest Intel drivers working with this monitor without issue?

I also found this article from Dell specific to driving 4K with M3800, and it links to the Nvidia driver, but should it have been the Intel driver? Precision M3800 display issues using Dell UP2414Q (or other 4k/2k) display connected via Mini-DisplayPort adapter | Dell US

The graphics driver from Intel seems to have a later version, even though the Dell one was updated recently too. Anyone running on the latest Intel with no issues with the M3800? I'm always a bit weary of updating drivers since things are working fine, but I'm thinking I'll have to update to use this monitor.

 

Yes, that Dell page should absolutely link to Intel drivers. It even calls out that systems with discrete NVIDIA graphics still use the Intel GPU for the display outputs. That's bizarre....

I'll be getting my 40" 4K display on Friday, so I'll be able to let you know how this system handles that resolution. I'm currently on the latest Intel drivers available from Intel, which I installed using the method I described two posts up. However, the display I'm getting is capable of 4K @ 60 Hz using SST, whereas the UP2414Q has to use MST. MST displays have had their fair share of issues since they were released, which seems to be a combination of the hack nature of MST in the first place, first-generation display firmware to control it, and drivers that until recently never had to deal with 4K or MST and turned out not to handle those things very well when that technology came to market. Still, the landscape has been improving with new driver releases and hardware revisions to displays -- particularly the UP3214Q, which apparently had all sorts of MST issues in its A00 revision. I also found this thread that pertains to our Intel GPU and the Dell UP3214Q; apparently newer drivers have improved things quite a bit, with the remaining issues possibly related to display firmware: https://communities.intel.com/thread/53655.

In case you're not familiar with how MST displays work, basically they have two internal display controllers. At resolutions below 3840x2160 @ 60 Hz, only one is used, but when DisplayPort 1.2 mode is enabled in the display's OSD, the second controller is enabled and the display now presents itself to the GPU as two 1920x2160 tiles, each tile controlled by a different controller, which DisplayPort can handle because it supports multiple displays out of a singe output. Then the user can use the GPU driver to configure these two tiles to be presented to the OS as a single display, and in fact newer driver versions apparently automatically detect these types of displays and stitch them together for the OS automatically, which I believe is true of the newest Intel drivers and the UP2414Q. Oh, and incidentally this special DP 1.2 mode that enables the second controller and splits the display in half is why when DP 1.2 mode is enabled, the only resolution you can select is 3840x2160 @ 60 Hz. If you want to drop to something lower, you need to disable DP 1.2 mode before doing so, and in some cases disconnect/reconnect the display or reboot the system to get it to redetect the display properly.

This all came about because manufacturers wanted to get 4K displays to market before single display controllers that could handle 4K @ 60 Hz on their own existed. Now those exist, so the latest generation of 4K displays can be driven in the normal SST mode, i.e. they always present themselves to the GPU as a single tile, and you don't have to toggle DP 1.2 mode on and off to drop to lower resolutions, as you might want to when playing a game or something else that your GPU couldn't handle at 4K resolution at an acceptable performance level. And this cycle of technology being brought to market before everything is really ready is now repeating itself with Dell's 27" 5K display, which requires two independent DisplayPort connections to drive at 60 Hz (i.e. not just an MST connection over a single cable). But this hack will no longer be necessary in a few months when DisplayPort 1.3 comes to market, which will be able to drive 5K over a single connection.

 

Thanks for the info jphughan. Perhaps I should have done a bit more research on the whole MST/SST thing - although if I happen to get a later revision and the latest Intel driver works without all the issues of the past, then I'll be satisfied enough. However, I can imagine that having to switch between DP 1.2 and 1.1 just so I can access lower resolutions will be a bit of an annoyance. I certainly did not know this, and I hope it doesn't bother me too much. I also have an E7440 which I'm not entirely sure can drive 4K@60Hz through its mini-DP, and if it cannot, then I'll be plagued with switching between the 2.

Regarding the Intel drivers, I wanted to confirm if this is the latest version you are running at https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=24596&lang=eng&ProdId=3720. I'm assuming I want this version over the Intel drivers provided on the M3800 driver download page, as the version number is much higher, even though it is not officially sanctioned by Dell.

 

I'm running the UP2414Q on the XPS15 (which is pretty much the same as the M3800). Even though it uses MST, the latest Intel drivers (from the Intel site, not from Dell's site) do treat the monitor as a single display in DP1.2 mode (which you need to enablein the monitor - it's disabled by default) - so you can get the full 60Hz through the M3800's mini display port.
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=24596&lang=eng&ProdId=3720

You can also do things like change the resolution in DP1.2 fine as well as rotate the monitor (at 90 degrees, it's great for reading docs).

There are two revisions of the monitor - I have the newer A01 model (there are reports of bugs in the A00 revision). The only issues I sometimes get is that when my PC comes out of sleep, the display has reverted to VGA - I just have to adjust the resolution back again. Also, very occasionally, when coming out of sleep, the monitor says there's no signal, and I have to unplug and plug it back in. Other than those minor niggles, it works great.

 

Yes, those are the drivers I'm using and would recommend you use if you'll be adding a 4K MST display to your setup. I too have an E7440 as well and I'm curious to see what happens. The E7440 uses the Intel 4400 rather than 4600, and from doing some reading, it appears that it can do 4K @ 60 Hz only over MST because on the 4400, no single DisplayPort display can be larger than 3200x2000 even though it can push enough total bandwidth to drive 4K @ 60 Hz when it's split across two tiles. Kind of an odd predicament to have a GPU that can only handle 4K @ 60 Hz with displays that achieve it in a bit of a hack fashion, but I'll test it on my SST display just to be sure, and let us know how it goes with your MST display.

 

Ashers, thanks for the sharing your experience with the UP2414Q. I'll be looking to see which revision I get, and those minor issues you have are also ones I can live with. Even my current monitor has that issue where it can't wake up from sleep sometimes, so I'm already used to that one

I'll let you know what happens with my E7440. Interesting to know that in this case, the MST may work out better due to the combination of laptops I have.

I almost forgot about the graphics card in the M3800 - should I be updating the Nvidia driver as well, and if so, are either of you running the latest drivers from Nvidia or Dell? Or would this not really matter since the Intel driver is ultimately what controls the output?

 

True. Just keep in mind that although Intel GPUs can nominally drive 3 displays simultaneously (unless something in the notebook vendor's design limits it further), MST 4K displays count as two.

The NVIDIA driver is much less important in this case. The only scenario where I can see it making a difference is if a recent update improves how it handles rendering at 4K in certain applications that would use the NVIDIA GPU, but I haven't read about anything like that -- then again, very few people out there have both a 4K display and a "render-only" NVIDIA GPU in the system they're using to drive it.