Dell Precision M4800 - Can GPU be upgraded?

Yes, you would. You might also need a different display cable.
If it turns out to be a vBIOS issue, then if you can flash and get it working you can probably put your high-DPI display back in.

 

Hi. Have you tried to connect an external monitor (HDMI / Display Port / VGA - even home tv would work)? If yes - did you try to enforce M4800's video out to the external monitor (during failed boot, or before you swapped the cards)?

Installing sub-4k panel just for flashing the card's vbios sounds like a pain in the rear end.

 

I can try to find a person who would flash a vbios for me. That's not a big deal. The problem is I don't have any vBios file available at hand. This is the only one that I've found: https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/205283/205283 but I don't know if it does work. Maybe you guys have something to share with?

 

That one does appear to have been dumped from the Dell Precision 7520 (which is what you would want, I think). Question is, is it any different than the vBIOS that is already on the card? No way to tell unless you can manage to dump it and check.

 

If there is any loaded...

 

What will happen, if the built in (4k) screen is disconnected? Would that force system to work with an external (compatible with Intel Iris) HDMI / Display Port?

Just throwing in extra thoughts.

 

Hi all,

As side question here:

I have a M4600 with the Quadro 1000M and have bought a 2nd hand M4800 with the FirePro M5100. The performance improvement is very noticable, especially regarding the GPU. One thing that does not stand out is the screen on the M4800. On the M4600 (the FHD non IPS model) the colors were really beautiful.

I'm wondering whether it's possible to exchange the screens between the M4600 and M4800. I've read somewhere on the net that both screens use LVDS but I don't know if the screen type is the same within the 2 models. Does anybody know this?

Thanks in advance!

 

Some M4800 have LVDS and some have eDP. If yours has LVDS, swapping the screens between the two systems should be very straight-forward. Use hwinfo64 or moninfo to check the panel on your M4800, then you'll have to Google it to see which type it is.

 

Thanks for your quick reply!

I've checked the specs and my M4600 has this screen (partnumber):

https://www.laptopscreen.com/English/model/Dell/MC6JN/

And my M4800 has this screen:
http://www.panelook.com/LP156WFC-TLB1_LG Display_15.6_LCM_overview_18458.html

If I look at the photo's it seems that the connector on both is LVDS and is positioned on the same location. So I guess these can be exchanged between each other?

And I guess this question has been asked many times and going through this thread makes this a bit confusing: I currently have the FirePro M5100 which performs well for now. If I want to upgrade it in the future, what cards are possible without modifications to the bios and/or system itself? Meaning: which ones will work out of the box? I'm not married to AMD but whatever performs better at that time and has better value will be good .

 

I can only speak to the NVIDIA side (I don't really pay attention to AMD). Maxwell upgrades "should" work (Quadro M1000M, M2000M, M1200, M2200, and GeFroce 965M if you can find it in MXM 3.0a). Pascal upgrades are generally showing trouble in this generation though there have been a few people who got one working in the M6800, not to mention I'm not sure if there are any such cards available in MXM 3.0a.