Dell Precision M4800 - Can GPU be upgraded?

The latest A25 BIOS update brings

which is explained here: https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...edded-graphics-drivers/faq-bios-firmware.html

GOP driver has 'coexisting' problems with VBIOS.

Plus, latest cards (M2200 is among them) are HDMI 2.0, while Haswell and compatible video cards are HDMI 1.4.

 

Game7a1 said that he was successfully upgrade his LVDS M4800 with AMD Radeon Pro WX 4150/RX 460/RX 560D, just a little issue with fan control and can be solved by using 3rd party software. ATT, I think this is the most affordable upgrade for M4800.
I'll upgrade my M4700 (this one just likes the M4600 with the limit of AMD GPU upgrade, darnit) to M4800. And if I have luckily enough, I can borrow a GTX 965 MXM 3.0a from a friend (receive my M4800 before he sold out his card), I'll try with it and give you feedback.

 

Okay, thanks! Based on this information the upgrade to a M2200M seems very nice but the card itself is still rather pricey but I've tracked the card on eBay so we'll see . The M1200M is cheaper but the performance increase is not that much compared to my M5100. The heatsink that is on my M5100, is it compatible with the Quadro cards?

 

NOTE to some people that don't know Following.

After re-installation of component such as GPU or CPU, when you boot up system best practice is to beforehand put that system to all defaults regarding BIOS settings.

WHEN system first starts, it will go through 5! consecutive events of recognising its new components, so don't rush!

screen will be black for several of those reboots and they are all automatic, you can leave the system be until
splash screen appears.

I learned this via support engineer that kept changing motherboard and GPU continuously and saying the components are DEAD and at the same time was on the phone with DELL support in India. that apparently were brain dead.

I was dissatisfied with the result of dead laptop, and new GPU plus Motherboard just laying there on the table, as he left the scene with no result.

I have reassembled the laptop myself only to learn that; Patience is truly a virtue! after several blank screens and seemingly a Boot-loop at first it showed BIOS screen where you could change your Motherboard number. now following is dif story but I think you should know this. I did a cheeky one and changed motherboard name to non existing alphanumeric serial. in about 3 weeks my system was remotely deactivated via AMT I had to go back to old motherboard. but this shows that they dont like UNKNOWN units, later I have submitted some facts about AMT vulnerability and only after several years they confirmed it and gave credit to some russian hacker that did the same. did they throw away my suggestion? who know I care zero at this stage all I'm saying is don't rush when you boot it

 

Hey guys, this thread and the M4800 owner's thread have been a great help to me in figuring out where to go from the M5100, so I want you to know that I appreciate all your efforts, especially those of you who tried the WX4150 before me! I was all set and ready to take my chances with a Quadro M2200 when I saw Game7a1's success with his wacky Radeon RX/Pro WX hybrid, and seeing that got me a good deal when I eventually took the plunge. Thank you all!

I just wanted to add confirmation for anyone interested that the WX4150, if a pull from a Dell, is plug and play in the M4800. Good news for those of you with the UHD/QHD screens: the internal display works! My system restarted a handful of times after installing and reset its bios like tyrell mentioned, but that's a minor irritation.

I can also confirm that the core needs a shim to make full contact with the heatsink. Without the shim the heatsink makes some contact with the die but one of the corners has a good amount untouched. Whatever it is, the die and heatsink contact surface aren't plumb with each other. I used a 0.3mm copper shim (I have since swapped out for a 0.8mm shim to keep temps under control 12/17/18) purchased off eBay, covered the die in a thin layer of thermal paste, placed the shim on top, then covered the contact surface of the heatsink itself in a thin layer of paste, too, and reinstalled as usual. Idle temps are in the upper 30s and loads are in the low 60s.

The system continues to control the fan speed just fine, although the fan RPM is not displayed in monitoring programs (the GPU fan may now be tied to whether the CPU fan is active--driver or sensor problems?). 2D/3D clock switching takes place without a problem. The card is not identified explicitly as a WX4150 in either the Radeon Control Center or other programs, but just as a "Radeon Pro WX Series," though this doesn't seem to impact performance. According to various 3DMark benchmarks available for comparison and my attached scores, it's just about 2x as fast as the Fire Pro M5100, a touch faster than the Quadro M1200, and just a tad slower than the M2200, but for much less. My scores line up with Game7a1's scores on page 19. Totally worth the upgrade if you can snag it for less than the Quadro cards.

Firestrike WX4150:

Comparisons: M5100, M1200, M2200

Time Spy WX4150:

Comparisons: No worthwhile M5100 results , M1200, M2200

Sky Diver WX4150:

Comparisons: M5100, M1200, M2200

 

Does it work on regular m4800's? I know it shouldnt work on the internal display but with an external display does it work?

 

Maybe with Enduro, I've heard reports of the HD M4800 being able to accept the, and I just assumed Enduro

 

Hi, nice work.

Did u use a heat sink appropriate for nvidia or for amd? I wonder if the shim is not needed for amd's heat sink.

There is even newer amd pro card in existence:

https://www.amd.com/en/products/professional-graphics/radeon-pro-wx-4170-mobile

 

The only available format for that card seems to be MXM B

 

This wasn't the situation I was considering, so I can't say for sure. Everything I've read says that even the LVDS M4800s should be able to output through both HDMI or DisplayPort, and I confirm that mine does both, but don't take it as gospel. Maybe someone with more experience can chime in?

The die is actually a couple hairs shorter than either one on the Kx100 Quadro cards or M5100 by like 1/64" or so, which makes sense since a 0.3mm shim fills the gap. The heatsink that fits the Quadro cards also fits the M5100, and if I remember right, the only difference between the heatsink that shipped with the Quadros or M5100 is the exact placement of the heatpads. Otherwise, the metal is structurally the same.

Does anyone have experience with the M5100 or other AMD cards causing their internal screen to freeze/flicker periodically in 2D environments? This was a problem for me with my M5100 for a while under Win 7, but it went away on its own after a while, then returned before I installed Windows 10. Since then it never cropped up with the M5100, and it wasn't a problem yesterday with the WX4150 but today it is. What happens is the internal display shows a prior frame for a quarter to a few seconds before resuming normal operation most of the time. Other times it will display a prior frame and hang until the display is power cycled by closing/opening the lid. The system itself is not frozen when this happens, the problem is not mirrored on an external display, and it is also not present in a 3D environment. Any idea what might be causing this?

EDIT- If you experience the internal screen freezing issue...
This (https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=85c66) older driver meant for the 7720/7520 fixed things . If you've experienced said issue with the M5100, you may experience it with the WX4150 using Dell's latest driver via AMD's website. The above driver, however, rectifies the problem and a screen flashing issue that also presented itself. Note that the newest driver from Dell for these systems does *not* recognize the video card and will not install. There is a minor performance hit using the older driver.