Dell Precision M4800 - Can GPU be upgraded?

So, sadly, none of the main upgrade paths (WX4150, 965M, M1100, M2200) is a clear no-brainer, with zero issues and drawbacks.

That's a shame, since warranty and product life are quite lengthy (I just extended mine a few weeks ago for nearly 300$, again). DELL could have made it far easier for us.

 

WX4150 seems to be the best option as of yet in terms of raw performance, with the M2200 being a close second for all round compatibility

 

Grant, maybe you have switched those up? So far, Maxwell series of quadros aren't necessarily booting at all (vbios), or 'losing' external video ports (big deal for some of us). While AMD WX4150 is a bit slower on the raw 3D tests, but has 'mere' issues with official DELL drivers and some stuttering (i.e. you can definitely make it boot and work), plus this tiny-winy copper shim requirement is somewhat inconvenient.

EDIT: all of this coming from this forum, I haven'y bought and tried it myself.

 

That's just from what I've seen, I haven't heard of stutters or VBIOS issues, but thanks for point those out

 

The shim is really easy to install. Aside from the driver issue I experienced that you might not, it's plug-n-play and there are no problems with it. I'd recommend it if you can get it less than the M2200 or if you don't want to mess around with ini files and all that jazz. Otherwise, I'd say try the M2200 just to avoid the potential screen freezing.

 

Can confirm this on my M4800 (with LVDS display) as well. It's nice to connect to my 1440p, 144Hz 24" monitor with the laptop.
Also, the shim is dumb easy to put in place. The RX460 / WX 4150 is practically plug-and-play. And while my fan control on battery isn't what I'd like (it's cooler when plugged up than on battery), it's a minor hindrance for the benefits I get from the GPU. Just wish I could overclock it as it could really benefit from it.

 

Hello there. Would you share any info on the progress with the upgrade? Did you work it out?

---

I also wonder how many people actually finished their upgrade of 4k M4800 to M2200 with full success (no loss of HDMI/Display port, or any other functionality).

 

Hello guys,
It's me again. I flashed my m2200m with this bios: https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/205283/205283 and it's working! I didn't have to even modify INF files. It's really crazy

 

Great news! How did you do that? Do external video ports work?

 

[QUOTE="!
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 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.


Comparisons: M5100, M1200, M2200

Time Spy WX4150:[/FONT]

Comparisons: No worthwhile M5100 results , M1200, M2200

Sky Diver WX4150:

Comparisons: M5100, M1200, M2200[/QUOTE]


Thats brilliant m8 good work there, I was thinking about Quadro cards only due to usage of cuda cores in my line, and was afraid that they would fail to boot the internal eDP screen. guess now its Clear Sailing from here on for all with QHD and 4K.