Dell Precision M4800 - Can GPU be upgraded?

Good afternoon! There was a problem .. Installed a m2000m video card, in some games it works, in others not .. Why?

 

Just put the same Section lines from the new .inf i just added the new address without deleting anything and worked for me here is my example:


%NVIDIA_DEV.13B0.06D9.1028% = Section050, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13B0&SUBSYS_06D91028
%NVIDIA_DEV.13B0.06D9.1028% = Section050, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13B0&SUBSYS_05CC1028
%NVIDIA_DEV.13B0.16D9.1028% = Section052, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13B0&SUBSYS_16D91028
%NVIDIA_DEV.13B0.16D9.1028% = Section052, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13B0&SUBSYS_15CC1028
%NVIDIA_DEV.13B1.06D9.1028% = Section050, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13B1&SUBSYS_06D91028
%NVIDIA_DEV.13B1.06E5.1028% = Section054, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13B1&SUBSYS_06E51028
%NVIDIA_DEV.13B1.16D9.1028% = Section052, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13B1&SUBSYS_16D91028

 

i still using my dell precision m4800 with my (m2000m)
everything is working fine but i still have to put some games to 720p and lowest settings in game settings menus if i want to compete in games like bf4.
bf1 and bfv really dont play that great.

im wanting to keep this laptop and hopefully upgrade the gpu again and if that works correct i could sell my m2000m to get some of the money back.

does anyone know what mxm 3.0 type A cards are better then the m2000m?
thanks

 

The only viable choice is the Quadro M2200 which is modestly better. Pascal cards will fail to boot Windows on this system.

 

There is apparently a full RX 560 MXM A card, but I doubt it would or will be much better. Maybe invest in a Expresscard eGPU?

 

I actually looked into this previously... It seems like a pretty clunky solution. There are not that many ExpressCard GPU enclosures on the market. ExpressCard was not designed to be used this way, and support hot-swapping seems iffy at best. Bandwidth to the card will be limited to one PCI Express lane (internal GPUs get 16 lanes).

However I have read a story of at least one user trying this on a Precision system and it worked, I think as long as the external box was connected before the system was booted up. (Don't know if I could ever find the post.)

I'd say, if it is within your means, save up for a newer system with Thunderbolt 3. Even if you upgrade to a used Precision 7510 (your current Quadro could carry over). Then you'd have a "supported" eGPU option available and with four lanes of bandwidth instead of one. A Thunderbolt setup would be a bit more "futureproof", able to work with future laptops. Or you could also look into a used/partial Precision M6800, maybe, as with that you could transfer over your drives/RAM/CPU/battery, and gain access to MXM 3.0b cards, like GeForce 980M / Quadro M5000M / Quadro P5000.

 

I've personally used a EC docking solution, it was fine, it's not nearly as good as TB3, but it works well enough. I don't know what you mean by "enclosure", as the only real EC docking solution is just a cable to a box. The only reason it would not work is if the system had a whitelist, which precisions do not. You do loose a fair bit of performance, but its still a fair bit gained and much cheaper performance per buck.

 

very good info here (as always) and thanks.
i was thinking if i could get an m2200 for $150-$200 then i could sell my m2000m for around a $125 or so that i would recover some of the cost of the m2200.
would i be able to use my same psu for my m4800 with that m2200?
i would prefer getting that m6800 or that m7100 for the MXM-B instead of my MXM-A but i think i would need to much $ up front so i think i have to stay with the m2200.
for an eGPU i think i would lose performance i bet.
i have two ssd in a raid-0 in this m4800 and i think that uses up some pcie bandwidth that the gpu already needs and going to an eGPU might make it even worse?
still leaning to the m2200 but i not sure if my heatsink, psu will work or will i need to cut anywhere to make the m2200 fit or ventalation?
i thought i read somewhere about heat being a problem too

 

You can use the same PSU for sure.
I am not sure about the heatsink. My best suggestion is to find photos of both cards and compare to see if the components are in the same location. (Mostly the VRMs at the far end of the card from the connector.)

There are many downsides to an ExpressCard GPU that I can think of, but not having enough PCIe bandwidth in the system is not one of them. The ExpressCard has only one PCIe lane (internal GPU has sixteen) so the eGPU would be less taxing on your system's PCIe bus. The eGPU and dGPU would not be active at the same time. I'm not sure which lanes are attached where, the dGPU probably has dedicated lanes but the ExpressCard might share with some other components. Still can't see having a RAID array taking away from the ExpressCard's performance potential, SATA bandwidth (even two drives together) is not that much to begin with.

I have no idea what such a bandwidth crunch does to your GPU performance when it comes to real-world use. Obviously it works well enough for some people to be happy using it.