Dell Precision M6700 Owners Thread

If you connect an external monitor (that attaches to the NVIDIA GPU) you will get more options in the NVIDIA control panel. Anything that has to do with display output (which is most of the stuff in there) is hidden if there are no monitors connected. You should still be able to see the performance options and the section where you can set which apps run on which GPU.

 

Oh yeah didn't realize that the other nvidia control panel settings were tied to hdmi (monitor only has vga and hdmi connectors) and now that the full dynamic range is set in the control panel it is not washed out blacks nice.

Some games do have the option to choose which output monitor, GTAV, BL3 and I think Metro Exodus have that option, most others I've played lately don't.

Edit: now I can't get full screen in game settings to work(once I drag it over) bc the external doesn't have 1600x900 I'm using to game resolution, can't get control panel to allow custom resolutions either. Have to use 1080p then use borderless gaming to force full screen, going back to vga learned a lesson here lol The ext monitor doesn't have built in speakers anyways.

 

is anyone looking to purchase an m6700? i have one for sale. got my hands on a m6800 and dont want this to lie here rotting away.

 

Well here we go again... A couple of months ago i bought an GTX 980M but it just installed drivers correctly once, and from there for more help i recevied here it never works again, returned the card to the seller and i had another nightmare, seller didn't want to refund the money. Ebay dispute ended that i didn't have the right to receive my money but i called and i talked whith a nice lady and she give me my refund.

Short history, i am seeing a couple of M3000M on less than 170 bucks, and a couple of GTX 970M below 200 bucks... and GTX 780M below 160 bucks or so, i don't wanna have a pain in the ass trying to install drivers on Maxwell again so my lazy thinking is get the GTX 780M, i am aware than Nvidia dropped support on Kepler but as far i can play at medium settings games i am fine, and on "synthetic benchmarks" the GTX 970M is just about 15-20% faster than the GTX 780M, and no i don't have the budget to get the GTX 980M, and as i had an horrendous experience before i don't want to waste 250 or more bucks in something that might install or not.
Also there are some GTX 965M on less than 180 bucks but...

Also i am considering later sell the laptop to get a newer and easy- friendly upgrade one, and of course i am considering if i sell the laptop with an Maxwell card, i don't wanna have someone calling me back when laptop refuses to install drivers and so...

Should i stick with the GTX 780M or try Maxwell again?

 

You're going to have to modify the INF to install drivers for any "unsupported" card installed in this system, including Kepler-based GeForce cards. If you want NVIDIA drivers to install nicely then you need to choose K3000M, K4000M, or K5000M.

I think the easiest thing is to go for a Maxwell Quadro (pulled from a Dell system if you can find one). The INF mod is super simple in this case. I regularly update the drivers for my M5000M with no trouble at all. I have the correct mod detailed in my M5000M upgrade thread which is linked in my signature.

Use the eBay "make an offer" feature. Going rate is usually less than the advertised price.

 

I have the k4100m right now, no problem with drivers... Well at least the last time it displayed that i need to go to Dell page to download the drivers for the k4100m, and of course the Dell drivers are way outdated, Windows update download generic ones, and yes actually the M3000M is listed as Dell H99YY but the ones i have been tracking the seller doesn't have the make an offer option, i think they are a reasonable price compared to GTX 970M, but well there are two variants the one of 3GB and the one with 6GB, funny fact is that both are almost on the same price.

I thought i could install the GTX 780M as the K4100M without any mod on drivers...

 

NVIDIA must have added an entry for M6700+newer Kepler Quadros for some reason, or maybe they have added generic lines for these Quadros (without a subsystem ID listed) so they will work in any motherboard. NVIDIA drivers for mobile GPUs generally specify both the system (subsystem ID / motherboard type) and the GPU type in the INF file.

In general you should assume that unsupported GPU configurations will not work without an INF mod. I do not think that they would have GeForce cards for Precision systems in the INF. I spell this out in this post and you could check the GeForce 970M INF entries to see if there is any match for the M6700.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...0-owners-thread.820539/page-254#post-10937563

Note that AMD isn't this strict with their INFs; you could pick up a newer AMD card and it will probably allow the drivers to be installed without any hassle. (I don't pay attention to these so I don't know if there are any out there that would offer a decent performance upgrade.)

 

As you mention AMD cards should works... But i ordered an R9 M290X and the thing is that even i ordered the AMD heatsink the laptop always shut down after the GPU was on a game... I was aware that AMD was not working with CPU fan but i tried to mod, use programs and it never worked.

Even the R9 M390X its at the same price that the m3000m, but i am not going to be messing the keyboard and the connectors to the motherboard, they are way too delicated.

I couldn't figure what was the difference between one and the other heatsink, because i saw them equal nothing different. Ended returning that GPU because in a week trying to do everything it never worked.

I will get the m3000m, still the only two main issues i am facing is the sound which sounds weird, flat no bass and i changed the motherboard twice and ordered twice the speakers with the same result and closing the lid and going sleep it never comes back.

And there are now m3000m as the same price of the GTX 970M

 

Always thought afa heat the 965m half size would be nice w decent performance just below 970m full size card but good luck finding one on eb, never seen one up there. The full size ones are about the same or more than 970m, no go. Those maxwell quadros seem way overpriced but if you found one for cheaper that's great. But they are maxwell too and all that goes w that. Mid range gtx 870m would be good too I think you can get one for about 120 but that would require inf modding. 860m even cheaper kepler(most of them are). At current prices 780m is a terrible value for performance though. Maybe lookup an unlocked vbios for the k4100m and OC that baby, they do quite well OC.

 

Yes as i wrote i got an GTX 980M and for my it just worked once, but i couldn't install drivers, funny fact is that closing the lid and laptop going sleep worked... Something i can't achive with the k4100m, i saw an GTX 880M on ebay very cheap... but seller description was "it hasn't been tested" so i could be a hit or miss and as far i know GTX 880M runs very hot but its a bit fast than k4100m and k5100m and the 8GB is the thing that i am considering, because playing Ghost Recon Wildlands consume more than 4GB on high settings, but then i remember that the dude who tried the GTX 880M had an XM and is known that those CPU doesnt mix good with an high end GPU, that's the reason i was thinking on getting the GTX 780M as its Kepler and i think it shouldn't be a pain in the ass installing the GPU.

But then i am seeing an GTX 970M, it has 6GB and less than 175, and the TDP is good... But then i saw an AMD WX 4170... with a TDP of 50-60 watts, for less than 125 bucks, but it has been pulled from an HP laptop and has a lower die size, but i am wondering if it will have the problem of AMD cards on specifically the M6700 about heat issues... despite having a lower TDP