M6800 Owners' Thread

Hello,

Hopefully this us the correct place to ask, and maybe a few of the more knowledgeable members here can provide input on this question that I have.

So I own a Dell Precision M6800, currently equipped with a Nvidia Quadro K5100M 8GB (GDDR5) GPU.

What I wanted to know is, what is the BEST GPU that this laptop can support?


I have recently been doing research into the various newer MXM-based GPU options and have discovered that PNY are releasing a Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000 16GB (GDDR6) GPU that is a MXM 3.0 Type-B module, so hardware wise should be compatible with the M6800.


Does anyone know if it would be compatible or not?

Where can I look to find more information on compatibility of Nvidia Turing GPUs with the M6800?


Many thanks to anyone that can offer input

 

Please review the M6800 GPU upgrade thread.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/graphics-card-upgrade-for-m6800.806352/

Bottom line — Maxwell yes, Pascal maybe, Turing probably not
(Note that an INF modification will be required to get NVIDIA drivers to load no matter which card you pick.)

Maxwell GPUs work fine. You can install a Quadro M5000M or a GeForce 980M.

Pascal GPUs have a vBIOS conflict. They work under Linux, but under Windows you will always get a BSOD at boot (even if trying to boot Windows PE or the Windows install media).
This can be worked around using early "engineering sample" vBIOS images that have been found. You can boot into Linux to flash the vBIOS onto the card, and then boot Windows normally. There are working vBIOS images for the Quadro P3000 and P5000. There is one that works for the P4000 but it prevents turbo boost, so performance is lowered. No working vBIOS images have been found for Pascal GeForce cards.
@DynamiteZerg has a working M6800+P5000 configuration. @JEAMN tried the GeForce 1070 and sort of got it working (taking more deep/technical measures to get around the vBIOS/BSOD issue, which you can read about here), but abandoned the project because of stability issues. I tried running the P5000 in my M6700 and did get it to work in Windows after a vBIOS flash, but I also had to abandon it because of stability issues. (Random BSOD every few days.) @bobmook had a P5000 in the M6800 as well, it worked for a while and then needed to be repaired, I'm not sure what the current status is. All around it seems like a risky proposition, considering the cost of these cards.

Turing GPUs have not been tried but it is very much suspected that they will have the same vBIOS conflict as Pascal cards, causing Windows to BSOD at boot, and that there will not be any vBIOS images available to get around it.


Also note that there are two versions of the NVIDIA GPU heatsink in this system. One of them has a protrusion that prevents Maxwell and newer cards from being installed because of the different VRM placement. You will have to dremel that part off or locate the more rare "flat" NVIDIA GPU heatsink. This is also discussed in the GPU upgrade thread.

 

Thanks for such a quick reply

I perhaps should have mentioned that I mainly operate on Linux, that is not to say I would want to be able to boot up Windows 20 Pro WS as a PE install, but, it isn't a priority.

If I installed a custom vBIOS onto a Nvidia Quadro P5000, would it still work under Linux?

And, if the Turing Quadro cards have the same issue as the Pascal Quadro cards in relation to vBIOS, would that still be an issue in running under Linux (As long as Linux has drivers for the RTX 5000 GPUs, which I believe it does.)

 

The engineering sample vBIOS will allow the card to boot under both Linux and Windows.
(Pascal cards and higher enforce a digital signature check for the vBIOS so end users cannot load "modified" custom vBIOS'es. Not sure but maybe someone has found a way around this by now. The vBIOS images that work are legit signed vBIOS'es from NVIDIA, just older than the ones that ever shipped on retail cards.)

Assuming that the situation with Turing cards is similar, you should still be able to run one under Linux.

Inside of Linux you could boot a Windows VM (Xen, VMware, whatever) and that should work fine. I believe that @JEAMN even got PCI Express pass-through working so he was able to get the NVIDIA GPU card working directly in a Windows Xen VM. (Using Optimus so that the Linux host would run with the integrated Intel GPU.)

 

Now we are talking,
The idea of using a ExpressCard-to-PCIe slot adapter to have an Nvidia GPU working and dedicated to the Windows VM definitely has me interested. Certainly worth trying.
Either way, GPU passthrough is still a viable option

I'm an Avid user of VM's & GPU accelerated containers so it's good to hear that theres an option in that regard.


To further my questions, do we have a list anywhere for retailers that would sell either "New", "Refurbished", or, "Second-Hand" parts for the "Dell Precision M6800" in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland?


I am only aware of "Dell spares UK" as an unofficial source for parts.

I'm trying to see if I can find a "4K" capable "Slot-Load" Slimline Blu-Ray Disc Drive, currently the standard official options don't support 4K, and, they cost upwards of £90 if you want to guarantee you get an official part, that's 2nd-Hand pricing too.
I wouldn't mind usually, except that I can buy an external slimline Blu-Ray drive for less money, so it is sort of a toss up between space saving and piggy bank saving lol



Additional to the previous questions, my M6800 is equipped with a Touchscreen panel, but it feels like the colours could be tuned, contrast, saturation, etc.

Is there a guide anywhere that someone has listed the settings they used to calibrate the Touchscreen version of the display used on the M6800? I'm aware that the Touchscreen panel is completely different to all other panels but I have no idea who it is made by, what model it is, or where to find such information, using software to find the information would be nice but I'm nit sure what software I would be able to use.


Thank you again for your time & your patience, it is greatly appreciated

 

Go review my first post from this morning, I edited in a bit at the end, after I posted it, about the GPU heatsink which you might have missed.

You do not have to purchase an "official" M6800-specific optical drive. Any SATA 9.5mm optical drive will work. I have a LG BU40N BD-RE drive in my M6700. It is 4K/UHD capable, but it is tray-loading. (Can't actually watch a protected UHD disc because that requires an Intel 7th-gen CPU for the security stuff. I have a separate "UHD-friendly" external drive that I use to rip 4K discs to a media server.)

I'm not really aware of any good source for random parts (anywhere) other than eBay.

 

Thanks for updating me in regards to the Heatsink, I do remember reading about that being an issue but hadn't looked into it much further than knowing that I may need to purchase a different heatsink in order to get it to fit, depending on what heatsink my current system has inside of it (I've never taken it apart and I have only had it for just over a year now).

Also, for some reason I believed that firmware would be an issue for Blu-Ray Drives but clearly that shouldn't be the case so I'll have a look around to see what 4K UHD Blu-Ray drives I can find that will meet the space requirements (9.5mm).

No worries about the shop stuff, eBay will do for me, or AliExpress if needed.

 

I'm planning to change GPU thermalpads anyone here has that "GPU map" of thicknesses for nVidia cards?

 

You have the 980m?
Edit This is the stuff I used for both my 980m and P5000m and it works great

 

On a completely different note....I'm trying to fix my signature and find myself unable to. How does one do it since I've totally forgotten ....
Edit I figured it out ----it now reflects my new lappy, the move of the repaired p5000m to an M6700 (where it seems quite happy) my upgrade of machine using that OS for people who like fruit