Optimus ENABLE: M6600 with FireProM8900

While this is a step in the right direction to confirm the iGPU works correctly. I cant help but wonder why people are looking for battery life out of a monster rig like a precision. Sure if I wanted to get better battery life at the cost of GPU performance I would have gone with the nvidia 2000m for optimus. But folks we bought the stronger gpu at the cost of battery life and its how we pay for it. Granted i dont know the breakdown of gpu performance for the m6600.

As for the idea of switchable graphics I think manual switching like that in my 2008 laptop should be a standard feature for business models of this level and if lenovo can do it in 2008 dell sure could have in 2011...

Yeah i doubt with the rigs being this far along that they will fiddle too much with a setting like this. But would be nice to have software switchable or at the very least a bios for those who do extended times not needing the discrete gpu.

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You think of the m6600 as big? I don't have any issues carrying it around for 6hrs a day...


Why not have good battery life and performance?



The m8900(6970 is the fastest/cheapest card for the m6600. The 5010m($1k) = 480m, 4000m($600+) = 470m, 3000m($300) = 460.


Nvidia has always cost more, but $1000 is a little to much for similar performance....

 

Nvidia is better optimized for industrial apps. 2000M for example, is about 20% better than M5950.

If gaming is the main concern, then nvidia makes no sense.

 

so did any1 tried to remove M8900 card physically from laptop and start it to see if it will use integrated GPU?

 

Agreed. When carrying it around, sometimes you just need it for office work and internet usage for which the integrated GPU is more than enough. And it's nice to have the real GPU when you need to fire up a game at home. I hope Dell will offer switchable ATI graphics on the M6700 at least as I don't want to pay extra money for the same or worse gaming performance from Nvidia. And I don't need Optimus software switching; a hardware switch (e.g. like the wifi switch) would even be preferable for me.

 

Could this be done manually?
Drivers shouldnt be an issue that way as there would be no code required for automatic switching.
I see no reason for this not to work.
It wont be Optimus Per se, but rather just manual switching.

 

Guys, I have much hope to see someone who dares to change the BIOS with the Dell Client Configuration Toolkit to enable Optimus so he can fully utilize the potential of eGPU combined with our machines.

Thanks to anyone who overcomes his fear and deliver us from this bottleneck.

 

docsaro, i did it. but nothing changed at all. i.e. nothing did break, but nothing did appear in BIOS or anything. So BIOS changes through this tool for ATI cards does not work for sure.

I have hopes for physically removing card. If this will force laptop to switch to internal GPU, this means we can hack some sort of physical switch into it.

 

docsaro found his IPS-equipped M4600 with a FX2000M has no Optimus enabling bios setting, so his is running in dGPU-only mode just like a M8900 does.

I referred him to this thread to try the hidden bios setting as perhaps a workaround.

 

Thank you very much Nando4 for the clarification of my case and consequent "incursion" into this M6600/ATI thread.

All fo you, M6600 owners, excuse me for this.