Possible GPU upgrade for Precision M4600

I found the way to run Ivy Bridge on M4600. But I need to take some cheap Ivy for the test first.

Dell M4600 can run any memory module - even 2133Mhz. There is some trick to do this via nvram editor. Om, I wish have this 2133Mhz modules too xD

 

Oh how exciting! Well the 3630qm's are around 65 on ebay Im sure the i5's should be cheaper. Are you saying we can potentially something like a 3940xm? That would really help on the CPU side of things...

nvram editor? Ill have to google this, as 2133mhz ram would really help my laptop. Some of these games are starting to get pretty CPU heavy...Ive got a kit of 2133mhz 16GB, running in the ol' ladies laptop for now, shes got the lower tdp cpu so it just made more sense to put it in there vs my y510p (which is not in service at the moment, waiting until I get the eGPU setup running.

 

Found 3740QM locally, so I'm gonna test it soon But yeah, if I succeed we can go with 3940xm too (but I really prefer non XM CPU, coz they are hot and useless in Precisions).

Kinda. M4600 have hidden settings, which allow to run 1886Mhz without XMP and over this with XMP.
If it's not a secret - what kit do you use?

P.S. LOL, I guess we need to rename this thread to conversation about Dell M4600 stuff

 

Oh sweet, if you make a new thread on that please mention me I would love to follow it. Yeah I also dont use XM's, 3840qm should be quite adequate.

Let me look...

They are HyperX Impacts - HX321LS11IB2K2/16 1.35v
CPMH16A1515

Well the m4600 thread is basically dead, but I think any relevant interest in the m4600 will likely be directed here anyways lol

 

K, bad news: updating microde and ME to 8 version doesn't result in 3rd gen i7 running on this machine :C
I guess, the only CPU that will probably work is i7-3610QE (also have an unlocked multiplier).

But, good news for me: I bought form this local seller 8Gb 1600Mhz DDR3 stick for $25 and Hynix mSata SSD with USB type C enclosure for $60. So I have mixed feelings about everything that happened today lol

 

Oh bummer! well we can still get the 2860qm or if your needing the bleeding edge and dont mind the fan noise theres always the 2960xm. Though it would be hard to justify the additional heat dump for 100Mhz

regarding nvram editors, I only found a few links to modding router firmwares. Is there a name I can look this stuff up with?

I remember there was the thaiphoon burner but its outside my knowledge base

Seems this laptop is smoke and mirrors to upgrade lol

 

@TheReciever

Yeah, but I guess 2860qm is the best of the best for M4600. XM don't plays well on Precisions: I had M6800 with 4930MX and it was power throttled all the time, so I ended up using XTU to undervolt it and clock it to 4910MQ freqs to achieve the best performance for this machine. No more Dells with XMs in my house anymore lol

It's hard to find what i meant over the internet - I'll write you guide when I'll have spare time.

Also, I've managed to edit voltage table in your vBIOS and now it supports voltages up to 1.225v Aditionaly, I've done some optimizations and turn back some powersaving feautres and kept throttling removed from the code. Other parameters kept the same with default voltage upped to 1.175v. I didn't test it and don't promise that it wont soft brick your card, but I've done my best and it should work

 

Oh man now your spoiling me lol Very exciting!

However I havent been able to actually control voltage in any application. Are you meaning to say that with, lets say VBE7 I would then be able to move the voltage past 1.1v for the performance state? (I believe P0 iirc)

In the event of a soft brick, iirc I would need to boot DOS to reflash it into a working state.

Let me know if you write up that guide, and ill be happy to serve as a first proof of concept for others to consider

Oh happy days. Making me wonder what the limits are of the card again lol, but maybe I can crack 700 on Valley Extreme HD after all

 

@TheReciever

I've changed voltage table, so now it has all the values W5170M has. And yes, you can set them in VBE7. But try my mod first - it have failsafe clocks if anything goes wrong

I can tell you the limits - 60W of MXM 3.0a lol I wish AMD have some info regarding power consumption - it would be much easier to find the best settings for the card.

P.S. I really hope, that this mod will work and help many ppl who stuck with this GPUs

 

@valuxin

Im about to head to bed, this is my school laptop so I am going to back up my school stuff on a secondary drive just in case I cant access the OS (its happened before)

I will check back in after flashing.

 

Flashed GPU but get black screen after user login

Its looking like I'll have to dos flash it when I wake up with the v1.

Its pretty late for me but I'll be up in 5 hours and we can try something again ​