Possible GPU upgrade for Precision M4600

Yeah, it's not so easy to have some progress on it. I'm thinking about give up. No more inspiration

But, I've reinstalled normal XP build and Valley works as it should. Here is the result for Extreme HD preset. And note - the TDP of the GPU is 35w. But it overclocks super well, coz it's maxwell and have hynix memory (which can do 1600Mhz at ease).

I guess, I'll try to look for someone who can help with ACPI ****. And also try to build a coreboot BIOS replacement.

... Or just do MXM 3.0b mod and fit it RX480 (on taobao for 300USD). Or maybe just leave this piece of tragedy and buy another system (idk, for me precisions are the best in terms of I/O ports).

 

You guys have made some interesting progress in this thread

You can get an issue escalated to the engineering team if you can present hard evidence of a reproducible problem (I've done it twice myself). Such an escalation would be required to solve an issue like this. But, you will never get to talk to them directly, there will always be a customer service rep in between you and the engineers. It might be frustrating for you, but as a software developer myself, I can assure you that the engineers appreciate being in a situation where they are not pestered by customers directly, and it is also better for their general productivity.

For a reality check, in this case, even if you can Dell to acknowledge the problem, you're never going to get them to fix it in the BIOS. Replacing the GPU results in an unsupported hardware configuration (meaning Dell can say, "not our parts, not our problem" — they are not "obligated" to fix it). Considering the age of this system, the engineering and testing effort that would be required for a proper fix, and the fact that the number of people who would actually replace the GPU in this particular model probably numbers in the tens (at this point in its lifecycle)... They're going to choose to spend their engineering time on things with bigger impact.

That said, I hope you do manage to figure it out, I know there are people around here who would love to be able to use the newer NVIDIA GPUs in the M4600/M6600.

 

@Aaron44126
Yeah, escalating is what we need, but the question is how can we do this And yeah, I'm afraid that they can say something about "old unsupported hardware" or "this laptop designed to run only this cards and etc.". But really, there is no such a problem on other even oldest laptops which run M2000M with no problems. The fix for this problem isn't that big amount of work, since they have source code and the problematic element is obvious. But yeah, the can just say "we don't care", but at least we can try

I hope too, that someday I'll fix this, but it takes a lot of time (and even money, in cases when something goes wrong) to find the solution. Damn, why I bought this M4600

 

Especially when you consider that no warranty exists for this machine anywhere on the planet. They wouldn't be under any obligation to remedy a foul installation should it occur, it's not like they are now to begin with.

It's the hand we were dealt I guess on this machine but it would be nice to have pcie devices working in pcie ports that work by the pcie standard. Though that would be nice for all laptops not just this one.

Do you think any of the bios modders from tech inferno would be able to help? Klem comes to mind but I'm pretty ignorant in this subject matter so I wouldn't be able to say for certain if he could help

EDIT: Nice score! especially considering its only 35w compared to the 83w im pushing on the m5100

I wouldnt be opposed to a MXM 3.0b, if the m6600 has any relation to the m4600 then the 7970m should be a good candidate. Though VRAM is 2GB.

 

If I'm right, the uefi part in nvidia firmware could be the reason, so I think @Prema might help in this case.

 

He got burned by some members that promised not to leak his code and as a result he stopped sharing with the community like he had before, though I dont know if he has changed his position on this which is why I hesitated to mention him. It would be a huge help though!

Also I edited my last post above, not sure if you've seen it.

 

M290X is pretty cheap and have 4GB ram (but it's the same samsung as I have on my w5170m). But I'd better buy RX480 for extra $100 and undervolt/underclock it. I hope, MXM on M4600 can handle 100W. Probably, I'll go with that project if nothing serious will happen to Nvidia investigation.

I have a TV on slim wall mount and this precision placed right between TV and wall. I'm planning to make MXM extension board, remove GPU fan and place MXM 3.0b GPU there. Yep, half of the heatsink would be outside, but I don't care I have 2 pipe heasink from M6800 laying around, but will probably consider buying 3 pipe from Alienware 17x r4 if I buy RX480.

Yeah, the score is nice. I wish I could overclock it and test it, but not in this life I guess

 

Hello everyone,
I also own an m4600 with a Quadro 1000M and would love to upgrade my card. It needs to be nVidia as I need cuda support for my software.

1) As far es I understand my safest bet is the Quadro 2000M. Does anyone know if I have to get a different heat sink for this?

2) The Quadro M1000M, which is quite powerful will definitely not work, is that correct?

3) But what about the Quadro K2000M?
It is very similar spec wise to the 2000M except having 384 cuda cores vs 192. And it is also listed on the Dell site under supported drivers, but I am not sure for the specific combination of m4600 with Quadro K2000M. Here is the Dell driver support page:
http://www.dell.com/support/home/de/de/debsdt1/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=X86RM

4) Do I have to worry about compatibility when buying used Quardro K2000M/2000M that is coming from non Dell systems, HP for instance?

Here is a comparision pdf of the Quadro cards:
https://www.nvidia.com/content/pdf/product-comparison/product-comparison-quadro-mobile-series.pdf

I am very thankful for any advice!

PS: my system runs on Windows 10, and I have a 1080p non IPS display installed.

 

Yeah it wouldnt be a clean fit, but also you might have to remove the RAM slots as the. Isnt the slot itself at the top of the board? I wouldnt mind getting another m6600 again, I couldnt get the 7970m to boot in mine like others had before me but maybe I had a different iteration of the 7970m (dell) oh well, average price of the 2860qm is 150 when you can almost get the laptop with it for 300-400 lol

As far as I know, the 2000M is the best Nvidia card to work with the m4600. @valuxin has been looking into higher performing options but luck hasnt been on our side quite yet.

Unless you want to use Windows XP as your daily driver lol

 

The Quadro 2000M will work. You can use the same heatsink. Anything newer (Quadro K-series and M-series) will not work, unless someone is able to figure out the BIOS issue (discussed above).

If your card is not from a Dell system, you might have to modify the driver INF file to get it to load. Alternatively, you can find a Dell vBIOS for the same model card and flash that onto your card.

[Edit] - Ninja'd