Possible GPU upgrade for Precision M4600

Sounds about right given your ambient temperature. I've found that sandy bridge mobile cpus really like a single very thin line of thermal paste, has worked better than the dot, x, or spread method every time. If you want the fan to go up to full speed you pretty much need to use HWinfo (fan control custom auto, respin as low as possible), from what I understand. This is pretty well covered earlier in this thread.

I couldnt get this to work on my m6700, havent tried yet on the m4600. However I did contact Martin on the HWinfo forum and he said he would remove the respin warning (that occurs when you put less than 100 ms) from the next release. This is kind of a minor detail, and he warns of an effect on performance, but I haven't noticed anything, and it'll be nice not to have that warning popping up

https://www.hwinfo.com/forum/Thread-Fan-Control-Respin

 

Nice to hear about the HWInfo respin warning fix.

I tried to enter the "hidden" menu but it's gone, although the key combinations remain (computer lags for a brief moment but no menu appears). Spoke to Dell about it, tech support staff have no details about hidden menus and found nothing when searching, I was told. They also told me they can't help with undervolting.

Got the GPU temp issue fixed, turned out I was just silly and bought a GPU with a more low-profile die than the Nvidia one. Seems there are two types on eBay -- mine and an m5100 with higher profile chip like that on the Quadro 2000m. I didn't wait for copper shims and instead just cut the thermal pads on the RAM chips smaller (makes them thinner when pressed down by the heatsink so the heatsink can touch the die). I then removed some aluminum from the heatsink to ensure it actually touches the die and squeeze the thermal paste this time (lol) instead of other components that sticks out higher from the PCB. Ensured no capacitors etc. would be shorted. Temp is now firmly below 58 deg C when playing Skyrim SE, for what it's worth. Haven't bothered to do proper stress tests, ambient temp is lower in the room I'm working and playing in now (the previous room had ambient temps as high as 27 deg C and the GPU briefly reached 60 deg C, occasionally, when playing there).

 

Thanks for the reply. Guess the 32C hot and humid air here is the problem.
Yesterday i diassembled my laptop again and changed the thermal paster. I use arctic MX4 btw. The card came with m4700 AMD heat sink. I was thinking about using the m4600 quadro 2000M heatsink but it just not fit. The Nvidia heatsink has the center copper pad flat with the aluminium mount. The copper pad of the amd heatsink is about 1mm higher. The GPU fan is a little interfered with the heat pipe.

Can just use nvidia heatsink with copper shims but im happy with this temp for now. Also i noticed the cpu temp is lower when i had the nvida heatsink removed in the past. GPU temp is about 70C when gaming in Starcraft 2. This card is not powerful anyway.

 

Does anyone here have the W5170m?

Im curious if it really runs DX12 and/or Vulkan API. It seems that the m4600 and me are destined to be together lol. Just curious if I should get another m5100 or try and get the w5170m.

More to the point Im curious how it runs with Dolphin emulator. I believe their is a built in benchmark, if anyone has the m5100 and / or w5170m, would you be able to run the benchmark for me? Thanks!

 

Hi so I've been reading over this thread did anyone manage to get the w5170m to output over LVDS on the m4600?
See I have a m6700(lvds) and a w5170m just sitting in a draw I know its 3a but I think I might give it a try and I was looking for any advice before I strip the machine.

 

w5170m only outputs LVDS to the best of my knowledge. If it couldnt, it wouldnt have functioned in Valuxin's unit. (M4600)

Its 3a but as long as the heatsink fits, shouldnt be an issue to just give it a try.

 

Thanks for the reply I shall see how it goes and post back

 

Hope it works out!

 

Well I got fans on and nothing on the screen, think I need to blind flash it or just balls to it and stick it on ebay.

ps could you point me to a vbios?

 

Tried external monitor with system lid shut?