Pascal in M15x: The Final Verdict!

To finally clear out any confusion about Pascal and the M15x, I purchased a Zotac GTX 1070 MXM that has a slightly different arrangement of components, but otherwise a standard MXM 3.0B card. I installed it in the M15x, and to my dismay (although, expected), it did not pass POST. So lets make this final:

PASCAL IS NOT SUPPORTED IN THE M15x!!!!

The final upgrade is a Maxwell GTX 980M or GTX 970M, no other cards will work in this machine.

Sorry to crush your hopes out there fellas, but at least we know for sure now.

@King of Interns @kosti @Mr. Fox @Prema @deadsmiley @MZWiZard

 

In the end it probably comes down to the output signal I guess?

So its either figure out a way to get the output signal that the card supports or just find some way to increase heat dissipation to better handle the 980m?

 

Not much new here and definitely not a final verdict. It was already known not to be compatible with lvds directly routed to the graphics card.
I'm not in possession of my M15x these days. A eDP mod is what's needed for pascal.

Don't nail the coffin before the options have been tried. You will just get less people interested with this nonsense title. Did you read King of Interns post about this topic? Why not reply there instead?

 

Have you tried using the DP or HDMI port by any chance?

 

Let’s see you get it working then. Love to see you solder in an edp connector, rewire the traces on the board, implement EC fan control, and the fit a new edp screen behind that plexiglas. Best of luck, will be looking for your thread....

Yes, neither were able to bypass POST error codes in the keyboard.


For the record: the card was able to POST in SG mode in the M18x R2 with a 2920XM and 3920XM as well as the Alienware 18 with a 4930MX. All failed in PEG mode as expected. M17x R2 failed to POST at all as expected. I was able to mod the INF and install the cards to be seen properly in windows with hardware acceleration, but I did not run any 3D intensive programs because the heatsink did not fit perfectly and I did not want to burn out the card, but there's no reason to think any further problems would ensue.

 

This is with the MSI vBIOS as well?

EDIT: Ah well none of them are eDP panels so is to be expected

 

You said you were gonna sell it? Wonder if it's worth going 1070 from 1060.

So I guess then the card works as the ebay seller assumed. Don't know how reliable it will be though compared to MSI 1060.

@Raidriar can you run 4K 60hz using HDMI or mDP to HDMI 2.0 adapter with 980M SLI? I hate how in Optimus mode the iGPU has full control so being stuck with mDP 1.1 doesn't allow 4K 60hz.

 

Yes, tested MSI and Zotac vBIOS and found no differences as far as usage with an LVDS display was concerned.

@ssj92 I wouldn't bother, it is missing MOSFETs compared to the MSI 1070, and I would estimate the performance of this card to be somewhere between a GTX 1060 and GTX 1070 that has all the proper MOSFETs. Unfortunately, I don't have a 4K monitor to test what you ask, so I can't check to see if I can do 4k60

I plan on returning the card to the seller or if somebody wants it for 400$ I'll be happy to pass it on.

So some final notes: If somebody wants to go this route, you will have to add 3 mosfets later one (only 7 of the 10 are present vs the MSI card), and you WILL have to grind your heatsink significantly in the M18x R2 because the the slight hump in the middle prevents proper contact, as well as the lip around the heatsink that's supposed to give contact to the MOSFETs has to be trimmed in a couple spots. @maxslo Quadro P5000 uses the standard layout, but is also missing some MOSFETs that would limit how much power can be delivered safely to the card. So at this point, I still recommend 980M SLI over 1070 until the prices come down or better yet, skip pascal altogether and wait for what Volta/Ampere/Tesla will show enough significant improvement over maxwell to warrant big changes and dumping SLI for a single GPU only.

 

No reason to get upset mate. We are on the side. You don't have to prove anything. I will let you know if I make any progress if ever. It's more of a museums piece to me.

 

That is a bummer. Particularly the no post even via eDP out...I cannot see a better option out there than the 970M or M4000M (970M on steroids) that would work well in the M15x.

 

To be fair the laptop has had the best run out of all performance machines out there. It really is a shame they didnt have a sandy iteration.

 

You can replace the gpu fan with a much more powerful one, which seems to work just fine in my M15x.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/m15x-internal-fan-mods.799571/

I have had some very long gaming sessions lately in "The Division". In that game, 980m still bottlenecks before 920xm. The 980m never gets above 79C, where it does seem to throttle a bit, but not noticable to the eye when locked on 60fps.

Edit: Forgot to say that this 980m is using a slightly modified version of Raidriar 's vBios (It needed a bit more voltage).
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/release-980m-single-undervolted-vbios.800491/

.

 

I kinda wish I had went the 980M SLI route, but it would have been much more costly, not to mention I would need a 2nd heatsink and SLI cable. If 1160 or 2060 (w/e they call it) is standard mxm again and it's faster than 980M SLI by a good margin, maybe I'll upgrade.

I think I've decided to keep this laptop until it dies. This is my fifth time owning an M18x series laptop, I think it's a sign I should keep it even if I get another high performance laptop in the future.

 

Still not too late to do that, 980M SLI can be had for ~$850 can you can sell the 1060 for ~$500. Stuff a 3920XM in there and you still have a monster machine. I'm never getting rid of the Alienwares in my signature, they are fantastic machines even today. No they won't be setting benchmark records any longer, but they still can game at max or near max settings.

 

Do you know which 980M's work? And where would be the best place to get them cheap? I was hoping to get kinda newish ones. I need both GPU heatsinks and SLI cable as well though which will bring up the costs.


There's a guy selling dual 970M here on the forums but I don't think it's worth going 970M SLI in a machine like this.

 

Chinese factory leftovers for Dell:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/nVidia-GTX...053077?hash=item21351d9995:g:igQAAOSwTmtaMojM

grab two and flash the prema vBIOS (or my vBIOS), get the SLI cable
https://www.ebay.com/itm/CG8VH-OEM-...042350&hash=item3f878967d8:g:jCsAAOSwTM5Ytf9C

Secondary heatsink: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-OE...909419&hash=item5423afed92:g:c~gAAOxy14VRWzUZ

I think I have spare fan I can sell you if you need, or a M18x R1 secondary heatsink that will also work just fine.

 

@Raidriar would to thank you to very nice job on test pascal on M15x. I was away for a month and read your inputs about the unsucessfull test of 1070 on old school M15x today. For now i know that my theory was wrong even knowing that lvds don’t work in pascal.

My m15x still rocks like a beast with 920xm and undevolted/underclocked 980m. Cheers for you availability and support at forum!

 

No problem friend we are all enthusiasts here

 

Sorry to revive this thread, but is there any chance you tried messing with the EDP igd settings in the bios when trying to get this to work?

 

I’m not sure what you’re getting at here, but no amount of bios settings will fix a physically missing connector or generate a signal type to run over an incompatible interface. The only reason pascal works in the M18x r2 and other similar systems is because of Optimus and intel hd graphics doing the edp to lvds signal conversion, both of which are entirely absent in the m15x

 

So it appears that there is an m15x mobo with EDP - next task is finding an edp panel.

 

First find out if there is any signal on the port, if not, then how to get active signal to the port. Then you will want to worry about the panel.

That all being said, it should still work via HDMI no?

 

According to the schematics, there is signal to the board. In the bios you can choose EDP out so the software side of it is there too.

 

Yeah 99% sure it's a properly wired eDP interface. But what does that get you? Isn't there still the EFI lack issue?

 

I dont think so, my 980m gsync worked and that needs Uefi afaik, The problem would be finding an edp panel for it.

 

Because the aspect ratio of eDP panels do not physically match up? At first glance there are a few eDP panels on eBay and I think it is just 30 pin to 30 pin any brand cable should work.

 

Any 15.6" 16:9 edp display should work (and there are plenty out there), provided it comes with the necessary cabling and the pinout of the LCD matches the pin config on the motherboard. I'm more curious as to where you managed to source a M15x motherboard with a edp connector on it.

 

Guessing a grey market escape. I built the system from parts back when these were still super expensive.

 

Hey TD,

My M15x recently died on me for some reason which I still yet to figure it out.

With that I might need to change the mobo if its broken, Hope to get one with the eDP port like yours. I have been scouring the net to find one but most of the 05GVT models out there doesnt seem to have the connectors even though theres a label for it. Have a look below.




Would you be able to share where did you sourced that mobo please?

Its just in case if I have to replace my mobo, I might as well get one with eDP connectors and who knows pascal might be possible with M15x in the near future... hopefully and keeping my fingers crossed.

Thanks!!!

Edit: Ignore this... just saw your post on other threads regarding the eDP connectors missing. Amazing you have a unique mobo there for your m15x!!!

 

The plan is to test the M15x eDP and verify if existing production boards can support with advanced soldering of needed parts.

I may have a 1070M coming. Still unknown on eDP panel to use.

 

Just tried my 1060 in the m15x and it posts, BUT there is no display to the screen at the moment.

EDIT
So i tried m15x + Msi 1060n
Passes post as I can get to invalid adapter scren, and hear myself navigating the bios, so i assume it has posted. I tried with a VGA cable connected + a display port cable but neither of those gave me a display out. If there is a UEFI setting somewhere that I need to turn on, perhaps that could be it

 

1. UEFI is not the problem, 970M/980M work fine.
2. DP is a digital signal. Even if M15x output on DP, I would hardly call that success. M17x R2 could output perfectly using 980M via DP/HDMI, but never on internal screen
3. VGA is analog and this will never work.

 

well if 2CPU ends up getting an EDP panel, im sure a pascal card will display to it. Im willing to test this if he wants to exchange mobo's with me but I doubt that will happen as im in Australia and hes in the US

 

Yeah the screen would output upside down =)

 

Looking forward to future updates but from what has been posted recently I think the odds of getting some good results are good however not very many people are going to be able to take advantage due to lack of tooling and skills needed to make it happen.

 

My M15x sits in the corner now that I have a 1070 R4.