Aaron44126

You can also adjust this setting in the BIOS if you don't have Dell Optimizer installed. (You just have to reboot in order to access it...) It is independent from the Windows power settings. I think you may be able to update it from PowerShell as well, using the tools that Dell has to update system settings from PowerShell (for purposes of mass deployment / standardization), but I have not ever tried to do that myself. I agree, though, in the event of a combo load I would prefer to see it prioritize the GPU.

The power profiles (Balanced / Quiet / Cool / High performance) will impact power draw behavior. Setting it to "Cool" might be a way to allocate more power budget to the CPU, for example; in past systems that I have messed with, this power setting put a cap on the GPU power draw but not on the CPU power draw. You used to adjust this in the Dell Power Manager app, but that isn't a thing anymore, I guess maybe it is in Dell Optmizer?

If you want to update the firmware on the SSD, it would be best if you got the Intel storage driver out of the mix. Samsung Magician wants to have direct access to the SSD. You can do this by going to BIOS setup and switching the storage mode from RAID to AHCI/NVMe. (This is assuming you don't have any RAID arrays defined.) You need to take some steps in Windows when you make this change or else you will just get a BSOD at boot because it can't "find" your C drive. Hold "Shift" while you pick "Restart" in the start menu. As the system shuts down, it should give you some options. Pick safe mode. The system will reboot, when you see the Dell logo, hit F2 for BIOS setup. Switch from RAID mode to AHCI/NVMe mode. Exit BIOS setup and the system will boot Windows into safe mode. (At this point Windows will realize that it needs to set up a new storage controller driver. This is transparent, you won't see any visual indication.) Once you hit the Windows login screen in safe mode, just reboot into normal mode.

Framework teasing something for August 26. "Something big just got better" makes me think this might be an actual update for Framework Laptop 16.

There was also something going on with HP including the GPU vBIOS in the system BIOS, rather than on a chip on the MXM card as is typical... I don't remember for what years they were doing this. That could also throw a wrench in if you were trying to use an "unsupported" GPU.

Got to watch out for the higher-end HP cards. The dimensions are a little different and it might not be a big deal if part of the MXM card sticks out a little bit... but the main thing is that the GPU chip itself isn't in quite the same place, so the screw holes aren't quite in the same place and won't line up with the positions of the screws in the GPU heatsink. Thus a heatsink mod being required.

I don't know the specifics of this system, so maybe someone else can chime in, but I think there is no reason that you couldn't replace the whole display assembly and have this work. The replacement display assembly should come with all of the necessary cables. Dell does make it difficult to replace the panel alone now. Especially with a touch screen system (which would have glass covering it, presumably). I've replaced display panels in older systems, but in the Precision 7770 I found that it was held in place by adhesive (not screws), and when I had the panel replaced in that system under warranty, they just sent out a whole display assembly (the entire "top part" of the laptop).

Not sure what you meant to label as "dGPU" in that image. That term usually means "discrete GPU" which would reference the NVIDIA chip on a standalone card. The integrated GPU (iGPU) is actually in the CPU die. What you have labeled "dGPU" is actually the PCH chip. In every CAMM design so far, Dell has put the CPU right up against the CAMM slot. This board layout actually is really similar to what they had in the Precision 7X70 and 7X80 systems. They just sort of ... flipped the DGFF GPU card over so that they had room for the third fan, and some other components have been moved around slightly.

The GPU card fits in the top-right area (viewing from the bottom), a custom form factor DGFF card like they've been doing for several years now. It can be seen in the manual. (Tossed some pictures from the manual in the spoiler block below.) The only new thing here to me is that it appears to be double-stacked over part of the motherboard (but not directly above the CPU). You can see the double-stacking best in the second-to-last image in @AL123's post above. Stacking the dGPU card on top of the motherboard is not that new, it was standard design when Dell was using MXM cards (2017 systems and earlier), but this is the first time that I have seen it since they switched to DGFF. When the Qualcomm AI thing is available, my understanding is that it will also be a DGFF card fitting in the same space, so you'll have to pick between it or an NVIDIA GPU.

M2000M "should" work. I can personally confirm that I used a M5000M in a Dell Precision M6700 with LVDS panel, and it worked fine, even with Optimus disabled (GPU connected directly to the display panel). I believe back then there were people putting M2000M and even M2200 into a Precision M4700 and getting it to work without much hassle. Not clear to me which system you are trying to put the GPU into (you mentioned both Acer and HP?). I also believe that HP systems of the day had a GPU whitelist in the BIOS, so they might be more picky with such upgrades.

I described my experience above, I did use a P5000 in a M6800 briefly to flash the vBIOS on it and I had no trouble with it being "discovered". @DynamiteZerg just joined up and he has a M6800 with a P5000 GPU (see posts above), apparently still in active use? It seems like it "should work" and I'm not sure what was going on in your case, if the GPU card wasn't actually dead. That said, any GPU upgrade beyond K5100M is an "unsupported" upgrade and brings the risk of unknown issues.

With UEFI the best thing to do is explicitly select your boot drive from the boot menu (hit F12 at startup) and then wipe the old drive when you are satisfied that things are working good (diskpart, list disk, select disk X, clean). Then there is no way it will still be trying to boot from the old drive.

I'm actually not sure about Turing, but I know that there are some Ampere cards that look pretty normal like this one or this one. (No idea how to source it.)

The one under the quick access door is primary. Dell will populate that slot first. The idea is that you can easily and quickly remove it or swap it if needed, hence the "quick access". Practically, there is little difference, you can put whichever drive in whatever slot you want and the system is happy to boot from any of them. Do what works for you. (7680 can actually hold three M.2 SSDs, there are two slots other than the one under the quick access door. Though depending on your configuration, one of them may be physically obstructed by the battery.)

Ah, @DynamiteZerg! Nice to see you... [Edit] I have not tried this personally, but my understanding is that Turing and newer cards do not have the same vBIOS issue that we had with the Pascal cards. You can just drop a card in, assuming that you can physically install it (i.e. there are HP cards with weird layouts that require heatsink mods), and you should be fine.