Aaron44126

I don't own this game. ProtonDB has a lot of end user compatibility reports, with suggestions for tweaks or configuration changes to get a game running better. It looks like some minor tinker steps are needed to get this game working, but it can be done. https://www.protondb.com/app/314650

You can already enable a toggle in Steam settings on Linux, which is off by default, to enable Proton support for any game. It will allow you to download the Windows version of a game and run it in the Proton wrapper (which uses Wine, DXVK, and custom patches). Every single game that I have tried works fine. I consider gaming on Linux to be a solved problem. I'm a single-player gamer though. The gotcha would be multiplayer games with kernel-level anticheat built in. Those will never run on Linux unless the game dev/publisher adds explicit support for it. There's not a lot of movement on that front, and I would say that it is unlikely to change much between now and the end of the year. Valve can't fix that one, but they can continue to add pressure to game devs to support Linux by making SteamOS available and easy to install on more devices. That is something that they are working on. We're already seeing situations where if you opt for SteamOS instead of Windows on a "handheld gaming PC", it is both cheaper and better performing. That will lead more people to consider and select SteamOS when buying these things, which will create a larger Linux userbase and give more incentive for game devs to support it.

You can use the NVIDIA driver team PPA and possibly get "old" NVIDIA drivers installed on your "new" Ubuntu distro. They have NVIDIA 390 and 470 drivers available for Ubuntu 24.04 to support "old" GPUs. https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa (This repo is maintained by the folks that actually package the NVIDIA drivers in the Ubuntu production repositories. They package older versions for newer versions of Ubuntu, and they also release NVIDIA driver updates to this repo usually within a few days after NVIDIA kicks them out.) For a GPU upgrade... Really, you can look at the Maxwell cards, GeForce 980M and Quadro M5000M. They have nearly identical performance and both work as a more-or-less drop-in replacement on this system. Maxwell is the oldest currently supported generation from NVIDIA though, so chances are you will run into the same problem again soon when they drop support. Next up would be Quadro P5000, one generation newer. It works as a drop-in replacement under Linux only. For Windows, you have to flash a different vBIOS on it to get it to be bootable. Both of these require a minor mod to (most) GPU heatsinks in the M6800. They have the VRMs at the "top" of the board in a slightly different position. There is a bit "jutting out" of the heatsink that bumps into these such that you cannot install it flush. You have to use a Dremel or something to cut that bit off. If you are largely relying on the cards for hardware video encoding, you can look at "cheaper" versions of these cards (GeForce 970M, Quadro M3000M, Quadro P3000, etc.). 3D performance will be less but video encoding performance is the same among all cards in the same generation. There are later generation cards from NVIDIA (i.e. Quadro RTX 5000, which is Turing) that can be made to work, but the MXM board format is changed so they require more substantial physical modifications. (If you are running Windows, you need to do an INF mod for any "unsupported" NVIDIA GPU to get the driver to load, but this shouldn't be an issue under Linux.)

There's a BIOS setting which controls the "DP MUX PS8331" in the middle of the picture there and flips it between dGPU output and iGPU output. It is next to the toggle for graphics switching, and it is called something like "Enable discrete dock display output". You should be able to use "most" of the display outputs if the dGPU is removed. But if you want two external displays connected, one of them will have to be VGA.

To note. WWAN cards/slots are B key and NVMe drives are M key. You need an adapter to fit a NVMe drive in the WWAN slot.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11 You must have used a 23H2 image to do the install. If the system meets the Windows 11 requirements (CPU, TPM, Secure Boot), you can upgrade to 24H2 using the installation assistant (see link). Or, just wait and don't worry about it, it will eventually be forced down via Windows Update unless you have taken steps to disable automatic updates. If the system does not meet the Windows 11 requirements, you'll need to get an ISO image (at the same page linked above), flash it to USB with Rufus to remove the requirements check, and then install using that. Don't boot from the resulting USB drive, just run the setup file on it from inside of Windows to do an in-place upgrade.

OK, that's better, several more pages and an actual specs list now. [Edit] Interesting bits I noticed: Windows 10 no longer offered as an option, you have to downgrade it yourself. (Makes sense as Windows 10 is leaving support in a few months ... though you can still use the LTSC version for longer.) 256 GB RAM seems to be accomplished by using two 128 GB CAMM cards. So it has two CAMM slots now? I wonder if you can do other combinations not listed on the spec sheet. (Buy a second 64 GB CAMM card to go along with your first later on, or mix and match something like 64 GB + 128 GB...) "NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell" GPU gets 24 GB of VRAM, first VRAM bump for the high-end GPU in quite a while. (Quadro P5000 was first with 16GB, way back in like 2017?) 18" system only has one display option listed, the QHD+ panel.

Spotted this. Some "leaked" scores from the "NVIDIA N1X" APU. (It has been rumored that NVIDIA will hop into the ARM laptop space with their own SOCs later this year, or maybe early next year.) https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/nvidias-20-core-n1x-leaks-with-3000-single-core-geekbench-score-arm-chip-could-rival-intel-and-amds-laptop-offerings Single-core scores are in line with the top laptop CPU offerings from Intel and AMD. Multi-core scores aren't quite up there, but better than the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite. More competition, please!

Yes, you can do this. The only (reasonable) way to upgrade the CPU is by doing a motherboard swap. Note that there may be other considerations — replacing the motherboard will effectively change the system's service tag, and the replacement motherboard might have been configured with a different vPro featureset enabled. But largely there's not much to worry about other than just going through the process of doing the physical replacement.

Display panel defect. Dell should be happy to replace it if your system is under warranty.

If Adblock Plus is installed (from the App Store), it will block ads in Edge. Not as good as Firefox+uBlock Origin on a proper desktop OS, but serviceable.

That might be "normal" if you were experiencing that behavior right after boot. iOS and iPadOS continue to do some background work which lasts for a few minutes after the lock screen first appears which can make the system seem to be less responsive. Not a big deal under normal circumstances, since ordinarily there is no need to fully power these things off. I have two 6th gen iPads int he house and and I can't say I've ever seen them behave like this, except right after boot as I mentioned.

Electrical/grounding issue. Make sure that you use a grounded power adapter (three prongs into the outlet), this will almost always "solve" the problem. It's also possible that the hotel (or wherever you were away-from-home) somehow doesn't have proper grounding, so a grounded adapter helps when you are at home but not at the hotel. I've also experienced the "tingling" before, but this issue is most obvious to me when it manifests itself as a "background hum" when I plug 3.5mm headphones into the laptop. I never get this with a grounded power adapter but I get it with a two-prong adapter ... on some outlets, but not others. This actually happens with a variety of devices, including my laptop, a portable monitor with audio output, and my Nintendo Switch. Unfortunately, most USB-C chargers cheap out and don't provide grounding. One option is to use the Apple ones with the detachable outlet-side end piece, and then connect it to their grounded extension cable. https://www.amazon.com/Apple-70W-USB-C-Power-Adapter/dp/B0DCHK3ZMW (variety of wattages available) https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Power-Adapter-Extension-Cable/dp/B0DPJN8N5F

The purpose of my post was no more than to point out that you need to replace the plate in addition to picking up the SODIMM module. I did not know you were considering picking up a thin chassis system.

No, I've only used the Dell workstation docks (TB16, WD19DC) and I've never had a favorable impression of them since the ePort docks went away. They've always seemed flaky to me — stuff randomly not working on the first attempt and needing a connect/reconnect to try again, the BIOS complaining about not enough power at boot, stuff like that. I'm not using a dock with my Precision 7560, I just plug the stuff directly into the system. It doesn't leave my desk very often, so it's not a pain point to me. Maybe a third-party dock would work better, but I've never had the opportunity to try one.