Aaron44126

I agree, don't worry if the temp is pushing a bit over 100 °C for a bit. Modern CPUs are well-tuned to throttle themselves if they get too hot, and it is expected that they will get hot under load, because running them close to the throttling point is how you get the best performance. (Not just an Intel thing. My MacBook also hits around 104 °C under full load. I've run video encode jobs that last for days and it's never been a problem.) Repasting might help raise the frequency that you can run the CPU at while hovering at the thermal throttling point, and it might help lower the not full load running temperature (really only useful to calm down the fans), if the replacement thermal transfer material or application is actually notably better. The time to worry if is the system is getting unstable under load. (Random lockup would be the most likely symptom, but you could also get apps crashing, BSOD, ...)

Mobile Xeon is dead. They haven't had one since 11th gen / 2021. It really is just a change in branding though rather than a change in functionality. Intel offers select CPUs that support the old "Xeon" pro features (i.e. ECC memory), and it appears that Dell is offering those in these systems. ...Actually looks like the entire HX lineup supports these this time. When they originally dropped the Xeon branding for 12th gen, it was split, with some CPUs supporting it (i.e. 12950HX) and some not (i.e. 12900HX). 12950HX is basically a Xeon of that generation, and they still have CPUs in the same class in 13th gen and ... whatever this new batch is called, 2nd gen Core Ultra.

Back when I used a Precision as my personal system, I used it for both work and leisure. My "work" actually isn't very GPU heavy. But, my "leisure" is gaming. I wanted a beefy GPU for gaming. NVIDIA's pro cards work fine for games, but they cost more than necessary, and games don't use any of the extra "Quadro" functionality. The GeForce option was pretty cool to have for this. This sort of "workload" might not be what Dell envisions people will be using this system for, but I know I'm not the only one who uses Dell workstation's like this.

Everyone I know who has tried this has used the NVIDIA heatsink. I think the AMD and NVIDIA GPUs have different die-height (that's the reason there are two versions of the heatsink), so you may not be able to get good contact using the AMD version of the heatsink.

There's no difference in the motherboard between systems that shipped with a fingerprint reader and systems that did not. The fingerprint reader hardware just connects via a ribbon cable from the palmrest to the motherboard. People have successfully added it in by just swapping out the palmrest. This isn't to say that a situation like this is unprecedented. I once had a Precision M4800 which would not allow ControlVault to activate, giving a device manager error, even with the fresh OS image from Dell applied. Dell couldn't figure it out, even after I shipped the system to them for service, and I guess they didn't want to start replacing parts until they determined the issue so they just upgraded me to a Precision 7510.

Download the ControlVault driver package and when you run it, pick the option for "extract" rather than "install". Find the MSI file in the stuff that drops out from there and run it.

The image on the right is the bottom side of the heastink. The bottom edge there with the blue thermal pads covers the part of the GPU card that is furthest away from the connector edge. There is a protruding bit in the center that will bump into the VRMs on the GPU card. Part of that has to be cut off. You'll have to do a physical inspection holding the card up to it to see which edge needs to be cut and how much. I haven't done this mod myself. You might want to engage with other users who have done the mod, in the thread that I linked above.

I don't have a good picture for you, but it is a part that hovers above the "top" of the GPU card (the edge furthest away from the connector) where the VRMs are. The VRMs on Maxwell and later GPUs are in a slightly different position than the ones on Kepler cards. You have to cut off a bit that is protruding "downwards" and hits one of the rearranged VRMs, so that the heatsink can fit. If you try to fit the heatsink on the card with this in mind, it will be obvious.

Please see this thread (especially the later pages). vBIOS images are here.

Important to note that the Precision 7540 and 7740 upgrades are different here. Dell added the 4000 and 5000 GPUs late for the Precision 7540, and those cards have a slightly different physical layout than the 3000-and-lower cards on that system, which is why the heatsink and power cable replacement are needed. On the 7740, all of those cards launched at the same time, and all of them have a similar physical layout, so really the only thing that you should need to replace is the card itself.

Err, I don’t know why you’d need a display cable replacement to upgrade the GPU. I’ve never heard that for this model. (You might need one to upgrade from a 1080p display to 4K, but that’s it.) If the screw holes are in the same place between your 3000 and 5000 GPU then your heatsink should be fine. I am not sure, but I think you just need a heatsink replacement to perform this upgrade on the Precision 7540, not the 7740.

Unfortunately the thumbs up icon is white, and on the default light theme, you can't see it. It is in the bottom right corner of every post, way off to the right of the "Quote" option. You should be able to hover the mouse around and find it, or switch to a different theme using the "Theme" dropdown at the very bottom of any page.

The answer is yes, but. (And sorry I haven't been following all of the ins and outs of this system, so my answer is a bit incomplete. I'm basing this off of experience with prior systems.) Dell laptops are just a collection of parts, and you can swap out parts to change the system from one configuration to another. You just have to determine what parts you need. Dell doesn't "force" any configuration to be permanent with motherboard/BIOS settings or lockouts or anything like that. So, you can put in a dGPU. It's not just a matter of dropping the card in, though, you'll need other parts too. An appropriate heathsink Possibly, the DGFF interposer connector things (not sure if the iGPU spacer card ones can be reused; Precision 7X70 and 7X80 had that card attaching to different ports on the motherboard) Possibly, a DGFF power cable? (Not sure if they're still using those; they were when the first DGFF cards rolled out.) Finally, and I'm also not sure if they are still doing this either, but with Precision 7670 and 7680 they had a "thin chassis" version and a "performance chassis" version, and the dGPU heatsink for the more beefy GPU models would only fit in the "performance" chassis version. So you'll need to confirm that there is either only one size chassis for your system, or that your chassis is appropriately sized for the dGPU+heatsink that you want to install. Dell won't sell you these individual parts in most territories. You'll have to look at eBay, PartsPeople, etc.

This is the case with most displays, but in these systems, the HDMI port is hard-wired to the dGPU and not the iGPU. (Unless you bought an iGPU-only system and it has the DGFF spacer card installed, whose purpose is to basically route the signal from the HDMI port to the iGPU.) So, connecting a display to the HDMI port will always cause the dGPU to engage.

I think the docs are right with regard to this. I haven't tested this system, but that is how prior generations behaved (Precision 7000 line starting with 7X30, when Dell switched to using DGFF GPUs). If you want everything attached to the iGPU, plug your displays in via the USB-C ports, either via a dock or directly. USB-C to HDMI or USB-C to DVI (...or even USB-C → HDMI → DVI...) should work fine, and attach to the iGPU. If it were me, I'd just use an USB-C → HDMI adapter as that will have more potential for future use, and then connect it to your monitor with an HDMI→DVI cable if necessary.

I can answer a couple. 1. If you get an iGPU-only system, you will be able to use the HDMI port and it will be attached to the iGPU. 2. You can do firmware updates from Linux if capsule updates are enabled in BIOS setup, and you can also do pre-boot BIOS updates (regardless of the OS), if you hit F12 at the boot screen there will be an option to update the BIOS using a file stored on a USB flash drive. Dell very rarely posts gGPU vBIOS updates, most systems never get one.

It's in BIOS setup (hit F2 key at boot), you should have a page with an option for the startup type. Set it to "thorough" instead of "fast" or "automatic".

With my M6700, I swapped GPUs many times and always just reused the pads that came with the original GPU card, putting them back in the same spot. Maybe that's not "optimal" but it never caused me any problems. The higher-end GPUs will be power-limited before they become thermal-limited, you just need something that works "good enough".

Alright then, I missed that. You should be fine. You'll need a Dremel or similar tool to cut a little protruding piece off of the heatsink, most likely, where it hits one of the VRMs at the top of the card.

I didn't say that it works; I tried to point out the caveats. I would say this GPU does not work in M6800 unless you plan to use it with Linux. Getting it to work with Windows requires "extreme measures" which you should familiarize yourself with before purchasing. I don't think that anyone here will be able to help you with it. The only one I know who has gotten it to boot Windows successfully is @jeamn and he did not end up using it for very long. Quadro P5000 would be a better option. We've had discussion about that going on recently.

It has been tried. https://www.nbrchive.net/forum.notebookreview.com/threads/trials-and-tribulations-installing-a-1070-in-a-m6800.828000/index.html There is a vBIOS issue if you wan to run Windows. You will get an ACPI BSOD no matter what, even if trying to just boot install media. For Pascal, you need an engineering sample vBIOS to get around this (...or some steps that I don't understand like @jeamn did, see link). We only have engineering sample vBIOS images for Quadro P3000, P4000, and P5000; no GeForce.

Are you talking about if there is an administrator BIOS password set? You can have it removed even if you don't know the password. Dell laptops have a procedure for this (it varies depending on the system).

Feedback on some of your questions. 7 — Optimus / ongoing power draw from the dGPU I have had issues like this with every Dell Precision system that I have used. I am not sure if it is just an issue with these things, or with Optimus in general. The dGPU tends to get stuck "on" even when nothing is using it. It might be drawing power even when the NVIDIA system tray thing says that it is off. The fix for this is — after booting the system and logging in, wait a minute or two, then go to Device Manager and disable / re-enable the dGPU. After that, it seems to behave properly for the remainder of the session. (At least for me.) I actually have a script that fires at login and uses DevManView to do this automatically. (DevManView supports command line arguments to do things like disable or enable a device without bringing up the GUI.) Also note that tools that monitor the GPU (like GPU-Z) may keep the GPU awake. So if you're "watching" to see if it is behaving, that might be what is causing the problem. 9 — Fingerprint reader dropped I have experienced this occasionally with multiple Precision systems. (I'm talking on the order of maybe 3-4 times a year.) Hopefully it was just a fluke for you. If it is something that happens every now and then, I don't have hope that replacing any component would fix it. 11 — SmartCard reader errors The SmartCard reader is the long, skinny slot on the side, and doesn't have anything to do with the WWAN card or SIM slot. It's for inserting SmartCards which can be used for authentication or I don't know what else. (I have a family member who works for the VA and she always has a SmartCard inserted in her laptop...)

Seems like there should be potential for manual fan control. The BIOS system diagnostics includes a test that manipulates the fan speed. If someone could reverse engineer that and figure out what commands that it is sending to the embedded controller, then you'd have a starting point. (The manual fan control solution that existed for earlier systems, used in many tools like SpeedFan, HWiNFO64, and the Linux kernel, was also reverse engineered from a Dell support tool.) I actually spent a good amount of time fighting with embedded controller commands to figure it out. I ended up discovering some endpoints for reading the fan speed (and system temperatures) that no one else had figured out yet. But I couldn't find a control mechanism. My investigation was pretty brute force, not really based on reverse engineering anything, I don't have the skills for that. Fan behavior in the Precision 7770 is a part of what turned me off from this line of systems altogether. There are a lot of things about my MacBook that I wish were different, but fan behavior is not one of them.

AFAIK, there is still no manual fan control option for Dell systems released on 2021 or later.