zbook Does anyone here have a ZBook 17 G5/G6 and tried different MXM cards? Like Maxwell and Pascal

[Will]

Hello, guys. I'm willing to pick up either a ZBook 17 G5 or a ZBook 17 G6 as they were the last notebooks released with MXM support, but I couldn't find anything about upgrading or downgrading their graphics card. About the ZBook 17 G5, I would like to put a GTX 1070 on it, has anyone tested it? I think it would work since originally the G5 came with Pascal GPUs, but I'm afraid of having some type of whitelist in the BIOS. And about the ZBook 17 G6, has anyone tested if GPUs from older architectures work? Like Pascal and Maxwell 2.0

[Reciever]

HP tends to have the vBIOS stored in the system BIOS, versus the more common scenario of the vBIOS being present on the MXM card itself. 

 

Not sure if the System BIOS can be modified to accept "non-standard cards" or not

[aldarxt]

On 8/15/2023 at 11:12 AM, Reciever said:

HP tends to have the vBIOS stored in the system BIOS, versus the more common scenario of the vBIOS being present on the MXM card itself. 

 

Not sure if the System BIOS can be modified to accept "non-standard cards" or not

I was able to put a HP RTX 4000 in my Dell Alienware m18x r2. It worked fine till I flashed the vBios and bricked it. Unfortunatly I lost the original vBios and reflashed it with another, got it to work but it died shortly after trying many Nvidia drivers. As for putting a standard MXM card the die is offset so they might not fit in the HP

[aldarxt]

Is this thread ded? I am about to buy a ZBook 17 G5/G6 really cheap on ebay just to install my HP RTX 4000 and update the vBios and to see if it still works, then maybe put it back in m18x r2 or just leave it in and do some upgrading to it. I am reluctant to open the Alien due to wear and tear when it is running so well. I dont see many HP owners upgrading here but watched videos and its looking good 

 

[GuitarG]

6 hours ago, aldarxt said:

Is this thread ded? I am about to buy a ZBook 17 G5/G6 really cheap on ebay just to install my HP RTX 4000 and update the vBios and to see if it still works, then maybe put it back in m18x r2 or just leave it in and do some upgrading to it. I am reluctant to open the Alien due to wear and tear when it is running so well. I dont see many HP owners upgrading here but watched videos and its looking good 

 

Yes, that HP model is very satysfying to open, I could try different MXM card but I don't have any at moment beside Quadro T1000. Biggest challenge using other cards is modding heatsink and mounting points on motherboard. That is G6. G5 is weird one, it have normal mount points, BUT it's graphics card does not have vBIOS chip on them. Means it may have *whitelist* of specific MXM cards (because main bios flash have only few gpu vbioses inside). I have no idea what could happen, when using external vbios, it may be programmed to look for vbios in different places - like embedded unix bootloader looking for "system" on lan port, emmc, spi rom, etc.

As for mine, I plan to sell it after modyfing heatsink, I took rtx5000 with its heatsink block for my 8570w. So I will insert block from Zbook G2 🙂 

[aldarxt]

Yes you are right , its easy to open and change GPU and Heat sink. I just ordered a N19E heat sink to put in RTX 4000 and I think the T1000 will work in my Precision M6700, just too bad the CPU is BGA. I also am debating selling it if I get it running right, but it is a nice machine.

[GuitarG]

11 hours ago, aldarxt said:

Yes you are right , its easy to open and change GPU and Heat sink. I just ordered a N19E heat sink to put in RTX 4000 and I think the T1000 will work in my Precision M6700, just too bad the CPU is BGA. I also am debating selling it if I get it running right, but it is a nice machine.

Unfortunately, T1000 I ordered was bad, it needed vbios flash first, then it showed artifacts ;(

Anyway, where did you looked for N19E heatsink ? I am located in Europe and nearest shop shipping to my country was.. Australia. HP parts page showed not available, quoted ~350$ for order..

Yes, RTX gen works nicely with Dell Precision M series I heard. Much better than Pascal quadros with API problem on windows, only recently solved.

[aldarxt]

I ordered from this seller on Ebay GENUINE HP ZBOOK 17 G6 L72236-001 CPU COOLING HEATSINK AND FAN ASSEMBLY TESTED | eBay but that might be his last N19E, other options  GENUINE HP ZBOOK 17 G6 L72236-001 CPU COOLING HEATSINK AND FAN ASSEMBLY TESTED | eBay

and HP ZBOOK 17 G6 L72236-001 CPU COOLING HEATSINK ASSEMBLY SHIPS QUICKLY | eBay . These are in USA but if you are seeing $350 this would be better option even with shipping tariffs

What RTX cards are working in Dell Precision M series? I would like the RTX 3000 but was not able to get it working

[GuitarG]

18 hours ago, aldarxt said:

What RTX cards are working in Dell Precision M series? I would like the RTX 3000 but was not able to get it working

I saw this yesterday and now I want to buy M6800 so I can mod it and benchmark it hard, haha ^_^
I think with correct vbios it will work, for sure. Question is, can it be flashed under OS or only externally.

What were your symptoms ?

[aldarxt]

11 hours ago, GuitarG said:

I saw this yesterday and now I want to buy M6800 so I can mod it and benchmark it hard, haha ^_^
I think with correct vbios it will work, for sure. Question is, can it be flashed under OS or only externally.

What were your symptoms ?

I have the M6700 and this is the difference between m6800, according to "Precision M6700 owner's thread" on here and M4800 owners thread the M4700 and M6700 cant run Turing cards. @Aaron44126 has the most knowledge about it

[Aaron44126]

19 hours ago, aldarxt said:

I have the M6700 and this is the difference between m6800, according to "Precision M6700 owner's thread" on here and M4800 owners thread the M4700 and M6700 cant run Turing cards. @Aaron44126 has the most knowledge about it

 

These systems can't run most Pascal cards (VBIOS issue/confclit with the system BIOS — M4700/M6700 can't boot at all, M4800/M6800 can boot Linux but get ACPI BSOD from Windows).  But, Turing cards "should" be fine and have been shown to work.

[Myro]

On 5/22/2024 at 1:02 PM, GuitarG said:

Unfortunately, T1000 I ordered was bad, it needed vbios flash first, then it showed artifacts ;(

Anyway, where did you looked for N19E heatsink ? I am located in Europe and nearest shop shipping to my country was.. Australia. HP parts page showed not available, quoted ~350$ for order..

Yes, RTX gen works nicely with Dell Precision M series I heard. Much better than Pascal quadros with API problem on windows, only recently solved.

N18E from G5 is apparently compartible with G6 https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004759381855.html