Precision M6700 owner's thread

[Aaron44126]

10 hours ago, aldarxt said:

Is this site legit https://www.x-vsion.com/product/mxm-radeon-rx-6600-xt-8gb/

That card seems like it will work in m6700 and the Alienware's

Its more powerful than RTX 5000 mxm

 

I'm always suspicious of an online eCommerce shop that has "really good" prices, is full of grammatical errors and misspellings, and doesn't list a physical address anywhere...

 

Anyway, you'll want to check if this card supports LVDS output.  It is new enough that it probably doesn't, and thus won't work in the Precision M6700 (unless you have an eDP display, a rarity).  M6700 doesn't support graphics switching with AMD GPUs, so you can't just rely on Optimus and run the internal display off of the Intel GPU as you could if you have a newer NVIDIA GPU installed.

[aldarxt]

14 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

I'm always suspicious of an online eCommerce shop that has "really good" prices, is full of grammatical errors and misspellings, and doesn't list a physical address anywhere...

 

Anyway, you'll want to check if this card supports LVDS output.  It is new enough that it probably doesn't, and thus won't work in the Precision M6700 (unless you have an eDP display, a rarity).  M6700 doesn't support graphics switching with AMD GPUs, so you can't just rely on Optimus and run the internal display off of the Intel GPU as you could if you have a newer NVIDIA GPU installed.

Thanks for the clarification. Also on flashing Turing found this https://github.com/notfromstatefarm/nvflashk

I was able to flash RTX 4000 maxQ

[aldarxt]

On 6/4/2023 at 4:45 PM, TruenoG7 said:

hi guys, i recently installed, a PNY QP3000 Quadro P3000 NVIDIA N17E-Q1-A1 6GB GDDR5, with the bios 86.04.70.00.1B attached photo of GPUZ, when installing it on the m6700 LVDS (optimus) and m6800 (EDP), I have a infinite loop when starting, or trying to install windows, both in pure UEFI mode, do you have a solution? On my alienware 18 it works without problems

I noticed you have a G3 i7-4900MQ in your M6700, how did you do that and will i7-4940MX work being both are G3 rPGA946B but M6700 is rPGA988B same as m18x r2 and m17x r4 and M4700

[Aaron44126]

30 minutes ago, aldarxt said:

I noticed you have a G3 i7-4900MQ in your M6700, how did you do that and will i7-4940MX work being both are G3 rPGA946B but M6700 is rPGA988B same as m18x r2 and m17x r4 and M4700

 

I think that must be a copy/paste error from the M6800 immediately below in the sig; M6700 can definitely only take 3rd-gen CPUs...

[aldarxt]

46 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

I think that must be a copy/paste error from the M6800 immediately below in the sig; M6700 can definitely only take 3rd-gen CPUs...

Thanks I was getting my hopes up on some new technology

[AndrewK2685]

Hm I'm a bit sceptical about the X-Vision site too.

It does not provide an online payment and needs a bank transfer without bank details...

Anyway I'll give it a try and report, but without high hopes.

In the meantime, the RX 5500 XTs started appearing on ebay.

Although sadly not the ray tracing RX 6600s at the moment.

For everyone interested:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/266552329677?var=566322070646

[aldarxt]

1 hour ago, AndrewK2685 said:

Hm I'm a bit sceptical about the X-Vision site too.

It does not provide an online payment and needs a bank transfer without bank details...

Anyway I'll give it a try and report, but without high hopes.

In the meantime, the RX 5500 XTs started appearing on ebay.

Although sadly not the ray tracing RX 6600s at the moment.

For everyone interested:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/266552329677?var=566322070646

I wouldn't bother, too many red flags and the price is ridiculously low

[Aaron44126]

2 hours ago, AndrewK2685 said:

It does not provide an online payment and needs a bank transfer without bank details...

 

This is another red flag.  It really seems to be a textbook scam site; lure people in with low prices and then make them pay using a payment method that is difficult/impossible to revoke when you don't deliver a product.  Without any actual business details listed, even filing a legal challenge to be reimbursed would be difficult.  Do not buy anything using a payment method that you won't be able to reverse or dispute, unless you have some reason to really trust that you will get what you paid for...

[TheQuentincc]

On 1/2/2024 at 4:07 PM, Aaron44126 said:

 

I'm always suspicious of an online eCommerce shop that has "really good" prices, is full of grammatical errors and misspellings, and doesn't list a physical address anywhere...

 

Anyway, you'll want to check if this card supports LVDS output.  It is new enough that it probably doesn't, and thus won't work in the Precision M6700 (unless you have an eDP display, a rarity).  M6700 doesn't support graphics switching with AMD GPUs, so you can't just rely on Optimus and run the internal display off of the Intel GPU as you could if you have a newer NVIDIA GPU installed.

The upgrade is pretty cheap (and nice if you buy an IPS or 2k+ panel), it's like buying the "3D cable" and a 17.3" 40pin eDP display (most of 1080p one are 30pins so be carefull) then it's working right away with the dGPU

[Nowan]

Hello. anyone have issues shutting down the m6700 on windows 10 and is there a fix for it? when i try to shutdown my m6700 the screen turns off then it like turns the screen to the login screen. the restart option works that how i turn it off. with f12 boot option.

[Aaron44126]

21 minutes ago, Nowan said:

Hello. anyone have issues shutting down the m6700 on windows 10 and is there a fix for it? when i try to shutdown my m6700 the screen turns off then it like turns the screen to the login screen. the restart option works that how i turn it off. with f12 boot option.

 

In Windows, go to the Power Options control panel.  Click "Choose what the power buttons do" on the left.  At the bottom of this section, uncheck the option for "turn on fast startup".  Then, see if your shutdown behaves properly.

[unstable]

Hello, are there any progress with M6700 and gtx 1070? I was planning on buying one with eDP 3D panel. Also has anyone tested if it's possible to use both lvds and edp connectors at the same time for dual internal display?

[Aaron44126]

11 hours ago, unstable said:

Hello, are there any progress with M6700 and gtx 1070? I was planning on buying one with eDP 3D panel. Also has anyone tested if it's possible to use both lvds and edp connectors at the same time for dual internal display?

You can use both LVDS and eDP at the same time. I believe it was @TheQuentincc who confirmed this.

 

GTX 1070 will not work in Precision M6700. It locks up on boot before an OS can load. You can use Quadro P5000 but you must first flash an engineering sample VBIOS on it using another system or an external flasher. …I tried this myself and ended up with stability issues, periodic BSODs from the NVIDIA driver, and ended up going back to Maxwell.

[unstable]

Damn... That's a shame. I was concidering quadro p5000 but slower memory and double the price doesn't make it much appealing aspecially if it also has stability issues. I currently have tesla m6 with OC but since it lacks any video outputs and only works with optimus i can't use it with eDP display. Are there no other gpus with comparable performance that will work?

[Aaron44126]

2 hours ago, unstable said:

Are there no other gpus with comparable performance that will work?

 

Both GeForce 980M and Quadro M5000M have the same performance as Tesla M6 but should work with eDP + video output.  Those were a common upgrade target for people back when M6700 was more commonly in use.

 

You can use Quadro P3000 or P4000 as well.  They have the same thing as P5000 in that you have to flash a compatible VBIOS image on first, but we have those available.  (Can't comment on stability.  I haven't tried them myself.  I think @TheQuentincc had P4000 in M6700 for a while?)

 

Finally, HP's Turing MXM Quadro cards ("Quadro RTX 5000" and similar) have been shown to work.  But they have a different layout than a standard MXM card so some hardware modifications to the chassis and heatsink are required.

 

Pascal and Turing GPUs do not support LVDS, so you must use them in an eDP system or with Optimus turned on.

[unstable]

Thanks for all the info. P4000 looks pretty good both by price and performance and I also have an external flasher with a clip so should be easy enough. Also, I see @TheQuentincc had 2133mhz RAM working with M6700. I tried flashing XMP with Thaiphoon but even when setting XMP timings to stock, laptop just refused to post and diagnostic leds weren't working either. I have I7-3940XM and 4x8GB DDR3L Hynix sticks so I wanted to OC them to at least 1866MHz.

 

I was also wondering if there's a chance for M6700 to use something more powerful than a 240W adapter (like a 330W Alienware adapter). I have read in forums before that the laptop recognizes a 330W adapter but refuses to use more than 240W. Was there ever found a workaround for that?

Edit: Yeah apparently i was looking at the desktop version of P4000 and was impressed how good it was until i realised it wasn't mobile one 😅. Yeah... prices on those on eBay are quite high for being little more powerful than Tesla M6 which i got for dirt cheap.

[Aaron44126]

4 minutes ago, unstable said:

I was also wondering if there's a chance for M6700 to use something more powerful than a 240W adapter (like a 330W Alienware adapter). I have read in forums before that the laptop recognizes a 330W adapter but refuses to use more than 240W. Was there ever found a workaround for that?

 

Yeah, that is my understanding as well — You can plug in a 330W but it won't actually do you any good.  Shame, too.  Pascal GPUs in this system can use so much power that if you fully load the GPU then it will cause the CPU to throttle, just because it is power-starved.  (I also observed this with the P5000.)

[aldarxt]

You can put a HP z2 mini T2000 and its close to a P4000. I just put 1 in my M4700 and runs great, its an A card but should fit in the 6700. I just got a HP ZBook with a T1000 and going to switch it out for RTX 4000 and put the T1000 in the M6700 at least until I get another T2000

 

If you do the T2000 you should follow @Trov instructions in "Precision M4800 + HP Quadro T2000 upgrade"

because some custom fitting most likely is required but very easy

[unstable]

I found a good deal for Quadro P4200. Maybe there's any chance to get it working with M6700? It's HP one so BIOS chip is missing but can be soldered on and flashed. Maybe i should start experimenting with it unless it has already been deemed impossible to work?

[Aaron44126]

4 hours ago, unstable said:

I found a good deal for Quadro P4200. Maybe there's any chance to get it working with M6700? It's HP one so BIOS chip is missing but can be soldered on and flashed. Maybe i should start experimenting with it unless it has already been deemed impossible to work?

 

I do not have high hopes that a P4200 would work.  I remember someone trying P5200 without success.

There is a conflict between the M6700 BIOS and the NVIDIA Pascal final/production VBIOS — the only cards confirmed working are cards for which an earlier "engineering sample" VBIOS has been found which works around this conflict, and those cards are just Quadro P3000, P4000, and P5000.

 

The Turing VBIOS don't have the issue.  I didn't mention T1000/T2000 but those should also work fine, just some minor work may have to be done to get them to fit right.

[aldarxt]

On 5/24/2024 at 9:57 AM, Aaron44126 said:

 

I do not have high hopes that a P4200 would work.  I remember someone trying P5200 without success.

There is a conflict between the M6700 BIOS and the NVIDIA Pascal final/production VBIOS — the only cards confirmed working are cards for which an earlier "engineering sample" VBIOS has been found which works around this conflict, and those cards are just Quadro P3000, P4000, and P5000.

 

The Turing VBIOS don't have the issue.  I didn't mention T1000/T2000 but those should also work fine, just some minor work may have to be done to get them to fit right.

Hey @Aaron44126 I just put RTX 3000 in m6700 and got code 43. I hope I didn't damage the card removing the X bracket. It was attached so  solidly like they wanted it to be un-removable.

[Aaron44126]

2 hours ago, aldarxt said:

Hey @Aaron44126 I just put RTX 3000 in m6700 and got code 43. I hope I didn't damage the card removing the X bracket. It was attached so  solidly like they wanted it to be un-removable.

 

Haven't tried Turing RTX cards in the M6700 myself.  Here's an old thread about it.  User razor0601 reported success with an RTX 3000 in Precision M6700.

https://www.nbrchive.net/forum.notebookreview.com/threads/dell-precision-m6700-nvidia-turing-rtx-card-discussion-thread.833140/index.html

 

The X bracket can indeed be difficult to remove.  The best solution is to heat up the card with a heat gun or hair dryer to loosen up the glue and then hopefully it will come off more easily.

[TheQuentincc]

On 5/23/2024 at 7:45 PM, unstable said:

Thanks for all the info. P4000 looks pretty good both by price and performance and I also have an external flasher with a clip so should be easy enough. Also, I see @TheQuentincc had 2133mhz RAM working with M6700. I tried flashing XMP with Thaiphoon but even when setting XMP timings to stock, laptop just refused to post and diagnostic leds weren't working either. I have I7-3940XM and 4x8GB DDR3L Hynix sticks so I wanted to OC them to at least 1866MHz.

 

I was also wondering if there's a chance for M6700 to use something more powerful than a 240W adapter (like a 330W Alienware adapter). I have read in forums before that the laptop recognizes a 330W adapter but refuses to use more than 240W. Was there ever found a workaround for that?

Edit: Yeah apparently i was looking at the desktop version of P4000 and was impressed how good it was until i realised it wasn't mobile one 😅. Yeah... prices on those on eBay are quite high for being little more powerful than Tesla M6 which i got for dirt cheap.

Well, not all ivy bridge CPU IMC can handle the 2133MHz memory frequency, that might be your issue. Or maybe the XMP you choose wasn't the right one, all I can say is that 2x8GB 2133MHz kit from Hynix and TeamGroup (which is tighter) were working on my M6700.

On 5/27/2024 at 12:20 PM, aldarxt said:

Hey @Aaron44126 I just put RTX 3000 in m6700 and got code 43. I hope I didn't damage the card removing the X bracket. It was attached so  solidly like they wanted it to be un-removable.

Early GDDR6 cards with Micron GDDR6 are very prone to be defective. Code 43 either needs new memory or core reball (in my exp).

[Goophy69]

Hi all, I'm thinking to upgrade the graphic card in my M6700 too.

Would like some cross checks to just make sure I have all the info and consideration update to date.

 

Current setup is 3940MX, K5000M, screen is the IPS RGB 10bit one, the input from motherboard seems to be eDP as the display cable has a yellow label eDP..(haven't disassembled the laptop to check, just looking through some old picture I took)

32GB RAM, mSATA + 2x 2.5" SSD.

Pretty much maxed out without any overclocking etc..

 

The current setup has no fault, been running 7/24 for almost the whole decade 😃

(well, replaced the small GPU fan twice already..the stupid maglev thing deteriorate over time, and the rotor would bounce and make noise)

but the K5000m doesn't have H265 hardware acceleration,

I installed a few cameras lately, every time I use the laptop to watch video streams the CPU fan flies 🤣

So I'm thinking to upgrade the GPU to something that has H265 acceleration.

Not much concern on overall GPU power; I mostly just want a newer video decoder, and encoder if feasible (to help transcode video sometime)

 

From this Wiki link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_PureVideo

Looks like the K5000M has GK104 chip, VP5 (Nvidia PureVideo Gen 5 or so), Feature Set D.

 

From this Wiki page I get a list of graphic cards corresponding to the chip and VP versions:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units

 

So GK104 (Kepler) is out (including K3100M, K4100M, K5100M the generation right next to K5000M; i.e. 680M and 780M are out, heck, they are all overclocked 580M 😂)

 

Next is GM107, the Maxwell 1st gen. It's still the 28nm product, but at least getting some hybrid H265 acceleration being VP6 and Feature Set E.

I don't see much Quadro cards with this chip, only K2200M on the Wiki list, but a quick search reveals that this is a smaller MXM card.

The chip has gaming GeForce equivalent like 960M, though not very attractive at this point (there a few higher candidates to consider).

 

Next is GM204, appears to be Maxwell 2nd gen by the naming, but looks like still 1st Gen VP6. Still 28nm, the same hybrid H265 acceleration and VP6, Feature Set E.

But now we have the common models GeForce 980M, Quadro M3000M, M4000M and M5000M.

These seem to be the easiest upgrade with only inf file mod needed.

The display I have is the 10bit version, so Optimus is by default disabled by BIOS, and cannot be turned on.

Display cable is eDP version, looks like the easiest upgrade for now.

 

Next is GM206, Maxwell 2nd gen 28nm with VP7, Feature Set F.

This one has real hardware H265 acceleration; sad thing is that not much MXM of the same size cards available.

All I can find is the smaller sizes.

Could probably work with some chassis/bracket/heatsink modification, but they are out for now.

 

Next is the Pascal GP104 and GP106, new 16nm (performance per watt should see a huge improvement), new VP8 and Feature H.

Quadro P3000, P4000 and P5000.

Fantastic candidate if compatible.

But after reading through threads, looks like an ES version of vBIOS is required; besides, flashing this vBIOS needs a newer model computer like M6800.🤥

Would like to cross check and confirm, are these two requirements still the same after the recent years?

From the P5000 upgrade thread:

https://www.nbrchive.net/forum.notebookreview.com/threads/dell-precision-m6700-nvidia-quadro-p5000-gpu-upgrade.827403/index.html

VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE appears to be caused by graphic card freeze / no response.

From memory when I used AIDA64 to do stress test, the software advised that it's common for the system to freeze during stress test, and the TDR threshold by default is very low causing the system to blue screen. The software would suggest to increase the value to solve this issue.

I'm not sure if @Aaron44126ar got blue screen during intense GPU load or similar, and not sure if the TDR threshold has been modified to a higher value or not.

Could be just a software tweak. Could also be overheat related stability issue due to different thermal pad layout etc..

Not sure if any new development after that attempt, and reverting back to M5000M.

 

Later Turing stuff are out of my consideration for now.

Haven't checked the price, but unless by magic a newer card doesn't have the caveats that the Pascal has,

I'm deciding between M3000M/M4000M and P3000 for now.

 

Pretty confident by now that M3000M~M5000M needs only inf mod (provided that my display is eDP),

now just want some cross check on the P3000 (or the equivalent 1060 or whatever..haven't pay much attention to the gaming stuff; they are hot, and so more expensive😅)

 

Nonetheless, with K5000M to M3000M I can pretty much spend nothing or like $20 for nearly double the performance,

or the M4000M more than double with perhaps $50 cost if I can sell the K5000M for like $100.

 

Anyway idea on the Pascal?🫠

[Goophy69]

Correction, CPU is 3940XM not MX (the previous generation has MX)

System is Win10 (so switching to pure uefi boot is no longer an issue..with Win7 CSM must be enabled for system to load).

Now just trying to do a sanity check between M3000M/M4000M and P3000.

Thanks in advance for any tips 🫡