Precision M6800 questions and upgrades

[AaronD]

Hi guys!  This thread has gotten pretty long and I'm not looking forward to reading all of it.  Is there a TL;DR for what to upgrade the GPU in my M6800 to in 2025?

 

Ubuntu Studio 24.04 (the latest LTS) seems to have completely dropped my Quadro K5100M (it needs something newer than NVIDIA's 470 driver, which is the latest that still supports that card), so I'm looking for something with long-projected support, and hardware video encoding.  Single boot, no Windows.

 

If it makes a difference, the screen appears in the display manager as "eDP-1", and includes a touchscreen that appears as "Wacom ISDv4 4001 Finger touch".  In addition to the built-in screen, I regularly use both of the DVI outputs and the VGA output on the dock, and the HDMI output on the notebook itself.

 

Thanks!

[Aaron44126]

11 hours ago, AaronD said:

Hi guys!  This thread has gotten pretty long and I'm not looking forward to reading all of it.  Is there a TL;DR for what to upgrade the GPU in my M6800 to in 2025?

 

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.)

[AaronD]

2 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

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.)

 

Huh.  That looks a lot easier than changing hardware!  I wonder how long *that* support is going to last?

 

Excellent summary too.  Thank you!

[AaronD]

I ended up getting a Quadro P5000.  The hardware swap went well enough...though I do recommend a dremel over a scroll saw.  I thought the saw would make bigger chips that are easier to clean up, but it didn't, and it insisted on clapping against the table, so I finished with the dremel.

 

Anyway, I don't see the new card at all, and the DVI outputs on the dock are dead.  The VGA output on the dock still works, as do the built-in screen and USB adapter.  Any ideas?

 

$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 06)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor PCI Express x16 Controller (rev 06)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)
00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio Controller (rev 06)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI (rev 04)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection I217-LM (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev d4)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #3 (rev d4)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #4 (rev d4)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #5 (rev d4)
00:1c.6 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #7 (rev d4)
00:1c.7 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #8 (rev d4)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation QM87 Express LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 RAID bus controller: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 (rev bb)
11:00.0 SD Host controller: O2 Micro, Inc. SD/MMC Card Reader Controller (rev 01)
$

 

 

Operating System: Ubuntu Studio 24.04
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.12
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.115.0
Qt Version: 5.15.13
Kernel Version: 6.8.0-62-lowlatency (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 8 × Intel® Core™ i7-4940MX CPU @ 3.10GHz
Memory: 31.3 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: Mesa Intel® HD Graphics 4600
Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
Product Name: Precision M6800
System Version: 00

 

[Aaron44126]

26 minutes ago, AaronD said:

Any ideas?

 

Hmm, unfortunately no...

 

After user DynamiteZerg got P5000 working in a Precision M6800, I bought a P5000 myself for my Precision M6700. I wanted to use it with Windows which meant that it needed a vBIOS flash with the "engineering sample" vBIOS. The Precision M6700 would not boot into Linux in order for me to do that, so I bought a used Precision M6800, put the card in there, performed the flash under Linux with no problem, and then moved the card to my M6700 and sold the M6800.

 

From what I recall, the card was recognized by nvflash with no issue. That's the only thing that I tried to use it with under Linux.

 

I guess the first thing that I'd ask is if nvflash can see the card. If so, you could flash a different vBIOS on it and maybe that will have some better success.

 

Actually, the card should have a sticker on it somewhere which includes the vBIOS version. Can you see that? What does it say?

 

If you go to BIOS setup, there is a screen with system information. It should report what GPU is installed. It will say something like "unknown GPU", but it shouldn't say that there is no discrete GPU at all.

 

I don't think the "engineering sample" vBIOS is required to use the GPU under Linux. It's just required to get around an ACPI BSOD that occurs if you try to boot Windows. User @jeamn was able to use a GeForce 1070 under Linux which had the same ACPI BSOD issue with Windows on the Precision M6800.

[AaronD]

44 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

I guess the first thing that I'd ask is if nvflash can see the card. If so, you could flash a different vBIOS on it and maybe that will have some better success.

Looks like no, it can't see it.  I got the Linux version from https://www.techpowerup.com/download/nvidia-nvflash/ , and then:

aaron@aaron-M6800:~$ sudo ~/Downloads/0_Keep/NVFlash/nvflash_5.867_linux/x64/nvflash --list
[sudo] password for aaron: 
NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.867.0)
Copyright (C) 1993-2024, NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved.

NVIDIA display adapters present in system:
No NVIDIA display adapters found.

aaron@aaron-M6800:~$ 

 

37 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

Actually, the card should have a sticker on it somewhere which includes the vBIOS version. Can you see that? What does it say?

I'm not too eager to get it back out again if I don't have to, but here's some pictures from the seller's listing:

If I'm reading the right thing, it's BIOS Ver:86.04.3A.00.15

 

 

[Aaron44126]

Hmm. When I got my P5000, the vBIOS was 86.04.3A.00.25. The engineering sample vBIOS is 86.04.2E.00.0D. The M6800 was able to see the P5000 card with both of these installed. I'm attaching both of these here... but if nvflash can't see the GPU, the only way to flash them will be with a hardware flasher.

 

Not that I really think this is a vBIOS issue, it is really weird for the GPU to not be showing up at all. I'm wondering if it is just a bad card.

P5000-86.04.2E.00.0D.zip P5000-86.04.3A.00.25.zip

[jeamn]

In the system BIOS, there is a section for the video controller, is it listed there?  If not, it's a bad card or it's not inserted properly.  The section should look something like this:

 

[AaronD]

I swapped back, with pictures of that BIOS page both ways.  Neither card appears there:

 

P5000:

 

K5100:

 

But the DVI outputs are back, with the original K5100, and nvflash sees it:

aaron@aaron-M6800:~$ sudo ~/Downloads/0_Keep/NVFlash/nvflash_5.867_linux/x64/nvflash --list
[sudo] password for aaron: 
NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.867.0)
Copyright (C) 1993-2024, NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved.

NVIDIA display adapters present in system:
<0> Quadro K5100M        (10DE,11B8,1028,15CD) S:00,B:01,D:00,F:00
aaron@aaron-M6800:~$ 

 

I'm not sure how it could not be inserted properly, with the slots and tabs around the connector itself and the screw holes both requiring it to be in the exact spot that works.  So I'm a little curious about the K5100 not appearing in the BIOS either, but still (kinda) showing up in the OS proper.

 

The OS doesn't want to *use* the K5100, but it does at least appear in nvflash above and in lspci, where the P5000 didn't at all.

aaron@aaron-M6800:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 06)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor PCI Express x16 Controller (rev 06)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)
00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio Controller (rev 06)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI (rev 04)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection I217-LM (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev d4)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #3 (rev d4)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #4 (rev d4)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #5 (rev d4)
00:1c.6 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #7 (rev d4)
00:1c.7 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #8 (rev d4)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation QM87 Express LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 RAID bus controller: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK104GLM [Quadro K5100M] (rev a1)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GK104 HDMI Audio Controller (rev a1)
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 (rev bb)
11:00.0 SD Host controller: O2 Micro, Inc. SD/MMC Card Reader Controller (rev 01)
aaron@aaron-M6800:~$ 

 

[AaronD]

And since it's out now, here's my own picture of the P5000:

So the seller did send me what the listing was for.  Anything else to try before I accuse him of selling me a dud card?

(I checked the white spot on the edge connector after I took the picture.  It's not there now, so it's probably a reflection.)

[Aaron44126]

OK, I had forgotten that in order for your dGPU information to show on that BIOS information page, you need to have graphics switching turned off so that it is the "default" GPU driving the display. ...That would be a little "dangerous" to do on your P5000 if it is "not working" (...the BIOS might actually take the option to disable graphics switching away if it does not detect a compatible dGPU anyway).

 

If you do end up in a situation where graphics switching is disabled and you can't "see" anything due to a non-functional dGPU, you can reset the BIOS settings by unplugging the coin cell battery for a few moments. The default config has graphics switching enabled.

 

Anyway. Tangentially related but I spotted this note this morning. NVIDIA is dropping support for both Maxwell and Pascal at the same time. (A surprise to me since they normally just drop one generation at a time, but... on the flip side, Maxwell has already been supported for an abnormally long time.) The 580 driver series will be the last to support either. So even if you get the P5000 to work, you'll end up in a similar situation with regard to driver support before too long.

 

https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/unix-graphics-feature-deprecation-schedule/60588/13

 

(Sorry, I don't have any additional ideas on how to kick the GPU into working.)

[AaronD]

16 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

OK, I had forgotten that in order for your dGPU information to show on that BIOS information page, you need to have graphics switching turned off so that it is the "default" GPU driving the display. ...That would be a little "dangerous" to do on your P5000 if it is "not working" (...the BIOS might actually take the option to disable graphics switching away if it does not detect a compatible dGPU anyway).

 

If you do end up in a situation where graphics switching is disabled and you can't "see" anything due to a non-functional dGPU, you can reset the BIOS settings by unplugging the coin cell battery for a few moments. The default config has graphics switching enabled.

Good thing the thermal grease cleans off easy...and I'm getting good enough at taking it apart that I can *almost* do it without the manual now.  But I also have a new touchpad cable and keyboard cable in the mail, in addition to more grease...

 

16 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

Anyway. Tangentially related but I spotted this note this morning. NVIDIA is dropping support for both Maxwell and Pascal at the same time. (A surprise to me since they normally just drop one generation at a time, but... on the flip side, Maxwell has already been supported for an abnormally long time.) The 580 driver series will be the last to support either. So even if you get the P5000 to work, you'll end up in a similar situation with regard to driver support before too long.

 

https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/unix-graphics-feature-deprecation-schedule/60588/13

Good to know.  If I end up sending the Pascal one back, I might try a Maxwell then.  Don't try to stretch the support quite as far.