Precision M6800 questions and upgrades

[Per Astra Ad Deum]

13 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

You must have a dGPU to make use of the HDMI and DP ports on the system, since they are hard-wired to the dGPU.  However, there is a BIOS option to attach one DP port on the ePort dock to the iGPU.

Thank you for the clarification! This is bonkers ... let's assume I was passing through the dGPU to a Windows VM for Gaming, that would mean I can't use the ports without the VM being powered on?

[Aaron44126]

1 minute ago, Per Astra Ad Deum said:

Thank you for the clarification! This is bonkers ... let's assume I was passing through the dGPU to a Windows VM for Gaming, that would mean I can't use the ports without the VM being powered on?

 

Yeah, unless there is some way you can "hot swap" the dGPU between the host and guest depending on whether you need the VM on or not.

[Per Astra Ad Deum]

26 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

Yeah, unless there is some way you can "hot swap" the dGPU between the host and guest depending on whether you need the VM on or not.

Hmm. I've talked with a colleague of mine about this issue. Here's what he had to say in regard of your last post:

 

Quote

It's half correct, as the onboard DP is hardwired to the dGPU. But the onboard HDMI appears to be muxed between the dGPU and iGPU as I said, which can then be muxed between the onboard HDMI or one dock DP

This would suggest that the HDMI can be used solely by the iGPU without the need of a dGPU being present ...

[Aaron44126]

54 minutes ago, Per Astra Ad Deum said:

This would suggest that the HDMI can be used solely by the iGPU without the need of a dGPU being present ...

 

I'm skeptical about this, but maybe?  I've had a M6700 and a M4800 and both of them only allowed the HDMI to be used by the dGPU.  The only options for direct iGPU output were the VGA port, or in the case of the M4800(+M6800), a "new" option for one of the dock DP ports to be connected to the iGPU.

 

Maybe that toggle also affects the HDMI port even though in the BIOS it specifically references a dock port.  (I pretty much always used my M4800 docked so I might not have tried that.)

 

I remember caring about direct iGPU output because I had some applications that misbehaved if you had a split iGPU/dGPU display setup going on.

[nforce4max]

On 11/29/2023 at 8:22 AM, Per Astra Ad Deum said:

Thank you for the insights. So that contradicts the information from the archived thread. Maybe it is indeed a matter of vBIOS? Maybe that is the reason I can't make use of my WX 7100.

Another questions comes to mind. Is anyone of you able to drive a external monitor via HDMI or DP without having a dGPU inside your M6800? From what I've found, that is not possible, since the display signal from the iGPU is routed through the dGPU for some reason?

Not sure why that was the case with that one user but anyway for the two that I got they both work as expected ie at the full 150w during normal load. As for the rest I've never used those ports.

 

By the way just a quick question are you using the stock x bracket?

[Per Astra Ad Deum]

1 hour ago, nforce4max said:

Not sure why that was the case with that one user but anyway for the two that I got they both work as expected ie at the full 150w during normal load. As for the rest I've never used those ports.

 

By the way just a quick question are you using the stock x bracket?

By x bracket you mean the metal frame on the back side? That one that holds the screws in place? I've been using the one that came with the new GPU, but it is identical to that of the old one.

Here's the two GPU for comparison:

 

[Per Astra Ad Deum]

Regarding the necessity of the dGPU being present to make use of the HDMI and the DP port on the M6800, have a look at these two pictures:

 

 

The first one shows the available GPUs on the OS with Switchable Graphics enabled in the BIOS menu. As you can see, both GPUs are visible, iGPU (Intel) and dGPU (ATI/AMD).

 

The second images shows the same output with Switchable Graphics disabled in the BIOS menu. As you can see here, the option disables the iGPU, not the dGPU!

With this it is safe to assume that the dGPU is a necessity if you want to make use of the HDMI or DP port. What a pity. :-(

 

 

[Aaron44126]

Yes, disabling switchable graphics puts your system in dGPU-only mode, with all outputs driven by the dGPU.  This is the case for all Dell Precision mobile workstations since graphics switching was introduced (M6500 or M6600 generation?) through today.

 

There is a way to get to iGPU-only mode in the M4800/M6800.  It is ....... physically remove the dGPU.  The system will boot up and work off of the iGPU.  Dell never shipped systems with this configuration, so it is not "supported", but I wonder what that would do with this HDMI mux.  Not that it really matters for your use case.

 

(Most Precision systems will boot without a dGPU card installed and just use the iGPU.  However, Precision 7X30/7X40/7X50/7X60 systems will not boot without a dGPU, unless there is an iGPU pass-through card in place.  Starting with 7X70, it will boot with the dGPU card slot completely unoccupied again.)

[Mashcar]

Have you seen this man solving ACPI trouble for P5200 ? That is a nice one there

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/imac-2011-maxwell-and-pascal-gpu-upgrade.2300989/page-26?post=32731488#post-32731488

 

[nforce4max]

Installed a 4TB Kioxia nvme drive (KXG70PN84T09) and it worked without issue.

 

After a few hours of use I have to say the temps are noticeably better at idle than the kbg40znv1t02 (1TB) drive it replaced while at load it was a few degrees higher overall.

[nforce4max]

Well finally bothered with installing the HP version of the Quadro RTX 3000 and it well well thus far aside from having hell with modding the heatsink between the offset core (news to no one) as well the coils blocking the heatsink. Would have preferred to have an cnc machine as more precise work would have been nice but without having much for tools didn't help. I made no change at all with the fin stack and there is a little room for the heatsink to be slightly offset without causing any real issues with the rest of the machine. Should anyone bother with installing this particular card it would be prudent to have a spare heatsink as it is surprisingly fragile.

[Alex]

I bought an RX480 8G and put it in the M6800, it can be recognized, and the driver can be installed, but it can't be used, Windows prompts error 43,I also tried flashing some techpowerup VBIOS, but it still 43 error

Can anyone help me？

[Reciever]

11 hours ago, Alex said:

I bought an RX480 8G and put it in the M6800, it can be recognized, and the driver can be installed, but it can't be used, Windows prompts error 43,I also tried flashing some techpowerup VBIOS, but it still 43 error

Can anyone help me？

 

What is the general configuration of the M6800 including the sBIOS? 

 

LVDS or eDP panel? 

[Alex]

10 hours ago, Reciever said:

 

What is the general configuration of the M6800 including the sBIOS? 

 

LVDS or eDP panel? 

EDP，It works now，I found a working vbios