Dell Upgrade Promotion & M15x 460m vbios question

All,

So I called Dell about the options and costs of upgrading my M15x from a 260m and the technical support rep told me that for nvidia, my only upgrade option was the 460m. I know other folks have installed the 560m and others, but I wanted something in the form of a plug'n'play kit and as I still had some warranty left, I preferred that it be covered under the warranty if possible. From what I can tell from forum posts here, moving from the 260m to the 460m should be quite a noticable upgrade.

The rep told me that the upgrade kit was available for $380 on a self-install. However, he also told me Dell has a promotion going right now where if you extend your warranty for an additional year for $279, you get your choice of one of several upgrade options. In my case, I could get the 460m and it would also be installed by a technician at my home and covered under the warranty with the rest of my laptop! I thought that sounded like a great way to go and I thought I'd share the information as I haven't seen anything else posted here about that upgrade promotion. Perhaps someone else might benefit from it!

I did have a question, though. Recently, Dell released a vbios upgrade for the 460m (560m and 580m too) to address throttling issues. It was listed under the M17x, though, so what I wanted to know is if anyone has applied this to their M15x. The card may come already flashed (I can verify it with GPU-Z once it's installed), but I thought I'd ping the group for feedback. If the card doesn't have the new vbios, should I flash it even thought it's listed under the M17x section?

The rep said the new card comes with a new heatsink and fan, so it seems like a complete and thorough kit. I suppose I should have the tech run Furmark on the thing once he's done to validate a good thermal interface and cooling.

**UPDATE** It seems that what was descibed to me as a "promotion" may in fact not be the case and may have been a unique circumstance. If that proves to be the case, I apologize for any confusion. I was simply reporting what was described to me by the Dell rep I spoke to in hopes that it might help out others.

Regards,

R

 

So, to summarise:

Option 1: Pay $380 for the card, and install it yourself.
Option 2: Pay $270 for an extended warranty, and get the card and installation free.

Seems insane.

I am actually interested in the vBios question you raise, so await others responses.

 

I think it would work fine if you installed the V-bios though I don't think its necessary. I have never had throttle issues at all with this card, both the earlier v-bios and the newer one ran fine. Hope this helps you guys out some. If you have any questions let me know.

 

Ya i second the above poster, never heard of throttling on the 460m. Just the 560/580m cards.

 

haven't seen any throttling issues with 560m's in the m17x forums is the PSU smaller on the m15x?

 

The tech arrived to install the 460m today. It all seems to have turned out well, but the heat sink provided had damaged thermal interface material for both the RAM and the heatsink. So, since the heatsink had the exact same model number and no visible differences, we re-used the one I originally had. We had to use new thermal paste, of course, but the only thing I had on hand was Artic Silver 5 (the tech wasn't provided with extra paste, oddly enough). We re-used the RAM heat tape, though. It seemed in good shape.

My temps under Furmark are 67C after 5 minutes which should improve as the paste cures, so I assume I'm ok. By contrast, my old 260m hit 79C on Furmark.

Now it's just time to game with it and monitor temps!

 

Congrats on the new card. Hope you enjoy it.

 

I have a Dell M15X with A09 bios, 820QM and Geforce 460M. I get throttling when all 4 cores are mostly loaded (6-7 threads in Prime95) and the GPU is doing Furmark.

The LCD flickers black and the GPU PCIe bus downclocks to 1.0, voltage to the GPU drops, and the clocks all drop. Similarly the CPU drops to 1.1 Ghz during these events.

If I use throttlestop on the CPU, GPU downclocking occurs earlier and more frequently.

Max GPU Temp is under 70C during these tests.

I have no clue why I am the only one seeing throttling here...

 

what size is your PSU?

 

I did the vbios update and i noticed the did change the performance states of the card and unlocked the 100mhz underclock they had..the 460m is now 675mhz on alienware m15xr2 if you apply m17x vbios update

 

good to know and thanks for the feedback

 

What did that do to your GPU temperature at idle and under load? Did you do any Furmark runs?

I assume the vbios will work with an R1 M15x. How can you know if you have an R1 or R2?

 

well the R2 was the last M15x to be released. If you have an i-7 processor you have an R2 I believe

 

I do have an i7 actually, but come to think of it, I think that might mean it's an R1 because I remember they added the i5 at some point after I bought mine and I remember being surprised at the downgrade of the stock configuration.

 

they probably just released a bios update to address that, so they are probably both the same revision.

 

I am wondering if this would be a decent upgrade to handle Battlefield 3? My current 260m is struggling.

 

I just did this upgrade (see my earlier posts for details). In my case, it was fairly inexpensive upgrade through Dell and I got free installation and an extra year's warranty out of it.

I haven't really done a lot of benchmarks with it yet, but if it helps, I can play World of Tanks on high details settings and get 30 to 50 fps depending on map. My 260m gave me about 10 fps less than that on average.

I'm still pondering applying the new vbios update as it gives an extra 100mhz in core clock speeds (and possibly shader and memory but I haven't been able to confirm that). I just worry a bit about temps and if Dell intended it for the M15x, and of course, if it would void my warranty. I'm not much of an overclocker for those reasons, but since it's a Dell vbios, I'm tempted!


R

 

if you want a bit more performance, you can actually overclock to 800/1600/1500 and be 100% stable easily. this gives me an extra 5fps during most games and makes the 460m as fast as the 560m with just a slight overclock.

 

I just done the V-bios upgrade and can confirm that it increases the default clocks on the 460m from 575mz to 675mz!

 

How are the temps?

 

shouldn't increase to much. This card is a cool running card.

 

Hi, could you explain the other upgrade options that are available, I'm interested as my warranty is nearing its end, and I'd like to upgrade an aging m15x.

 

Of what i understand the new vbios allows for intermediate p states effectively meaning if your card throttles it will not be that much but it still does but less aggressive. I havent tried with 560m but curious about the results if someone has (my card is eurocom oem)
Also note that some apps including Furmark are blacklisted by the driver.
Go with 3dmark tests instead when benchmarking...

 

As I was only interested in the video upgrade, I didn't ask much about the other options. He did mention CPU and RAM among the list, but there may be more available. He also mentioned this was a December promotion.

I hope that helps!

R

 

To recap, I now have my 460m installed into my M15x by a tech Dell sent to my home. The kit arrived with a heat sink that had damaged thermal paste (dry pad stuff) so the tech removed it and applied what I had on hand, Artic Silver 5 (it was either that or a reschedule and althout AS5 isn't the best these days, I'm pretty sure it's better than the stock dry pad stuff.).

I have applied the new vbios and can confirm the core clock speeds are set to what Nvidia intended, 675Mhz, a full 105Mhz higher than Dell's original factory downclock. Doing so did have an impact on temps. On Furmark, it reaches 65C noticably faster. I let Furmark run for 13 minutes where it finally hit 80C and it remained at 675Mhz the entire time, so no throttling was observed. I also never heard the fan reach its highest speed, so I'm not sure at what point this occurs. When you first start the laptop, the fan goes to it's highest speed for a moment and at no point up to 80C did the fan spin that fast, so I assume it will at a point higher than 80C. Does anyone know what temperature is required to kick into the fastest speed? Right now there is the lowest speed (desktop, idle) then it bumps up one notch at about 55C then one more at about 65C then it didn't go any higher up to 80C. Also, all of this was with the back legs raised a half inch for airflow. Playing Wold of Tanks on high settings for one hour, the highest temperature reached was 65C.

My M15x has an i7 Q720 processor. I'm not sure if I'm CPU limited or not with that processor, so take that into consideration.

Performance-wise, frame rates are up about 10% with the new vbios from casual observation. Definately enough for me to notice it. Overall, the 460m with the new vbios is about 30% faster than the 260m was for me, again, under casual observation. I never ran any comparative benchmarks before (I probably should have) I did the upgrades, so I apologize for not being able to provide better numbers.

Anyway, I know people overclock their cards way over what the Dell vbios bumps the 460m up to (Nvidia stock clocks) and since the new vbios is a Dell vbios, I have no doubts it's safe for the card and laptop. But I'm curious if anyone can tell me if the above seems good, or if I'd benefit from a paste better than AS5.

Thanks!

R

 

temps seems a bit high at least to me. my max temp is around 65C running furmark for 5 minutes with a high overclock of 830/1660/1625. I'm using AS5 as well atm so I don't think that's the problem. could the GPU heatsink not be seated evenly on the GPU die?

 

Mine hits 65C at the 1 minute mark, at which point the fan spins up one step in speed (I believe there is at least one more step up in fan speed beyond this, but I've yet to trigger it, even at 80C, so I'm not sure if that's normal or what).

At 5 minutes, Furmark is at 76C but it still slowly climbs over time (as mentioned in my earlier post). I assume it will do that until the faster fan speed kicks in?

Also, I'm running Furmark on the burn-in test at 1600x900, full screen, all default settings apart from that. It shows the GPU at 675Mhz and memory at 1250Mhz. GPU load is 99%.

With the extra detail, how does that look? (though I'm not sure if the cooling system of an M15x can be compared to an M17x)

 

I guess you are all right as long as you don't get close 90C, thats the danger zone. I don't know much about fan states on the m15x but it seems like it should trigger at a lower temp so it stays cooler I really don't know though.

 

I called about this on 12/19/2011.
I was transferred to the US center for Alienware support.
I asked about this December promotion for a GPU or CPU or memory upgrade with a hardware warranty extension. I was put on hold.
After a few minutes I was told this is NOT an official Dell offer and it was 295.94$ to extend my hardware warranty one year. I would however get a 75$ Dell e-Gift card, which im not usre if they work anywhere other then the dell site.

I didnt purchase the warranty. I'm still possibly inclined to get an m18x over summer after ivy bridge stuff is out.

As for the Dell 460m vbios, I'm tempted to try it since I seem to have FPS issues with certain open GL 3d applications at points, although tuning my nvidva settings from adaptive to performance MIGHT have solved them, however the 'stock' higher clocking seems desirable.

 

It is baffling to me how people get different stories from different people when they call Dell, no matter if it's sales or support. The number I called was also with US based Dell support. The person I talked to told me about the promotion, said it was for the month of December, and proceeded to explain the options to me. In my case, my warranty was still valid, so I don't know if that's a factor. All I can say is that my warranty was extended, a 460m was delivered to me and installed by a tech sent out by Dell, and all I was charged was $279. He didn't mention anything to me about a gift card, either. With sales, sometimes you have to keep trying. Perhaps it's the same way with service? I am also an EPP member, so perhaps that's a factor. He didn't mention that it was, but I just noticed my order e-mail confirmation mentions it.

 

my warranty is also still active and valid.

I was after a CPU upgrade, but we never got to that level of parameters. Additionally he also claimed to have FOUND THIS THREAD on the subject and that the circumstances were not a promotion, someone seemed to have done you some sort of favor, and he even stated as such in somewhat less specific language! Oddly he made a claim a 460m didnt fit the m15x, I explained yes it did, and mine was factory shipped. My suspicions are that newer Techs there might not be aware of much info on m15xr1/2, since it is now 'dead'.

If I could have got a 920 or 940xm, installed it myself, and got a warranty upgrade, i would have done it, perhaps even if it required a 2 year commitment. Now due to some issues with FPS drop on my machine, the fact the 460m has some bad OPENGL implementations, and Dells/Alien inequality in dealing with customers, i might just wait with hope of an alternative to Alien down the road next year with ivybridge and new ATI and Nvidia offerings.

I certainly believe you and am happy that you got such a wonderful deal, I wish anyone else luck who attempts the same, however it didn't work out for me, as expected, to be honest.

At least after the warranty is up I can mod the crap out of it without concern, and no 3-4 hour phone calls to fix it, as my time is almost worth that to me over some GPU/CPU or a two year old laptop to be honest.

 

Wow. Just wow. I never got the impression that the tech was doing me a favor and it was never explained that way. If so, I would never have posted it. It was described to me as a promotion, which is why I shared the information. Well, I apologize for any frustrations to you or anyone else who wasn't able to get what was offered to me. I just wish the tech would have explained it that way if it was the case.

 

Certainly not your fault man, and I'm glad you got it.

 

when I run furmark my temps are about 75C after 15 mins...at idle about 49C...when i play skyrim at highest settings AA set at 2x temps are about 67C.....id say do it if you can afford to take a risk...I also did the bios unlocked flash for the mx15r2 also...both work great together...Really feel a diffrence

 

Did you do a re-paste or is everything stock? Those are much lower temps than I'm seeing.

 

how did you tighten down the heatsink? I do it diagonally, and half a turn on each screw so it gets evenly snug to the GPU die. that could be part of your problem.

 

That's the way I would do it as well, though the tech did mine. I may re-do the paste job and see how it goes.

 

I called Dell today as well to upgrade my 260m and was told that there were no upgrades because the m15x had integrated GPU.....then I got hungup on...twice...think I'm going to try and just get a rep to sell me a 6970

 

yea I'd suggest doing that and seeing what happens. I bet your temps will decrease if you do it the way we discussed.

 

See, this is another example of people getting odd, wrong, or just plain differing results from calling tech support. My suggestion would be to call again and see if you enventually get a helpful tech. It's the same thing that happens with sales. I mean, some people hear the GPU isn't upgradable and other hear that it never came with a 460m, which it obviously did.

I called yesterday to try and get a hold of the tech that helped me, but he was busy with another customer. The guy who answered said it didn't matter and that he would help me. I called to ask if I could do my own re-paste without voiding the warranty and he told me that I would have to send it in to a depot. I told him that was ridiculous as I had in-home service and that a tech was just here and did it and he basically called me a liar and said Dell always has that type of service done in a depot, never in the field. I asked to speak to his supervisor and he promptly hung up on me. I called back, talked to a different tech who proceeded to offer me a new heatsink (as the original one they sent me had damaged RAM pads) and said that I could do it just fine without voiding the warranty and that he'd enter it in the notes so there was no confusion in the future. So, a better answer with the second tech. I just don't get why the answers are so different.

Very frustrating.

 

So I guess the paste of choice these days for a GPU is Arctic MX-4? (hopefully I have that name right)

I'll be sure to post my new temps after this is done.

As for the vbios update, so far so good with no issues running games.

 

I wish I could lie to people and just hang up on them in my job lol....

 

glad to see the vbios worked for you now lets see if we can get those temps down.

 

Hey Guys, after calling tech support I managed to find out two things:

1. rixhobbies is a really lucky guy
2. there hasn't been a upgrade promotion for m15x owners who want to extend their warranty (after talking with two different reps), I was offered a two yr warranty with a $50 discount not worth it btw

So if anyone happens to bump into a good tech rep I suggest try to ask about the "special promotion".

Good Luck.

 

No I didnt repaste but I feel I need to soon