cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Drivers & Software

hopndude
Adept I

Dell G5 SE - annoying BIOS and Driver Support - AT SUPERB LEVELS

For those about to read this, I'm not sure how to paraphrase everything except that this is the best performing little laptop I've owned, and yet the most annoying through Support that I've ever come across.

Why I got the Dell G5 SE;
Ever since I got my first desktop in late 1990's, I've always had a AMD CPU. Just didn't have the funds for Intel. Same with Radeon GPU's, I didn't have the funds for Nvidia.

Fast forward


The Love;
AMD and Dell collabed and made the all AMD laptop with their newest, latest, greatest tech. The Dell G5 SE. The highest end GPU was suppose to be the RX 5700M, but later was cut from the lineup, as it was a slightly better binned (or higher volted, and clocking) silicon vs the exact same RX 5600M but with 2 more gig's of vRAM.

Regardless, the Ryzen 4900H 8C/16T was more than I would need whilst on the road. Accompanied by the RX 5600M which was practically a lower voltage, slightly binned version of the RX 5700, but with 6GB of vRAM vs 8GB of vRAM.

To this day (as of typing this) I hold the stock (no OC and SmartShift still enabled) benchmark record for the Dell G5 SE.
FireStrike - 17,425 AMD Radeon RX 5600M video card benchmark result - AMD Ryzen 9 4900H,Dell Inc. 0M8C1F (3dmark.com)
(benchmark w/ Targus laptop cooling pad, ambient room temps, MX-5 thermal paste, upgraded thermal pads on VRM's, in "G" mode, w/ OLOy 2x 16GB 3200mt/s CL18 RAM, on external Type-C display - laptop gets 17,1k w/ attached display)


The Hate;
BIOS - As of the latest BIOS for this laptop (BIOS 1.7.0) it actually cripples the laptops performance entirely. Furthermore, it does so to the extent, that reverting BACK to a previous BIOS DOES NOT FIX THE ISSUE! In fact, it fixes some of the performance loss, but it will never again be back to the same performance as any configuration once was on BIOS 1.3.0, 1.4.4, or 1.5.0. Whatever is changed by BIOS 1.7.0, cannot be reverted back, even after a complete BIOS reload (files on Dell's website for 1.4.4, and instructions for doing this).

vBIOS - No one will touch the latest vBIOS for the RX 5600M as it too has a performance loss when doing this. So why would anyone choose to do it?

Graphics Drivers - in order to get FreeSync to work not as AdaptiveSync but actually as FreeSync for these laptops with the 120hz or 144hz panel, and also seen by AMD's website. We have to go through and install the July 2020 driver first, STOP & DO NOT RESTART, then initiate the newest driver install, but NOT a clean install. Finish that out, then restart.

So in order for us to have FreeSync on the latest graphics drivers, we have to install 2 different drivers at once. EVERY......SINGLE.....TIME! Show me another product that requires this level of ideocracy!



Going Forward;
BIOS - on the very early BIOS revision for this laptop, there was a toggle for SmartShift to disable it. Now, if anyone wants to do this with later revisions of BIOS, they have to use a sourced program, and navigate a menu of hexadecimal characters in a almost Linux like vi editor menu, to disable SmartShift. It'll stay like this until you re-flash the BIOS or until you go back and enable it the way you disabled it. This should still be a option in the menu and should not have been taken out. Most people leave it enabled, but some need it disabled.

vBIOS - just use what's there, and don't upgrade unless you're worried about too warm of chassis temps.

Graphics Drivers - either Dell needs to release specific drivers for the display panel, or they need to work with AMD to ensure going forward, this isn't a 2 part install process to get FreeSync to properly work. This is beyond ridiculous that we have to endure this to get it to work right.


This is one of those "Great Idea's" but had the "Horrible Execution" all baked into one. There are a few places people talk and discuss about these laptops.

Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/DellG5SE/
(where you'll find pinned post on 'how to setup your Dell G5 SE for max performance' and troubleshooting tips)
Discord - https://discord.gg/W47Ay4jChS
(where you'll find people sharing information, helping troubleshoot, or testing latest BIOS or Drivers for the Dell G5 SE)


The SmartShift based all AMD laptops could have been nicer, if the BIOS and Driver support weren't lacking so much. Not sure if this is on Dell or AMD, but regardless neither have stepped up to fixed the issue, even though people with "Pro" support through Dell have had nothing but the run around.

23 Replies