17 R1 Ranger graphics card help

Hey guys, I have an alienware 17 r1 Ranger from early 2014, I have been using this without issues for many years. I have the 120 true life screen with the 780m. My card graphics card has a fried resistor and sometimes don't like to run well on demanding games, I need a good used card to replace it. If anyone has a N-videa G-force 780m for me to purchase from them please hit me up, Im not really a fan of ordering one from china with this 2020 issues going around right now. Please help a brother out, or if anyone is interested in the old ranger?? possibility of sale. it has the I-7 4900mq, I upgraded the memory to faster speed (Hyper), has 2 SSD Samsung 840 evo's one 2.5 SATA(500 gig), one m.2,(250 gig) also has a 500gig 5400 rpm hdd, 3d vision with the 3d Glasses and its in really great shape and I took very well care of it.

 

I’d suggest upgrading to a 980M if you’re going to spend money on it. A 1060 or 1070 is also an option depending one your budget. You’ll lose 3D with the 10 series cards but I’m not sure about the 980M.


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don't that cause issues with the 120 htz true-life screen? upgrading to the 980 on this version????

 

I’m not sure about the 3D capability but there are no issues with using the card with the 120Hz display. You’ll need a modded driver


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yeah, kind of just want to get it to work without much screwing around tho. ive read a lot of threads and some people have a lot of issues when upgrading, and im not really to tech savvy on mods and stuff. I never use the 3D stuff at all, just game on it

 

It’s not too hard really. Modding a driver is pretty easy once you learn and the 980M is a pretty decent card at 1080p


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You will lose 3d with anything that is not a 700M or 800M GPU. 120Hz will work fine still. Also the 17 R1 doesn't have M.2 natively unless you get one of those PCB adapters, so I'm assuming you have MSATA. The 980M is roughly equivalent to the 1650MQ at stock and about a 1650 non MQ OC.

 

so if I buy an 880m and replace the 780m, what do I have to do to get it to work with this 120 true-life screen issue? I've never done any of this stuff before so just an fyi.

 

Get a 780M if you’re not going to go a 980M or higher. It runs cooler and performs very similar to the 880M. I have a stack of dead 880M’s here. They seem to fail more often.


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The Ranger model got refreshed with the 800 series cards in 2014, and mine came with a GTX 860m when I first got it. The 880m should be plug and play with your laptop.

Having said that, don't get a GTX 880m. They are very prone to burning out. I would highly recommend an MSI GTX 1060 or 1070 since they will give you a crapton more processing power over the 880m. Only a driver INF mod will be required to force the graphics card drivers to install.

 

Don't get a 880M, they're slow and hot, die easy, and don't even have proper driver support. Even a 970M would be a huge improvement over one. I'd even recommened a 7970M or 8970M or even a R9 M290X if all of them didn't suffer like Navi with crippling driver issues. If you really just need a cheapo card to get the Ranger back up and running, M6100/8950 (M) is a good option.

 

Appreciated