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    5800 series!

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by Darkseekeer, Nov 10, 2010.

  1. Darkseekeer

    Darkseekeer Newbie

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    Hello there guys!

    Just have a small question! the thing is I recently repaired my m17x R2 becuase of the bad VGA cards, Dell repair guy says that he installed 4870 into the system (had 5870 installed, but for some reason warrnty doesnt covers it), however the drivers says 5800 series... how can I check which VGA cards installed in my system without having to actully open it up!
     
  2. DemolitionManHD

    DemolitionManHD Notebook Consultant

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    Hi, use GPUZ or HWInfo32 will tell you the model number and chip vesion
     
  3. Grimfan

    Grimfan Personal Shrink

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    If it says 5800 series then you are using a reference AMD/ATI driver and not the modified build provided from dell, but that's only the driver used. Please have a look at Welcome to Dell Support.

    Also, you can go to device manager in system settings and look for the hardware id code, you find under ressource tab.

    Here's a list of the ati gpu's by dell:
    "ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4850" = ati2mtag_M9x8, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_944A&SUBSYS_02A21028
    "ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870" = ati2mtag_M9x8, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_945A&SUBSYS_02A11028
    "ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 " = ati2mtag_M9x8, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_945A&SUBSYS_043A1028
    "ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730" = ati2mtag_Manhattan, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68C0&SUBSYS_02A21028
    "ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850" = ati2mtag_Manhattan, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A1&SUBSYS_02A21028
    "ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870" = ati2mtag_Manhattan, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A0&SUBSYS_043A1028

    Also, did you uninstall drivers and reinstall them from AMD site? If you forgot, there might be still the driver left from your previous gpu. If you reinstalled drivers from AMD, then it should have chosen the right driver/config and the displaying of 5800 series would be correct... Only Dell has them modified displaying it as 5870.

    Cheers :D
     
  4. steviejones133

    steviejones133 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Erm, just wondering why did you get 4870's when you had 5870's....surely thats a big downgrade for you?
     
  5. nzgeek

    nzgeek Notebook Evangelist

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    If the ATI/AMD driver is saying you've got a 5800 series GPU, it pretty much means you've got the 5870s.

    Based on what others have said here, I wouldn't trust the Dell repair guys to know exactly what they're doing. Most probably have some training on computer repair, and are expected to learn the rest from the repair manuals. I wouldn't expect any to have hands-on training for Alienware systems, let alone be able to tell a 4870M from a 5870M just by looking at it.