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    AMD mobile GPU's - whats the deal?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by M17XR42012, Mar 19, 2015.

  1. M17XR42012

    M17XR42012 Notebook Consultant

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    My M17xr4 has the 7970m in it. I want to do a GPU upgrade and stick with AMD ( I have had bad experiences with Nvida).

    So they make the 8900 series mobile cards which i hear are not much of an upgrade. But I am hearing about an AMD Radeon R9 M295X.

    Will that card fit? will it work? if so, how much of a performance increase would be be over my current card and where can I get one?
     
    M17XR42012, Mar 19, 2015
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  2. Raidriar

    Raidriar ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)

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    There is no MXM version of the R9 M295X, it is a BGA soldered-only card. There is no point in upgrading to a 8970M or a R9 M290X unless your 7970M fails.
     
    Raidriar, Mar 19, 2015
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  3. toto29620

    toto29620 Notebook Consultant

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    The card exist in mxm, go have a look in the m295x thread but you have to buy 10 of then at each time ... Anyway the upgrade for 295x is not worth it. Go for nvidia if you don't want to wait.
     
    toto29620, Mar 19, 2015
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  4. Raidriar

    Raidriar ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)

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    Zentrica is the only reseller currently for the R9 M295X, and I haven't seen anybody on notebook check or notebook review running either card outside of the iMac, which typically results in 20% lower scores than windows for AMD graphics cards. I emailed Zentrica about a test sample, let's see what they say.
     
    Raidriar, Mar 19, 2015
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  5. TomJGX

    TomJGX I HATE BGA!

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    OP, hold on for a bit... AMD should release new mobile GPU's this year which hopefully have HBM/new design and trump the 970M/980M..
     
    TomJGX, Mar 19, 2015
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  6. M17XR42012

    M17XR42012 Notebook Consultant

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    Thank's everyone. I think waiting for the next gen card that TomJGX mentioned might be the route I want to go.

    So here is another dumb question. I learned how to tear apart the laptop yesterday when I put an mSATA in it (the r4 has an mSATA port on it). Doing that required removing the display from the laptop.

    With an updated video card, could I potentially add a 4k or 5k 17inch display to it when they come out?

    Or is that one mod that would be too much of a mod to pull off?
     
    M17XR42012, Mar 20, 2015
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  7. toto29620

    toto29620 Notebook Consultant

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    Some guys have put a mate lcd lg panel instead of the glossy stok one on m17x r2 without problem. Maybe it will be the same for the R4 if it had an recent eDp port.
     
    toto29620, Mar 21, 2015
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  8. TomJGX

    TomJGX I HATE BGA!

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    There won't be any of these LCD's soon.. Your best bet is the LG IPS 1080p Screen but the 120Hz screen is much better performance/colours wise and might be a better choice since it's proven to work!
     
    TomJGX, Mar 21, 2015
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