AW 17 R1 and GTX 1080

So , I decided to plug the gtx 1080 in the AW 17 R 1.

1) I have flashed the 14+ Bios
2) 120hz panel
3) running full EUFI

Now , I set PEG in bios , install the Zotac gtx 1080 ... the issue is I get 8 beeps.

I need some help to know why it's not booting and gets 8 beeps ...

 

probably needs the MSI GTX 1080 mxm vbios

 

That mean I need an external flasher. @EepoSaurus , can I get your assistance?

 

reason why I say MSI 1080 vBIOS, is because zotac gtx 1070 behaves same way your zotac 1080 does, like what @Striker1234 experienced. He flashed MSI 1070 vBIOS, and had success. I think you will too with MSI 1080 vBIOS

 

Ok ... is @Striker1234 still around ?

 

@EepoSaurus got his 1080 to work but he said it throttle so badly it performs way worse than the 1070 he has in it. A motherboard power delivery issue to supply the 1080 with what it needs.

 

Yeah. I think he got the weird looking format 1080 that was power hungry.

 

he also tried the zotac 1080 without success

 

I imagine it would actually work with a 1080 that needs the supplementary power. Its been done before with the GTX 980DT, it would be a DTR at that point as you would need to shut off the laptop with a power strip.

 

I think you should try the M17xR4 first before anything. I feel like it may work in that system.

@EepoSaurus has already experimented a lot with the 17 R1 in regards to many 1080s and vBIOS'

 

It was your exact card as well as every other 1080 except a clevo. A clevo 1080 vbios will allow your laptop to boot to the internal screen and the drivers you have will also allow a full install but it will power throttle. The clevo 1080 vbios has a tdp of 180w and the stock zotac has a tdp of 150w. Regardless of the bios or the modification to the bios it does not work as the card is starved for power by the motherboard. You may be able to get prema to modify the original zotac bios but it wont be cheap or quick and maybe not even possible. Im willing to help as much as i can. You can use msi vbios flasher hooked up to an external monitor and take a stock clevo vbios and replace the msi bios in the file. Just rename the clevo bios to whatever is in the folder and replace. It should flash fine. The msi 1080 bios does not work. I tried it. All bets are off with the m17xr4 tho.

 

Conclusion:

The display will not come on the internal lcd in PEG mode using 120Hz LCD. It will come on via HDMI output. Not even in SG mode It will not display on the internal display.

Other than a LCD that is not 120Hz , it will display fine using SG mode.

Conclusion: The card will display to non 120Hz using SG mode, but will display via HDMI Out in PEG mode. This card cannot do standalone PEG mode. I believe the bios on this Zotac card does not allow it to. It's likely I will not get an external bios flasher anytime soon, I'm gonna give up.

This is also the same for the M17X R4

 

Experiment 3DMARK11 in SG mode , just throttle a lot. Power was not an issue as I was using 330W PSU ...

At the start of each scene the FPS was over 160+ .. then it would throttle down.

Here is the score in SG mode

https://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/12913989

 

Damn, seems like 1060 is the best pascal upgrade thus far with the least amount of issues.

This is on my AW13:

https://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/12379595

with AMP (lol): https://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/12381629

On M18xR2:

https://www.3dmark.com/fs/15564093 (Don't have 3DM11 ran yet on this config)

 

My 17r1 has the zotac 1070 and its as stable as the 980m or 1060 just requires a 120hz screen.

 

Yes , if it doesn't throttle like a crack head , the AW 17 R1 with the GTX 1080 would have been out of this world.

 

I surmise the best method would be to actually use a 1080 that needs supplementary power as then you would be able to lower power needs from the MXM slot and thus mitigate power throttling.

But again, wouldnt be much of a mobile laptop anymore...

 

One German user spliced in extra power from the fan port on his Alienware 17 R1 for a desktop 980 clevo

 

The german user also did not u se ans external power source. He used a simple step step up converter. He alsp made a splitter. No need to split it. It is actually really easy compared to splicing and frankly it is safer too

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I am thinking about doing some jumper work and upgrade some smd components with a dc step up converter to get my 1070 to 115. I have rhe msi model but i it has thr euro com vbios on it. But that is easy tp reprogram have it all already

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Oh! And i also see a vapor chamber on digikey tha may work. It looks to be made for an mxm module. It has been a while i never did compared dimensions though

 

Sorry for my late response,

Do you have pictures of the card?

I believe you should be able to use the MSI GTX 1080 VBIOS, so the eDP could be enabled...

 

It is the msi looking one not the square crap. And yea my 120hz screen with edp and mdp works fine. But eurocom has it set to 90watts in its vbios thry told me. My card is the v1.2 ill send a photo asap

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Hi all, I am new to this forum and new to Alienware products. I bought an Alienware 17 r1 2014 model recently, thinking that it was an AW17 r4, because it was advertised as 4th Generation AW. Silly me, I am ignorant with computers in general and particularly with AW.
Now that I am stuck with this laptop, which is not too bad, comparing to what I had before. It's specs are: i7-4800MQ/ turbo boost. Nvidia Geforce GTX 780m With 4GB GDDR5. 1Tera Hard Drive, secondary Hard Drive 750GB 7200RPM. 32GB Dual Channel DDR3L. FHD 1920X1080 300 Nit display 60hz.

Seeing how much you guys have been through to revive the AW R1. What would you advise me to do with my laptop? can I make it more current? What is the highest and cleanest level, I can upgrade it to? is it worth it financially?

Thank you for any kind help.

 

That's actually 5th generation Alienware laptop.

You can upgrade to the msi 1070 / dell 980m / wx7100 but for the first and last option you will need 120hz screen.

 

Thank you "TheReciever" for your quick reply. Does that mean my laptop is an r5? or AW 17X ? As I found on WIKIPEDIA that they have different names in different places.

I found on ALIBABA website some very cheap UHD 2DK4K AND 4K screens that fits on AW, made in China or Turkey. Does anyone know if they are legit?

Also "TheReciver", do I need to purchase any extra cables or connections to install the 120hz screen?

Regards

 

In the US it's called the alienware 17 R1 "Ranger", some places it's an R5 or p18e. Regardless though it's a 5th generation laptop.

I don't spend time on alibaba.

You will need eDP cable if you don't have 120hz panel already.

 

No, I believe it's a 60hz screen, despite been a 1920x1080 3D 300 Nits. That's what it says in "Systems" at least.

"TheReciever" that was some great delivered down knowledge and experience today.

Thank you!

 

Mainly it's called 17 R1 or M17x R5, depending on the region.

What you can do to upgrade depends on what you tend to do with
decent games on high/max.? GPU upgrade is inevitable.

Btw. you didn't state if your boot disk is an SSD, that would also be a worthy upgrade.

From my opinion, the rest is ok, so far.

 

I dont recall there being a 60hz 3D panel, check your display settings and see if 120hz is an option, they were more common on the 780m models.

If so then you have much more upgrade room. However if not, 980m is still an option and still plays games pretty well. Probably the best option for the simple upgrade and can be found for about 330 USD on ebay last I've seen.

Fastest RAM you can use is 2133Mhz DDR3 with 32GB RAM being the max RAM. Kind of expensive though.

4930mx is the best CPU on average. 4Ghz is usually achievable for most people. Most go higher than that but requires more knowledge of the machine.

Then there is the 5 pipe GPU heatsink and 4 pipe CPU heatsink for better cooling usually 100 USD together.

You can also get the M17x R4 GPU fan for more airflow on the GPU side, plugnPLay no modding needed. The CPU side can use the m14x R2 fan but requires a little bit of modding, much better airflow though.

 

This card came out of the asrock deskmini 1080. It is a Aetina brand 1080 and as far as I know the only way to get one. I tried it with about 30 bios and it always power throttled due to the lack of power through the R1 board. It has the supplemental connection which may get it over the hump. Anyone want to give it a try? @Striker1234 @TheReciever @VoodooBane

 

We can try it with following the old post of a german guy who make use of the external power.

I can try it!

 

http://alienware-forum.de/index.php...eady-GTX-980-N16E-GXX/?postID=69530#post69530

Here is the link...

You may give it a try!!!

 

I no longer have the card unfortunately.

 

That was exactly what I was going to say.

Its very likely the only way to get the 1080 working properly in our systems, is a 1080 that actually draws supplement power from external source vs the MXM slot

@EepoSaurus
Im still on board for the mobo, I am just waiting for confirmation on my new job before I pull the trigger. Background checks and what not.

 

Well damn. I was late to the party lolol

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What party?

 

The 1080 Ranger party lol

Do we have a list of machines with supplemental 1080's?

It looks like the guy that made the mod spliced a connector off the AC power in before it hits the motherboard. What wires go where is where I am completely ignorant, however.

 

From the pics it seems to go under the motherboard into the AC socket

As for supplemental power 1080's you're limited to the Aetina and maybe the MSI one with lots of modding

 

Just checked the resolution settings, this screen can only refresh at 60hz.

Regarding the 5 pipeGPU Heatsink and the 4 pipe CPU Heatsink, are they purchased as AW 17x r5 parts or they should be AW 17x r4 parts? Or you meant just the fan should be one of an r4!

I am trying to attach a few images of options I found online and of my current Heatsinks, but I am not sure where the attachment option is on this forum..

 

One more thing please, is the number of pins differs, if I to install a 120hz screen on my AW r1 2014 model?

If it is different, how did you guys fix this?

 

It is 100% going to be different, the 60hz screen uses a LVDS connecter vs the eDP connecter of the 120hz panel. You will need to buy a new cable if the 120hz screen you buy doesn't come with one, but the motherboard has both connecters

 

Thanks for the tip Grant! That is what I was wondering about, whether I will need a different connector or not.

By the way, If I am to upgrade my AW 17x r1, and when you wanna buy a new screen. Do you search for it under screen for AW 17 r4 or what fit/model?

Regards

 

There is a thread for that in this forum.

 

Thanks "TheReceiver"!
Yes, so far I have found and read a lot about the pros and cons of FHD, UHD and the QHD screens. It is very interesting. But not sure yet what to get, that fits on the AW r1 without headache!

 

Will do more reading.

 

that would be the 120hz 3d edp screen that was offered by dell straight from the factory....only way to go if you want to run a pascal card

 

or the N173HHE-G32 panel but point remaining the same, eDP required.

 

Guy asked "without a headache", you still have to remove the bezel, remove screws, align panel, check for bleed, etc if you want to go that route. just swap the factory edp panel and be done with it, it's a decent panel in its own right.

 

Fair point.

Though (and no offense to the guy) it looks like the process will create headache regardless.

I kind of liked the 120hz 3D panel but light bleed and glossy panel kind of killed it for me. I hope the G32 panel will be a noticeable improvement.

 

1000000% true, and I'm tired of it, simply retired from the scene and moved on. Simply not worth the headache any longer