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    Alienware 17 765m 3d about to install the 780m

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by Micky 32, Aug 10, 2014.

  1. Micky 32

    Micky 32 Notebook Guru

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    My 17 built April 2014 came with the 765m. Going to install the 780m as i now finally found a 3 pipe heatsink. Physichally i can do it no probs but is there anything i need to do software wise before i swap, like remove the 765m driver etc? Any tips would be appreciated..
     
    Micky 32, Aug 10, 2014
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  2. MickyD1234

    MickyD1234 Notebook Prophet

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    I left my driver in place and after the upgrade it just defaulted to low res. Changed it in the NV control panel and all good. I'm curious about a 765m being in a 3D AW? I thought dell only used the top-of-the-line when selling 3D/120hz models? Should be a straightforward plug & play swap as long as dell used the 780m in your model for 3D.
     
    MickyD1234, Aug 10, 2014
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  3. DDDenniZZZ

    DDDenniZZZ Notebook Deity

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    Should be plug and play, I have the same spec and the 780m is a great card.
    If any issues just do a driver reinstall if its not working for any reason.
     
    DDDenniZZZ, Aug 10, 2014
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  4. Micky 32

    Micky 32 Notebook Guru

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    Thanks for the replies, Yeah mine came 3d with the 765m from factory, works quite well with it. My new OEM Dell 780m card came with only one strip of thermal pad for the 4 chips on the back side of the card. Do i need to get more pads for the chips on the front side of the card?
     
    Micky 32, Aug 10, 2014
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  5. J.Dre

    J.Dre Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Definitely grab a Dell 780M and svl7's vBIOS from TechInferno forums. The performance will be outstanding.

    Let us know how it goes.
     
    J.Dre, Aug 10, 2014
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  6. Branzy1987

    Branzy1987 Notebook Evangelist

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    I stayed with the 2pipe heatsink from gtx 770m, I hope to see how your 3 pipe heatsink will do with temps, it will be only plug and play. good luck
     
    Branzy1987, Aug 10, 2014
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  7. MickyD1234

    MickyD1234 Notebook Prophet

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    You should reuse the original pads between the card and heatsink. If you buy the original heatsink from dell it should have all the pads and paste in-place. Otherwise this is the 680m and it should be very similar. http://downloads.eurocom.com/support/drivers/zip/Alienware/6xxm/680M thermal pad placement.jpg

    The pads are not all the same thickness so make sure they contact the heatsink, the thin strips at the top of this example are thicker than the others and supply cooling to the hottest part of the card outside of the core - the VRM's and are very important :).

    Good luck.
     
    MickyD1234, Aug 10, 2014
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  8. Micky 32

    Micky 32 Notebook Guru

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    Are the Dell GPU's green? My 780m is green and has Dell literature, however looking in at my 765m from underneath looks more like a blue card.. anything to be concerened about?
     
    Micky 32, Aug 12, 2014
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  9. MogRules

    MogRules Notebook Deity

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    Pretty sure my 780m is also green so no worries there. As everyone else has stated you should be good to go and everything so by plug and play and boot up just fine as the 780m was an option for your model so you shouldn't see anything unexpected.
     
    MogRules, Aug 12, 2014
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  10. Micky 32

    Micky 32 Notebook Guru

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    Well the transition went well, truly plug and play, even the heatsink came with the thermal pads and paste. Switched it on and all i had to do was update the driver. Seems to be working well but is there any good way of testing it?
     
    Micky 32, Aug 13, 2014
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  11. J.Dre

    J.Dre Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Play some games. Run 3DMark 11. Have fun, stop worrying! :D
     
    J.Dre, Aug 13, 2014
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  12. MickyD1234

    MickyD1234 Notebook Prophet

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    That's great to hear. I always recommend getting a new heatsink if funds allow. So much easier and stress free!

    Get MSIAfterburner and Heaven 4 bench. Even the dell techs use this one ATM for stress testing. Run at max and also try 3D (in the options) to see the 'hit'.

    Setup the monitors in Afterburner that you want to appear in the on-screen-display, watch clocks, temps, and FPS. Then you can watch this stuff during real gaming.

    You can use afterburner to add an OC but I don't know the max that dell allow on the 780m :(. I use NvidiaInspector for clock settings.
     
    MickyD1234, Aug 13, 2014
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  13. Branzy1987

    Branzy1987 Notebook Evangelist

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    I am curious also, try to install hwinfo64 and run 3dmark11 and make a screenshot to see temps :p
     
    Branzy1987, Aug 13, 2014
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  14. Micky 32

    Micky 32 Notebook Guru

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    Done the Heaven 4 test and here's the result, temp seem to hover approx 73 ish degrees C throughout the test..

    [​IMG]
     
    Micky 32, Aug 13, 2014
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  15. MickyD1234

    MickyD1234 Notebook Prophet

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    Thanks, that's great. Did you try 3D? The temp is great for a 780m from what I have read.

    You might have adaptive V-sync on (in driver?). The max is curiously the same as the cap. That will improve numbers quite a bit if I'm right?
     
    MickyD1234, Aug 13, 2014
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  16. J.Dre

    J.Dre Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    J.Dre, Aug 13, 2014
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  17. Micky 32

    Micky 32 Notebook Guru

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    I did the basic 3D mark 11 set to benchmark tests only:

    Graphics : 7730
    Physics : 9061
    Conbined : 6401
     
    Micky 32, Aug 13, 2014
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  18. Branzy1987

    Branzy1987 Notebook Evangelist

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    max temp in 3dmark?
     
    Branzy1987, Aug 13, 2014
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  19. DDDenniZZZ

    DDDenniZZZ Notebook Deity

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    Looks a bit low to me, nothing too bad though, your CPU overclocked at all? I run mine at stock since it can hold turbo properly. The BIOS OC is not stable.
     
    DDDenniZZZ, Aug 13, 2014
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  20. J.Dre

    J.Dre Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    J.Dre, Aug 13, 2014
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  21. Micky 32

    Micky 32 Notebook Guru

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    Thanks for the replies, have to post 5 times before it lets me download the link...
     
    Micky 32, Aug 13, 2014
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