Alienware 17 GPU Upgrade Options

Hello people,

This seems like the best forum on the Internet for these type of questions so I'm hoping some of you awesome and knowledgeable people can help me work out what options I have. I'll try to be as thorough as possible!

I have an Alienware 17 R1, exact model number is - X5102AR4AU-Alienware 17

Specs as follows:
Intel i7-4710MQ processor
32GB Dual Channel DDR3L 1600MHz (4x8GB)
256GB mSATA SSD Boot + 1TB 5400RPM SATA 6Gb/s
AMD Radeon R9 M290X with 4GB GDDR5

I was also smart enough to make sure they gave me the 240W adapter (they originally offered me the 180W) because I've read here many times before that the stronger adapter is needed for certain upgrades.

So recently, I purchased a second hand G-Sync Monitor, an ASUS ROG pg278q which is awesome and all, but I can't even get the full 144hz on my AMD card which annoys me (it gets to 120), a while back it was on 144hz but I'm pretty sure after some driver upgrade it reverted to a 120hz max and also, I'm obviously missing out on the G-Sync aspect.


So here's my question...

I'm considering upgrading to a GTX 9-60/70/80M, so I can get the full use of my monitor.

Is a 960M any better than a R9 M290X? Or do I need to get a 970 minimum to appreciate the difference?

If I did want to change to a, say, GTX 970M, what process is roughly involved? Can I just buy the card, install it, and be good to go? Or is there a lot more to it than that?

Thanks!

 

Get the 970m or 980m, not 960m... You will need modified inf file for the drivers every time you want to update the graphics driver. These can be found on Techinferno forums courtesy of J95 along with the instructions on how to properly install them.

I believe you will find this thread helpful:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/alienware-17x-r4-970m-upgrade.767872/

It is about 970m upgrade in R4, but many things will still be relevant - thermal pad placement etc.

 

- a 780M is better than the R9 M290X.
- g-sync is nvidia only and only does up 75fps. why you mixing it with AMD?
- a 970M will set you back around $600 while the 980M will set you back about $800-900.

you may as well upgrade the LCD panel in the laptop to 120hz too

you'll definitely see a marked improvement when it comes to performance and lower temps.

 

Thank you I'll check this out!

 

I'm planning to use this with my 27" Asus G-Sync monitor, so not to fussed about the built in LCD.

Is the 970M significantly better than the M290X? Is it a worthwhile upgrade, or am I realistically better off waiting a year or two before I upgrade GPU's at which point I can change to an Nvidia card and get the benefits?

 

Yes, a 970m is better.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

The 980M is about twice as fast as the 780M so the 970M should be about twice as fast as the M290X.

edit: There are some Firestrike numbers here comparing all the cards: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-970M.126694.0.html

 

Thanks for the link, from that I can see the 970M is definitely a big upgrade.

If only mobile GPU's weren't so expensive, haha.

 

that's how it is....but whatevs!