Alienware 17 R1 -> Upgrade to 980M, 4Gb or 8Gb?

I've been looking at selling my Ranger and buying a newer Alienware but it seems the build quality of the newer designs are all flawed. Decided to upgrade my 860M to a 980M (got a 60Hz screen and want to keep Optimus).

I've read tons of threads that it is an easy upgrade, with the odd spattering of issues but I want to know whether it's better to go for the 4Gb or the 8Gb version.

Has anyone upgraded to the 8Gb card?

 

4GB models are increasingly rare

 

There are a couple of 4Gb ones on ebay pulled from MSI models. Wasn't sure if an 8Gb is a better choice or whether it has overheating problems/installation issues.

 

The 8gb one will be fine but you're best to grab the 4 or 5 pipe custom heatsink that some guy in the US sells on ebay.

 

You'd be best off getting the non gSync variant of the 980m (hardware-id should be 13d7, not 1617). Otherwise you are predestined to running into unnecessary trouble.

 

noone lists them as beeing gsync or not, is there a way to tell which is it?

seems like ill be opting for a 980 as well, too much money down the hole already so no 1070, no 120 hz. display...
seen one with 4 gb, thought it was a mistake

 

Cheers m18x. Didn't realise the gync ones could cause misery. Difficult to tell which is which from ebay pics.

 

Only way I know and to be 100% sure is by requesting the hardware id from the seller.

As far as I know GSync cards are somehow "watermarked" to corresponding display counterparts, where our models were never whitelisted. Thus an upgrade with these is doomed to fail as I'd read in the past due to the card not behaving properly, eg black screens after POST, no POST just beeps and some other strange behavior.

 

Ah, that explains some of threads where people have had problems and diagnosed faulty cards. It looks like something I initially thought was relatively straightforward, is turning into a bit more of a headache.

 

Yeah with the right card it's less headaches. Though the 980m still sometimes is a bit tricky when upgrading, but worth it if you wanna keep ya ol' lady running.

 

Looking at some of the later designs, it's easy to see how Dell started to cut corners and push people to buy the more expensive versions because of the lack of upgradability. Despite having to replace a motherboard, everything else has worked perfectly so thought I may as well upgrade it and keep it for a few more years. Didn't think it was worth getting a 1060, new screen and edp cable.

 

apparently this would be a way to identify nongsync model

 

Excellent find!

 

Ah yes, that seems to be looking good, I knew something had been there in the past, but couldn't remember exactly.