Alienware M17X R2 GPU Best Upgrade Options (GTX 680M or 7970M) and Questions

Guess that is the best you can do for now. Bigs ups though for actually getting the GTX 880M running (aside the HD audio issue) in the golden M17X R2. You might just be the first user to have done so.

Let us know how the gaming performance is.


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If you dont get SLI running in your R-2 with the 680's, it is not even remotely close to the fastest R2 GPU.
My 7970M in crossfire will run circles around the single 680M since they are quite close when running alone.
My benchmark tests are in my signature. And i dont even have the fastest 7970M rig out there.
The GPU's will outperform any M17's (all with single GPU) no matter what GPU you have and how you overclock it atm.

3DMark 11 graphics tests above 15 K has been performed by others, In firestrike there has been GPU benching above 11K for some. I have been close to both and im needing a dual 330W to push it harder, and im not going to bother since dual supply would be for scores only, and no usage advantage atm. The CPU will be the weak link eventually anyways. (if they cant make mantle work in our R2 when we use crossfire 7970m not sure it will be given much effort)

 

Trome aqcoehlo installed a 880gtx . If one works then two 880gtx in sli might be possible.

He currently has a problem with his sound. Maybe we should help him solve this. 880gtx sli is 30% faster than our 7970m crossfire

 

I would love to run SLI GTX 680M. Only got a single GTX 680M running on my M17X R2. I don't know of many (if not at all) M17X R2 users getting SLI to work on their rig with any GTX 600M or greater series to work though. Any ideas?


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It could be an upgrade worth while if we get the speed out For me its not about who makes the cards But not so sure we eventually "hit the wall" CPU vice and its an expensive thing if you dont get the extra speed due to CPU limits?
In todays games for our setups, its CPU restricting me. (and vertical sync @ 60 Hz)

But from what ive read there has been quite the experiment by many to do 680SLI without success. I remember flingin did quite a bit of work on this, and with no go, before he settled for the 7970M.
Is there a bigger chance of getting SLI on 880 compared to the 680?

 

It might be different but more likely not . It does have a different core technology I believe, Haswell against Kppler but usually change is a bad thing for older models .

We'll only know for sure if aqcoelho gets some serious spare cash in the near future .

 

If anything the 880m and 780m dislike non optimus systems less.

 

You are all correct guys but as an IT professional with 17 years of pro experience i know that combatibility is pure luck.
I mean maybe the 680 (normal and sli) didnt work right but maybe the 880 will work . Its not just the gpu itself but the whole logic around it, even the different versions of the mxm cards from various manufacturers change compatibility.

Actually single one works already as aqcoehlo shows us. We just have to try and help him with the sound issue. Actually i think he should make a new thread named "troubleshooting the 880m gtx in the alienware m17x R2" . And we should all brainstorm in there to help him. After he has the 880gtx stable we can see/speculate/try the sli option.

Trome71 i agree, i dont care what brand the card is . All that matters is the speed and stability. But benches show that 880sli is 30% faster than 7970m crossfire and 22% faster than 8970m crossfire.
So the speed might be worth it.

Concerning the Cpu bottleneck. Well beleive it in crysis 3 ultra settings my cards work 95-99% so the cpu is not the bottleneck. (i run all cores at 3ghz) . Hawken is the same . . Now it all depends in the game so new games might change that (i read bf4 is more cpu core hungry)

By the way has anyone installed a 8870m in our R2s?

 

I wonder if a 330W adapter would suffice for GTX 880M SLI and an i7 940XM. Aside the power issue, what makes the SLI GTX 600M series or better not work with the M17X R2?


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330W is probably enough for 880 in SLI since its enough with the 7970M's. Isnt it apx 100w?


But is it 30% faster at same effect? If it is then it could be worth it. If it needs more power, then im stuck at where we are since i cannot even OC the 7970M's before hitting a snag.
( i know they seriously overclock the 880's in M18's, but that needs 2*330 to work properly)

 

The benchmarks on the net show that 880gtx sli is 30% faster than 7970m crossfire and 23 % faster than 8870m crossfire... So they have us ati funboys cornered ....

 

Unless an OEM states a device will work you're spot on (20 yrs ) O/P may like to have a browse from post #82 in this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...0m-780m-questions-concerns-9.html#post9513377, might give a couple of things to try

 

They are 100W only when running stock clocks with a stock vBIOS; the latter of which means a GPU that throttles and delivers far less than great performance. Even 680M draws more than 100W when pushed harder. I built my dual 330W setup for 680M SLI originally because it was more than a single 330W AC adapter could handle effectively. I did not even have 780M SLI at that time. Running stock or mild OC (up to roughly 1.0GHz on GPU core speed) is fine for 330W even with 780M SLI. Above 1.0GHz and 1.050V a 330W adapter starts to fizzle out with 680M and 780M SLI.

The situation is worse with Haswell. The new Alienware 18 clocked at 4.5GHz with the 4930MX, the CPU draws 130-140W and does not benefit from the dual 330W adapter (system turns off at the same point as a single 330W adapter due to motherboard power handling limits). The 3920/3940XM seldom exceeds 100W overclocked at 4.8GHz.

As you are contemplating upgrades, bear in mind that 780M/880M GPUs are basically 130W+ cards if you intend to overclock, so you have not only increased power demand, but also thermals, that you need to plan on managing if you want to get most those video cards have to offer. With beefy heat sinks, top notch thermal paste and howling fans running at max RPM, it's not hard to hit 90°C on the GPU core with these cards overclocked. This is going to demand more from everything, including the motherboard and PCIe slot(s) in your system. If you have to gimp the power and clock things down, performance will naturally suffer.

The parts alone are expensive enough that it needs to be treated mainly as a project undertaken for the sake of enjoying modding fun. I say this only because it's getting harder to extract all the performance the parts have to offer, even on a platform designed around these GPUs from the beginning. The laptop manufacturers (all of them) are doing a poor job of keeping up with the GPUs, so we are seeing gimped GPU firmware to compensate for the rest of the laptop being gimped. As a consequence, we see them churning out crap that delivers more bark (fancy specs) than bite (actual results).

 

I'm curious about the rumoured AMD 28nm maxwell equivalent rumoured to be a 256 bit notebook capable chip.

Always best to remember that early AMD silicon is always the best quality.

 

Small question. Since there are a lot of people here wanting to do SLi configs with newer cards, I was wondering if anyone would like to buy my moded 300W PSU for the m17xr2. I also have like 3 regular 240W power supplies I need to unload.
I have changed laptops, and got this and several other parts available.

 

The power demand for the 880M GTX was something i read in another thread where you had participated before MrFox thats why I asked about power consumption.

Without modding the cards, ive also read that they arent fantastic because of the throttling and perhaps not a big upgrade from the 7970M when the 880's are using the standard VBIOS keeping it to 100W?

Not sure its worth the hassle investing since my normal use would be one single supply (out of mobility reasons) and that would need me to underclock the 880's to keep the PSU on top, and im then back to perhaps same performance as today?

Fyi
My CPU needs to run about 100W to get full GPU performance so im close to full usage of the 330W already stock clock.

 

If I was you I wouldn't consider 880M sli as a worthwhile upgrade to 7970M crossfire, sure 880M sli is better, but not that noticeable, next gen is where it's at if you want to see a noticeable difference in games. That's a waiting game!

 

How are your temperatures when gaming? Really curious.


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How is your modded 300W PSU? Do you mean 330W? Would love to buy.


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Hello everybody ,

so i am lloking for a new gpu for my R2, i run an hd 4870m actually, pretty impressive card , can still run BF4 ! ( yea extra low setting .... )

So for my budget it's one gtx 680 or one HD 7970m, at first i was going for an 7970 but i have heard a lot of things about it, cheap and break easely, drivers are pain in the a**, video output not working or just hdmi without sound ect ect ....

The 680m work great apparently, pretty much plug and play, fan regulation, run cooler, great oc potential, but can't do sli ...

I have also heard about 580m sli using hyper sli hack, i presume it have already been tested ? If yes, what's the problem ? If it's just the gpu id not listed in the software, why does not simply flash an modified vbios with 580m instead of 680m name ?

Sli or corssfire is not in my plan for now, maybe in 6 month or later, it seem that the 780m and more will not be supported , amd is doing crap with renamed gpu ... I think 680m will keep some value in time, more than the 7970m anyway so if there no newer gpu later i am screwed with only single gpu with 680m ...

I have a single gpu version m17x , so i will have to buy an seconf gpu fan, heatsink and sli/crossfire câbles , another 70 euros.


I don't know what to choose ....

 

Not important for me what you choose but seems you have been skipping reading the entire thread for information.
If you run 7970M dell card with dell VBIOS your sound will be problemfree. HDMI works perfectly.
I did this for quite a while, but not now while running Clevo, i get HDMI without sound. This is upgraded for performance in mind when benchmarking my computer. I can get sound too, but then i need to slow down my 7970M's. (dell VBIOS also work in crossfire but at stock speed it could cause stuttering, undercloced and undervolted it will still outperform any NVIDIA card in the R2 and give you full HDMI support and make your cards live very long. )
Also, drivers is absolutely no problem with AMD. It is more than 2 years since AMD had driver issues for the 7970M, and that was mostly for crossfire, it is now resolved. (no need to worry about this sort of issue if you choose NVIDA that doesnt give you SLI anyways.)
If you take 10 mins reading about later driver releases, there has not been anyone other than clueless NVIDA owners complaining about AMD drivers remembering the past. It is the past and the drivers are now for me atleast problemfree, and since you didnt have the card 2 years ago, why make that an argument now? If you really want DELL drivers, then you are farked regardless, since they dont upgrade the drivers for the R2 anymore anyways.


Not having crossfire right now you probably also dont have a 240W PSU.
You need it from one card upgrade regardless of GPU upgrade.
Getting crossfire you have to add a 330W PSU and kill a 240 PSU in the process.

When it comes to you and BF4. Changing GPU might not make you home free.
The 720 CPU will break your performance. But on a positive note for you, the general thought about mantle is get the GPU supporting weaker CPU's. In BF4, mantle does normally help. It gives performance boosts on some systems with underperforming CPU's. Not sure how it will help your 720 since i havent read about this setup and mantle.

 

Thanks for the answer

I have read this tread at my office, so i might have miss some infos, all the thread i have seen was talking about those audio outpout problem , but yea there are pretty old, glad to see it work now.

That's why i was a bit worried about driver, i want the lastest , or at least not a 3 year old driver ... If the new drivers work without problem it's good for me

I have an 240 W PSU, and the last owner had change it recently so it will work at least at 240, i expect ... I have read that the delta's PSU are stronger , i have an flextronic

I have seen that the 330W might be not enough with an 7970m crossfire and xm overclocked cpu , the dual 240 will be the solution but a bit ugly in my mind , i like the "oem" aspect of 330watt modded psu and i have the skill to do the mod. I have seen that the 330 W can push near 400 W , is it only on bench or it can do the same plugged in a m17xr2 ?

Actually the 720 run at 40/50% load with the 4870m , but the gpu is on full load permanetly and i have disabled all the physic effect ... , i will see but an 920xm is in my plan , just not today , i have got an desktop rig so i am not in emergency. Those parts are not so new but still a bit expensive , when i see the price for desktop parts in used condition ...



PS : i am sorry for my english ..

 

The low BF4 load is probably also due to the low settings. Im overclocking my 920 CPU and its still my limit in BF4, For 7970M crossfire the mantle is not perfection in the R2. Only for single card.

330 is good enough for crossfire, but not if you want to oveclock both the GPU's. I use it and has worked for me with my CPU @ apx 100W which is quite heavy load on the CPU stock GPU's.

Also for the M18's they need dual PSU to be able to overclock the GPU's. They then use dual 330W btw. Dual 240 doesnt really mean 480W so it might not be much of an upgrade from single 330W.

If you want to upgrade the 330, do the plug mod instead of the PSU mod. Its more versatile. Ive done the PSU mod.

 

Actually i have an gtx 480 in my desktop rig , wich is pretty the same as 7970m in performance i think , some time ago i had an 3 way of these and this was totally useless ... I don't think i will need to oc 7970s , and maybe it's dangerous for the power line on motherboard , there are designed for 75 W per card if i am right , when the new generation of gpu will come they wil use less power i expect , so i will do the 330W mod with the plug ( thanks for the idea ).

The cpu limits is a bit annoying , i will see in the future how it go ... I really like how the m17x r2 look , the newest are too "platic" for me , and the m18x are too expensive ...

Ok, so for now i will start with one 7970m and mantle to help a bit the cpu, an 920xm in some time with an 330W psu.

Thanks for the help

+rep

 

For BF4 i think performance vice the 7970M is as good as the 680M if not better. Partially because of mantle but also that BF4 works good with AMD.

For other programs the 680M will be better.
Price is lower on the 7970 i guess, and its easier to make work I think.

How they last i dont know. I have ruined one 7970M but that was my own fault. The other 2 has been great.

Check out what AMD VBIOS you buy. Read this guide first. Also tips for normal single 7970M.

 

Very usefull thread :thumbsup:

Yep, 7970m are nearly 100 € cheaper , almost 220 € + shipping taxe for me , thanks to €/$.

I will buy one on tuesday i think , i will keep this thread updated about the result.

 

but question is, what 7970M did you buy?

There are clevo's, Dell's and MSI's with different advantages and disadvantages and potential VBIOS issues.

MSI = no crossfire.
Clevo = No HDMI sound.
Dell = fan control and perhaps also performance. (overclocking limits it may seem) Can be helped performance vice with Clevo VBIOS then Dell = Clevo

 

It's an dell card, i will see how much i can get of it in oc, i already use hw infos for monitoring , i will just have to ad an fan profile , i have seen that is doesn't run at boot, i will have to open fan control at every boot. Someone has tryed msi afterburner instead ? It run pretty well on desktop for fan control.

 

I use HW info.
Hopefully your card will be021 VBIOS since its dell.

If not it can be difficult to upgrade VBIOS.
There should be more about this in the thread from sangemaru.

 

Anybody else got the GTX 880M to work on the M17X R2? The other guy that got it to work hasn't updated on the performance and stability of the GTX 880M on the M17X R2. SLV7 has already recently provided a GTX 880M 8GB modded VBIOS if anyone is interested.

 

Nice to see 880M working. But i doubt SLI will work too.
In my eyes R2 will shine only with AMD cards since they do not require SLI cert to work.

880M would be a good option for those wanting just a single card, sound is not an issue, i would not use HDMI sound even if i could, just because i am using external DAC for Hi Quality music. Onboard sound is always S%$!^

Even if you get 880M SLI to work in it, then 330W adapter may not be enough, as 880M TDP is 122W and 920XM consumes 2x more power than newest gen XM CPUs EASY with ThrottleStop

I am looking forward to see AMD releasing something ...fresh, not any rebrands, too much of rebrands lightly....it might be even 5% slower than 880M, and 15% quicker than 7970M AKA 8979M AKA R290M


.....and i will buy 2 then.....

And this will be probably my last R2 upgrade, if it ever happens.

Time for new laptop in a 1yr or 2...so sad...

 

Copy paste from crossfire thread :

Ok so , i have try putting the card on the slave slot with my 4870 in master slot , the computer failed to post , two light flashing , schrol lock and Maj , so an gpu problem ...

I am fu**ed ? Uefi Vbios or something like this ?


Edit : Try it in master slot , it works !! I re-install windows and i see exactly what vbios type is in.

 

Sorry, I really dont know, I dont use anymore the laptop for games, just using to work.. 3D and video stuff..

 

You still selling your modded 330W power brick?


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Hello,

I am looking to upgrade but can't figure out what to upgrade to.

I want a card that's under 300 euro, which has autofan working, HDMI with sound and Display port working.

Anything you can recommend?

 

Hey guys,
I may have discovered serendipitoustly how to run/boot up 7970m v1.1 every time without white screen.
Stay tuned

 

Interesting, bios or vbios?

 

It seems to be hardware related.

At the moment for the last 3 weeks doing this method works every time.
However, when I remove these I will get the white bleach start up on boot.

I will continue to test more vigorously to see if the white bleach start-up returns.
At the moment though it's perfect not a single bleach screen in three weeks of boot-ups with the 7970m and m17xr2.

Will update shortly with what I have discovered.

 

So let me get this straight in my head. All I have to do is download the latest driver file from NVidia.com. Run it, let it fail, take J96's file straight off of these forums. Replace the nvdmi file, run the setup and it should install? It has not worked for me and I do not know what im doing wrong. Any advice?

 

It should work if he's included all the correct strings for the different laptops and cards in the modded inf file, and it sounds like that might not be the case from what you're saying. You could try using a modded inf from this website (which I used to use): LaptopVideo2Go: Drivers
You paste the inf into the correct folder and then run the setup program as normal - should work hopefully.