Alienware M17x R2 running a GTX 675MX

Hey there Peeps, :hi2:

Just thought I would share my latest GPU venture. I'm still awaiting news about the GTX 680MX however for now this shall have to suffice lol.

Fans run fine and automatically without the need for HWINFO which is always a nice little bonus.

Other observations I have seen are that it runs extremely cool. Around 30 Degrees idle and tops out at around 80 odd degrees depending on the situation.

Now I would normally upload a pic of GPU-z however it crashes every time I try to run that program. I mean that GPU-z crashes out and won't load properly. No biggy for now.

I've included a few pics showing stock 3d mark 11 and Vantage runs and a slight OC on the GPU benchmark runs of the same 2 again.

Cheers.



http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/237/asduv.jpg

 

Congrats on the new card bud!!

 

awesome, that is a serious upgrade for the R2 (such a golden model/revision)

 

Pretty nice numbers there.

 

NIce man! Thats definately a great folding@home GPU! Nvidia is awesome for folding. Keep up the great work! Makes me miss my R2!

 

Nice one reborn!

I'm thinking either to upgrade or to purchase an R4 or M18xR2 since the wife gave me permission .. still a month to decide

@DR... i may have missed something, what happend with your R2

 

Nice one chief! Looks to be a solid upgrade.

Sent from my GT-N7000

 

I traded the R2 for the Clevo in my sig. Sad to let it go though.

 

Wow... nice!! I want that vbios

And yeah, the latest Nvidia vbios files crash GPU-Z, Nvidia Inspector and similar programs. It's the same with the latest 680m vbios. If I had to guess I'd say it's a problem with the nvapi, which those tools probably use.

 

Wow, this is great, offers a very good and efficient bang for the buck option

 

Just sent you the vbios!

Have fun :thumbsup:

HINT - I wouldn't mind trying out a modded vbios by you with clocks set at
Core 800Mhz and MEM 2100 and another slightly higher @
Core 900Mhz and MEM 2200 and
one with Voltage boosted if possible and you can go crazy with this one lol.

Thanks.

Cheers.

Running Svl7's unlocked vbios now.

Taking it for a test drive.

Generic VGA video card benchmark result - Intel(R) Core(TM) CPU X 920 @ 2.00GHz,Alienware score: P5840 3DMarks

Test 2 with a bit more boost in core clock.
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5133735



Cheers.

 

Nice! is the vbios overvolted? Temps look really good!

 

Not yet overvolted yet man. Just working out the kinks now.
There are some driver instabilities with Overvolting Svl7 said with the latest beta Nvidia GPU drivers

Your right though temps are amazing lol.
I figured I'd play around with the new GPU since folding is quite the downer today with the shocking PPD lol.

Cheers.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5134345

Boosted MEM clocks slightly http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5134437



2nd Tweaked Vbios by Svl7.

A quick 3d mark 11 run as requested.

Generic VGA video card benchmark result - Intel(R) Core(TM) CPU X 920 @ 2.00GHz,Alienware score: P6117 3DMarks

Cheers.

 

Looking good. That's about what the 680m gets at stock... right?

 

It is, wow. I am impressed. Did you install this yourself aftermarket? I don't see any "MX" GPU's available

If the 680MX does become available, I'd say it's going to be a hell of an improvement. I would love to see it for the M18x.

 

I have seen clevo cards.

Nice scores, to be honest I am surprised the gap is as large as that between the 680M at those speeds as the 675MX, but for the price still excellent performance.

 

Thanks peeps.

I haven't really pushed the limits yet lol.

Going to try and see if I can when I get a bit of time here and there.
Good times again lol benching something new HAHA!!!

Generic VGA video card benchmark result - Intel(R) Core(TM) CPU X 920 @ 2.00GHz,Alienware score: P6261 3DMarks



Cheers.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5142399 Throttling @ +405Mhz core OC

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5142522 Seems to run okay @ +395Mhz core OC

 

Some more new quick random benches.
New tests with boosting the MEM on the GPU to crazy high numbers like what our buddy did in his Clevo lol.

Generic VGA video card benchmark result - Intel(R) Core(TM) CPU X 920 @ 2.00GHz,Alienware score: P6252 3DMarks
+390Mhz Core clock OC
+500Mhz MEM Clock OC

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5160063
+390Mhz Core clock OC
+700 MEM lol.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5160171
+390Mhz Core clock OC
+752Mhz MEM Clock OC

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5160263 = Throttling with MEM set too high now lol
+390Mhz Core clock OC
+804Mhz MEM Clock OC

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5160308
+390Mhz Core clock OC
+775Mhz MEM Clock OC

Cheers.

Yes Bud,

Installed it myself aftermarket.
I too would like to get my hands on the GTX 680MX. However I'm not holding my breath atm.

Cheers.

 

OMG man, that is awesome score for 675MX only !!! Im amused I was in between getting 675MX or 7970m and stepped on to 7970m due to knowing it will work in my MSI GT683R ... very well done! REP!!! +++

 

Nice ..... I bought a GTX675MX from Razors Edge by Eurocom and cannot get it working in my M17x R3....any help would be appreciated.

 

Hey M17xboyz,

What seems to be the issue?

Does the GPU not get picked up or recognised?
Are you not able to install the Nvidia Driver?

What have you tried so far?

Cheers.

 

Hey reborn....I installed the card into the laptop twice and when I go to install the driver they gave me which is a modded Nvidia driver it says that it cannot complete installation as no compatible device found. I really have no idea why it will not install. I am wondering myself. GPU-Z shows the card though. I do have the 3D model though. Could that be the problem.....???

 

Now if Only Alienware will start having the 670mx or 675mx as options for the M17x R4.

 

120hz screen is the major pain in the butt

 

It could be, have you tried one of the latest sets with a modified inf from laptopvideo2go.com?

 

Heck yeah! Considering that the GTX 680M is around $900 for the whole setup, the GTX 675MX only costs $475 for the upgrade kit off Ebay. Half priced for 80% of the performance? Win.

 

Nvidia is always like this, just look at the 670 and 680 desktop, small performance difference, large price difference.

Just in this case it took ages for the more reasonable price option to come forward.

Would also have been nice to see an even cheaper 7950M too and put pressure just above the 660M.

 

My understanding from talking to Eurocom is I have to use the driver they gave me. I would I use the modded inf from lv2g? I use to use them a long time ago on my xps 17 but it has been a long time and now it is different. Any help would be awesome as I would really like to upgrade this from the 560M just cannot get it figured out.....

 

Hey Champ,

So if you do install the driver that Eurocom gave you to begin with does it install and work?
If so we can then work around to getting you updated to the latest 310.70 Beta Nvidia GPU driver.

Cheers.

 

Hey everyone, just thought I'd post my scores with the 675MX and i7-3630QM. Same stock and oc'ed clocks as OP.

OP, it looks like you got me beat on the GPU score, but why is my Physics score a lot higher?

 

Your CPU,PhysicX runs on it......As a footnote been using 310.70 drivers and they cured the brightness control problem.

 

reborn2003, I upgraded my M17x R2 with a 675MX with the same exact vBIOS that you have pictured (80.04.58.00.05). Unfortunately I'm having a couple issues with mine.

1. Whenever I reboot my laptop (auto or manual) it hangs at a black screen and never even shows the POST. I always have to turn my laptop off and then on again to get it to boot - and when I press the power button in this state to turn it off it turns off immediately with no delay (I don't have to hold 5+ seconds). I've tried resetting the BIOS back to factory defaults and unplugging the BIOS battery to no avail. I even tried reflashing with no success.
2. The automatic fan control doesn't work for me. I ran FurMark and my GPU got to 85 degrees and the fan didn't even move from 2500RPM. I quickly closed FurMark so I didn't cook the GPU. I can use HWiNFO but would like to get automatic fan control working if I can.

I am running the factory A10 BIOS. Any ideas on what may be wrong?

 

Hmmm Darklight_tr,

That is very strange indeed.

With mine I just installed it plug and play. Ran the drivers disk they had supplied with the package and it all just worked automatically. Very strange indeed.
I'm not really too sure to be honest. It really should just work plug and play.

Which drivers are you currently running?
Have you been able to update to the latest Nvidia GPU drivers?

Cheers.

 

Thanks for the reply. I was able to mod the 310.70 drivers (the latest ones at this time) and am running those.

Other than the two issues I mentioned, the card is running great! If I can't solve them I won't be that upset as I can work around them. I just find it interesting that your M17x R2 has no problem with basically the same card.

 

Hi guys, Happy New Year!!!

A quick question for those who have upgraded: Does the HDMI out work ok with audio?

I've read that some cards have issues with this, and for the price, the 670MX is sounding very good, but I rely on my AW for video playback almost daily, so if there is any issues with HDMI it would be a deal breaker for me.

 

the 675m and the 580m do have HDMI abilities they work just fine, my 580m works awesome with it and my friends 580m flashed 675m works just as good.

 

>.< I want a 675MX soooo badly...

I need this job BIG TIME. The 6970M is nice and does the job, but it's definitely time for an upgrade... >.>

 

I just installed an 675m but I cent get the drivers to install. Device manager just shows Microsoft Basic Display Adapter and I cant get it to take new drivers. Is there a guide for how to get this to work?

Thanks

 

By adding your GPU id to the .INF file with wordpad/notepad in the Display driver package folder. You can google stuff on this.

 

Get the matching .inf from here and copy over the installed one. : LaptopVideo2Go: Drivers

You have to manually save the page when you get to it

 

Thanks That got the installer to work but it fails to install the driver. When I try to install it using the Device manager I get "The hash for the file is not present in the specified catalogue file"

 

It should be installed by the installer not via device manager. What error do you get from the installer? Win version?

 

Got it installed now Had to disable driver signing enforcement. What is a good program for changing the settings? Msi afterburner or is something else better suited to this card? Its idling at 68c which seems a bit high to me :-s

Edit: Tried running the installer and it removed the driver and then failed to install it :\

 

Noo, whats going on I thought the win8 thing was going to be it. Did you turn it back on at all?

I use afterburner just for the on-screen stats while gaming. I don't use it for OC as it only accesses one power state clock. (p0). I find that when I oc above 700 the power throttle often cuts in (p1) and the clock drops quite a bit. Nvidia inspector allows you to tune both clocks although be aware that p1 also does a voltage drop so even if you ramp up the p1 clock the voltage drop may cause problems. For this you have to find a vbios with matched p0 and p1 clocks.

 

I got it installed again. I wasnt going to OC it, just turn up the fan or maybe even underclock it a little to keep the temp down.

 

Cool!

The temp is way too high for idle. Mine runs in win with no fan at 50C rising to 59C when the first fan level starts (barely audible). Hit a game and 64-68 with fan blasting is normal.

Think you might need to check the heatsink. Did you install it yourself and what did it come off of?

 

Came off my old 4870. Cleaned it up and used all new thermal gum and paste. The good stuff with the silver in it. I might add some more later. Its idling at 40-50 now with the intermittent jump to 67ish

 

That's way better. I'm surprised that the AMD one even works that well. There are design differences in the heatsinks and backplates so I think you'd be better with an NV one but just what is available for your model I don't know

Edit: I'm wondering if your iGPU is being used with the low temps you are seeing? I don't know how switching works on your model...

 

The test will come tomorrow when I play a bit of Borderlands 2 If you are interested I will put the peak temps on after a little gaming

 

For sure. And yes, post results, always interested

Edit: Check this thread out re the heatsink: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/706137-replace-6990-gtx-675m-new-heatsink.html