Alienware M17x R3 460M to 780M - Questions/Concerns

**UPDATE 7/3/2013 - 6:45AM EST**
See the bolded areas for my answers because I bought the card and installed it successfully. Updating the GPU also fixed my other issue. Shown here --> http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...en-i-try-restart-powerdrain-fix-annoying.html thanks to everyone who helped!!!

Results: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...0m-780m-questions-concerns-3.html#post9266883

Hi! :hi2:

I have an alienware m17x r3 with 3D capability.

nVidia 460m
Intel i7-2720QM
8GB that will be upgrade to max 16GB (because of Windows 7 Home Prem.)
120GB SSD + 720GB HDD​

I have a few questions and concerns I would like help on. First I want to state that I have used the FORUM's search and found several posts with the similar topic however it was a little fragmented and didn't cover everything I was looking for. I also wanted to have one thread for all my questions so I don't have to go elsewhere. So far from what I have gathered:

1. 3D will not work
2. Higher wattage, TDP
3. It is highly suspected to work...but I haven't seen anyone that can confirm that it will work with the R3.

Here are my questions:

1. I am going to purchase the 780M GPU, any words of wisdom that you guys want to pass on before I invest in one? I will create instructions sometime this week.
2. Will this, not necessarily break, but "disable" anything else that is video related besides 3D. HDMI input/output? Multi-monitor? CONFIRMED: HDMI IN/OUT and Multi-monitor OUT does indeed work. 3D does not, so far.
3. Currently, the 3D capability won't work with the 780M, but will it work in the future? If so, with a software upgrade or will this require some type of hardware upgrade? (Previous GPU upgrades, was it software related?) From what i was told, this will be either a modded driver or something nVidia must do. Software related.
4. I noticed people have used modded drivers in a previous thread. has there been updates to use the official nVidia drivers or am I always stuck with an unofficial driver? A modded driver was used, thanks j95! (instructions will be supplied this weekend)
5. Related to drivers: I saw another post that mentioned that games were slow because of the drivers. Has this been resolved (for people who have 780M - swapped). Used the latest drivers - 320.49 with one file modded. Games are flying!!!!
6. is it compatible and will it work? I have heard something about TDP is a concern, because the 780M's watt usage can be around 100W (V.S. the 480M 72W requirement). Will this be a concern? See specs above for other stuff that can eat up wattage. I kept an eye on my wattage and notice the stock 240W adapter does the job just fine.
7. I have read that there may be a possibility to "reshaped" the heatsink using a rotary tool because it will not fit. Does my model need that? Stock heatsink *for the nvidia, to my knowledge, is good enough.* no modifications needed to heatsink
8. Where do you usually buy GPUs? I have found a few but not sure if it's reputable. *links please* Ebay, buy it from upgradeyourlaptop
9. Recommendations on RAM upgrades? *send links please* Looking to bump up the RAM to 16GB. Will come back to this later...enjoying the new laptop

Thank you for your help!

 

Hi there

1. see the below:

2. I have not heard of, or believe there are any other technical issues other than the 3D not being detected.

3. The 3D does not work because dell have implemented a '3d certification' list in the main BIOS. This lists all the cards and only contains NV cards that dell supply with a specific model. If a BIOS modder manages to fix it then you will be good to go - but R3/680 3D owners have tried pressure on dell and asking BIOS moddders for help but nothing as yet. It is expected that dell will not help on 'old' models.

4. The modded driver is needed as NV's mobile drivers use a list of machineID/card ID combinations to confirm the installation is valid. Again, it only contains combinations that dell sell or sold with a specific model. It is a simple (fairly) process of getting the correct .inf file and replacing the original to get the installer to run. I use this site: LaptopVideo2Go: Drivers when I need one. They keep on top of all new releases and even some that never go public. So yes, you will always have to use a modded driver.

5. Not heard that, unless it's the latest driver 320.18, which is the worst NV have released in some considerable time. http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/721878-nvidia-320-18-driver-warning.html

6. If you do not have a 240W power adaptor then you will need one. The card may not even go into full power mode if the supply is insufficient. Other than that everything should be fine.

7. Never seen anyone taking a dremel to a heatsink to make it fit an R3 after a card change. I've even seen AMD users use their HS on an NV card. It will fit, it's all about how well it works. The MXM spec specifies the component layout so apart from minor differences, that need things like thicker/thinner or extra pads, the fit should be fine. You MUST get the x-bracket that is designed for the card. This attaches the card to the HS and the height of the posts is designed for the specific thickness of the GPU die. Use the wrong one and you will either have poor pressure, or less likely crack the die (newer dies are thinner so low pressure is more likely.)

8. There are a couple of worldwide card suppliers on ebay that I have seen people use without problems. I won't link since I prefer to only link when I have used it myself . Upgradeyourlaptop (Eurocomm) is one of them.

9. Never purchased RAM for an AW laptop but personally I'd say give the memory a miss. Unless you are running multiple heavy applications 8Gb is plenty for a gaming rig. You will not see any difference, and you'll probably have to remove the keyboard to get to the two slots under there depending what dell installed and what you get to 'up' it. Lot of work for very little return but I don't know what you use the machine for so your call.

At the end of the day, unless a person with an R3 3D jumps in to say exactly how it went there is a small dice roll you are making (IMO).

HTH

 

8. I used ebay seller Upgradeyourlaptop about a week ago to purchase my GTX680M, and their service was brilliant. Very helpful responses to emails before and after purchase, too. Quick dispatch, and took 2 working days to arrive from US to UK.

9. I upgraded my m17x r3 from the 8GB of 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 RAM that it came with, to a " Corsair CMXS16GX3M2A1600C10 16GB Vengeance Performance So-Dimm 1600MHz CL10 DDR3 Memory Kit" from Amazon. It works perfectly.

 

Thank you MickyD1234 & sjgore for the excellent and very detailed reply. I am impressed with the professionalism and knowledge everyone has here.

I am kind of worried about MickyD1234's last comment

now I am having doubts.

If i do happen to bite the bullet and purchase the 780M GTX, I might post my journey of installing the new card here...

 

UpgradeYourLaptop's response to my question #6:

Anyone have concerns or have any recommendations on where I can purchase a solid 330W AC adapter?

 

Didn't mean to worry you. It's more a lack of research on my part . Ask me about the 680 and I've followed a lot of threads

I believe you will find the 240W plenty for a single card option currently available. The 330 PSU is supplied with the M18x for Sli/Crossfire.

 

Once again thank you MickyD1234 for your awesome feedback. I am going to purchase the card, 780GTX. I will try my hardest to document my install.

 

You're very welcome and I wish you all the luck in the world with it! I look forward to your documentation

 

Nomis, take lots of pics lol...but i've been thinking about the same thing lately...will the 780 work in the R3 and if it does, what are the things that we'll have to do and what will not work so well in the R3? I assume that because the 680's installed, the 780 should too.

If you need help post here and I'll try my best to assist. I don't have as much free time as I use to but I'll try my best to check this thread daily

 

I haven't bought the card yet because of two reasons:

1) wife car finally broke down. Now we are looking at getting a new car.
2) I have read and was told that having a 780M will be bottlenecked by the CPU (i7 2670QM) because it's not powerful enough, even if it depends on the application/game.

Is the second one true?

 

Second one is not true. Its powerfull enough.

i suck at tapatalk typin...

 

Agree, I don't think that is correct.

Good luck hunting down a car and leaving enough spare cash for yourself. Spend a bit of time beating the dealer down - saved $5K off the sticker on my last new car after 2 hours of messing the guy around!

 

Thanks for the info and tip.

Bad timing however because I had my computer prepared (updated the BIOS and started downloading some benchmark programs to document for everyone to see the difference). I still plan on getting the card after she gets a car.

Also minor correction to my previous post, i meant I7-2720QM which is better than what I previously stated. I didn't feel like editing that post.

 

I am looking to do the same thing except I have all ready gone from the 460 to the 580 a wile back with no problems Purchased from ( Upgradeyourlaptop (Eurocomm) they will help you out. I have talk to them as well as many others and still no fix for the 3d issue . I am hopping with another Bios up-grade I currently have the A012 which was a GPU up-grade just not sure which GPU's it was. I am definitely going to keep track of this and as soon as they have A true fix for this ( not A fan of modded drivers) I will be getting the GTX780M.

 

Just a status update to everyone who is following this thread.

I bought the 780M.

Now as you may have read, my wife was in desperate need of a new car however things have changed slightly. Not that we couldn't afford it but getting the graphics card was my want at first and my wife needs overrule any of my wants however I encountered some issues with this laptop that seems to be pointing to the GPU which I am hoping this new GPU will resolve. Also we managed to have her car fixed and pass inspection which allows us to keep her car for a little longer. We still plan on getting rid of her existing car but at least we can take our time now, even though we researched and saved up for her to get a new car for 5 years (saving up wasn't the issue, we were indecisive for 5 years because we kept telling ourselves our cars can get us from point A to point B just fine).

 

Please keep us informed how the new card works out as soon a I get word I will be ordering my own GTX780M.

 

Do you think the 6970/6990 M17x R3 heatsink is compatible with the 770/780?

Edit: Also would love if you are able to test whether the DisplayPort will still work or not

 

I can't tell for sure if the 6900 stock heat sink will be compatible. However the heat sink that came with the 460M is compatible. So maybe that will give you enough information to Google if the heat sinks are the same thing or not.

Status update: The GPU is in transit. However I am a little worried seeing a lot of different forum posting that says the Alienware M17X R3 3D model will not boot up because it's not compatible with the 780M. They say to flash the vBios but i never did that before. Can anyone shed some light on how to update the 780M vBios?

 

Not sure of the accuracy of that. I have seen the 780m being used and no vbios changes but no 3d models. The only issue I was aware of for the 3d model is that 3d will no longer work. It is a possibility that for some reason it will not boot (since there is no iGPU) in which case it would need either a bios or vbios to get past POST.

Can you link me to those posts so I can see what is being said?

Hopefully someone who has done this will help.

 

I sen't you the PM because i don't know the rules for posting links.

I should mention there were forum postings that were just displaying the link i provided and coping and pasting the text that read

*** Please take note that this video card DOES NOT work with 3D enabled notebooks. We are working on resolving this issue and till take this notice down when we have it up and running ***

 

Thanks, links are Ok as long as not advertising or private info - I believe

Well that's pretty clear, unless they are confused about the 3d, it says so!

'Presently GTX 780M doesn't work in 3D models of M17x. Card is not detected so your computer won't boot.

- upgradeyourlaptop

You have one of these on the way already? If that is correct it sucks for me as well, must be to do with the POST detection, the 3d not having an igpu and all that??

 

Yes it's on it's way now. So there isn't a way to resolve this?

 

Not that I see. At least you can plug it in and see if it boots. After that it's a return. I know many card suppliers say no returns but they are bound by your local mail-order laws, just might get into a battle, hope not!

 

Got the card. Installed it. Booted fine. installing nvidia drivers now to finalize it. will post my stuff soon

 

I can't install the official nvidia drivers 320.49. It says "this graphics driver could not find compatible graphics hardware". The device manager states it's a STANDARD VGA. I think i need to mod it. any ideas how that is done? at least it can boot up.

 

got a modded driver. Installing....

 

driver installed. looks like it's running fine. i may have worked myself up for nothing...knock on wood.

 

So far my testing:

My new machine (for some odd reason it wont save it to my profile.) and for some odd reason it's not recognizing the graphics card but you can see the driver name is correct.
Generic VGA video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2720QM Processor,Alienware M17xR3

My old machine
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2720QM Processor,Alienware M17xR3

 

Great stuff! I thought I was was learning something very new when they said it would not boot!

You'll always need a modded inf file but overall it was as easy as I hoped . Off to look at your results now...

 

Looks like a great number to me. Strange it shows 'generic', how did you get the driver to install? And is this how it appears in device manager?

 

I downloaded the modded drivers from j95 and the device manager is showing up nvidia 780M.

I can't seem to get the 3D enabled. I am looking around the nvidia control panel and I do not see it. Strange however because it said it was installing 3D when i was installing the drivers. Maybe it was installed as a whole package and later decides if the machine is capable of 3D. I can however change it to 120Hz.

VGA out works.

HDMI - not yet confirmed. i have to go home to test that. ( i am at work)

 

That's as expected. There is a list of authorised cards in the master bios that is used in some way to authenticate the hardware before the 3d components will load. Only cards sold by dell with a specific model are on the list and no updated bios has yet shown up. I've seen this before where 3D does not even appear in the driver tree config, and it should be even on a non 3d machine for the 'discovery' version that uses 2 colour glasses - weird!

I think the issue is something to do with the 3d glasses emitter not getting configured so the NV driver does not think it is on a 3d enabled machine. This is a pure guess as I have seen nothing as to why this list is needed. If this is correct then simply plugging in an external emitter should fix it but it's an expensive experiment

 

3D isnt a concern of mine because it's purely a novelty feature (imho). I used it for the first two hours and I just stopped using it.

I will be typing up some stuff tonight to confirm some questions i had in my first post and instructions for anyone who wants to do the same upgrade.

Thanks everyone who helped me.

 

Sure , I also was not interested in the 3d, just a gimmick I thought until I played batman AC, after that I want it to work that well on every title (which it doesn't)

And everyone's eyes are different so it is definitely not for all.

 

Glad you got it to work, I will wait for A bios up-date so I can install the latest drivers from Nvidia. I am not A fan of modded drivers. I am surprised that the 320.49 driver from NVidia does not work

 

I'm sure you will always need a modded inf (if you are looking to use a 780m). NV will not add in any machineID/cardID that is not specified by the OEM's, therefore any NV card that was not sold by dell with a specific model will fail the install

 

Big Bummer I guess I will be stuck with the 680M for the best up-grade which will still be good.

 

Afraid it's the same problem with the 680/R3. Dell never sold that model with that card so you are already 'officially' maxed out. Dunno if I posted here but I always use this site for easy access to the correct modded ini: LaptopVideo2Go: Drivers

 

Can you provide a proper step by step instruction for upgrading M17x R3 3D to GTX 780m. Please include links to the files you needed like the unlocked bios or drives or anything else anyone might need. Be specific on versions.

I have seen your post on tech inferno with the steps but it is also lacking details. Considering UpgradeYourLaptop claims this cannot be done to 3D enabled M17xr3, and no one has successfully tried it, it is kind of a big deal to get this documented properly.

Thank you for your help.

 

Windows 8/7 GTX 780M installation (Windows 7 skip step 2 and 4).

Thermal Pad Placement.



Verify that the card is properly seated https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vEk_ZFAzLI#t=3m51s


1) Enter the A12 unlocked bios M17x R3 BIOS A12 - unlocked & 'SATA fix' , disable the integrated graphics Advanced Menu>Video Configuration>disable IGP>set display to PEG>Disable the Integrated sound card >F10 reboot.

Post-Install try re-enabling IDT - install audio drivers first 780m GTX - M17xR3 integrated soundcard working again! NO MORE USB SOUNDCARD!

2) Once in windows disable driver signing.

.1 -Open command prompt (Admin) windows key + X

.2 -Type "bcdedit /set {current} testsigning yes" (without quotes) enter.

.3 -"The operation concluded successfully"

.4 -Type exit> reboot.


3) Driver installation.

Download GeForce 344.11 WHQL

.1 Extract driver using 7-Zip/winrar. Right click extract to "3xx.xx-notebook-win8-win7-64bit-international-whql"

.2 -Display.Driver folder -> copy/overwrite nvdmi.inf.

.3 -Extracted 3xx.xx-notebook-win8-win7-64bit-international\ run setup.exe

.4 -Select custom install -> check clean install option.

.5 -Reboot.

nvdmi.inf (unzip) Modded nvdmi.inf v344.11


4) Exit windows 8 test mode.

.1 -Again open command prompt (Admin).

.2 -Type "bcdedit /set {current} testsigning no" enter.

.3 -Type exit>reboot.






Unlocked VBIOS rev02 NVIDIA Kepler VBIOS mods - Overclocking Editions, modified clocks, voltage tweaks


......Bandwidth 192GB/s ..

 

P9160 1006/5985 OV 1.025v Win8.1, just to check temps NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2960XM Processor,Alienware M17xR3

P9150 1006/6000 stock voltage NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2960XM Processor,Alienware M17xR3





Reinstalled windows, sound card compatibility issue, only disabling IDT in the BIOS worked, tried swapping GPU's, installed IDT (the same crappy sound card Dell used for the cheaper Inspiron models) but still no go windows loads IDT or Microsoft drivers and screen turns white; solution external sound card or MOBO upgrade.

 

Win8.1 Pro RTM, benchmarks...

 

Any screen brightness issue with the 780m installed?

 

No, but the IDT onboard sound card has issues with the 780m only disabling it and using an external usb solution.

 

I'm trying to get the eurocom alienware version. I think Ill send my machine to them for installation.

 

Hello, thanks to this thread, I got the courage to purchase a 770M for my R3 alienware M17x.

However I just installed it, and my computer booted with a black screen and I got eight beeps.

I did not purchase a new heatsink, but rather, used my 560M heatsink. So I couldn't quite get the heatsink to be exactly flush with my 770M, and couldn't get the brackets to screw in.

Could this heatsink be my problem, and if I got a new heatsink from ebay, get it to work? Or is the 770M in fact not compatible with my R3, as Dell said to me?

I have not installed drivers or anything of course yet.

Also, I didn't transfer any posts from my 560m to my 770m, so that may be one reason I could not get the bracket to screw in, and therefore could not get flush.

 

Have you tried running it in dedicated only mode?

 

I did some research on what dedicated only mode is...but I don't think this is an option or concern because windows won't boot when I plugin the video card. I have determined that because of my Optimus software that it auto-selects the card, so choosing the integrated graphics card isn't an option/not something I have to deal with I'm pretty sure.

 

Follow these instructions http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...17x-r3-680m-compatability-63.html#post9038829
If still no boot enter the BIOS and disable the integrated sound card, for drivers use this modded .inf.

 

Ok I followed all the steps up to where it says to flash the video card . I then swapped in my 770m, turned on the computer, and now I am staring at a black screen. No beeps this time.
I do not have access to bios and there is no booting


Where did I go wrong? Should I have flashed prior to putting in the new video card?