Alienware m17x r3 - Upgrading from 6970m to 780m. Need some help.

Thanks for reading. I'm looking to upgrade my 6970m to a 780m. My card has been working well and there's nothing wrong with it, but I'd like to upgrade it to the gtx 780m for better performance on newer games. I've read quite a bit on the topic already, but I'm not all that tech savvy so a lot of what I've read just passes right through the back of my head.

1) I've read that I shouldn't buy used or refurbished, but I can't seem to find any new models on Ebay, HIDEvolution, Upgrade Monkey, Eurocomor . ? (is this a trusted website and decent price? http://www.aliexpress.com/store/pro...upgrademonkey-in-stock/909632_1269898658.html )
2) On ebay, I noticed come GTX 780m cards specifically had Alienware m17x in the title, but others only had ASUS mentioned in the title. Would these cards be compatible or no?
3) I noticed people mentioning to make sure they had the right screws, X bracket and 100w heatsink. Are these pieces that I need to purchase separately or does my laptop already have them connected to the 6970m? If I need to buy them separately and someone could point me in the direction of an example of these things that would be great.
4) Would the upgrade even be worthwhile if my 6970m is working without issues? I have an intel core i7-2860qm cpu @ 2.50GHz, 2501 Mhz, 4 core so would this bottleneck me?
5) Is there anything else I would need to purchase / replace to get it working correctly? Like a power source for example.

If you could explain things in as simple of terms as possible it would be greatly appreciated.


I'm pretty good with software, but I don't have much experience at all with hardware. I have to use a laptop as I travel a lot. I plan on building my own desktop computer once I'm settled, but I'm stuck with the laptop for now.

 

Also, I read on another post of similar topic that the 880m could be used as well. Some people said it was not worth the trouble it has caused others in the past, but another person said that the bugs have been ironed out. Would the 880m be much better performance wise than the 780m?

 

I`m not quiete a speciallist on Alienware laptops, but as I know 880M gives only about 10% increas comparing it with 780M. i`ll try to help using what I know. Maybe other users, that have more experience with that laptop tell where I was wrong.

1) Don`t buy expensive things from aliexpress. Buy them from ebay or newegg. This, for example.
2) On Alienware you should use cards from Alienware or Clevo. I don`t know if other brands like MSI or ASUS will work. I assume that ASUS won`t work.
3) Yes, you need to have exact heatsink, X-bracket and screws for NVIDIA card, in your situation, for GTX780M. Heatsinks for AMD and NVIDIA cards are different.
4)In turbo mode your CPU will not bottleneck your card, I think. But I can be mistaken. If you are planning this upgrade because of performance increasde, than it is worth it because 780M is much powerfull than 6970M.
5)If your system can handle 6970M in full load than it will be able to hande 780M in full load too, without overclock. If you plan to overclock it, than more powerfull PSU should be needed.

Hope it helps.

 

880M has 8GB of vRAM whether 780M has "only" 4GB. If you want it to last longer than 3-4 years then buy 880M because newest games will require more vram.

I DO NOT recommend buying used cards unless you know the person that's selling them good.

1) Better buy from ebay, don't know what's newegg. Always use paypal because they will give you a refund even if seller won't
2) @propolkin is correct
3)I have modded AMD heatsink to work with Nvidia GPU, you can check my signature if you like DIY works.
4) Your CPU won't bottleneck you. 6970M is weaker than 6990M and two 6990M = one 880M. You will have much more power.
5) Check the heatsink. 6970M is 75W card when 780M is 100W and 880M is about 120W. If your heatsink is 100W then no problem with 880M too. Don't know which PSU do you have. 180W? 240W?

 

We only tested the 4GB card, not the 8GB. If they both have the same vRAM I'd also go for the 780m. It runs cooler.

 

I am finding the 880m listing to be substantially cheaper than the 780m so I'm leaning towards getting the 880m.

This listing:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Nvidia-GTX-8...053?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item339df5be55
is an 8GB card, but says it works with the m17x r3.
It also comes with the x bracket + thermal paste.

I would need to get the Nvidia heatsink, thermal pads, and screws? Could someone link me to these parts, because I am having a hard time finding them individually. Thank you.

 

Check the Alienware M17x R3/R4 owners lounge's 1st post... You want the 680M heatsink from the R4 for your 880M...

 

For anybody that cares, I just bought a 780m off of ebay. Says it's brand new, just tested once in a laptop. Doesn't come with the extra parts but they said I could get them all from them as well, so I'm waiting to hear back about that. I listed the x-bracket, screws, thermal paste, thermal pads, and nVidia specific heatsink. Once I receive all of the parts, I will find one of the guides on here about installing it and follow it. Thanks for your help.

 

Did you really believed that? If it is not known seller then the card may be even reflowed in the oven...

 

It depends on the seller and their feedback I guess and also the physical condition of the card.

 

Seemed like a reputable seller. Not too much background checking I can do and stores like upgrademonkey and eurocom charge $300 more. At a certain point you have to accept the risks involved and not worry about it.

seller: http://www.ebay.com/usr/blairsville-tech-support

 

Seems reputable... I've looked at the negative rep and it seems like all the buyers were those trolls who try to ruin your rep...