The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    GPU's Upgrading question

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by OmarAn, Aug 24, 2011.

  1. OmarAn

    OmarAn Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    92
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    if an m17x r2 comes in 1 gpu, can i upgrade it and have 2 gpu's? or from the beginning i need to have 2 gpu's in order to upgrade them?
    for ex, if i have single 4870M can i have the upgrade option to 4870M crossfire?

    "does m17xr2 have 2 slots for gpu's?"
     
  2. mp5cartman

    mp5cartman Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    235
    Messages:
    396
    Likes Received:
    48
    Trophy Points:
    41
    Yes you can but you will have to buy the whole heatsink assembly, fan crossfire cable and etc w/ the card. The R2 has 2 gpu slots.
     
  3. katalin_2003

    katalin_2003 NBR Spectre Super Moderator

    Reputations:
    14,963
    Messages:
    5,671
    Likes Received:
    1,521
    Trophy Points:
    331
    There are lots of secondary mobility 4870 out there that come with the heatsink and CF cable, fans are also easy to find.

    Since you only have one 4870 you may consider getting a 6970 CF set or a single nVIDIA 580M :D
     
  4. Simplified

    Simplified The Most Awesome

    Reputations:
    428
    Messages:
    766
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    The things you will need are:
    1: a 2nd card
    2: 240w PSU (the psu that come with single card machines is only 150w)
    3: X-Fire cable

    Since your GPU is rather old, a single 6970M will perform about the same as 2x 4870m in X-Fire.

    To upgrade to a single 6970m you need:
    1: a 6970m

    The 150w PSU should be enough + you do not need a X-Fire cable for the single card.