I want to upgrade to a 680m, Questions about compatibility

I have a m17x r4 and i wanted to upgrade to a 680m. I just had a few questions that im sure have been asked in the past but i just cant seem to find them. The card im considering is the upgradeyourlaptop 4gb 680m Clevo card on ebay. I know the dell card only uses 2gb of vram. But other than that i dont know of any other differences. my questions are:

1. Do the 660m and 4gb 680m use the same heat sink? (as it is not included in the upgrade package, and i currently have a 660m)

2. Does the 4gb 680m need a modified vbios to be compatible, also does it need a modified driver to run on the m17x?

3. Does anyone know of any stability issues associated with installing this card into a r4?

4. If i keep my original 660m can i keep my warranty?

Thanks for the answers in advance, i just wanted to be sure before i had my facts right before i pay $800 for this card.

 

Message Upgradeyourlaptop, that way they will send you an upgrade kit for your laptop. As they do upgrade kits for all laptops, and you dont want the Clevo kit. Tell them your Laptop and model and your upgrade kit will come with the correct drivers and vbios.

Your heat sink should be fine.

You can keep your warranty, but keep your original card so you can re-install it in the event of a warranty issue. Ie, dont let Dell know you installed the 680m.

As for issues, seems there are none. There is a thread floating around where guys hav had to modify there drivers to get it to work. But this is on the R3. Hopefully, the drivers Upgradeyourlaptop supply, will have done this already, or may not require it at all as you have the R4, but i will post the link so you can have a good read through.

Ive just pulled the trigger on a M17x R3 upgrade kit which should be here on Tuesday.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/672230-m17x-r3-680m-compatability.html

Even though you have the R4, this thread should answer most of your questions.

 

Thanks for the fast reply! Ill have to see what the quote me for a dell 680m upgrade kit. I also contacted HIDevolution to see what they have availible. Do you know if the 680m's heat sink is different though? So i can add that in my message to upgradeyourlaptop. Thanks again.

 

I believe its the same since you already have an Nvidia card. Im going from a 7970m and they (upgradeyourlaptop) seem to think the the AMD heat sink is compatible.

If you message them the same questions, they should have all the answers.

 

Okay i will do that. Thanks for your help again.

 

No probs And good luck!

 

I'm not sure if the heatsink would be the same, we have different part numbers for them but to be honest I haven't seen the 660's heatsink physically.

TDMDJ --> ASSY,HTSNK,VGA,13GE,M17XR4 - 660m

MT1DN --> ASSY,HTSNK,VGA,13GS1,M17XR4 - 680m

 

Okay so they directed me here Alienware M17x M18x VGA Upgrade Kit NVIDIA GTX 680M 4GB DDR5 MXM 3 0B | eBay i just wanted to see if this is what i need or not before i buy. ive searched everywhere with no answer.

 

Ask them to invoice you for an M17x R4 upgrade kit. Tell them exactly what car. You want to upgrade from too.

Or have you done that?

 

what i told them was i wanted to know the price of a Dell 2gb 680m upgrade kit. I told them i had a 660m and then they directed me there saying that i was compatible using a modified driver that they provide. But i wanted to come here and get some more opinions on their cards and to re affirm what they have said, from someone who has experience using these cards in a real life scenario rather than a sales rep.

 

With Dell preferred account you can get it under $600 + warranty http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/672230-m17x-r3-680m-compatability-27.html#post8842741, the new Dell vbios mod by slv7 matches performance w/clevo 680m use the extra $ on other upgrades.

 

From what ive heard dell is currently out of stock with no ETA on when they will have more in to sell.

 

IMO it's better to have Dell (local) to have them do the upgrade, to save yourself from any headaches

Correct BIOS, Vbios, heatsink etc. It's their product they should know it easily.

I could just imagine, I myself have an M17x R4. I had nothing but insane, ecstatic, experience with it. My current OC too with 310.64 is 893 core / 2407 mem on stock Vbios. Max GPU temp. is 72*C after hrs. and hrs. of playing games in ultra, 1080p.. i.e. BF3, TW2, Metro 2033, Crysis 2, Deus Ex,..

I think more important, they should make sure that it could install any latest NVidia driver straight from NVidia.com (legit VBios and etc.).

Both my ASUS and AW with these GTX cards installs latest NVidia drivers easily, ..and how it should be.

 

So has anyone gone from AMD to 680m? Do you require a new/Nvidia heat sink?

 

I'm wondering if the 680m in the R3 has a throttle problem like the 580m did?



For those that have the 680m in the R3 - what kind of OC are you getting?

 

IIRC the throttle problem was a bios issue in the 580M, the 680M had it's own issues but the latest bios from SVL7 helps get around those.

 

I have done the mod on the m17xr4 from gtx660m to gtx680m. The 660m heatsink is flat and really easy to fit in the gtx680m with 2-3 thermal pads. I bought a clevo card you can flash to msi or clevo bios. You don't have to use modded drivers. You can install from dell or nvidia. But there is 1 weird issue, fi you install nvidia whql 306.97 or earlier drivers, your core clocks will be stuck at 324 @ idle or full load.

It also happened to another user with a dell gtx680m in his m17xr4. Using the lastest beta 310.70 will solve this weird bug or issue.

 

Anyone?

 

IIRC the alienware heatsinks have a standard metal plate with different arrangements of pads attached, so it would just require careful examination of where to move them or maybe add a couple.