Intro and AMD R9 M290X Question

What's up everyone. Been perusing through the forums for a couple of days in anticipation of my soon to be ordered Alienware 17 lappy. Was able to get a pretty amazing deal on my configuration, mostly because I'll be using this as my work machine and Dell didn't want me going elsewhere. At any rate, I went ahead and went with the AMD R9 M290X despite all the issues I've read about drivers and what not...hopefully this won't bite me.

Here's my question, and I've searched so I may have just overlooked the answer and if so, I apologize. Will the latest Catalyst drivers (currently 14.4) from AMD work with the R9 m290x? It isn't listed but I'm pretty sure it'll work since it's just an 8970m rebrand.

Looking forward to getting my new laptop and becoming more active in the forums!

 

Welcome to the brotherhood, can't answer your question, but welcome! You'll love your rig, they are amazing machines and built like tanks.

 

Thanks Turmoil! The build quality is one of the main things I like about the Alienware laptops. Another awesome thing is the easy access and upgradability they offer us. The other laptop I was considering was the MSI Stealth Pro, which is an awesome machine, but if you open it up, you void the warranty. I'm also getting a Blu-ray drive with the Alienware 17 whereas the Stealth Pro doesn't come with a drive at all.

I'm excited because I'll have enough RAM to have my own mini test environment using VMs basically all the time with me, wherever I go. Not to mention the ability to play whatever game I want at decent settings! SHIP IT NOW!!!! NOW!!!!!

 

Welcome to NBR and the Alienware community.
It should work without issues!

 

Awesome!! Thank you sir!

 

Yeah, these laptops are awesome. I've taken mine apart about half a dozen times for upgrades, OCD, and some parts replacements and you really can't beat it. Enjoy!

 

yes they will work, but they will list your gfx card as the 8xxxm series, it wont say r9 m290x..

 

That's great info krazor! Thanks!

 

np, just make sure not to use the amd complete unistaller, ir was cause a boot loop, other than that 14.4 improved my cinebench fps but 6, was 106.5 now its 112.5

 

Good stuff. I went ahead and grabbed the AMD uninstall utility from AMD's website. Can't wait to get this beast!

 

Here's a stupid question that keeps bugging me. I feel I should know this but it's bothering me so I'm asking. Even though the new driver will list my card as the 8000 series, it will still have access to all 4 Gigs of ram, correct? The 8000 series only had 2 Gigs of ram, I believe.

 

Yeah it should..

 

im glad i saw this as i just picked up an m17 with the AMD r9 290x but under the settings it shows the graphics card as the 8970m, i thought it had been changed or something but i understand there the same. Does yours show as a 8970?

 

It's the bloody limitation with the drivers.. There still isn't official support for R9 290MX so your'e really stuck with this unlesss you get a modded driver. Other than that, to be 100% sure you will be able to use 4GB vRAM, use GPU-Z and track vRAM usage in games such as Titanfall which eat vRAM like nothing and see if more than 2GB is being used...

 

Thanks Tom! I think you're right, that seems like the best way to see the usage.

I wonder why AMD hasn't officially supported their "high end" mobile GPU. At any rate, as long as the catalyst drivers work and I get my full hardware resources I won't be upset. I've always liked ATI and AMD so hopefully they won't change my mind...

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