M17X R4 (windows 7 ) highest GPU upgrade with no fuss or modded bios/drivers?

So after seeing that I'd probably break something if I upgraded to a 980m (especially as I don't want to go to windows 8.1 before 10 is launched) which is the best graphics card I can pop in at the moment with no fuss?

Currently got a 660M so anything will be an improvement at the moment. Already got the 240w power supply so that isn't an issue. Thanks

 

I totally recommend the 680m. Still a top performer with a little work and fully plug-and-play in the R4. Even the NV drivers install without any modification.

You will need the 100w heatsink but I got mine from Dell for a reasonable price (around $45.00 shipped) and it comes with all the pads and paste pre-applied so you don't even need to stress about pad thicknesses and placement!

Ebay the card and try to get the x-bracket with the card. Your's will fit but may not give the best pressure.

Temps on the card are super low so there is a lot of overhead for overclocking and overvolting if you want to push it.

Oh, and you'll see two variants. 2Gb and 4Gb. The 2gb are Dell ones and 4gb Clevo. They have their own vbios but are interchangable. The clevo ones do not limit overclocking like the dell ones do.

Good luck.

 

Appreciate the reply! To be honest I'm half tempted to plump for a new laptop. Part of the reason for spending the extra on this one, was the "promise" of upgradability. But truth be told, unless I really faff around (and get out of my depth) then I can't really upgrade it massively from how ut is right now. And that's hugely disappointing for a three year old machine.

 

Yeah, if funds allow it's probably time to look around. The 680m in your machine is a very easy upgrade and if you get the dell heatsink then it's a simple 15 min job to put it in. No driver messing either. It will get you another year or so, I run the latest (high stress) games perfectly well on high settings with it. It does require some messing to get the most out of it, but I can help there.

The whole 'upgradeability' thing is really for enthusiasts, it not something aimed at the PC gamer, it's just many PC gamers like to mess with their machines. I looked at putting a 980m in but too much messing, especially when I was ready to get a new machine anyway - for me 3 years is a good target for a gaming laptop. After that you roll the dice on getting more.

I was even going to get one of the new alienwares and buy the best from the get-go since you can't upgrade them later but that fell through when I saw the poor performance and problems (it's a hybrid low power machine) so I cancelled and started looking around.

See the machine in my sig. You can save some money by getting lower spec parts (but not the GPU's) and replace them later as funds allow. As soon as I got it I started looking around for the best CPU and I saved a ton of cash getting one from China. A very simple plug and play upgrade as well!

The Dell warranty is the biggest loss. PC Specialist do them in the UK so they should be worth a look but they did not do a 120hz display and that is a prime deliverable for me in a gaming laptop. Eurocom told me they have a UK service depot so I went with them. I also got some free upgrades just by asking! The machine is in the top 98% of all the 3D mark tests I run and is currently mooted as the fastest around (out-of-the-box) but there are some laptops (Eurocom Panther range) with desktop CPU's that are top performers. They are expensive though!

Good luck

 

Hold on for a while.. New Clevo laptops will be out in Q3/Q4 with new NVIDIA GPU's and hopefully AMD ones and Skylake Desktop processors... will be a massive improvement!