M17x R2 gpu question

At the moment I am not looking to pour hundreds of dollars into upgrading the GPU and more importantly as I am still restoring the system I am trying to stick with stock options so I do not have to worry about modified drivers or BIOS.

I currently have a single 4870.

Will it be the least amount of hassle and a significant performance gain to drop a second 4870 in?
I already have the fan and heatsink to do it so I would just have to pick up a card, bracket and crossfire cable.

Also can the stock 240v power supply handle 2 4870s and a 920xm processor?

Sorry for the noob questions, I am a crossfire virgin!

 

240w was made to handle crossifre with extreme cpu's - you can even run dual 7970's with a 920xm on the 240w .

As for the 4870, if you can find it cheap then go right ahead. However, the 4870 is only capable of DirectX 10, new games coming out are really taking advantage of DirectX 11... so that is a major downside. If you don't want to deal with the hassle of modified drivers or bios, I would highly recommend a 5870 - that is the highest card that was officially put into the M17X R2. The 5870 supports DirectX 11 and really destroys the 4870 in performance - so even just getting a single 5870 in your R2 would be a major advantage. Dual 4870 may perform a bit better than a single 5870, but not by much, and in DirectX 11 games the 5870 will really shine.

I have a single 5870 in my M17X R1 and it plays all my games without issues, and will be putting in a second 5870 soon.

Either way, dual 4870, dual 5870, or single 5870 will perform better than the single 4870 you have. But to save you directx issues and to overall get more life out of your R2, the 5870 is the way to go.

 

Hi OP,
As you have 920xm I highly recommend a 7970m card for your purposes if you can afford it. By combining the xm CPU and a 7970m you can run the latest and greatest with ease on the beautiful rgb display.

 

I was considering even a single 7970 setup but I know that would require a bios mod and (probably) a power mod.
I think I will get there but it might be a little while

I am hunting around. Thanks to both of you I am looking around at 5870s and 7970s. As soon as I rebuild the existing system with the new screen it will probably be time to take the next step

 

The only way for you is to go for 7970M.

Single card is more than recommended as Cross Fire will pull loads of $ from your wallet.

Extra heatsink, extra PSU MOD, Extra fan, CF cable, Time, maybe some Troubles on the way - LOADS OF $$$

Please DO NOT look at 5870m anymore, this is a very outdated card, look for 7970m ~$350 New

Bro, thats only if somebody is lucky with the PSU quality, and the adapter is fairly new, and even then, it will die very quickly .

 

Ahh ok, I got the info about the 240W power supply from the first post of this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...rex-ultimate-installation-tweaking-guide.html

But ya, I only recommended the 5870 because the OP is specifically looking to upgrade the GPU "without spending hundreds of $$, without the need of a vBios flash, and to stick with the stock M17X R2 configurations."

@nkarno - However, with that said, I read in your other thread that you upgraded to the 1200p RGB LED screen. If you want to take full advantage of that screen while gaming, I would highly recommend investing in a 6990M/7970M. My 5870M is running fine for me while gaming, but take into account my screen resolution is only 1440x900. I have hooked this up to my 1080p TV, and gaming performance severely dropped at that resolution. It is really not worth it having an amazing 1920x1200 RGB LED screen and not beng able to game with gorgeous graphics at that resolution.

 

ok..... I pulled the trigger on a single 7970m being sold from the marketplace here. It was from a m18x and comes in working condition.
Now I begin the search for the bios flash so that this r2 can support it.

I hope the 240W is enough to power a single card + cpu. I am not planning to really overclock at this point.
As this is a dell\alienware version of the card I hope that the fan works without a special program and all this will require is a bios but I will see what searching has to say!

 

Your i7 + a single 7970M will not be a problem for a 240W power adapter, even if you overclock both - it is just when you put in a second 7970M that you will be on the edge with that 240W. The vBios flash will be easy, so no worries about that. I personally don't which is the right vBios, so it's best to ask the experts of the card here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ultimate-installation-tweaking-guide-154.html

 

I hope you did your homework before buying this.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...nother-7970m-m17x-r2-installation-photos.html

You will need hwinfo to control fans as ec controller cannot understand fans of dell 7970m + unit will shutdown if 85c temps reached.

 

seller refunded me because he needed to use the card again......
Back to square 1!