M17x R3 Upgrade to 780m

Hello, I have a dead 6990m on my M17x R3, I have read numerous posts and most people suggested upgrading to a gtx 780m would be the best choice given 8xx series work with newer devices than the m17x r3, I havent seen anyone who confirmed them working though and I'm not sure if 780m is compatible with the m17x r3 to begin with even though there are genuine ones on amazon explicitely stating m17x r3 is among the devices this card works on, when i checked my defected 6990m at an expert store and they asked me if i want it upgraded and when i asked about a 4GB card they said a 4GB card might not work in your laptop, is this relevant? how can i check if it works, are there any commands or physical indicators to show me so?

Knowlegable replies are well appreciated

 

I just recently got myself an M17x R3 and I'm looking to go an 780M or a 880M also,

I've read so many posts of people running a 780M after some mucking around with the BIOS and drivers to get it working after the installation.

And I've read a tonne of posts why you shouldn't upgrade to an 880M, OP usually stated that compatibility and real gaming performance was terrible.

I am yet to see a video of someone running a 880M successfully.

 

I know, that GTX 770M from Alienware M18x does'nt works in my M17Xr3 ( no post, only gray screen). Dell - GTX 780M should work, mine from MSI laptop not.( se post here http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/gtx-780m-ruined-my-alienware-m17x-r3.786694/ )
Eurocom guys post video here, but don't know true story.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M VGA upgrade in Alienware M17x R3

 

You can also use a 7970M/8970M/R9 M290X with no dicking around in the BIOS.

 

I'm running a GTX 880M in my R3 just fine. There was a lot of fluff and mystery surrounding the right setup procedure, but it turned out to be quite simple after piecing the fragments together from various forum posts. Eurocom and Upgrademonkey even advise on the settings required.

A12 unlocked BIOS
Not a problem as I previously flashed A12 unlocked when upgrading to a 2960XM CPU.

Primary display set to PEG (SG will cause a hang up and prevent booting)
I had no problems with onboard audio and did not have to disable it to get the card working. The Intel switchable graphics are there as an emergency fallback if my dedicated GPU ever craps out and I have no compulsion to use them otherwise.

Modded driver from a variety of sources. I used the Eurocom upgrade driver because it came up first in a search, but there's TechInferno, LaptopVideo2Go and Mr Fox's desktop mod as well.
http://downloads.eurocom.com/support/drivers/upgradeyourlaptop/Alienware/

Doubtless at some point a neckbeard may well tell me that such-and-such a driver is far better, but do you know? All in good time. I've upgraded from the original 2011 AMD 6990M, which although has done me sterling service (holy crap my R3 is five in April!) was starting to struggle. A rather large improvement as far as I am concerned. All my favourite games run at decent frame rates in mega settings and I don't care much for nerd numbers, forum wars or if Joe Schmoe blew his card up. Mine works just fine.

 

Last I checked the m290x did not support switching with intergrated graphics, hence why PEG is used when installing the card, this is just from what i have picked up at the forum as a long time lurker (only recently became a member).

 

Not really. The switching has all switched to only the fly muxless, regardless of system. Muxed switching has been dropped from AMD drivers altogether.

 

Ah, that explains it. Thank you