The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    M17x R4 Replacement Graphics Card

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by Eddie12390, Jun 30, 2015.

  1. Eddie12390

    Eddie12390 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    91
    Messages:
    182
    Likes Received:
    7
    Trophy Points:
    31
    I'm in the market for a new graphics card for my M17x R4 as the 7970m that came with it has died and I don't wish to play games trying to reflow it. Were the issues with the 7970m production process ever corrected or should I switch to an nVidia card? If so, what nVidia card would be the best for this laptop? I assume that I only have a few options (680m-780m?). I'm not looking to spend any more than about $400 on this.

    Thanks,
    Eddie
     
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2015
    Eddie12390, Jun 30, 2015
    #1
  2. _Drake_

    _Drake_ Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    23
    Messages:
    176
    Likes Received:
    98
    Trophy Points:
    41
    Nope the 7970m issue's with the vram coming loose were never corrected. Not all of them will break down but a lot of them do. You could try to reflow the card in the oven, I succesfully revived a dead 7970m that way (7 min on 225 degrees celcius) a while ago.

    The easiest swap would be a 680m, the 780m will work fine as well but a unlocked bios is required. Another option would be m290x which is basically a 7970m with a slight overclock and more vram, but they don't suffer from the same problems the 7970m has.

    Ofcourse you could always go mad and get a 970m or 980m which works quite well in a r4 when using either windows 8 or 10. But both are a lot more expensive than 400 bucks.

    And ow and just keep in mind to either get a clevo or dell mxm card.
     
    _Drake_, Jun 30, 2015
    #2