M17x r3 680M compatability

Both Dell/Clevo 680m, the 680mx is not available yet. 3D is not supported Idea Storm.
3D Testing [Alienware] [M17x r3] NVidia 680M Compatibility with 3D Controller

 

Ah so it wouldn't matter if I use the 2gb or 4gb ?.
Is one better than the other in anyway ?

 

I too, would like to know this.

 

In the spirit of not sifting through 51 pages of comments...

can we get a simple yes/no about whether or not the 680m is compatible with the R3?

 

yes...but
you have to modify the drivers, inf file specifically. be nice if someone would make a guide on this and put it in the owners lounge.
also, you loose 3d but maintain 120hz

 

Well I bought the 4GB 680M via Upgradeyourlaptop. Putting a bit of faith on them even though the last card I received was a turkey.

Anyway, they ship the 680m with there own custom modded drivers tailor made for the M17xr3. If the card installs fine with the drivers, I'll be sure to upload them for people.



Edit**

In fact you can grab them now. They are available to download from the Upgradeyourlaptop, 680m eBay page. I'm on the phone at the minute so I can't post a link.

 

680M drivers link from eurocom

 

Drivers from Eurocom 07/08/2012 nvcv.inf

; NVIDIA Windows Vista / Windows 7 (64 bit) Display INF file
; Copyright (c) NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved.

[Version]
Signature = "$Windows NT$"
Provider = %NVIDIA%
ClassGUID = {4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Class = Display
DriverVer = 07/08/2012, 8.17.13.0292
CatalogFile = nvcv.CAT

 

Can anyone confirm if the Eurocom driver is good to go?

Also, Eurocm think that the 7970m/6990m heatsink will be compatible with 680m, is this true?

 

I'm wondering if the 680m in the R3 has a throttle problem like the 580m did?



For those that have the 680m in the R3 - what kind of OC are you getting?

 

I was just wondering if anyone had upgraded from the gtx 460m to the 680m and if so did you need a new heatsink or will the one for the 460m work? I looked through the thread, but couldn't find anything. thanks

 

Im currently using the 7970m heat sink

Has anyone succesfully got the 4gb 680m and Intel 3000 working together? Either it wont boot when enabled on SG or under PEG its bricks lol.

 

Hey Aliens!

I've been scrolling through the pages for a couple of minutes but did not become more confident on my type of upgrade.
I currently have m17 R3 with the GTX560M and wishes to replace it with 675M or 680M.
Will it work technical wise? Heatsink, fittings, etc
I heard official drivers does not exist or that Dell could behind it. Which ever of those it is it sux and i will not be hindered by that .

I will google more and see if i can find this particular upgrade done by someone else and return to my post to answer my self if not somebody does it faster =)


/Chris

 

Your best bet is to buy un upgrade kit for Upgradeyoulaptop, on ebay. they will supply you with the card, the x-bracket and screws. Im sure you heat sink is compatible but you can buy a 680m heat sink too.
The card works in the R3 just fine. Although i have to keep the Igpu disabled otherwise the laptop freezes on Boot.

The driver just requires a replacement .inf file found on this thread.

I was shocked to discover today that this card can play on battery!!!!

Was playing PES13 (hardly demanding, i know) with absolute zero lag or low FPS before discovering the AC adapter was on the other side of the room!!!

 

Yes upgrademonkey on ebay does sell the cards too, but not sure if they inlude kits with thir cards.
atleast i know it is all doable now, I only have to consider if i really want (need) to upgrade
So what is lgpu, laptopgpu?

 

No the switchable graphics (Intel 3000), or "optimus" feature. Some people may have it working but i had to disable mine

I would PM upgrademokey and ask about upgrade "kits" But yes, its definitely doable!!

Good luck!

 

iGPU is the integrated graphics processing unit (GPU); in this case, Intel 3000.

 

@Joe85. Hi Joe, in your opinion which is the better upgrade the 7970M or 680M and a brief reason why? I ask cause I noticed through the forum that you have experience of running both GPUs in your system.
I currently have an R3 but have a motherboard fault, been trying to get a new 7970M up and running now for a month, but have diagnosed the fault to motherboard level. New motherboard on the way so hopefully I'll be all signing and dancing soon.

 

The performance is identical, from what I have seen. Only reasons I went for a 680m was A, i'd never used nvidia before and B, the 7970m died after 6 months so didnt want to go with 7970m again. Not that anyone should be concerned with the 7970m. It was an amazing card.

But over all, drivers too, they are identical. No Intel 3000 compatibility (for me) on both. FPS on all games is like for like (=5 here for one +5 there for the other. Both great cards. And now, it seems, similarly priced if upgrade monkey is anything to go by.

 

Thanks for that Joe, I value the opinion of someone who has actual experience of running both cards, rather than reading all the reviews and tech charts out there, so nice one mate. Sorry to hear that your 7970 died, expensive card to loose. I bought my 7970 from Upgrade Monkey, it is a Dell card and the quality of service from them has been good. Two weeks after buying my 7970 I see they are now stocking the 2Gig 680M at the same cost, Gerrrr.... I would have preferred the 680, apparently consumes less power than the 7970 and I prefer Nvidia drivers, from experience I've found them more stable than AMD. Were you running the card at stock clocks leading up to the point of failure or was it overclocked? I've read in an M18x member forum about a bad batch of Dell 7970's that were thought to have degrading VRAM modules, wonder if you got caught out by the same.
Thanks again, I'll post back when I get my system running.

 

Probably mate (the degrading vram modules) but nah, i never over clocked it.....that much

Best of luck.

 

@Joe. Sorry Joe, one question if you will please. Does the 680M still cause the full brightness issue on the M17 R3? Thanks, David.

 

Full brightness? Not heard of that issue. Just checked, works fine for me

 

Hey joe, u can still output 3d via hdmi or miniDisplay port with an R3 680m?

I know 3d doesn't work for the laptop screen, but can u output 3d?

Thx

 

Sorry, no idea. I don't have an external 3D display.

Ok, so i have had a couple of questions regarding the compatibility of heat sinks for the 680m in the R3.

So below is a picture of the 560m, the 580m and the 680m cards. You can see the 560m is different from the latter two cards and would be a risky heat sink to use with the 680m. Hope this helps people with their upgrades

Ok here is the picture:



Ignore the 2nd picture, that doesnt show the 580m.

 

Ok thx Joe. I really want to upgrade to the 680m but I don't want to lose 3D. Can't believe Dell would do this. Alienware machines are supposed to be top of the line BUT Dell won't support upgrades. I've been waiting since spring time for the 680m to become fully compatible with the R3 and still nothing.

It's because of this that I will never buy a Dell/Alienware again. NEVER.

 

Yeh, that's corporations for ya, they want you to buy the R4.

 

When you see this kind of human greedy behavior which by the way is because of money in the first place. Then you must keep fighting it. And thanks to people like Joe, the torch for resistance is lightened up =)

 

Does HDMI out still work after the upgrade? I don't care about 3D but use the HDMI for a second monitor and also for hooking up to the TV....getting ready to pull the trigger and order one, but want to make sure. I thought I had read somewhere in the thread that it does but couldn't find it again.
thanks!

 

HDMI out works great

 

Just what I wanted to hear!
thanks Joe85!

 

If I upgrade to gtx680 clevo or dell that I keep 120hz refresh? I do not need 3d.

 

Trigger has been pulled and card has been ordered!

 

NVIDIA DRIVERS 310.90WHQL

 

J95, do i have to find an update .inf file evertime i want to update the drivers, or will this one work on all future drivers?

 

Okey!

I've installed my new GPU 680M
it is installed as meant according to the guide.
I started the PC right after installation, installed 306.14 drivers on the CD which was provided. Then i got a black screen right after the windows login screen.
I thought something was wrong i waited aprox 20 sec and rebooted again. tried rebooting 2 more times then i entered safe mode. I tried older drivers from Eurocom website but same problem.

Next thing i did was to recover windows from the last point it was working and uninstalled all nvidia drivers. Now It seems like my PC cant detect the GPU, I cant find any video configuration in the A12 bios. Maybe thats because "discrete graphic 1 isnt detected. I forgot to check for the GPU detection in device manager right after the first boot.
All i can see is intel graphics 3000 under display adapters in device manager.


What should i do?

 

Enter the bios and enable PEG, use my previous post .inf.
Download Nvidia driver NVIDIA DRIVERS 310.90WHQL
1-Install Nvidia driver.
2-Let it extract
3-Installation failed, close dialog.
4-Open Display.Driver folder copy and replace nvdm.inf.
5-Run setup.exe within the extracted Nvidia folder.
6-Select custom install>next>Check clean install option>uncheck Nvidia update.

 

i cant see anything at all now after enabling peg. Now what... Damn dell.

 

No post ?
Windows 7 ?

 

Nothing. and yes its win 7.
..

 

Pull your CMOS battery and hold the power button down to do the BIOS reset. Hold the power down for 30 seconds. After assembling and powering it on, you'll hear a lot of beeps and it'll reboot. This will clear your settings out. If the BIOS isn't picking up the GPU in the M17x-r4 and R4, in my experience, it usually means the GPU is dead or dying/shorted.

 

Would have aprecited if you told me where the CMOS is located.
I dont know if its dead but i felt hot air from the heatsink, so there is something that is working but that doesenworking as intended- i at first managed to install the modded drivers, which means the card was detected?

 

The CMOS battery is the coin cell located under the service panel right above you GPU fan.

 

ok done, now its back.

What exactly is happened when CMOS is cleared? All the settings in the BIOS are defaulted, right? Any thing else?

 

680M is back? Or just your boot screen?

Yes, everything is set to default. So you might have to switch your HDD to AHCI instead of RAID.

 

Still "discrete graphic 1" is not detected and that is the GPU slot i guess?
So everything is back to normal except the GPU. I still cant install any drivers because the device isnt detected.

 

Rax, are you back into BIOS?

MAke sure you revert any changes that have been set to defualt, or it wont boot. Fog example, if you have an SSD make sure that boots first, make sure your IDE cofig isn't RAID (if you dont have a raid config) should be ACHI.

When you enable PEG, disable the IGPU. BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BEFORE you do that, download an unlocked a12 bios, you may need to blind flash if the card is dead. IF, that is.

Ok Download an Unlocked A12 BIOS. Extract it, in the folder the Should be a an .fd file. Copy and paste that to your desktop.
Downloads
Rename it PAR00X64.fd.

Next format a USB drive and copy the PAR00x64 file on to the stick. and remove the USB stick. now your ready in case you brick the laptop.

If you do brick it, Firstly, Remove the 680m, re assemble, but leave out the battery, insert the USB into the Esata port, plug in the AC adapter and hold down the 'End' Key on you laptops Keyboard, the fans will start, after a while you will get 25-30 beeps, it will then restart 3-4times. Let go of the end key. When its finally finished restarting, remove USB and boot computer, go straight into BIOS and revert any changes that have gone back to defualt settings.

 

Now, Rax, if you enable PEG in your laptop and turn of intergrated graphics (both under Advanced options in the BIOS) 2 things can happen, 1, your laptop gives you 6 beeps, bad news, the card is dead. 2, the laptops boots as a standard VGA adapter with the crappy resolution and all your icons really big etc. The card is ok and install the drivers as per j95's earlier guide.

 

YEs iam back into windows as well. I can see that the settings are RAID but i dont know why because i have only 1 single 256 gb SSD.

So after i cleared CMOS am i back to the fabricinstalled BIOs or do i still have A12?

If i enable PEG without disabling integrated GPU? well if the GPU isnt working at all then it would not matter right?
I know that i enabled PEG without disabling IGPU and yet i wasnt able to see anything, constant black screen.

 

You will still be on unlocked A12 bios. Removing the CMOS just reverts the BIOS to default settings.

YOu'll want to go into BIOS, go to advanced options and change IDE configuration from RAID to ACHI.

When i tried to boot the 680 in PEG with igpu enabled, it would just lock up, i had toblind flash it to get back into windows. So if your feeling brave, and ready for a blind flash, try switching from SG to PEG and disabling the intergrated graphics. Be prepared, you laptop may give you 6 Beeps on start up, but, if you have created the blind flash file then its not a problem.

Do you have access to a 2nd computer?