M17x r3 680M compatability

Don't forget...we are still missing the invaluable word from Dell that it is indeed a "validated" upgrade for older systems.....sure, you can put it in but doesnt mean that Dell will officially support it on the R3 or any other machine for that matter......if they turn around and say it's not validated, then they wont help out with support for it. Can you guess which of the two would be their most likely answer?

 

yea I think that is what luis was referring to. Even though I don't have the 3d display, Let me know when when you put the idea up and ill gladly support you.

 

Looks like you're right - today's release date . Shame there are no release notes - I just tried to dl but 'file not found' so I'll try later.

 

Ok! We have the Idea Storm thread created!

[Alienware] [M17x r3] NVidia 680M Compatibility with 3D Controller

I need your help, please help spread the word and get people to vote!

Thank you!

 

voted! hope something comes of this.

 

Should I make a separate thread for this to help draw more attention to it?

 

Voted. Where did you find the details of what is in the new R4 bios - still can't get it to download though...
Thanks.

 

I found them in the thread on here which talks about the release of the A05 BIOS.

I will be making the thread dedicated to the promotion of the idea storm thread in a couple of minutes after I get out of this resteraunt.

I would appreciate it if all could post in there even if you have already voted to help create more noise. Thank you!


EDIT:

Here's the thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...r-help-needed-idea-storm-m17x-r3-680m-3d.html

 

Hi guys, everyone's hunger for 3D feature now (me too), but while we don't have it yet, can anyone tell me that I can use Optimus with this card?
I also have M17xR3 with 4GB 680m from Eurocom 3 days ago (Its Subvender is Dell :-?).

thanks a million!

 

The 680m IS NOT certified for the R3 and there are no plans to do it. I learned this after talking with upper tier support and engineers. Thus, you might get the 680m to work, but they have no plans at this time to support it or add functionality.

 

unfortunately, they want you to buy R4's

 

Optimus should work as long as the iGpu is in the device manager. Optimus is from the driver. No optimus once you put in a 120hz display for 3D.

Dell subvendor with a 4gb card? Sounds like a re-flash before you got it

Don't forget to spread the petition to dell. It's probably the only chance since dell would have already said if it was in some far-off plan

Dell Idea Storm
Idea Storm

 

Yes, please. If you haven't already, please go vote on IdeaStorm for the idea. If you're not already a member, the registration process takes like literally 30 seconds, and I've never gotten an email of spam from registering on there.

Register at this link!

Luis from Alienware just told me that he thinks, "...it has to receive a lot of votes now and then it may be chosen to be worked on."

In other news, the IdeaStorm thread has advanced to "Under Review".

Again, in case you missed it, we've put up a thread here on NBR dedicated exclusively to the promotion of this IdeaStorm thread. Click here to go to it!

I would greatly appreciate it if some noise was made in this thread.

Also, please feel free to spread the Ideastorm thread anywhere you think it'd help on the interwebs.

We can do this - I'll even write a letter to M. Dell if it'll help us.

 

Has anyone with a non-3D R3 tried to install a 680M in it?

 

Any update from dell about the ideastorm?

 

I got a question. I know the purpose of the Ideastorm is for the 3D functionality to work for M17xR3 with 680M right? But are you guys able to OC it?
I just saw this review http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...-review-stock-vbios-vs-saltius-svl-vbios.html and a Clevo 4GB 680M installed in M18xR1 can be OC'ed using saltius vbios. Are there any AW users who tried a Clevo 680M to their 17xR3 and can OC successfully using Salt Vbios?

 

Nothing other than we're now at 22 votes and are still the top trending article on IdeaStorm. EDIT: Not anymore.

I am hoping to bring in that functionality too. In the IdeaStorm thread, the idea also states in the second paragraph that, "Additionally, the new fixes released today (7.18.12) inside of the A05 M17x r4 BIOS regarding the GPU boost technology should also be included in this BIOS update for the M17x r3."

 

I registered with ideastorm and voted. I don't know if this will help. Like many others here I am disappointed to learn that my first Alienware laptop will not support an upgrade to the latest GPU. I thought this was one of the great advantages of paying a premium price for this laptop. Although this is an excellent laptop I will have to go back to the drawing board when I research my next machine. I would prefer to buy a laptop from a company where the marketing department does not have ultimate control of what parts are available and supported in my laptop. I may buy an Alienware next time but I will not make allowances for a higher price based on savings I will realize by upgrading rather than replacing. That is clearly not the case with Dell. If a buyer is assuming that the highest performance card offered at the point of sale is the best it will ever have then there are much lower priced machines that suddenly become very acceptable. The frustration I have is that this is in no way a technical limitation. It's a marketing decision.

 

I completely agree. Dell is off my purchase list for this reason alone. I paid for a machine that is upgradable and for Dell to decide for non-technical reasons that the model sold this year (r3) is no longer able to upgrade the video is despicable. I can see in a year or two's time when a new R is available I will be SOL.

 

I too also agree 1000000%.

Alienware machines are high performance enthusiast machines with very hefty price tags. It is ludicrous to NOT be able to upgrade the most important component of a gaming laptop simply because Dell do not wish to offer it up as a viable option. Like many others, one of the reasons I bought Alienware was the fact that it could be upgraded without too much hassle.....having Dell strip that aspect away from these systems is diabolical. If these machines are NOT going to be GPU upgradeable, it will certainly stop me from buying another in the future.....who wants to constant have to sell and buy a new laptop every 6 mths?? (other than Dell, and that's what they want us to do.....obviously).

Will be joining and voting on this over at Ideastorm - for M18x owners too.....

 

I can't even get dell to provide a 680 for my R4, which I only have through the good luck (??) of getting a replacement!
Quote:

>Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2012 09:33:27 +0100
> From: [email protected]
> To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Alienware service tag: xxxxx (KMM43891997V906xxxxxx)
> Dear Mr. xxxxx,
>
> As promised, i will send You an email in two-three weeks with more information if the upgrade to GTX680m is possible or not, and will try to keep you updated.
>Thank you for choosing ALIENWARE.
>Kind Regards
Marian Malovec
>Alienware Support Representative

No response despite chase emails

 

Might just be down to stock availability - I don't think they are even offering upgrades for machines being sold with 680m right now....seems like new orders take priority....

 

Thanks everyone for joining in on the effort! We're back up as the top trending article on Ideastorm.

I do think Steviejones133 is right about the shortage of availability - however this isn't a permanent condition.

 

Yeah thanks, I'm just trying to be patient . I was hitting up dell so soon after release since I got my R4 only two weeks before release - trying for a discounted card swap - you have to ask

 

So any news about this? Can we OC a 680M on R3 now? I saw a link on 5150Joker's sig about M18xR1 Oc'ing a 680M for a 3DM11's score of 9k ( Alienware M18x-R1 3DMark 11 World Record (Single GPU)) and a Vantage scoring 28k ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...eaker-lays-smackdown-vantage.html#post8767586).

I'm not really worried about the 3D compatibility right now (I'm sure NBR peeps will find a solution to it) and putting that issue aside, is it safe to say that the 2GB 680M is now compatible for R3 for OC'ing like shown above?

Edit: So I read that the card in the link is a Clevo card. So dell card is still a no go?

 

No, the GTX 680m has trouble being OC'd even in the R4. The 4GB ones should work fine though.

 

Sorry guys I have completely lost the main facts in all the noise. Will 680m work on r3?

 

Hi, i just got the 680m installed in my R3. This is I think the clevo 4gb version. However, the Driver provided by eurocom did not able to run. What driver can be use on this 680m? Appreciate any hep and advise to get my card running.

Thanks

 

You'll need the 304.79 driver and replace the inf file with this one:

nvcv.inf

Try that

 

Hi SlickDude80,

thanks for the inf. for the 304.79 driver where can i download it?

 

Here: NVIDIA DRIVERS 304.79BETA

 

Hi Slick,

Thanks downloading now. anyway below is the value of device ID.

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_11A0&SUBSYS_04901028&REV_A1
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_11A0&SUBSYS_04901028
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_11A0&CC_030000
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_11A0&CC_0300


are your previous provided inf file containing my device id above? I have difficulty to check and understand this device id thing.

Hi Slick,

Still can not. Guess the inf file did not contains my card device ids?

why the device ID cant be like a range of device id (i,e, 0~9999).

 

OK, i grabbed that inf file from this post..i assumed becauase you both have the clevo 680m, that the device id's would be the same...however, your id isn't on the inf file.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...fully-installed-gtx-680m-into-p170hm-but.html

You'll have to edit the inf file. You can use this post as a reference: http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...d-gtx-680m-into-p170hm-but-4.html#post8714742




I've editted LaptopNut's instructions to pertain to your device id


Using Notepad, open the nvcv.inf that you just downloaded

(Using the replace function)

Replace all occurences of DEV_11A0&SUBSYS_00001558 with DEV_11A0&SUBSYS_04901028

Replace all occurences of %NVIDIA_DEV.11A0.0000.1558% with %NVIDIA_DEV.11A0.0490.1028%

Replace all occurences of NVIDIA_DEV.11A0.0000.1558 with NVIDIA_DEV.11A0.0490.1028

Replace NVIDIA_DEV.11A0.0000.1558 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M "

with

NVIDIA_DEV.11A0.0490.1028 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M "

 

Hi Slick,

my gpu device id is below that i got from device manager.

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_11A0&SUBSYS_04901028&REV_A1
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_11A0&SUBSYS_04901028
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_11A0&CC_030000
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_11A0&CC_0300

i just dont know how to convert above to the format of nvidia driver will understand.

will it be : NVIDIA_DEV.11A0.0300.1558 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M " ?

what is the second and third values referring to? NVIDIA_DEV.11A0.XXXX.XXXX ?

i check using hwinfo, it can identify the card as 680m but with empty value of all the clocks.

 

Your device id is NVIDIA_DEV.11A0.0490.1028 based on DEV_11A0&SUBSYS_04901028

Look above for instructions

 

Hi Slick,

great it works. Thanks a lot.

 

Excellent, glad that worked! Now all i ask is that you do some benches and gaming and report back on the card and how it is running in your R3!!

 

Hi Slick,

No problem. I will do it and post here since i have both 7970m (before) and now 680m.

Stock clock, 3D mark 11 = 6300

OC (+135), 3D mark 11 = 7044

I havent tested in games yet. Maybe tomorrow i will test on bf3..



Again Slick, thanks for your help. Now i can sleep


UOTE=SlickDude80;8780632]Excellent, glad that worked! Now all i ask is that you do some benches and gaming and report back on the card and how it is running in your R3!! [/QUOTE]

 

Hi All

This is my first post here but I thought you all might be interested.

I recently upgraded my m17x r3 from an ATI 6990 to a new nvidia 680m

I brought the card as an upgrade kit from eurocom who were great, they sent everything needed plus the modified drivers.

Anyway to install

1. Take off back panel (2 screws either side of the battery) then slide off forward.

2. Unscrew fan left fan (laptop upside down front away from you)

3. Lift out fan, this was a bit tricky but got it out from wiggling it a bit

4. Unscrew GPU 2screws left and right of GPU

5. Remove GPU lift up from the back of card and towards you. Be careful it's tricky.

6. Now you have he GPU out with the heat sink and heat pipes attached.

7. Unscrew heat sink and carefully pop the card off, this took me and age as it was quite stuck

8. I cleaned the heat sink of all residue thermal paste using nail varnish remover, it was all I had but seemed to work

9. I applied new thermal paste (IC Diamond) to the new 680m and new thermal pads

10. Repeated all steps in reverse order putting it all back together.

After this I turned on installed the drivers and much to my surprise works perfectly. I've had no issues at all but I have no idea what temps it should be running at so if anyone has some advice I would be grateful.

Currently idle is between 52 and 57
Under load its 67 to 77

Thanks for any advice and hope this helps. Oh and if you follow these instructions it's at own risk

 

Hello, Rgjh, welcome to NBR.

Those temperatures look good.

 

Thanks for sharing. By the way how much performance increase you gained from moving to 680m comparing 6990m?

 

Hi Slick,

I couldnt belive my 680m working fine for almost 1 week only. Just this morning, i tried to update the driver given by eurocom and the card just dead after boot up. It happens as one beep and that all, no boot/post.

Then i enable the igp (previously running on disable igp) and the laptop can boot.

After boot, it does not recognize the 680m and i install the driver. It successfully installed bit there is exclamation mark and windows reported the device cannot start (code 43). The gpu z detect the mem is 2090 and this is 4 gb card.

Tried everything from system bios A08, A10, default and unlocked version still the same.

So sad....

 

That is bad news. I even have no idea if I should wait for 680 for upgrade to r3 maybe just give up and save the money. No 3D still huh?

 

Terribly sorry to hear about your loss of the GPU - does Eurocom offer warranty on purchases?

Have you tried to rollback your drivers?

There is still no 3D. However, the lead manager of Dell's IdeaStorm service just posted in my thread specifically about 3D compatibility. Here's a link: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...idea-storm-m17x-r3-680m-3d-2.html#post8799832

 

did you use the overvolted vbios daddyz?

 

Nope.. just slightly OC as my previous post. I indeed still cannot believe why these 28 nm card (7970m and 680m) is damm sensitive? seems that the reliability is an issue or something on R3 cause problems?
Now im back to good all relaible 6990m.. never had me down.

Currently arranging these 680m to be RMA back and ask for them for burn in test before shipped the next replacement card.

Any other NBR members that have upgraded either 7970m and 680m and did not have any issue at all??

nope drives not the cause of this. this card not even get my laptop to boot. it beep once and the screen showing like power up.. and thats it, nothing after that .only repeated beep. This is however when i disable igp. but if i enable igp, my laptop can boot (because it using the intel hd graphics) Windows detected the 680m with exclamation mark saying the card cannot started... the gpu z shows funny reading with the memory count (2xxx) ..clock everything's is empty. the card cannot start..

 

I haven't had any issues with my 7970M in my system. The only thing I can't do is OC and play Crysis 2. For some reason my system locks up with a black screen. Every other game I throw at it is just fine. I don't see it being an issue as I haven't had the need to run any OC while I game, yet....

 

7970?

Sent from my HTC Glacier using Tapatalk 2

 

Acutally, 7970M. Problem?

I'm replying to the thread below, where the person posting was asking if anyone had issues with installing either their 7970M or 680M in an R3. Have you read any of the previous threads?

 

The problem? None, its just confusing because you didn't quote. So I thought its another 7970 post on a 680 thread.

On topic: Maybe I will delay my upgrade until most of the issues are resolved.

Sent from my HTC Glacier using Tapatalk 2