M17x r4 upgrade to 980m

Hi everyone,

I'm new on the forum and I need your help to upgrade my laptop.
I just bought a 980m from woodzstack and been reading a lot of posts and guides on how to upgrade and set up the gpu but ain't getting anything clear.
My laptop is currently running a 7970M with W10, A12 stock BIOS and 60Hz screen.
Can someone help me with an easy step-by-step guide on the set up before installing and after installing the new gpu?

Thank you!

 

there have been threads about this so please search before creating a new thread.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/alienware-17x-r4-970m-upgrade.767872/

 

Yes, I've been there and read most of pages but it doesn't show how to upgrade the gpu with w10 it shows only w8 and for what I've read on another posts is it possible to upgrade and run w10.

 

you're being too granular: the BIOS level setup and GPU install should be the same regardless of OS. even woodzstack got it to work so i don't see a problem as to why it won't work.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...m17x-r4-without-optimus-working-great.777145/

 

Ok, thank you for your answers. I just wanted to be sure on how to proceed without making any major mistakes.

 

Just remember that the 7970 has a different heatsink and mxm bracket than nvidia's

 

Well, I asked to woodzstack before buying and he said that I won'thave any problem with the heatsink..Now I'm confused.

 

the GPU will already have a mounting bracket attached.

 

The AMD heatsink will work.. Just remove the black plastic on the centre of the heatsink.... If you value your laptop, run the 980M in Optimus mode...

 

hmmm....woodzstack was able to get it to run in dedicated mode so....odd.

 

Believe me I value my laptop, that's the main reason for a gpu upgrade instead of buying a new one
Btw, is really that annoying to run in optimus mode instead of dedicated?

 

No it is not Annoying... The reason why I say to run in Optimus is so that your screen can't get corrupted with the NVIDIA driver bug.. It will basically render your laptop useless...

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Ok, thank's for the advice, will run optimus just in case

Does optimus run properly or is like with AMD that sometimes it doesn't recognise a game and must set it manually in the control panel?

 

I am going to tell you straight away: don't bother trying to get it installed in optimus in windows 10. Anyone saying otherwise has yet to point me to a single person who was able to do so.
I might try a final suggestion by j95 from techinferno to use dell's official drivers (with modded inf)
But honestly if you want to enjoy your gpu right away, revert back to win8.1...


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Well, reverting to w8.1 is not an option, I upgraded from w7 to w10, I don't own a w8.1 license and don't plan to buy one if it's not mandatory for the upgrade. As I read on other posts is it possible to run it also in w7 right?
I know you recommend w8.1, but in my personal case, would you recommend w7 or w10?
Thank's for taking the time to help me!

 

W7 is fine as well... Believe me when I tell you that I tried everything to make it work in windows10.... Aside from dedicated but i would never risk edid corruption.


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Ok, so If I downgrade to w7 what will be the procedure and bios set up for the upgrade?
Thank's!

 

Same procedure as win8.1. If you're not already on uefi you will need to do a clean installation of win7 in uefi. Make sure bios is fully updated and disable legacy/secured/fast boot. You need to be in pure uefi mode


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I will need to do a clean install for sure, cause I have the wrong format partition on my disk. My actual bios is A12 stock, I need to upgrade it to A13 or use an unlocked version?

 

It's not a prerequisite but IMO always better to have up to date bios


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so long as you don't use precision x!

 

Get A13... And I can confirm that Optimus works on Windows 10... At least it did for me..

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Hi Tom,

From what I saw surfing you were trying to downgrade your bios A13, how come?
Did your R4 break cause of win10 +980m?

 

Hey Tom
It is not my intention to hijack this thread and anyway it will help the OP as well... Do you mind explaining by which miracle you were able to install the 980m in win10? Detailed steps will be greatly appreciated!


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I downgraded the BIOS from A13 to A11 then flashed the unlocked version... My issue came that with new RAM I wanted to try dedicated mode... Big mistake as @mariussx can also testify... Screen was dead in 2 days... And yes it broke because of Windows 10 + Precision X + 970M...

Hmm, not too sure.. I was in Optimus mode in 8.1 before I upgraded to 10 so stayed in that mode....

 

theorectially it might not fail if one does not install precision x. woodzstack is a testament to it running in dedicated mode + win 10 + 980M.

but then again like GPUs, it is a lottery.

I would like to consider myself lucky but also careful and heeding as much advice as possible when doing such an undertaking.

touch wood!

 

Well, I'll go safe for a while running win7 + 980m If something changes in a near future I'll upgrade to w10 again.

 

you can only ever run it in optimus with win 7.

 

Last time I've heard, Windows 7 doesn't work with 970M/980M... Even in Optimus mode...

 

so either way it's 8.1 or 10.

 

Yup...

 

wouldn't matter really since they're really screwing up the win 7 updates.

 

Hi, also bought 980m from woodzstack and might arrive on january ... im planning to
just uninstall my amd 7970m driver using uninstLler software then reset my bios insert the 980m card ..

im currently running windows 10 and a12 bios do you guys think my plan will work ? i have currently alienware destop command center install so im just running 7970m without the intel hd .. is it possible i gonna brick my laptop with the process i gonna do?

thanks

 

It is possible your monitor will be bricked with EDID corruption. I would uninstall Evga Precision X if you have it installed, also Msi afterburner just to be safe. Revert back to switchable graphics before you install nvidia card physically. You should be safer in Optimus when you install nvidia card. You could update your BIOS to A13, since I assume A12 is not unlocked (at least I never saw A12 unlocked anywhere). And hope for the best

 

what will happen if i didint use modded drivers? and what gonma happen if i just download driver from nvidia and install it to my upgraded 980m?

 

You are forced to use modded drivers as the 980m is not "officially" supported by the m17x laptops. So if you do try to install a vanilla driver you'll get a message that the installer couldn't detect a compatible GPU.

 

i want this to happen:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ctor-an-external-pci-e-x16-box.407071/page-29

and if it works then a desktop 980 would be bad ass.

 

Hi again guys, so here I am, still trying to get the 980m working on my laptop.
I'm running fresh install of windows 10 and optimus activated. I can see both gpu, integrated and dedicated.
Tried to install different drivers but I'm having the same experience with all of them, all benchmarks/games doesn't get higher than 10-15 fps on LOW settings and I'm pretty sure the dedicated graphic card was selected through optimus.
What am I doing wrong?

P.d: Can some1 link me an easy tutorial to mod the newest driver available?

 

980m will NOT work in optimus in windows 10. Just not possible. Don't waste your time. Go back to win8.1 or switch to dedicated. Juste make sure to NEVER use precisionX


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Well...
I think I did it!!!! It seems like optimus is working for me on w10, here are some screens, correct me If I'm wrong.

Benchmark on highest preset with 980m:
http://postimg.org/image/jxg29a83l/

Benchmark on lowest preset with HD4000:
http://postimg.org/image/m4eni0979/

I will later post test with a few games aswell. Let me know what you guys think!

 

For the love of God, please explain step by step what you did in order to successfully install the driver in Windows10... Please start by specifying what is the Hardware ID of your card and driver that you used to accomplish this...

Thanks!

 

Hi nick81,

Once I get home I'm gonna explain the whole process and add some screenshots, but keep in mind that maybe I'm just lucky XD

 

Thanks man! Now it might just be down to your setup as you have the m17x R4 while I have the 17 R1 (ranger)... Wouldn't surprise me at all as Dell seems to make things more complicated with each new iteration of their products...

 

Ok, let me resume it for you (that's what worked for me and won't be responsible if doesn't work for you ):
I was running hd 7970m on my Alienware M17x-R4 60hz screen and stock bios A12.

1.- Configured bios settings to turn it to UEFI:
2.- Legacy option rom: disabled
3.- Secure mode: disabled
4.- Fast boot: disabled
5.- Save without exit and then force shutdown.
6.- Remove battery and charger -> Hold power button at least 30s
7.- removed 7970m from the laptop and installed 980m
8.- Once the card is installed on the laptop put the charger and check if everything is ok on bios (Intel Ivy + Nvidia GFX)
9.- Fresh install of windows 10
10.- Let windows download and install EVERY update available
11.- Then disabled DSE (Config,Sec..,recovery,etc) - > reboot
12.- Installed driver 358.91 as usual (provided by woodzstack)
13.- Surprise it works.


I did try other drivers before this one, none of them worked for me at all.
Now I'm gonna give dedicated mode a try (thx for the help celsoervin14), cause I think my 980m is not performing as it's best.
Here's my hardware ID:
http://postimg.org/image/het2xm9h3/

 

That score is pretty low ....

what driver are you using now and where did you download it?

 

Right now I'm using 358.91.
And I thought so, that the score was a little bit low... but as far as gaming concerns, I can run rainbow six siege at ultra with 50-60fps (1080p) among other less demanding games.
Once I switch to dedicated performance will increase, right?

 

why does it reduce the life span of the card if we run it on peg?

 

The score isn't that low.
Check this website:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/unigine-heaven-4-0-benchmark-scores.198888/
Search for "980m". The guy is getting 1443 with an OC'ed gpu. I honestly don't remember the score I got personally but I wouldn't worry about it.
The one thing you'll want to check is if you're getting any throttling. There are countless guides on how to check this and how to sort this out (I recommend Techinferno forums)

 

It doesn't reduce the life span of the GPU. The problem is that a combination of Win10 and certain factors, one of which we are 100% sure of: PrecisionX, lead to EDID corruption: dead screen. It's very hard to fix and the only person who managed to do so (and share his solution) is MrFox here. Neither Nvidia nor Microsoft have a fix for this yet, so personally I would completely avoid using dedicated mode under Windows10. If you're that high on benchmarking then stick to Windows8.1

 

Well, personally I'm not a benchmarking enthusiast so..
I want to explain also a problem I noticed yesterday, my secondary drive disapeared when I went on w10 full uefi, If someone is in the same situation the problem is that you have to convert from dinamic disk to basic disk. I did it with the software easeUS instead of windows disk management to avoid data loss.