M17x-R2 GTX460m MOD: Can it Work?

I got my hands on a few GTX 460 cards to try and Test with the R2. I don't Have an SLi cable so for now i can only do single card tests.....
First the Fun Part:
Unboxing them



Once your ready to actually put them in you have to remove the backing plate from the card, as the screw size is different on these than the Dell. this could be a potential problem if you don't have access to a "Dell" backing plate. I used Shin Etsu thermal paste, it seems to work the best for me, when i used it on my 4870s i was able to keep them around 71 degrees after playing games for about 4 hours st8. Its a pain to work with but its good IMo. I also think that the cards could benefit from the c-clip mod we did on the 5870s, but i was a little lazy for now and didn't do it. i used the Backing plate & Heatsink from my spare 4870 master card, so I didn't have to re-paste the 5870.




The Driver issue was a pain in the Butt at first, Since i don't mess much with Nvidia, but i was able to download the newest Drivers (265.99) and use the modded INF file from LTV2G to get it to install. NOTE The Dell driver for this wont install but you can force it, but right at the end of the installation it says that its not compatible with this version of Windows. ????

The same issue that Ichime had is the Fans, at first it didn't seem like they came on at all, when i ran Furmark Xtreme burn-in mode it went to 100 like in 2 mins and the laptop shutdown. the results of the 2nd Furmark test are below.

I ran an initial 3d06 test and it was MASSIVE FAIL the Score was sub 13k. my 5870 runs in the 14500 range stock with my specs. Im not sure that the 3d clocks are kicking in, or these cards are a massive disappointment. The card didn't get real hot during the test, got to around 76ish degrees. I haven't run another one i wanted to make sure that the card would stay at a certain range temp wise before i went any further.

Some Testing.

Here is a 30 min stress test i Did with Furmark


i will post more as i do them. if you have any requests let me know and ill run them.

 

Could you run 3dmark 11 and post your results?

If you are disappointed of the cards PM me I would like to have one.

 

Maybe you can get a hold of the 280/285 SLi cable and give it a try? Sucks about the fan issue though.

 

right now, they are running so i dont know if its a glitch or a vbios issue., if i can get ahold of a Vbios from a m15x GTX460m, i will try and flash it and see what if anything that will accomplish. funny enough, it comes up as a dell card in Both GPU-z & HWinfo...... as you can see from the test after 30 mins of Xtreme burn in on furmark, it never got hotter than 82 degrees, which is ok IMo so a retention clip mod will get this thing lower into the 72-75 range IMO.


i cant get 3d11 to run on my machine idk whta the issue is.

i cant find one of those SLi cables any where so if any one knows where, let me know.

 

What you could do is buy these: DELL ALIENWARE M17X 280M X203R SLI LAPTOP GRAPHICS CARD - eBay (item 180591211909 end time Dec-22-10 20:58:58 PST)

And then keep the cable and sell the cards individually.

 

Nice try, and + Rep thx

 

its just the slave card. id never sell it for that.

 

after soing some research my stock scores are actually a little higher than the asus & the m15x, but not so much as i would say that it runs better int he m17x, could just be a score anomaly, im going to try the 3d11 now and see what i can get...

 

Looks like you'll be the only one testing these cards in the M17x. I put both of mine for sale. You could probably rip some data from the next M17x R3 (the VGA support modules) and paste them in an R2 BIOS with the PhoenixBIOS editor if the methodology is the same as doing those SLIC mods that they do all the time in the BIOS editor forums. Anyways, good luck with the testing and let me know if you need any help.

 

The cards are a bit weaker than the 5870 mobility so the scores seem right. Good to know they actually work in the M17x. I wonder if the GTX 470m will work.

 

I believe mxmupgrade.com can sell you a SLI cable. I got a crossfire cable from them.

 

I got the fans to "work" but they don't go all the way down, they stay @ 2500-4500 rpms. In game temps are awesome it never gets above 65 degrees even after 2.5 hours of playing DA:O @ max settings.if i was daring, i could get to 11k in Vantage Imo, so i would say that they are at least on equal with the 5870s IF you overclock the crap out if them, as it stands i could get somewhat stable clocks @ 885/1350/1715, but the driver freezes occasionally. I don't know how to flash the bios with the Nvidia cards, unless they can use ATI flash....with a Official driver release i think they could be a solid winner, i don't kn ow how much SLi is over X-fire or if at all so its hard to speculate what kind of performance we would see

 

How did you get the fans to work?

 

here is a 16,000 vantage with the 460's at mid overclock you can see what they can do

 

with nibitor6.0 you can edit the bios of the 460m's i already flash them for everyday use

 

Hey compadre nice score you got there! hahhaa. You always know how to push a system. Wait core #10? What the...?!?!?!

 

16K GPU score, not bad but still behind the 5870s. What's the highest youv'e gotten?

 

Thanks, what you never saw a 10 core CPU? lol

 

well i uninstall vantage but on some games i get like 10 frames more with 460's and some games are equal to 5870's overall the 460's are better because SLI scales better than crossfire but on a single card the 5870 wins

 

Hhahaha thats great you have the best core i7 there! the extreme version OMG! hehehe sometimes I wish I could have one of your laptops . Or at least one of your gpus .

 

lol thanks, you don't want to carry this monster to school that's for sure your back may break's if you have to carry this mammut everyday

 

Really glad to hear this worked. Now someone needs to get ahold of a GTX 470m and try it in the M17x.