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.

    Need a little help with a GPU upgrade m17x r2 upgrade to 7970m

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by jcalvin1126, Jun 4, 2014.

  1. jcalvin1126

    jcalvin1126 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    31
    Likes Received:
    6
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Hello all,

    I am a new member here, and mainly due to recieving a nice m17x r2. This computer is great, however it has a really crappy Xfired 4870's.

    So to get started I ordered this New Alienware M17x M18x 7970M AMD 2GB GDDR5 XT Laptop Video Card O | eBay

    It is a nice 7970m that I eventually plan on Xfiring in the future. Now I have followed many forums to learn how to do this process, and although it seems to be a little dificult, I have no doubt that I can do this.
    So to begin with, I am having a hard time finding the Vbios packages for this mod, I looked up many of the links and unfortunately they are all broken. It seems as though a lot of those packages have been moved or removed.
    Does anyone on this site have updated links?

    Also I am under the impression that to do this install I will need to load a USB drive with DOS boot, place the vbios flash on the USB drive as well, and then un install all video card drivers on the computer. After replacing the cards I then boot up the computer with the usb drive, and then run the command prompt to flash the vbios. So that it will work on my computer. Hopefully then the computer will boot up and I can then install the drivers as necessary and hopefully run like new.

    Is any of this information incorrect? Because I would rather know now then have to wait for the card and kind of figure it out on my own haha.

    I am really excited to get this rig like a new computer because it has been a little disturbing to not be able to even load you tube videos on 1080p full screen without video lag. These cards are old and they need replaced.
     
    jcalvin1126, Jun 4, 2014
    #1
  2. jcalvin1126

    jcalvin1126 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    31
    Likes Received:
    6
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Ok after some research I found that I may not have to flash the Vbios since it is a alienware card allready. However, with the possability that I may have to reflash it with the clevo vbios with this forum http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...nother-7970m-m17x-r2-installation-photos.html

    However, the link is broken, or at least no more downloads can be processed, so If I do need to flash, hopefully someone will chime in if I do or not, then I will need to know were the heck to find vbios for a 7970m
     
    jcalvin1126, Jun 5, 2014
    #2
  3. nitsun69

    nitsun69 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    60
    Messages:
    131
    Likes Received:
    32
    Trophy Points:
    41
    Head over to tech inferno and in the forums there's a guy names nospheratu. In his signature he has a link to modded clevo vbois. I have clevo cards so that's what I use but I know of guys using clevo bois on there dell's for better performance and fan control but losing hdmi sound.

    Hope that helps
     
    nitsun69, Jun 5, 2014
    #3
  4. Trome71

    Trome71 Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    167
    Messages:
    744
    Likes Received:
    142
    Trophy Points:
    56
    For a single card I dont think you need clevo VBIOS.
    I didnt have problems with the dell VBIOS back before i got the XF.
     
    Trome71, Jun 5, 2014
    #4