SLI GTX 280M in M17x R2 possible by any means!!

Hi guys,i recently bought a m17x R2 and wanted to put the sli config from my R1 into it!
Reasons there are a lot i'm just looking for an answer,i can not test myself because i'll only have it next week!
Also saw that on Dellienware site there's the Sli GTX 285m for the m17x and saw Lozz here having them in his R2! Has anyone tested this yet with or without issues? thanks for your answers..

 

Since the bios can support the 285M, I don't see why it wouldn't work with 280M. Give it a try if you have the cards and bridge. You could always ask lozz to post the vbios for the 285m cards and then flash your 280m's with it.

 

flashing it's a good idea,just slipt my mind ..

he probably ment 5870 wich i don't have any idea!

 

haha, how many times have I heard this one? The whole nVidia-has-better-driver-support argument is getting old. I can bet you that as of now, nVidia's notebook driver support is just as bad as AMD/ATi. Both companies need to step it up in terms of this and while it's nice that ATi took some initiative and now offers driver upgrades through steam, it would be great if they did it for notebooks (not surprisingly, it didn't detect the latest drivers for my m17x).

That said, you could have just bought a R2 system with SLi 285M...

(but yeah, 280Ms in a R2 is possible as someone @ overclock.net forums did the swap before Dell started offering the 285M SLi configs)

 

i didn't bought the rig from Dell,and i'm far from doing it,too overpriced for what they offer and the driver issue wasn't the only reason i would like nVidia!
the thread @ overclock wasn't taken seriously as you saw,for me the guy did a great job but was surrounded by jokers!

 

Well other than needing CUDA and PhysX, it becomes a bit subjective as most of the performance numbers (OC or not) would favor the 4870s. Either way, the 280Ms are solid. I'm just tired of the whole nvidia driver support myth because my experiences and witnessing the experiences of others on this board suggest something different.

 

I don't think it is possible, as the motherboard is different for the NVIDIA and ATI cards.

 

Nuh uh.

 

Lets stick with the OP's question... dropping 280s into the R2 possible? Please leave all NV vs AMD and benchmark posts out of this thread as they are OT.

Kaitlin,
As was stated earlier in the thread, it most likely would be possible however at this time I believe there is no support for the 280M GTX in the R2 BIOS. I don't recall the specific thread but I believe someone did try this. Regardless, if the BIOS does not support it, its a no-go.

Keep us updated and let us know if you decide to do this.

 

I will surely try it when it'll arrive(hopefully soon and in one piece) but if
flashing to gtx 285m bios is possible without issues it should normally work!
If somebody has any news or information about it post here,on topic replies only!

 

It will not work I tried when I got my r2 and still had mt r1 it tried everything to get them to work but I could not get the pc to recognize both cards.

 

Here is the thread I started for this project.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/485993-m17x-r2-280m-gtx.html

 

yes but what you did was only slip the cards in! i am ready to try to flash them to GTX 285M,i'm not current with the R2 but did you try with the very last BIOS release?

 

I tried the latest bios at the time which had support for the 285 and 4xx series of cards.

 

ah,ok,then the only option is flashing them since the problem will be the device ids! next week seem soo far

 

@claxdog also what processor did you had when you tried? because they seem to not work with the i5s..

 

I have always had the 920xm.

 

wrong. it's worse. The only stable release right now are the dell 197s. 258s like to randomly bsod whever they want, and 260s like to freeze up on youtube, I think they're messing with the fan control too, because they're spinning up randomly sitting on the desktop as well. It might get fixed eventually like 5870s were, but I'm sure a lot fewer people will be buying 285's to complain about them as well too.

 

the newest ones 260.89 verde drivers are better than most for the 280Ms..
by the way Lozz will it be possible for you to extract the GTX 285m (that you have in your m17x) bios for me? thanks in advance!

 

Well, Sager's already got 480M's SLI....anyone know if R2's be able to handle that?

 

that will be something.. but heatsinks? :|