Upgrades for 285M Sli

Has anyone upgraded from these cards to something more powerful? If so, what have you upgraded to (or the better question is, what can you upgrade to)? Thanks in advance!

 

You can go upto the 6990 Crossfire.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-6990-your-m17x-r2-single-gpu-crossfirex.html

OR

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/605322-m17x-r2-gtx-580m-sli.html

 

Thanks guys! +rep

Question - I can upgrade to crossfire even though I have SLI? I didn't know one could do that? I figured a change of the motherboard to a supported crossfire setup would be needed if I went that route.

Which do you prefer, 6990's or 580s? My current cards are not overclocked and the highest temp they run at is around 52-55 degrees, so not hot at all.

 

6990's are better. There are more power issues with the 580M's Not to mention the outrageous price tag for a pair. The 580's also have no fan control. You need third party hardware to control the fans, otherwise they stay on at 100%, all the time. 6990s work with the system and have no fan issues. A slight undervolt and they will present no issues at all in terms of power. Especially in conjunction with a Q740M

 

Third party software

That's right, for now we are limited to the 240W PSU as a clean option.
Also DR's statement is true for the Clevo 6970/6990.

Yes you can, there's only one motherboard for the M17x R2.

 

Any reason why I can't find the 6990's on newegg or dell (not that I would order an upgrades thru dell)?

 

newegg doesn't sell them. Best bet is Eurocom, or Eurocoms ebay store
"upgradeyourlaptop"

Katalin, thanks for catching that. Minds going faster than fingers. You should continue the discussion in the threads linked above as you will find much more information there if you read the threads. Lengthy, I know, but it will answer all your questions. Don't forget to vote for NBR F@h thread below

 

Best is to camp marketplace. eBay is grossly overpriced.

 

The seller one eBay is in fact Eurocom which appears to be the only one to supply Clevo 6970/6990.

 

(EDIT) $430 bucks x 2??? Is it even worth it to upgrade? That's a lot of cash to shell out if it's not a big jump in performance over the 285s. How can they be the only ones to sell those?

 

It's definately a large jump over 285s, Especially since 285's don't have DX11 support.

 

ITS A HUGE IMPROVEMENT. For reals. But depending on your finances and how long you've had the laptop, you could just get an new one lol

 

Good idea! I was thinking the exact same thing, haha! I may as well try to sell my existing laptop for 1200-1500(???) and buy the new one for around 1800-1900 in which I'll get better video cards, memory, processor..etc.

My existing laptop is about a year and 3 months old.

 

6990m crossfire is a huge upgrade from 285 sli.........take into account that for the performance, your getting a lot better deal than buying a new laptop. And you can sell the 285m SLI for some cash back.

You can't sell the M17x for like $1200-$1,500...........i cant even get that much with my 940xm and warranty and such. eBay is definitely best bet though especially to try and get top dollar.

Sold an exact one similar to urs but it has some cosmetic blemishes for like $930 + $50 shipping on eBay which comes out to like $800's after eBay fees. Granted, I only bought the thing for $400 cuz the guy said it wasn't working so I made $400+ profit. I fixed it, was a simple matter of just unplugging CMOS battery and draining then turning on again.