Will a 5870m work in a 2013 M17

Ok so I've been having a bunch of problems with my 2013 Alienware 17. It started with a problem with the screen not turning on unless it was only opened about 30 degrees. After troubleshooting I got it down to either the MB the cable or the screen. And decided to live with it for a couple weeks till I could afford to send it in to Alienware.

Anyways about a week later the computer went completely dead. The power cord led would turn off the second I plugged it into the computer. And I couldn't get anything from the computer. I called Dell and they said it was probably the MB so I ordered a refurbed from ebay and replaced it today. As I was assembling I decided to take my time and test it after I installed each component (Other then 1 stick of memory and the cpu/heatsink/fan). All was going well untill I put in the video card. As soon as it was installed I started having the same problem. So checked it was seated correctly and all contacts were clean ect but still no improvement. So I threw the old mb back in and am having the same results.

Right now the computer is completely assembled minus the video card (780M) and it is working like it was before (have to keep the screen closed mostly to turn on) but otherwise it powers up just fine and will load into Windows ect.

So on to my original question. My old Alienware M17XR2 has a 5870m in it and I am wondering if there is any reason I couldn't put it's video card into the 17R. I know I would lose some performance but at lease with the better processor in the newer laptop I am hoping I will have a slightly better gaming setup until I can decide what I want to do (either fix the 17 with it's 2 seperate problems or just break down and buy an R2 with a 980m)

Thanks for any help.

 

Well the M17X R2 can have a 780M installed in it so you should be fine with MXM compatibility. As for actual compatibility once it is installed I can't say either way, I can't really think of a reason why it wouldn't work but laptops are weird. It shouldn't hurt anything to try it but you might not have the correct heatsink as the AMD and Nvidia cards use different ones IIRC.

 

I didn't even think about the heatsink config thanks for the heads up.

 

i'd ditch the 5870m and just get a 780m....done!

 

Or buy a 980m which I think should be compatible

 

that's the thing: i thought the M17X R2s aren't compatible for some reason but the AW17 R1 is fine with a few settings changed in the BIOS.

 

Thanks for the replies. My original plan before the comp died was to buy a R2 later this year . That said I can't afford to fix this and buy a new computer. Especially after wasting 250 bucks on a motherboard I didn't need. I do have a working 17XR2 and a semi working 17R1 (no video card) so I was hoping to put the 5870 into the R1 and get the advantage of the better cpu.

I did try swapping today. Needed the longer screws from the XR2's heatsink to work but otherwise the heatsink fit on fine. The computer even powered up and bios and windows recognized it. While installing the ATI drivers however the comp shut down guessing due to temp because the heatsink felt really hot. So I decided to watch the fan and it only spun once durring power up. HW info couldn't detect the GPU temp and after trying to get the fans to spin I took it out and put it back into the XR2.

I am guessing the bios just isn't set up to run the ATI card. So unless I am able to find some more info on how to get it to work I will likely be using the XR2 until I buy my new comp.