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    Would a ati 4870 and a 5870 work in an alienware M17x r2

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by west-wot, Jun 30, 2012.

  1. west-wot

    west-wot Notebook Enthusiast

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    hi there could i put a 5870 into the laptop and cross fire it with the 4870, or would this not work, it currently has a 4870 gfx in it and a 940xm cpu cheers
     
    west-wot, Jun 30, 2012
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  2. Megatony73

    Megatony73 Notebook Consultant

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    as far as I know, putting the 5870m's into the r2 is the easiest crossfire upgrade there is...

    But is it cost effective at this point? I mean should you spend 600-800 on 2 new cards (I am guessing...dont know how much they cost anymore) or just get a new r4 with the 7870 for $1500?
     
    Megatony73, Jun 30, 2012
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  3. radji

    radji Farewell, Solenya...

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    I thought SLI & CrossfireX were setup where they need to two of the same GPU's in order to work?
     
    radji, Jul 1, 2012
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  4. Megatony73

    Megatony73 Notebook Consultant

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    My bad...I misread. You are correct...they have to be the same gpu in a laptop. I just thought you were going to replace crossfire 4870's with 5870's. That's possible. Mixing them up (as I understand it) it not possible on a laptop.
     
    Megatony73, Jul 1, 2012
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  5. radji

    radji Farewell, Solenya...

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    Whew! I was kind of worried I had it wrong all this time. West-Wot, you can't mix GPU's on a laptop, only on a desktop.
     
    radji, Jul 1, 2012
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  6. west-wot

    west-wot Notebook Enthusiast

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    Cool thank you for the calcification !

    would i notice a difference between a single 5870 and a 4870 ?
     
    west-wot, Jul 1, 2012
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  7. aarpcard

    aarpcard Notebook Deity

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    No you can mix gpu's. I'm doing it now. Crossfired 6990m with a 6970m.

    The two chips have to be the from the same die for it to work. Since the 5870m and 4870m are two completely different dies, they will not work in crossfire.

    A 4870m with a 4850m will work though.


    Not really. They are very close to each other in performance.
     
    aarpcard, Jul 1, 2012
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  8. radji

    radji Farewell, Solenya...

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    Wow, good to know. Why would you want to cross a 6970 & 6990? Is there some technical advantage?
     
    radji, Jul 1, 2012
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  9. Banished Angel

    Banished Angel Notebook Consultant

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    Since the 6970m and 6990m aren't too far apart in terms of performance if you ran them in crossfire with the 6970m overclocked to match a stock 6990m you wouldn't really notice much of a difference.
     
    Banished Angel, Jul 1, 2012
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