alienware M17x R4 compatible GPU for upgrades?

I know a laptop GPU upgrade is a big burden to bear for regular gamers,but what are the compatible cards for this laptop with a 660M? I was looking for something with 2-3GBs of VRAM preferrably.

 

680m all the way. Quite a big stepup from the 660m. Fully compatible (plug n play) but you will need to get a heatsink from dell (100W) for the 680m/R4.

Ton of upgrade threads here on NBR re the 680m .

Edit: And check your PSU, you need the 240w one...

Edit2: Forgot that the AMD 7970m is a comparable option the the 680m, I haven't used AMD in years .

 

I'd recommend something with more VRAM than the 680M can offer. The 770M (3GB), 780M (4GB), 870M (3GB or 6GB) should all work fine in the M17x R4.

These days games are chomping up VRAM like nothing. You'll want at least 3GB's, preferably 4GB's to last you a while longer.

 

They do come with 4gb as well as 2gb .

I guess it's how compatible is compatible? The 780m seems to be the best performance wise but then there is all the messing with drivers and bios files for a small gain .

 

The Dell 680M's are 2GB. The Clevo 680M's are 4GB. There have been problems in the past using Clevo components inside an Alienware. So, I don't recommend trying that.

 

Interesting, I've seen quite a few clevo upgrades and no issues at all. Upgrademonkey even offer the 4gb with a dell vbios if you want it.

In fact they overclock better since they are not locked to +135 like the dell vbios...

 

The GTX 680M and 780M are also going for the same price on eBay (within $20~$30). It would be a mistake to grab a 680M over the 780M.

The 780M also has more cores and performs (on average) 20% better than the 680M. The 780M can also be overclocked to score more than 10k in 3DMark 11.

 

Yup, it's down to if you want all the hassle of getting it to work and giving up on optimus, along with having to modify the driver every time a new one comes along. Easy stuff for us 'old-hands' but for me I'd rather all the driver hassle for a much faster card (that 980m has a lot to live up to!).

Simply put, one is an approved and supported upgrade and the other is not. Performance difference is a moot point IMO between these two. I'm still finding the limits with super low temps, just under 1Ghz so far....

 

Do you think the 970M/980M will work in the R4? I am pretty sure it will work in the AW 17 R1.

He may want to wait and see if anyone tries it. Either of those will blow the 680M/780M/880M Kepler bros out of the water.

 

I don't see why not but then again the 770m has a bad rep for the R4. There may be some minor revision of the MMX standard but from previous experience the card just falls back to the earlier version (with accompanying reduced bandwidth).

I'm sure it will be worth waiting, like you say the 9xx are supposed to be way ahead of anything on the market today . I'm planning on being an early adopter but probably in a complete new machine.

 

Im excited to see some people compair the 780m to the 980m in the aw17s.... would love to get one, but need to make sure they can run 3d vision on the r1.

 

That's a biggie for me as well. The problem will be if dell release an R2 version at the same time as the 980m release. Then you will be SOL since dell NEVER retro-fit.

 

somewhat agreed,but I did try an MSI GT70 with the 870m 3gb and it sounded like overkill for what I do,and it's 1080p so I guess it does deal with more res. since high-school odd-jobs are my only source of income,I think 3GBs is good enough,for now.

thanks for the replies though.

 

Guys, been out of the loop for some time now. I'd really like to upgrade my 675M. What are my options? Like Micky, I'm all for best bang-for-less-hassle. Is the 680M still the best way to go? I'd like one with 4GB preferably but if it's going to cause a problem I might be deterred!

Thanks

 

Hi Chris, welcome back .

Yup, for ease of fitting and some awesome performance (after simple modifications) you are golden. As usual I recommend trying to get the heatsink from dell. Since you have an R4 they should sell it to you without all sorts of warnings about 'non-standard' parts! What this gets you is a pre-padded/pasted heatsink that you simply screw together. I did this to see if it was acceptable (I could have easily reused my 675m one) and it was. Awesome low temps and so far the card gives up when overclocking way before any huge temp increase. ATM running 1.0v/980mhz and have only seen 74c a couple of times .

The 4gb versions has no issues I am aware of in the R4. In fact it will be a little better since Clevo do not implement a max overclock (+135 on the dell). Some suppliers will load whichever vbios you want.


Good luck

 

Hey mate, thanks

Cheers for the information there. Something I need to start looking in to then. Quick look on eBay and I can get a 2GB one for <£300 (upgrademonkey). The 4GB Clevo ones come in a lot more expensive. Any other known reputable suppliers? Did you purchase the heatsink from Dell Micky? What price are they knocking those out for?

Thanks again

 

I found a private sale (from an MX18 owner) for a 2gb. Of course I asked a few questions and he seemed genuine so I rolled the dice - win! He even threw in a new x-bracket and paste for £265.00 .

Dell were asking around £500.00 for the card at the time I got the heatsink. That was around £40.00 but a large part was postage!

I always thought the the extra ram was superfluous with a single display setup but that has changed recently with some games requiring 3gb to preload textures .

I don't know of any other suppliers so I would ask them how much for the x-bracket since it does not appear to ber included . It should be very cheap but supply-and-demand will hike that up (possibly?).

I even tried a complete noob install. Just screw it together and install. I never even removed the driver. It started up in low-res, I updated the driver and that was all I needed to do .

I do have a package that will help you get the best out of it but that's for later

 

might be reviving threads but just curious..

if you have optimus,why would your screen be at 800x600 or lowest res when you booted up with a new GPU?

 

Because I do not have optimus, disabled on the 120hz models .

Windows simply saw a different card and went into vga compatibility mode.