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    m17x R3 - looking to upgrade gpu

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by Diffuse, May 12, 2016.

  1. Diffuse

    Diffuse Newbie

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    ive been looking to upgrade my 560m gpu for the past few weeks, and have recently tried the 580m card, i purchased from ebay installed (updated bios from a09 to a12, prior to installation of the physical card), installed drivers for the card from nvidia's website (lastest verson of drivers) installed card, everything went smooth during installation. However everytime the card would kick on (via starting a game requiring the dedicated graphics), the system would freeze up. Not sure what is going on there, everything seemed fine, is there something I might be missing with the installation? any advice or ideas would be helpful

    thanks
     
    Diffuse, May 12, 2016
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  2. Siphorous

    Siphorous Notebook Consultant

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    I'm sorry to say the 580m is/was a powerful card for its time BUT is well known for failing or starting to crap out after a year or so.

    I've an m17x r3 and I'm on my 2nd 580m. Granted, it doesn't freeze everytime something requires dedicated graphics but it has caused inopportune freezes more and more.

    Drivers - for the 580m, if it isn't dead the 'old' 314.22 drivers are known to get a couple of months extra life out of the 580m.

    In terms of your current install though, the obvious things to check for are connections - was it cleaned and repasted ok etc etc. That kind of thing.

    To be honest, if you could return it - I would. Almost anybody here who's had that in their machine for a while will tell you of the issues. As for a replacement, many have tried the 680m, 780m and I'm not sure on those who've tried the 880m.

    For me, i'm looking towards the 680m. A user here I regard very well (MickyD1234) has sworn by his old AW with a 680m as it runs much cooler than the 780m etc. There are other little niggles with the 780m that sometimes have to be solved too - such as the onboard sound breaking apparently that can be tricky to get back. Not my experience as I've not had one of course but just from what I've read here.

    Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
     
    Siphorous, May 12, 2016
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