GTX 770M > 970M upgrade?

So I`m thinking about upgrading 770M SLI to 970M SLI. Will be using the heatsinks from 770M since both are 75W. Will it be a problem if you look at these two pictures from the cards? Just using thermal pad to ensure contact with the heatsink over the extra VRAM and on the bigger grey block (lol dont know the name) on top left?

The 970M die is also much bigger than the 770M die. Will this be a problem?

GTX 770M



GTX 970M

 

lol i thought your in search for 980M. If you find die size if bigger while replacing card then just remove black coating on top of copper. Main question, is 970M SLI working in Aw systems?

 

As long as all of the critical components have thermal pads on them and everything is making proper contact, it should work.

 

Nah I rather go for 970M SLI than single 980M.
How do you remove the black coating? Will it involve using dremel?

Nobody have tried 970M on AW18 yet. Hopefully its working, but Im a bit weary about buying 970M right now because of it.
Eurocom is currently testing AW18 with 980M right now so fingers crossed they get it to work

Thanks. Thats what I wanted to hear
I have never used a heatsink that wasnt made specifically for the GPU before. Thats why I`m asking because Im afraid I will overheat some components or something

 

When I had my m15x, I had a 75w or 65w? nvidia heatsink and it worked fine for my 100w amd 7970m. The 970m is way more similar to the 770m than my 7970m was to a 260m so I'm sure everything should be okay. The larger die shouldn't be a problem either since I'm sure the 75w heatsink already covers a larger die area anyways. :thumbsup:

 

Just peel it off, Copper face plate is large and it will cover whole die. I think you will need to buy extra thermal pad for additional voltage regulator.

 

Awesome. I feared I had to use sandpaper, dremel, welding etc etc
Yeah, thermal pads was expected. They are so cheap anyway so will def buy some anyway

 

lol Aw 18 heatsink mod. would be smashin It depend where you buy 970m from, some seller do provide thermal pad with graphics card.

 

Go for it! I don't think it will need new heat sinks. You can always grab them for better cooling, though. That's always a plus.

 

Another noobish question here.

I see some resellers are including X-bracket with the GPU while other don't.
Do I need one if I upgrade two existing GPUs? What is the purpose of a X-bracket?
I don't even think MSI use that on their machines

 

Yep, I really want the triple pipe heatsinks for 880M but Eurocom are currently selling them for $115 per Heatsink. That's $230 for the heatsinks which I thought was a bit too much.

 

It should be a straight upgrade. NVIDIA cards come with an x-bracket.

Thermal pad placement looks different. You may need more thermal pads.

 

The xbrackets even out the pressure from the GPU screws across the die and provide the mounting holes for the screws. The posts on the MSI provide the same function and use the rigidity of the motherboard in the chassis to do the job.

 

Thanks a bunch. So that's what it is used for. I can just use the xbrackets that's on my 770Ms on the 970Ms right? The sizes do not vary from GPU to GPU?

 

They do from amd to nvidia but I think nvidia to nvidia they are about the same if not the same.

 

Did you ever get the 970m working with the Alienware 18 I am curious about the upgrade as I have one.

 

He got it somewhat working but then sold it I think because it wasn't working so well.

 

Ah another issue with the fans not working correctly? (IE either no fans or manually set to max speed with hwinfo?)

 

Hi there, I know this post is old but there is an unlocked vbios for 770m on tech inferno although I havent tried it yet.