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    M18x-R2 Crossfire AMD M6100 aka 8950M

    Discussion in 'Alienware 18 and M18x' started by Rengsey R. H. Jr., Apr 16, 2018.

  1. Rengsey R. H. Jr.

    Rengsey R. H. Jr. I Never Slept

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    Rengsey R. H. Jr., Apr 16, 2018
    #1
    TruenoG7, Ashtrix, triturbo and 3 others like this.
  2. Erekson7

    Erekson7 Notebook Guru

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    You beat me to it !

    wish i could afford a m18x :(
     
    Erekson7, Apr 16, 2018
    #2
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  3. Raidriar

    Raidriar ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)

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    Nice! I put in an offer for two cards, these would make excellent cheap, powerful backups!
     
    Raidriar, Apr 16, 2018
    #3
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  4. Raidriar

    Raidriar ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)

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    Which drivers are you using?
     
    Raidriar, Apr 16, 2018
    #4
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  5. Arrrrbol

    Arrrrbol Notebook Deity

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    Arrrrbol, Apr 16, 2018
    #5
  6. Rengsey R. H. Jr.

    Rengsey R. H. Jr. I Never Slept

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    I'm using the latest FirePro Series , Dell Precision M6800 , Windows 10 x64 , under notebook graphic selection on AMD Driver website.
     
    Rengsey R. H. Jr., Apr 16, 2018
    #6
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  7. Reciever

    Reciever D! For Dragon!

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    Ive got one laying around, was going to put up on ebay soon since the m4600 wouldnt boot with it.

    If anyone wants it, shoot me an offer. Not expecting top dollar for it or anything.
     
    Reciever, Apr 16, 2018
    #7
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  8. Erekson7

    Erekson7 Notebook Guru

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    Do you get automatic fan control working with brightness control?
     
    Erekson7, Apr 17, 2018
    #7
  9. Raidriar

    Raidriar ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)

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    You are not able to have native fan control, correct? Any driver after 17.3.3 breaks brightness control in the M17x R2, this wasn't a problem for me with the M18x.
     
    Raidriar, Apr 17, 2018
    #8
  10. Erekson7

    Erekson7 Notebook Guru

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    Erekson7, Apr 17, 2018
    #9
  11. Raidriar

    Raidriar ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)

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    Raidriar, Apr 17, 2018
    #10
  12. Raidriar

    Raidriar ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)

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    I believe @maxslo also tried the Dell M6100 and Dell R9 M290X and found both POST but neither gives native fan control. He had to use HWinfo
     
    Raidriar, Apr 17, 2018
    #11
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  13. Erekson7

    Erekson7 Notebook Guru

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    Should I replace my 720qm with a better cpu ? It stutters and skips in bad company 2 and I could never get smooth game play.
     
    Erekson7, Apr 17, 2018
    #12
  14. Raidriar

    Raidriar ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)

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    Yes for sure, 920XM is a beast chip compared to 720qm
     
    Raidriar, Apr 17, 2018
    #13
  15. Erekson7

    Erekson7 Notebook Guru

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    i might but i am looking a building a m18x got a potential sale for a mobo.
     
    Erekson7, Apr 17, 2018
    #14
  16. Raidriar

    Raidriar ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)

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    @Rengsey R. H. Jr. were you able to use HWInfo to control the fans? Any benchmarks with 3dmark11?
     
    Raidriar, Apr 18, 2018
    #15
  17. Rengsey R. H. Jr.

    Rengsey R. H. Jr. I Never Slept

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    Yup , I was able to use hwinfo for fan control. But here is something that I noticed. When I finish playing a game and set the fan to " system auto " , the fan is still spinning till the cards cools down. Once the cards cools down , the fan stopped spinning. Weird.

    As far as 3dmark11 , I didn't tweak the cards at all and got a score of 10.5K

    https://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/12745466
     
    Rengsey R. H. Jr., Apr 18, 2018
    #16
  18. Raidriar

    Raidriar ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)

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    Not bad at all, that's only 4000 GPU points less than 8970M crossfire, at 1/4 of the cost. Of course lack of fan control is annoying but HWinfo can do it like you said
     
    Raidriar, Apr 18, 2018
    #17
  19. Reciever

    Reciever D! For Dragon!

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    There are also vBIOS mods made by valuxin so you can try to push it further if your interested in that
     
    Reciever, Apr 18, 2018
    #18
  20. Rengsey R. H. Jr.

    Rengsey R. H. Jr. I Never Slept

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    Where can i find it ?
     
    Rengsey R. H. Jr., Apr 18, 2018
    #19
  21. Reciever

    Reciever D! For Dragon!

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    Reciever, Apr 18, 2018
    #20
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  22. Rengsey R. H. Jr.

    Rengsey R. H. Jr. I Never Slept

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    Rengsey R. H. Jr., Apr 18, 2018
    #21
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  23. Reciever

    Reciever D! For Dragon!

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    How odd, never had much issue with his m5100 mods.
     
    Reciever, Apr 18, 2018
    #22
  24. Raidriar

    Raidriar ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)

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    There must be differences in the vBIOS between cards with CF connector vs cards without CF connector
     
    Raidriar, Apr 18, 2018
    #23
  25. Reciever

    Reciever D! For Dragon!

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    That might be the case, @valuxin hasnt been active of late that I have personally seen but maybe he would be willing to take a peek next time hes around.
     
    Reciever, Apr 18, 2018
    #24
  26. electrosoft

    electrosoft Perpetualist Matrixist

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    @Raidriar any idea if these work in the AW18 with native fan controls?
     
    electrosoft, Apr 22, 2018
    #30
  27. Raidriar

    Raidriar ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)

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    No clue, I suspect not
     
    Raidriar, Apr 22, 2018
    #31
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  28. jaug1337

    jaug1337 de_dust2

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    I am impressed to say the least
     
    jaug1337, May 27, 2018
    #32
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  29. Mastermind5200

    Mastermind5200 Notebook Virtuoso

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    Where did you find the cards with the CF connector? I couldn't find one at all
     
    Mastermind5200, Jun 21, 2018
    #33
  30. nforce4max

    nforce4max Notebook Consultant

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    Someone dumped a batch of them on eBay and that is where people got them but they sold out a couple of weeks ago. Got two regular ones and annoyed with their thermals and overall performance in some games.
     
    nforce4max, Jun 27, 2018
    #34
  31. Mastermind5200

    Mastermind5200 Notebook Virtuoso

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    Yeah, I agree. I put this in my AW 17, and just watching Hulu, it goes all the way up to 60c+, even with the 100W heatsibk. TBH its not a very worthwhile upgrade, unless you have a 765M
     
    Mastermind5200, Jun 27, 2018
    #35
  32. Reciever

    Reciever D! For Dragon!

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    You can also flash vBIOS on these as well as the m5100, if they are anything alike, you might be able to get +300 core and +500 memory (pending modules of course)
     
    Reciever, Jun 27, 2018
    #36
  33. nforce4max

    nforce4max Notebook Consultant

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    Might just do that, still for some reason this card likes to run hotter than it should even though contact is good and am using one of the very best non metal thermal compounds on the market. Runs hot in the M15x and gets toasty in the Precision M6600. Was going to put one in my M18X R2 but decided to keep the GTX675M instead and ironically gets slightly better thermals.
     
    nforce4max, Jun 28, 2018
    #37
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  34. nadcicle

    nadcicle Notebook Guru

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    Thanks to this post I managed to scoop up a pair of these right as the price dropped to $39.95

    Even having to buy 2 amd100watt heatsinks and a crossfire cable this still is a good deal going from an nvidia gtx 765m

    Edited due to me overlooking the fact card didn't have a crossfire connector.
     
    Last edited: Jul 20, 2018
    nadcicle, Jul 20, 2018
    #38
  35. Reciever

    Reciever D! For Dragon!

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    Hate to be that guy, but that listing does not have xfire connector on the board.

    Maybe you can install them from donor cards?
     
    Reciever, Jul 20, 2018
    #39
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  36. nadcicle

    nadcicle Notebook Guru

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    Damn, good catch. I just cancelled my order.

    Maybe next time.
     
    nadcicle, Jul 20, 2018
    #40
  37. Rengsey R. H. Jr.

    Rengsey R. H. Jr. I Never Slept

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    I might be able to sell you my pair. These are rare to come with cf connector on them.
     
    Rengsey R. H. Jr., Jul 20, 2018
    #41
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  38. Mastermind5200

    Mastermind5200 Notebook Virtuoso

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    Sell them to me pls I just bought a P377SM-A barebones
     
    Mastermind5200, Jul 20, 2018
    #42
  39. Reciever

    Reciever D! For Dragon!

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    m6100 may not support eDP.

    When I had the m6100 before it would not boot with the 120hz eDP panel on my Ranger
     
    Reciever, Jul 20, 2018
    #43
  40. Mastermind5200

    Mastermind5200 Notebook Virtuoso

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    Darn. Whats the cheapest decent card that will work in it?
     
    Mastermind5200, Jul 20, 2018
    #44
  41. Rengsey R. H. Jr.

    Rengsey R. H. Jr. I Never Slept

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    I also have a pair of GTX 860m ...
     
    Rengsey R. H. Jr., Jul 20, 2018
    #45
  42. Mastermind5200

    Mastermind5200 Notebook Virtuoso

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    Kepler I'm assuming? PM me, I already have the SLI cable
     
    Mastermind5200, Jul 20, 2018
    #46
  43. Reciever

    Reciever D! For Dragon!

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    Well keep in mind that it seems that my MoBo was on a slow decline until it keeled over so it could be that, however I still think the m6100 likely doesnt support eDP

    You will want to look at 7XX and above for eDP support.
     
    Reciever, Jul 20, 2018
    #47
  44. Mastermind5200

    Mastermind5200 Notebook Virtuoso

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    Cheapest one I could find was 765M/770M unless Rengsey gives me a good deal on his 860m's
    @Rengsey R. H. Jr. PM with your offer
     
    Last edited: Jul 23, 2018
    Mastermind5200, Jul 20, 2018
    #48
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  45. Mastermind5200

    Mastermind5200 Notebook Virtuoso

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    Just a quick update for anyone who is curious, the cards seem to be back in stock, I bought two for my Clevo for fun lolz
    Edit, much later. The cards without connectors can be crossfired
     
    Last edited: Oct 1, 2018
    Mastermind5200, Sep 2, 2018
    #49
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  46. Danyel254

    Danyel254 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hello!, can you help me? I installed de driver 17.3.3 on Alienware17xr2 and the last drivers on and website but when I see a video or YouTube my laptop freeze what’s wrong?....FirePro m6100
     
    Danyel254, Oct 1, 2018
    #50
  47. Mastermind5200

    Mastermind5200 Notebook Virtuoso

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    Does it freeze up and need to restart or does it stutter? If just stuttering, turn off hardware acceleration in Chrome settings, if fully stopping try to reinstall drivers
     
    Mastermind5200, Oct 1, 2018
    #51
  48. Rengsey R. H. Jr.

    Rengsey R. H. Jr. I Never Slept

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    You might have to flash a different bios.
     
    Rengsey R. H. Jr., Oct 1, 2018
    #52
  49. Danyel254

    Danyel254 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yes, fully stopping I’m reinstall diferents drivers 10 times and not work
     
    Danyel254, Oct 1, 2018
    #53
  50. Danyel254

    Danyel254 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yes, I was thinking about that but since it was a test card (can not damage the card) I had to return it and I did not have knowledge either to flash the bios. So I had to return the card and ask for my money back
     
    Danyel254, Oct 1, 2018
    #54
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