M18xr2 Upgrade/Options

Hello I'm new here and I just bought a used m18xr2. Long story short I thought I was buying sli 680m's and only got a single 675m. To make matters worse the screen goes black anytime I play a game (10 seconds to 10 minutes).

So I'm going to assume it's just a dead gpu and would like to buy a new one. However I'm confused on if I need to buy a new heatsink or not. I noticed there is two sizes to buy and want to make sure whatever gpu I buy will work.

I'm on a budget and I was looking at a 770m, 860m or 7970m since they are relatively cheap and have performance good enough for what I play. Will my 675m heatsink work with any of those?

Thank you.

 

As you've probably come to find, the GTX 675M is a junk rebadge of the atrocious GTX 580M which is known to die for looking at it the wrong way. Save up for the 980M, seriously. Everything else is simply not worth your money. 7970Ms are a lottery depending on if you got a later revision model or not, and the 770M/860M are wimpy cards and a real waste of money.

 

I think you can safely recommend a HD 8970M if the budget is not that great. Performs about GTX 970M levels which is rather powerful, even on todays standards. The HD 7970M is as you said, difficult.

 

Dell 8970M/R9 M290x has EC issues with the M18x that causes no fan control. Clevo 8970M is 280-300$ and at that point much better to get the 970M as it runs cooler and has a newer architecture that runs faster than the 8970M by a wide margin. An overclocked 970M can almost keep up with two 8970Ms.

 

What about the 780 or 880. How do these perform in these machines. I know everyone says to just go for Maxwell 9th series, but 780Ms are fairly cheap. Would 780Ms SLI be able to play some modern games?

 

780M SLI = 1 980M and it’s cheaper to get the single 980M with less headaches in games and longer driver support

 

Moral of the story, Just do the 980M aye?

Oh well.

 

Yes for sure, at 260$ vs 400$ it is really worth saving money towards the 980M. Fermi just got axed recently and Kepler won’t be far behind. 980M is better in every way and really worth it in the end

 

The 780m looks to be a good choice for me, will the clevo 780m work on my laptop?

 

Yes but again not recommended

 

I have a 780m in my Ranger and its not going to last much longer if your playing recent titles.

I refuse to play Witcher III because even at all low settings I think I can only manage like 40ish FPS.

Better to save for the 980m

 

Here's the thing, everyone's assuming I want to play the new games at max settings. All I want is a gpu to replace my broken one and the games I play are mostly paradox interactive titles and war thunder. I was happy with the 675m believe it or not so I'm not looking for a huge upgrade. I get what everyone's trying to tell me though.

I'm in the middle of spending money on car stuff so I'd like to spend under 300-400 CAD on nvidia cards. So far I see a 770m, 780m, 965m, and potentially my friends old 970m.

I'm more concerned about how well the cards will "plug and play". Will I need a new heatsink and thermal pads?

Thanks.

 

965M and 970M are still better choices than 780M. It’s always recommended to get new thermal pads and paste. I recommend arctic 1.0mm thermal pads and phobya nanogrease extreme. You can use your old heatsink no problem.

 

Thanks man