alienware 18 upgrade to hd 7970m's?

hi. i'm wanting to upgrade my alienware 18's GPUs to something better. I was wondering if the hd 7970m would be a good upgrade? will they work in it?

 

The 7970M is basically the same GPU as the R9 M90X, so it is unlikely you would have any difficulty doing that. What GPU do you have now? Depending on what you already have, you may not be gaining enough performance bang for the buck to warrant spending the money on 7970M card. A little bit more cash could yield much better performance.

Unless you get the 7970M cards dirt cheap, I would recommend avoiding them. They have a bad track record for poor durability and if you plan to do any kind of overclocking they do not handle that very well at all. The majority of M18xR2 owners that had 7970M CF are running an NVIDIA alternative now. I had 4 7970M cards that had issues before I went back to NVIDIA. Nothing is perfect and NVIDIA cards can have problems, too... but they are few and far between in comparison.

As a point of reference, this thread contains the latest example: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-18-m18x/759795-so-uh-my-gpus-failed-again.html You can find a lot more if you start looking back 6 to 12 months. They used to be common threads, but with all of the movement to NVIDIA not so much any more. There are a few guys around that have never had any problems with their 7970M cards and when they work correctly they are a really decent GPU. Just a heads up on the potential for an unpleasant experience with 7970M is fairly significant.

 

I currently have 2 gtx 770ms. thanks for the heads up on the poor durability though.

would a single 980m be a better idea? I found one on rjtec. (do you know if they are legit?) ive been thinking about getting a 980m instead if only to get rid of SLI being wonky.

if I were to get a 980m would I have to worry about flashing the vbios or it not working in the alienware 18?? also I have the 75watt heatsinks in my laptop. (cant the the 100 watt ones ANYWHERE) would I have to worry about them not having enough cooling capacity?

 

It's not worth the time/effort/performance to change from 770m SLI to 7970m CF. I used to have a pair of 7970m too. 1 of them crapped out on me so I immediately switched teams.. save yourself and leave them be buddy

A single 980m would be a good way to go and them add in a second when you're feeling naughty No one is certain if those Clevo models will work. I'd be surprised if they didn't and am very temped to be the canary in the gold mine. If they didn't work you'd be able to resell them easy on eBay.

As for the Heatsink, you should be able to get one from PCHub.

 

Yes, be careful about ordering a 980M we don't know if a Clevo model would work, easy resell as TBone said.

 

ok. does anyone have any experience with RJTECH? are they legit?

 

I think they are, but they have a no return policy.

 

What's the difference between a 7970 and the R9 M290X?

 

Well i think there is difference...ppl say R9 M290X re-brand of 8970M which is re-brand of 7970M.

 

7970M is quite good, but unreliable.

8970M is a re-branded 7970M, with a 50Mhz increase on the core clock.

The R9 M290X is a direct re-brand of the 8970M, no performance increase. For comparison, it is only 6% faster than 6990M 2GB Crossfire.

Source: AMD Radeon R9 M290X - Notebook Check

As a comparison, a single 770M VS a single 7970M would net an apparent 18% increase in performance.

Source: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M - Notebook Check

Personally, I'd look to this forum. Who actually uses the 7970M? I think the last signature I saw with a 7970M in it was Mr Fox's, and that was well over a year ago. People just don't use them because they break to often. The last good set of mobile AMD GPUs seems to be the 6990M, so I'd save your cash personally.

May want to consider investing in an 880M instead if cash allows. As a single 880M VS a single 770M would net a about 36% performance increase. According to benchmarks, 880M also seems to do well in SLi.

Of course, if the 980M is available and can work in your 18, that should, according to Notebook check, net a 40% increase VS the 880M. Or against your 770M, a 76% increase in power. Which is BEEFY to say the least.

 

Yes, RJ Tech is reputable. They have been in business a good while and I have only heard positive things about them. A single 980M would be a huge performance leap for you and 980M SLI would be twice as much awesomeness.

There are still a fair number of 7970M owners, but it seems like a good number of them that have used 7970M as an upgrade for older machines. A lot of them seem to undervolt because of weaknesses on older machines with small heat sinks and AC adapters. When you put them in CrossFire they seem less durable for some reason and they don't seem handle heavy overclocking or overvolting very gracefully.

 

I heard that the 980M GPUS at Rjtech do not have any SLI connectors. :^)

 

Ohh wait they just update their stock pictures, Now new stock got SLI connectors and they got 90 days warranty. Yeahhh good news

[img=100x100] [/img]

 

HELL YEAHH!!!!

Go buy the cards and test it out, mate. :^) :^) :^)

 

hahahaha lol now i guess you got to test it first Im from UK For me two cards $1440 + $176 shipping and + 20% UK custom = Almost $2000 for two cards

 

What??? $2000??

The thing is, my risk is that if it won't work on AW 18, I could not return it. Maybe I should call their tech support.

 

You got to take risk, GTO_PAO11 first on NBR got Dual 980m Seriously, it will work cosz we show HID sellin dual with 18. And 780M working with R2 without any issue.

 

Damn, ok. Let me think about it.

It's asking me what model of Clevo to choose from on this GPU. What should I choose?

 

Well for that reason you got to have word with Fox. I think they only got 8GB version not 4GB.

 

I'll speak to him. Do you need vbios as well?

 

Well some Clevo cards works with Alienware without any issue, anyway you cant get Dell 980m vbios as it is not released yet.

 

i plan on getting them as well. waiting for some things to sell. as soon as they do, this is an instant buy.

 

Yeah 2 of these 980m's is going to be beast. PC Per did some testing and they are marginally slower than desktop 970's. That's sounds like absolute bliss in a laptop.

 

Is it better to wait for Dell's Vbios for 980m before buying the Clevo 980ms?

 

I want one for my 17. I currently have 770m. It is so tempting to buy now but I'm going to wait until dell actually offers it in there systems to get the right one then I will buy . People already playing with them and dell still selling 880m's. I hope it's pretty much plug and play.

 

Actually most of Clevo card plug & Play in Alienware system but you never know.

 

I see, mate. I will try calling RJtech about this.

 

Yup both my 980Ms are clevo and they work. Well you know what I mean haha!