m18x r2 works perfectly with gtx 1060

That's great for when SLI works at all / works properly, or about 60% of the time. I'm so done with that.

 

Here's an idea of what a 1070 in our R2 would look like performance-wise, 100% of the time:

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/12668293

Someone managed to shoehorn this into an AW17 I believe, found here:

https://www.techinferno.com/index.p...x-r2-another-socket-victory-against-bga-crap/

More:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/msi-1070-in-alienware-17-r1-ranger-success.797893/

 

Having Raidriars UV vbios, using throttlefix and now with a dual psu (not needed but helps a bit) everyting is ok. Perhaps not owing an extreme cpu helps the setup.v

 

Did you get your 6 pipe heat-sink in? How is it performing? What about the "TEP Module"? Anyone go with a 1070 yet?

 

The Modded Heatsink ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...and-actual-guide.799324/page-14#post-10539772)
and the un-modded top-cover still sitting and waiting for minus8 thermal pads that on route from Canada with TEP module (that I think to not mount to not obstruct fan hole with less space from tapping it)


Hope it arrives soon

 

Yes, only with the INTEl HD drivers past november last year will it work too.
They were blocked from working on Alienware's initially, so we couldn't have even done this last year, and all tests failed miserably.

If there are no profile issues, then this is great. The 1060N seems to suffer some performance loss because of the HD Intel, but better than nothing, and better then 980M

I didn't support any upgrades via HD intel /SG mode for years, because of all the small issues that come up, everyone immediately assumes its the videocards problem - so mentioning here -
SG mode and HD Intel is not perfect with newer titles, and you need to create profiles all the time for the NVidia control panel.

 

Well I took the big step and made the upgrade to 1060, thanks to @woodzstack. Amazing results since I'm jumping from 780!! I have taken a couple of pictures to show how the modifications went to install the 6 pipe heatsink for the GPU. The heatsink didn't fit at first so I had to modify the chassis to make it fit.



The palmrest doesn't fit perfectly since the heatsink is bigger so it ends up like this:




The keyboard also ends a little bit lifted on the top side, it doesn't bother me. But you can see it from esc to F4 keys, they are slightly higher than the rest of the keyboard



The GPU installation was just as this thread says nothing new to add there. Had a little problem with the driver but @aaronne helped me there, it seems like I modded the driver wrong since it was running on very low FPS the first time.

Well and here is a comparison result on my first run of Firestrike (780 vs 1060):

http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/7846665/fs/13159124

It's amazing to see that without any tweak I almost doubled my score!! My 780 was running custom vbios.

Here are the thermal results with a room temp of 35-37 (Yeah it's very hot here that's why I went with the 6 pipe) after running ffirestrike:

This is with the default fan control



HW Info fan at maximum, it's amazing how big of a difference it can make, I got a drop of 4 degrees on the GPU:



Here's unigine with default fan control:



And the with HW fan at max:



So it was definitely worth the upgrade, I wish the 1070 or the 1080 could fit since that will definitely be a huge step.

You can see all the pictures here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzM4gMn2eoz0dHFKOU10MHRjakk

 

Hmmm, do you have performance data with the 3-Pipe heat-sink to compare to, accounting for ambient, and is that an improvement? I don't know what ambient is like there but 74C is still somewhat warm with 100% fan RPM and the unit elevated.

I noticed you are at 1.025v. Speaking for 980M, undervolting from 1.025v to 1.00v dropped my load temps from 85C to 75C and resulted in only a marginal reduction in performance (from 11k to 10.5k GPU in Firestrike 1.1).

If it were me, I would undervolt the card and revert to a 3-Pipe heat-sink to restore aesthetics and mobility.

Oh and MSI's mobile GTX 1070 should fit, simply no-one has tried it yet.

 

I have an idea for cooling the primary (and possibly secondary) GPU in our R2. It would require enlarging the hole that is in the motherboard beneath the GPU backplate. I looked and did not see any traces there, if one were to remove the motherboard and with access to drill cutter, expand that hole as large as possible one could then use Clevo's 980M copper back-plate modified with low profile copper heat-sinks. Using the R2 with a modified Notepal U3 with an 120mm fan directly under the primary GPU's on-board fan would force enough air up into the chassis to cool the GPU from the bottom.

What do you think?

 

I have MSI GTX 1070 and a pair of MSI GTX 980 , but no M18x-R2 to test it on.... lol

 

Is it the 1070 that is purported to fit? What else would be required to try to get it to run? Well I'm still here in SF if you want to satisfy your curiosity.

 

That day when I ran those tests it was 34-37 here, we have a very high humidity here so that definitely affects temperatures. I don't have any 3 pipe data with the 1060, but my 780m temps when running firestrike twice where sometimes so hot that the system shut downs.

I didn't change the vbios so that most be the default setting. I will try tweaking it on the following days.

The aesthetics doesn't affect me at all and for mobility I still carry my laptop everywhere since it's my working machine. The lid closes almost fine (it have a little gap on that side) so it's not affecting it at all.

I don't know where I saw a image comparison but the MSI 1070 won't fit since it's bigger and it will hit the camera and the board that shows numlock, capslock, etc on connector.

It could work, but it's hard to find someone willing to cut a hole on the motherboard.

 

Is that "6-pipe" heatsink required? I thought the 1060 fits with the factory heatsink as long as you grind the heatsink.

 

No, it's not required. Yes you need to mod the heatsink.

 

Found some good and final results for my setup:



http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/21153300

I'm happy with this overclocking, I will start searching for vBios to undervolt and see how that goes.

 

Send both and I'll test for you, but I think there will be clearance issues where the palmrest connectors are.

 

75C over 35C gives you a DeltaT of 40C which is somewhat impressive. For comparison, my DeltaT is 55C so youre 15C cooler (20C ambient, 75C peak load).

I'm tempted to try the 6-pipe heat-sink now actually, I could either get away with running more voltage and a higher OC or I could turn the fan down for better acoustics.

Do you have any more pics of the install? So your keyboard is sitting right on the heat-sink? You can still fold it though, from the images it looks like that would be impossible.

As far as your benchmarks, 12.2k GPU is good, but to be honest it's not that much faster than 980M with an OC (~11.5k). I wouldn't undervolt, as long as youre not over 75C youre good.

Have you thought of removing the keyboard altogether and running an external mechanical keyboard, a nice 10 keyless with a USB pass through? You could then position a low RPM fan over the GPU heat-sink as it would already be exposed to the open air. Something to think about. Mechanical keyboards are that much better. Love my K65 RGB, but it requires two USB ports, you might be able to use an USB splitter though.

 

Yeah, I haven't seen my temps hitting high so I'm really cool with this new temps I'm getting.

I don't have more pics but I could take a couple of shots, what do you want to see? The palmrest is right on the heatsink and therefore it pushes the keyboard. Yeah the lid still closes, this is my working machine so I have to carry it every day on my Orion backpack.

Yeah they are not that great, but still is better than a 980 with a low OC so that's good enough to me since I can't spare high OC while heavy stressing it all day. Yeah I thought about that too later so I'm holding the undervolt for now.

Yeah I consider even cutting the palmrest so that the entire heatsink is visible so that the fan could hit more of the heatsink. Unfortunately I can't do it since it will cancel the mobility. I have been searching for a way to fit the computer and a keyboard on my backpack. So that I can place the keyboard on top of the palmrest (as it was the original keyboard), but I haven't found a big enough one that fits and makes me feel comfortable.

 

I got lucky enough that a GTX1060 came into my hands recently. I've been trying to get it to work on my m18xR2 without any luck. I've got it on SG and both the intel and the nvidia adapter show up in Windows. I've tried all of the muxless settings, etc. I've tried using the NVidia control panel to tell it to default to dedicated graphics (dynamic?) and tried telling specific applications to use dedicated.... but they never do. Everything runs on the Intel GPU no matter what I do leaving both the 1060 and I bored.

I modded the nvdmi.ini as follows:
[NVIDIA_Devices.NTamd64.10.0...14310]
%NVIDIA_DEV.1C60.0550.1028% = Section339, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1C60&SUBSYS_05501028
[NVIDIA_Devices.NTamd64.10.0]
%NVIDIA_DEV.1C60.0550.1028% = Section338, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1C60&SUBSYS_05501028
[Strings]
NVIDIA_DEV.1C60.0550.1028 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060"

The details:


I notice the BIOS version on my 1060 is different than others.

( @Aarone Any chance of getting my card added to the unlocked BIOS - could this be my problem? )
( @tanzmeister Any ideas for me? )

 

I got that same issue with the driver I moded, probably you missed something too. Here try this one that aaron provided to me. That one fixed that issue on my computer

 

That's the answer. I was modifying nvdmi.ini (Dell specific file) which did allow the drivers to install but did not let the 1060 talk to the Intel GPU.

For all that follow... Modify the nvidia drivers using the nv_dispi.inf file. Not only is it easier it's also the only way that will work.

Thank-you Rotary Heart! I am now fully operational using all of the latest drivers, operating system, etc. Pretty good for an old beast. Next to try VR on it now...

 

Goos to know, enjoy your beast

 

you have to take an already existent Optimus string and only replace the right part of it with your Hardware ID, while keeping the left one as it is. that's how I did it.

for ex.
original string:
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.5281.1558% = Section059, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_52811558

your mod:

%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.5281.1558% = Section059, your hardware ID


then you replace the 980m with 1060 with cntrl+h in notepad

 

For posterity, VR does not work on the m18x R2 even with the 1060. Both of the outputs (HDMI and DP) are routed to the intel graphics. I'm not sure if it would be that way in PEG mode but without a doubt in SR or "Optimus" mode VR is not available.

 

Really? Is it a GPU specific problem? So VR doesn't work period? 980M here, curious if it will do VR.

 

For sure no VR with 1060/70/80 on m18xR2 unless someone releases a version that does not require Optimus. Need a card that does LVDS because the m18xR2 screen doesn't speak eDP. That's why Optimus is required in this case. It's unlikely a card like that will ever see the light of day.

It is my understanding that 980m and below don't require Optimus. They speak LVDS and therefore the card can be run in PEG mode. In PEG mode the intel you is disabled so the outputs should work.

 

Hell yeah, well I'm glad I went 980M when I did, I could theoretically add another 980M for SLI and have a completely capable VR machine.

 

Such beautiful news i'm reading on this forum, I thought that the 980m will be the last GPU from NVidia on MXM cards. My system is an Alienware 18, 2013 model, the last 18 inch produced by Alienware. Inside I have a SLI of GTX 765m and I wish an upgrade on the GPU side is time i'm afraid. I don't wish to sell my notebook for a bran new one, even if is huge and heavy I still like mine like is. Any help guys, in order to accomplish the mission. the temptation if to go with the GTX 1060/70 ?

 

I believe for the 18R1 you are limited to GTX980m tops

 

but why ? is because mine alienware has an eDP connection ?

 

It's because it has neither an eDP connection nor Optimus

 

you sure is not eDP ? the intel control panel says is eDP is that information a mistake ?

 

I am 100% positive. In this generation, only the 17R1 had eDP connection and that was due to the fact that some of these machines were shipped with 120HZ 3D screens.

 

gotcha ! but now to be 1000% sure I have to open the machine otherwise I won't be able to sleep tonight. don't remember if the connector is under the palm rest ?!

 

That is correct

 

so yeah, such a shame, is not eDP ! It's unbelievable that they put on the market on 2013 an obsolete product, with such a connector the life of this machine was quite short, never again alienware !

 

When running in optimus mode, if you press FN+F7, does it switch to iGPU mode?

And if it does...does pressing FN+F7 again switch back to optimus mode or it screws things up and tries switching to dGPU mode?

@aaronne @Rotary Heart

 

If I remeber well, yes. But why you would to make your life harder?(the bios coin cell isn't easy to remove ) Choose SG or iGFX from bios and live well ^_^ very glad that you buy again an alien beast, about my 1060, I bought here from Woodzstack (and I will do again if needed)

 

Wow, last I'd heard back around April everyone was adamant about it never working.
Is this on the old M17X/M18X models only?

 

Alienware M17xR4 (optimus mode or 3D 120Hz eDP display)
Alienware 17 R1(3D 120Hz eDP display)
M18xR2 (optimus mode)