Is it worth it to try a ATI 5870?

I have an M15X and have been looking to upgrade the GPU. I'm just wanting to be able to play new games (Battlefield 4/Titanfall) at Medium settings, not Ultra or anything fancy like that. After reading online for a while I noticed the 5870 and looked at the benchmarks and saw that it could handle BF4 at high to med settings. But I also read that it raises the temps in the M15X considerably high. All the forum posts I've found about this are from a few years ago, I'm wondering if anyone here can tell me if its safe to use this card and not fry your laptop in the process.

Also, would It just be smarter to use the 5850 instead?

The two cards I'm looking at are on ebay, here are the links:
ATI HD5870 C8245 Graphics Card from Alienware M17x R2 M15X | eBay
Dell K6654 Alienware M15X ATI HD5850 HD 5850 1GB Laptop Video Card 0K6654 Tested | eBay

 

The 5850 is the 'native' card in the M15x, not that it makes much difference.

I had the 5850m (clocked it to 5870m with no issue at all) and could run med-high on BF4 at 1600 x 900 resolution. It would slow down a little too much in certain areas, so it really is at the limit of what the 5850m can do.

If you funds can stretch further there are plenty more cards that you can install. It all depends on the funds!

 

That's what I figured. I'd like to just spend around $150 on an upgrade. I'm new to this spectrum (Upgrading and investing in laptops). I got the M15X online for $250 because it needs the motherboard to be replaced, other than that it's in great shape! I'm upgrading the dvd player to a Blu-ray and also going from 4 gigs of ram to 8. Assuming that I keep upgrading over time, is the M15X still a good laptop? Or is it outdated by today's games?

Would like to thank you for your reply djboz.

 

dont waste your time and money on the ati 5870m, it not worth it. Upgrade to another card that currently has more support from the community here like the 7970m. And i wish i would of kept my 5850m, i miss it.....

 

I really wish I could get the 7970m but it's way outside my price range. I've narrowed it down to 4 cards I can afford, I'm just not sure which is best for today's games and is safe in the M15X. Not sure if there's much of a difference between Radeon and Nvidia, but feel free to tell me your opinions.
ATI 5850
ATI 5870
GTX 460
GTX 560

Keep in mind, not going for Ultra here, just enough to play games well at med/high.

 

900p or 1080p, you will need a modded inf for the 560m which would be the best choice out of the bunch, and make sure its a dell card. dont bother with the 5870m. the 460m is nice but the cpu and the gpu tend to fight for power and the cpu will win that fight(i dont like my 460m but i rarely use that lappy anymore) i like the 5850m it is an excellent overclocker and for med setting in 1080p it should still do well.

 

Excuse me for asking, but what is an "inf"? Thanks for helping me with this.

 

Any Nvidia card after the 460m is not 'supported' in the M15x. This means you have to modify one of the *.inf files within the Nvidia driver software / download. There are plenty of guides on how to do this ( Nvidia INF driver modding (Guide) - Guru3D.com Forums for example), and is relatively easy and straightforward. It just a 'minor irritation' when it comes to updating the drivers.

The M15x is still a good laptop. Mine is almost four years old, and I have replaced my 5850m to an Nvidia 770m to give it more life (I expect to get five years out of it before it goes into retirement!). The 5850m will still play all games at the moment at low / med settings, though some of the new titles (Battlefield 4 multiplayer) it does struggle a little bit at times (still playable). If you are happy not being at the cutting edge / max resolution and settings then its still a mighty fine laptop!

If you are in no rush for a new graphics card then it might be worth trying to get a bargain from ebay or the market place. I originally wanted a 7970m, but these were priced at around £300, eventually I picked up an Nvidia 770m off ebay (private seller) for £150.

The 5850 (and equivalent 460m) are still good cards, but there are better cards out there though you do pay extra.

 

The M15x can still be a top performer. How much it performs simply depends on how deep your pockets are. The new upcoming Maxwell looks interesting too. Should be FAR more power efficient than Kepler (an already fairly power efficient architecture) so we should be back to 75W cards even at the high end! Considering the M15x was designed with this tdp in mind the next gen cards due this year could be something well worth waiting for.

 

I agree^^, but I think this upgrade is going to cost a lot more than what he's looking to spend.

 

It is more than I'm looking to spend right now, but it doesn't mean it's out of the question for a later time. It's just nice to know that I can keep it on par with popular applications. Thank you all for your input and insight. I just joined this forum because I wish to learn all of this stuff and become helpful to others less knowledgeable. Can't wait till the replacement motherboard and other components I've ordered arrive. For now I'll just use the 260M and keep an eye out for any bargains like Djboz was saying.

 

Theres plenty of good guides and information on this forum and tech Inferno, so have a read through them. Most of the questions you have will already have been asked, but feel free to ask whatever you are unsure about. Someone will always help around here.