M15x GTX 660M Upgrade.

Is this possible, I see Alienware GTX 660M's from 18X's and 17X's on Ebay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ALIENWARE-M...299983?hash=item35f34ee28f:g:pckAAOSwrx5UYLsm

 

The fan does not plug in to the video card. It plugs in to the mother board. Maybe the plug you are thinking about is the SLI connector?

That card should work. Here's an upgrade guide from techinferno:

https://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m15x-aw-15/2151-[guide]-m15x-nvidia-gtx-660m.html

Depending on the card you get, you may have to do some tinkering with inf files:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/m15x-with-gtx-660m-install-help.702774/

It also looks like you need a copper shim for that card because the heatsink does not make good contact with the GPU die.

I am actually looking at the AMD Firepro M6000. Benchmarks from notebookcheck show the M6000 outperforms the 660M GTX in many benchmarks and it also has a lower TDP and is much cheaper than the 660M GTX on e-bay. I see it being sold for as low as $80. I read a forum post where someone confirmed the M6000 works on the M15X without mods.

Here is the notebookcheck page for the M6000:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-FirePro-M6000.77894.0.html

Here it is on e-bay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/For-Dell-AM...179212?hash=item4ae991148c:g:q1sAAOSwqu9VAq-h

 

Holy crap that M6000 is only £60! That is a bargain but you'd need to overclock it quite a lot to match even half the performance of a 7970M (according to those 3D Mark 11 benchmarks).

Also you do not need copper shims! No one needs copper shims! Ever! I made a thread about this years and years ago but it would take too long to find now. All you need is some new screws that are longer than the tiny C-clip ones. Remove the stock screws and use the longer screws to tighten up the heatsink sufficiently.

 

The m6000 is apparently somewhere between a 7850 and 7870 Mobility Radeon in performance. I am seriously considering buying one. I am just a little hesitant about buying another card from China. Last card I got was DOA.

I found your thread.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/m15x-and-7970m-no-grinding-or-copper-shims-needed.716871/

 

just completely derped, It gives the illusion that the fan is plugged into card from an angle. lol.

But yeah that FirePro does seem like a good choice.
Is anyone ballsy enough to try it?

 

This is what got me thinking about getting one of these:

https://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m15x-aw-15/7309-amd-firepro-m6000-m15x.html

 

I've got a brand new M6000 here but don't have a M15x, however If you want to test it I can always send it to you ( I live in europe, Netherlands).

 

PM sent.

 

if you get it from him i'll be super jelly

 

Nice detective work. Good luck with whatever card you end up getting.

 

No need to test. The M15x is the most compatible platform PERIOD for MXM gpus. I have not seen any MXM card not work properly except for the abomination that was the 580M because it consumed too much power lol!

Bottom line the M6000 will work. The machine started out with GT240M and 280M at high end when it released. Now people are rocking 970M Maxwell with zero issues.

 

My 460m GTX consumes quite a bit. At idle my M15X draws around 38W. This is with an i5-560m (25W TDP) and the 460M. When I run 3DMark, the laptop will draw around 125W. Furmark shoots this number up to 141W which is dangerously close to the limits of the PSU. In fact, if I run Furmark for over 5 minutes, the system eventually shuts down. My temps remain in the high 60s, so I am assuming it shuts down to protect the PSU.

According to Notebookcheck the 460m has a TDP of 72W. Notebookcheck does not list the TDP for the m6000, but Techpowerup says it is 43W. This means less power draw, hence cooler temps, and at the same time better performance.

I wish Drake would get back to me though, still waiting for his response. I offered to just buy the card off him.

 

Don't ever run Furmark on your laptop! Its a pointless and damaging test that doesn't prove anything but can cause serious problems.

 

Yeah, that seems to be the consensus. I mostly wanted to see how how hot my gpu could get, but it really is not necessary because it is way too extreme.

 

It doesn't even give an idea of what a game can do. It simply heats up the VRMs. Also the 150W adaptor doesn't shut off at 150W. Usually the stock brick will achieve at least 180 and in some cases 200W before shutting off.

 

Do Firepro cards use the same drivers as the consumer cards? never dealt with one before.

Also do I need to order a custom bracket for M6000, or will the 460m bracket work?

 

Maybe it's the VRMs getting too hot causing the system to shut off. Perhaps the video card has thermal sensors for the VRMs that force shutdowns when temperatures reach a certain threshold. I don't know. It doesn't happen during gaming, just when I run Furmark long enough.

AMD has Firepro drivers, but you can also use Radeon drivers. Remember the Firepro cards and Nvidia's Quadro cards are designed primarily for 3D rendering, and not for gaming. That doesn't mean they can't be used for gaming of course. I was checking out some 3DMark benchmarks for the m6000 and when looking at the details of the tests, it lists the m6000 as Radeon HD 7800 series, so the people running those tests were probably using Radeon 7800 series drivers for their m6000.

I don't think a new bracket will be needed. The brackets I've seen on the m6000 appear to be the same type as what's on my 240m GT and my 460m GTX. There are also no VRAM modules on the underside of the card which is a good thing since the VRAM modules on the top will be covered by the heatsink.

Of course the only way to know for sure is to test one. Drake contacted me but we agreed that the shipping rates are quite high to get it to me. I think I'm just gonna order one from China for around $70 shipped. I'm gonna do some more research on these cards first. I'm quite happy with the 460m at the moment, but if I can get a card that cheap which outperforms the 460m while using much less power is tempting.

UPDATE: According to notebookcheck, the Radeon 7870m should have similar gaming performance to the GTX 660M. Also, according to notebookcheck, the Firepro m6000 should have gaming performance somewhere between a Radeon 7850m and 7870m. If you go to www.3dmark.com and do a search for benchmarks results, you'll find the m6000 and 7870m are very close. You'll also find a couple of m6000 results with the GPU overclocked to 1000MHz. So not only is this card capable enough at stock clocks, it appears there's plenty of overclocking headroom available.

I found it on e-bay for $67 shipped. I contacted the seller and he said it was brand new and will be tested before shipment. I'm gonna just buy it and hope for the best.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-FirePro-M6000.77894.0.html

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7870M.73856.0.html

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-For-Del...3-/301818103746?ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123

 

Exactly. Therefore Furmark only serves to kill cards prematurely. No point in using it at all.

 

Do not assume. I don't think any Nvidia x-bracket fits on an AMD card and vice versa due to transistor placement on the back of the card. You will need a new bracket but one from a 6990m and any 7000M series should fit. Do not try to use an x-bracket that doesn't fit properly as you might short out some components! Very expensive mistake.

 

Thanks. I'll look into ordering the right bracket to be on the safe side.

EDIT: I do not think the 6990 bracket will be compatible with the m6000. All the pics of the m6000 I've seen have a bracket similar in appearance to what I already have on my 240m GT, 460M GTX, and 5850M. The 6990 bracket looks much different in shape and surely the metal portions are different dimensions than the m6000 bracket.

Firepro m6000:


Radeon 6990:

 

Well pointed out Kosti. Looks like there is a difference!

 

When the card comes in, I'll post my results. I'll let you guys know about heatsink contact, thermal pads, x-bracket, etc. I'll also post some temperature, power consumption and benchmark results. This is assuming the card I get from China actually works

 

I'll order one this weekend most likely.

I'll end up buying a M290X aswell.

 

The AMD Firepro m6000 is plug and play. no mods are required to the driver or the headsink, neither is a shim required.
The card also runs very cool and is 43w. the clocks and bus is exactly half that of the 7970m and has plenty of room to overclock.

Just to let you know the AMD Firepro m6100 which is equal to that of the NVidia 770m is also fully plug and play and a 75w card, I've had both cards in my m15xr2 before selling it to my friend.

Edited to add info on the fan..

The fan is fully functional also with the m6000 and m6100 from Dell. Also the cards PCB colour was red..

 

I think m6000 is my backup card if my 7970m fries and I don't want to spend the £££ on a replacement. Would still be able to do some light gaming and use laptop day to day.

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The m6000 is a great little card that runs very cool with great overclocking abilities, but if I was you slim, I would go for the m6100, at the mo on ebay they are slightly expensive, but I picked mine up from there new for £120 ! and seen a couple for around that price also.
Just keep an eye out, would make a great cheap and cool running backup.

 

No M6100's for a decent price, cheapest is like 200 USD. the m6000 is only 65USD.

Is the M6000 the best price to performance card for less than 200 USD?

 

Thanks for your input batfinks

As a casual gamer, the 6000 will be fine, especially for the price. I could not find another card in the top tier on notebookcheck's video card list that has the same performance while maintaining such a modest tdp as the m6000.

If you check out 3dmark.com's results page, you will see the m6000 with some impressive scores on the latest benchmark tests. You will also see some people that have overclocked it up to 1GHz.

 

And I can confirm I works fine in the M17x r3 as well, had a 7970m in that machine and sold it. But the next day the 7970m died! so I took it back from the buyer and swapped the m6000 in it (so it's a good thing I didn't sell it, Kosti wanted to buy it but unfortunaly it was quite expensive to send it to him). Gonna play with it for a while before I sell the r3 again, gonna try some overclocking as well.

Stock score is 3dmark11 is 3500 points with a 2670qm cpu. It's not as fast as the 7970m but still not bad.

Edit:
Did a 'small' overclock, 1000 core/1300mem instead of 800/1000
4299 points!
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/10654350

Tried an even higher overclock but it crashed, interestingly the stock voltage is identical to the 7970m and the core overclocks just like a 7970m (unstable at anything higher than around 1000 mhz). So just like the 7970m an overvolt would be required to go higher

 

Hey Drake, nice scores indeed. Are you using Radeon or Firepro drivers?

 

Can you run 3DMark Firestrike or Heaven 2.1 high preset?

 

Currently the 15.4 radeon drivers (could use the newer ones, but had this one laying around)

Downloading them both atm, could take a while (slow internet connection here).

 

Firestrike stock score ( 2236 points ):
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/9693006

And overclocked (2691):
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/9693481

So again a 20% increase, which is quite nice out of the box without overvolting

Ow and the stock bios has (limited though) support for AMD overdrive and you can change to powerlimit in MSI afterburner to 20% more. Though it will only be usefull when combined with overvolting.

Tried adjusting the bios with VBE but it says the 3d core voltage is 1.175 volts which is wrong (1.075) . So I won't try that yet since I can't change the bios if I brick it.

But yet again as an upgrade for the m15x (which mosly have the either dated 200 or 400 series nvidia card) it is an extremely good upgrade for it's price and a good upgrade for the m17x r3. And I bet with some overvolting you can get as high as 5k points in 3dmark11.

I'll post some scores from heaven as well.

Edit:
Heaven scores:
Stock: 541
Overclocked: 647

(and maybe it's an idea to include M6000 upgrade in the topic title at this point )

 

Awesome Drake, thanks for this...+rep

 

Ordered mine, so hyyped.

Now to find a 940XM, thats not $200 like they have been recently.

 

Or a 920xm. Usually cheaper and no actual difference

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A few differences actually! None of which can be utilised in the m15x

 

The base can be raised right? What else is possible with 940xm?

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Base can be raised and highest possible multiplier is greater (x29) I think! Might be some bandwidth stuff too but I can't remember. Looked into it at one point and decided throttlestop couldn't use any of it so its all useless lol. My 940xm was a bargain though

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920xm and 940xm dont have max multi. You change it as much as you want. I managed 34x for cpuz confirmation

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Base would be useful though if adjustable!

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Hi everyone,

I landed here because I am looking at upgrading my m15x because I will have to travel a lot for work. I figured that upgrading it myself was more affordable than buying a new rigs, it's also more fun as well.
I understood that the FirePro M6000 was a good deal, I also read a few times that I should go for a 920 or 940XM for processor.
Before going for this, I wanted to know if it was theorically possible to go for one of the current specs on the Alienware website. For example, would it be possible to go for an i5 or i6 6xxx seriesHQ with a GTX965+M ?
Having built a few desktop, I know that the motherboard and the powersource might need to be changed. I also understand that most laptop have a soldered motherboard but could I switch this one for one of the most recent ones ?

To be honest, I am a hard gamer but I don't play very demanding games. I will not play farcry, crisis etc but I mostly play online games (I play quite a lot to be frank).

My idea is not to build an equivalent of a 2500£ Alienware but to upgrade my 4-5 years old m15x to a more than decent gaming machine.

Thanks for your helps and happy holidays.

Kind regards,
Gori.

PS : don't hesitate to recommand a full spec because my guess is I will end up changing everything.

 

Hey Gori, no you can't use the new core series of processors. You are limited to the first generation core i3/i5/i7 with the 940xm being the most powerful available of the group. You can't just swap the motherboard for another one. Laptops don't use standard cases like desktops.

 

Hi Kosti,

First of all, thanks a lot for your answer.
That is pretty much what I understood for the processor.
But I thought that, because they still sell the m15x, it might be possible to find the same motherboard they are currently using. Would that be possible ?
Regarding the gtx960+, are they using the same sockets as the ones for the firepro m6000 or is the socket different ?

I am sorry for all the question but I am quite clueless on the technical side.

Thanks !

 

The new model is not the M15X. They stopped selling the M15X when the M14X was released (I think around 2011). The new models are called the Alienware 15. Totally different laptops.

Again, the M15X uses an MXM 3.0B socket for graphics. If the card is designed with that interface, it should theoretically work. If you search the forums you'll see people successfully installing modern cards like the Radeon 7970m in their M15X. You'll need to do some mods to get some of these newer cards to work, such as a bigger power supply.

 

Hi Kosti,

I understand what you are saying and it makes sense to me. At the same time, I don't really need the kind of specs they are selling right now.
That being said, if I decide to go for a Radeon 7970m or a GTX970m (as I saw in some posts) what would you recommend as a new power supply ? Would I need to change the fan as well ?
I read in some previous posts that you modified your m15x as well, did you put an SSD in ?

Lastly, is there a particular website that you recommend to order the parts and the tools ? I would rather have references from experts than just taking the first thing I find on google.

Thanks again for all your advices and the time you spend/spent on my case.

 

There are so many threads here on NBR (and other sites) regarding the 7970m and other cards in the M15X and what is recommended to get them running properly. Just search and read through the threads.

But yeah, you will want to upgrade to at least a 210W power supply and use a right angle adapter with the center pin removed to let that extra power flow freely to your laptop.

You will not need to replace the fan. You can, but it's not a requirement.

 

Thanks a lot Kosti, I will take a look and go for it !

 

Hi Kosti,

Sorry to bother you but I found almost everything for my upgrade.
I went with a 920xm processor, a Samsung EVO 850 for SSD, some IC Diamond cooling paste.
My current problem is finding a GPU that could be found in France or sent there. I was going for the Firepro 6000m but the one I found on amazon can't be shipped to France and the one found on ebay is going to arrive in france when I will be in Asia for work.
I am also wondering whether I should upgrade my RAM, WiFi card and a usb 3 card.

Do you have any recommandation ?

Thanks.

 

What is your budget for GPU?

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