Upgrade VGA from GTX 460M to GTX 980M

HI All,

Greetings,

I have an alienware M15X with the following specifications:
- Alienaware M15X R2 2010
- VGA GTX 460M
- 16GB of RAM
- Processor i7 7740QM
- Windows 10
- PSU Originil

my Question :
can i upgrade the my VGA GTX 460M to GTX 980M without any big modification (just flug and play) : as a link below
could anyone also advice the SOP to install.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NVIDIA-GTX...296022?hash=item467f96bd56:g:5~0AAOSwgslbKkal

Pls need your advice, once i got the conclution will order the VGA on eBay and instal to my AW and post the update in this Group.

Thanks for all

Brs

DN

 

I would recommend upgrading to a 970M. You save your self money while the card thermally is a much better fit for the M15x. I have run a 980M in the past and I wasn't happy with the experience. 970M users on the other hand have been very happy.

To go in more detail it was very hard to stop thermal throttling with the 980M as it put out much more heat than the M15x heatsink is designed to cope with. Even with an undervolt. The same experience is to be had with the older 880M.

 

The only thing I don't like about the 970m other than the drivers is the VRMs on these cards is they will burn if neglected or worse abused, just look at all the burned cards that pop up on eBay on a almost regular bases. Quadro M4000M interests me but is not cheap either but a few people here have used them and they are nice cards plus extra memory bandwidth and better VRM.

 

I don't know about that. I had a 970M in my Clevo P570WM and overclocked the crap out of it without any issues.

 

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Hi Bro Thanks for the recommendation, I did check on eBay.. is really difficult to find GTX 970M some of the sellers, sell it with almost the same price with GTX 980M even more expensive. from Aliexpress is same case GTX880M also has almost the same price with GTX980M. only GTX 780M quite lowest 980M.

GTX 780M
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/GTX...52cb-499a-bca0-0efdab22e3c3&priceBeautifyAB=0

GTX 980M
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/New...f5b6-46cc-8a78-ef89764ccd52&priceBeautifyAB=0

GTX 970M
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/GTX...8d88-413d-8d04-1ecb964f3ef7&priceBeautifyAB=0

how do you think if i upgrade with GTX 780M? all the serries with 80 it has 256 bit bus i think is really strong enought to play game release in 2016 - 2017 right?
again need your advide and experince

thanks soo much.

 

I think that you are better off just buying the 980 for reasons that you can re-use the card in a newer machine later and Kepler like Fermi drivers are going to be an issue where performance degrades due to lack of optimization then eventually support is dropped. 780 and 880Ms run Hot and a 980 is likely to run cooler but with the puny cooler in the M15x underclocking is likely needed depending on ambient temperature however you can improve it slightly with a modded vbios.

 

Well you more than likely made sure that there was not going to be an issue unlike oems and other users. I have also seen a fair number of burned 1070s.

 

Huh? Your original post said 970M, now you're saying 1070. 970M was reliable but 1070 is not. Only the MSI 1070 is reliable.

 

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ehm..completely agree with you i will start order next month and start the Projejct. i hope nothing much to modified and just easy to install because i not soo familiar with
laptop.
thanks for the suggestion.

 

Don't mean to be an ass but why did make it out like it was all one thought when clearly the mention about the 1070 was something off on the side, don't understand why modern people struggle with language like this so no one can put anything off on the side anymore. I guess that I must be too old or something...

 

The only big annoyance is going to be fiddling with the drivers beyond that installing the card is going to be easy but just make sure all thermal pads are in the right places and that you are using ones of the right thickness.

 

My advice. Buy 970M not 980M you will not regret it. 980M is too hot even with an undervolt. I had one and after 6 months I sold it on.

 

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Hi Bro, just bought GTX 970M i got with price 246USD but its takes 1 month to shiping to taiwan can wait to see it and instal.
thanks for the advice.

 

Excellent! I will be in Taiwan for 4 nights in 1 month

 

Because details matter when you are upgrading to a different component.

The issue with the 1070s are specifically from early release from Gecube where the quality of VRM wasnt up to the handling the TDP set by them. This was a design fault on Gecubes part. The Zotac card doesnt have these issues but arent as widespread because you have to buy the system for just the component. The MSI card can be bought on its own, and is heralded as the best choice. The reason being that the card can handle 180w-200w just fine despite its stock setting of 150w TDP. Its overbuilt, which is good for the regular consumer and enthusiast. In fact you can ramp the 1070 up to desktop 1070 Ti levels, well the MSI variant.

Thats why stating 1070 burning as a general point doesnt work, there are multiple variations of 1070 and they are not equal.

It has nothing to do with it being an off the cuff remark, but that its an off the cuff remark that isnt accurate, or at the very least lacks important context. It also doesnt make sense for the thread as the M15x so far isnt compatible with eDP which 10XX cards require.

As for the OP, looks like you went with the 970m. Its a good choice for the system. I have only seen one person claim that his 980m worked fine but no one has been able to replicate it. Best of luck with your installation!

 

980M certainly did not work well for me in the m15x....too power hungry and had to drop CPU clocks way down as to not starve the GPU of power. 970M is the better choice, and that's what I Have in my M15x.

 

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Glad to hear that.. can't wait to see my GPU coming.. I will install and shared the experience