Nvidia GTX 280M or Quadro FX 3700M for Alienware M15X

I am thinking of taking the plunge and taking my chances in seeing if one of these GPU's will work in my M15X. Which one in your opinion would be the best one to try ??

Nvidia GTX 280M
Pros:
Smaller die so *should* run a little cooler than the Quadro FX 3700M .
New technology ??
If it does not work, I am pretty sure I can resell it to someone with a Sager

Cons:
Harder to find, some vendors say sometime in mid May or later
Being newer, chance the bios on the M15X will not recognize it ??


Quadro FX 3700M
Pros:
Sellers on Ebay selling around $400-450
Since it is older, better chance the Bios of the M15X will recognize it ??

Cons:
Selling around $500+
Since it is built on the older and larger die, hotter than the Nvidia GTX 280M.
If it does not work, it might be harder to sell to someone than the newer Nvidia GTX 280M.


There is also a chance that both of these will not work or both will work Let me know what you all think. God Bless

 

Another suggestion would be the GTX260M, if the GTX280M dose not work due to heat.

If you do try them and they fail, I am sure you can sell them for the same price you payed for them.

If you do buy one and try it, please post the results.

 

if you have the m15x with the 8800m gtx in there, then flash the vbios to the 9800m gt or gtx and your good. you won't see a hugh difference from the other cards becasue of the 800fsb limitation.

 

Dude, the 280M GTX may work, but it will be a gamble of 500 bucks. It's all up to you. You might screw something up. It'll be a risk.

Personally, I'd stick with the 8800.

 

there has to be a BIOS revision that supports those videocards for them to work in the system properly.

so sorry... not GTX 200M or Quadro 3700M for that notebook.

and yes, the heat might be too much.

Try it and fry it.

 

EPIC !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sorry to be off topic

should be a little cooler ... i think its 50/50 but there will be no bios revision

 

There was no Bios revision when they released the Ati 3870 in the m15x. X36 is the newest and was before the 3870 introduction in to the m15x. And the x36 "added" 9800mGT support and since there are people that run their 9800mGT card with the x32 bios, I don't think the BIOS will be a problem.

It can not hurt to try. Just monitor the temps if they get too high, shut it off.

I would do this if I was not in collage with exams coming up, and had a good job and had some money.

 

if the M860TU needed a BIOS revision to support the GTX 260M... you can be sure that the M15x will as well.

 

Dont waste your money on either. Do like Dondadah suggested and flash bios if you are looking for excitment.

 

But didn't that bios update also add support for quad cores that are in the new systems? What needs to be seen is a M860TU user upgrade and not have a quadcore and leave the Bios the same. That would also give a good answer to every ones questions.

Flashing the bios will not give him more pipelines, and that is what the GTX260m and GTX280m improve on, the 65nm vr 55nm means that the new cards will also run cooler that its predecessor.

 

nope it was not for quad-cores.

the motherboard revision was for the quad-core support.

M860TU (initial revision), supports GTX 260M (with BIOS update) and dual cores

M860ETU (latest revision), supports GTX 260M (already has latest BIOS) and quad-cores too

 

I stand corrected then.

 

try it with the GTX 280M, for graet justice.

 

I would be soo soo interestred in seeing if 260/280 fits/works in the M15x....

So I say go. If it doesn't work you can always sell it to someone else, right?

And this is a given - but monitor the temps...

 

Here's some info from AlienWare-Rose.

Note that she's not confirming anything, but as I gather it, they are testing it.

So, JDELUNA... will you try it? Pretty please... with sugar on top?