Upgrading my M18X R2 and would like some advice

So I've been a member here for a long time and just recently came back to the scene a bit. I purchased an m18x r2 a long while back (maybe 3+ years ago). I still have the notebook and it's been running strong for a long time and it's in mint shape (not a scratch on it). I had been using it stock since I bought it. Just the beginning of this year I upgraded the Killer 1103 to an Intel 6300 Ultimate N and swapped out my stock dell SSD for a pair of Intel 730 480GBs along with upgrading my 3820qm to an XM processor.

It has the stock 7970ms in crossfire. And finally this past week one of them has started to fail. I was surprised to hear it lasted this long after coming back.to the forum and reading about how short a lifespan they apparently have. I removed it and have been using a single card only.

I want to upgrade the cards and after reading some threads here, I just wanted to get some input.

So from my understanding if I want to get anything better than a 680m sli setup that I have to use modded drivers and use legacy mode in uefi correct? I also saw something about a modded BIOS. Just wanted some clarification.

Secondly, I don't want to over clock the cards or flash any kind of custom vbios to them. I like to game but I am not that hardcore anymore and don't need to bleed my hardware to its furthest.

I was looking at possibly getting a pair of m290x 4gb cards, but I wasn't sure if they need any custom drivers or bios. I checked out the 980ms and those cards are way more than I want to spend.

Any advice or input would be appreciated.

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imo 980m is the only sensible choice...you never know when you'll need the horsepower and a 980m is easy to max out with modern games anyway

pick one up used if you don't want to pay full price

 

I have a set of 780M sli if you're interested

 

I would say look no further than this.


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Thanks for the replies guys.

I have been reading through more threads and had a couple questions.

If I go with the 780ms, is it going to be a problem upgrading to Windows 10? I read threads about m18x systems with nVidia cards frying the LCD panels. Is this still happening or no?

Secondly are my heatsinks enough to cool them? Will the x-brackets fit from my cards? Does the system automatically control the GPU fans with these cards or do I have to manually control them?

And what is the going rate for a set of those cards plus an sli bridge?

Thanks again for the help.

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yeah but a single 980M is almost faster then 2 M290 in crossfire. So, it's a better investment.

 

Yes, I have 780Ms in the M18x R2 which originally came with 7970M crossfire. The heatsinks are exactly the same for nvidia and AMD, only the orientation of the black tape is different. If you remove the tape and clean the copper with alcohol/goo gone, youll be golden. Heatsinks are good for the 780M. The only frying you will have is if you use precision X with windows 10, otherwise you should be fine. Native fan control works with the 780M (personally tested). You can use HWinfo if the native fan profiles are not to your liking.

I can get you 2x 780M Dell cards + OEM Dell SLI cable 630 shipped for the set

 

Just wanted to post back.

I found a great deal on a pair of new 7970ms and just decided to go with those. I came to the conclusion that it is just a better option to get myself a brand new laptop when the new mobile graphics chips are released. Since my laptop still maxes out every game that I play with zero issue I can stick it out with the cheaper route for now.

I have been eyeballing a new Alienware 17 with a 4K display for a while but I am waiting for the refresh and new hardware (and hopefully a new 18" model with a 4K display).

Thanks everyone for the input.

 

Hope it will lifespan more than the ones you had!
Put some cooling copper tapes on caps maybe.

 

Hah yea. I hope so too. I was still impressed with the lifespan they had with the original cards considering every thread users reported with dead 7970s seemed to be on average 1 to 1.5 year's. I never overclocked or modded mine and it never left my desk ever so maybe that helped, who knows.

But I imagine I will buy a new machine before the end of the year. Then I can put this one away in its original box in my closet.

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If it still work I would sell it. And I see a few threads of burned cards, but there were thousands of them, and more, so it's normal some of them get broken. I still have 7970m card on my old laptop, and still it's working no problem (only one card i have not crossfire), more than 2 years.