Upgrading Alienware gtx 880m to 980m?

Hey guys! I Purchased my first Alienware 17 back in april... as most of us found out the gtx 880m cards were a major letdown with throttling and running super hot. My question ( I apologize if this is common knowledge) is when the 980m comes out can I upgrade from my 880m without getting a new laptop? I would much rather spend the money on just the card then shell out another 3500 for a new laptop entirely. I just can't stand the issues with the current card and paid way too much money to deal with it long term. Thanks in advance!

 

Short answer: Yes.

 

Mind giving me the long one as well? Any information greatly appreciated. Thanks for the quick reply.

 

Well you may need to use modified inis to install drivers and such for the system, but I am unsure of this exactly. I know your BIOS usually does not restrict cards like other manufacturers' BIOSes do, so it should work. I suggest searching over on the M18(x) or M17(x) forums about GPU upgrading to see what they say, as they'll be better able to help you on the subject.

 

Ok awesome great information I'll do just that! I'm counting down days until I can rid of this 880m :/

 

You may be better off selling that 880M now before prices drop because it will be a turd when the 980M hits the market. People will be purchasing 780M's over 880M's because it will be cheaper and perform better. So, if you can go without gaming for 1-2 months, and want to make an extra $200-$300, sell it now. Stick with the iGPU (integrated graphics) until you get a 980M. It will be much more difficult to sell the 880M in another 3-6 months.

They're selling for $700 now. In about 3 months, they'll probably be worth less than $400, especially since yours is considered used. Or just sell your entire laptop and buy another. You'll probably end up spending about $1k either way - upgrading or buying a new PC altogether.

 

Damn, I had no idea the 880M was a "Throttle Monster."

How's the 870M in regards to heat and throttling?(Apologies for going a bit off topic.)

 

Also, Firebat, J.Dre is dead on. SELL THAT CARD NOW! I waited to sell my 780 until after the 780Ti released and I ended up losing around $200 extra dollars if I would have just sold it before. A lot of Titan owners also got owned that way. I know it will suck for a while, but in the long run you'll be glad you did. Also the 980M is showing a 50% (give or take) performance boost over the 880M.

I also would not do the "sell the entire notebook" route. It is a good idea, but if you're like me, I would not want to risk losing even more money (not many people on these forums are in the market for a 3k notebook and for the most part, they're all informed about the impending release of the mobile 900 series.) and having to re-purchase the exact specified notebook for my needs when I already have it in my hands. You risk possible dead pixels and/or more issues over your current notebook that might be pretty much perfect in that regard.

Sorry for the long post! Just trying to help you out bro! Good luck and let us know what you decide to do.

 

As much as I would love to sell my card now I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. If I sold my 880m now I'd have no computer to use. My desktop has seen better days and I have not yet rebuilt it. This laptop was my desktop replacement and all I have. I'm going to go after a possible warranty exchange with dell when the 980m comes out. That would be idea since my laptop was purchased in April. If that fails I'll have to shell out the money for the card. I really don't know what else to do. I was gonna sell my whole machine to buy a new but if I can upgrade cards I have absolutely no reason or but another new laptop. :/ I have a decked out 17 best specs possible at the time.

 

You can use the AW17 (unlike the clevos etc) with just integrated graphics, because of the MUX switch. At least, I think so.

But you would still need to buy a 980M, which would put you out of money. Hmmm. I think you could probably try a warranty exchange for it I guess. If worse comes to worst you could indeed shell out a little extra for the card. Oh well.

 

True I could roll integrated... I just don't think I'd last without gaming for that long unless I only played Eve Online, haha. I'm expecting to pay for the card but I'll definitely try and work warranty if I can. It's really silly that they wouldn't honor it. I spoke to a tech and apparently dell is aware of the issues... So here's hoping.

 

All those options are viable. I'm in the same ballpark for selling my current 780m and getting a 980m for my MSI GT60. Our only problem might be heatsink compatibility. We would need to adapt our current heatsinks for the new cards if their layout differs (not an easy job to do).
Lets hope for the best.

 

I really hope that's not the case. Either way if it ends up being a warranty exchange they will send out a tech to do it. If I have to just buy it I know a tech that will come over to do it for me. It's my saving grace