Alienware M17x R3 Upgrading!

Hello! I'm sorry if I am posting this in the incorrect section as I am new to this site, anyway I am looking to upgrade my alienware m17x r3 as the specs of laptop are a bit low, I just need some help on what graphics card anyone would recommend or anything that will let me run games a lot better then the laptop is currently now.

My Specs :

Windows 8 Pro 64 bit
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00 GHz (8CPUs), ~2.0GHz
Memory 6GB
Graphics Card : Intel(R) HD Graphics 3000

As you can see the GHz is only clocked at around 2.00 which is pretty low and the graphics card is also not a "Gaming" Card, which can not handle games well .
If anyone can help me just figure out what to do to upgrade this computer, I would thank you greatly!

Thanks for reading!

-Mrcharlez.

 

Why don't you have a dedicated graphics card already in there...unless you bought it without one? In that case, most cost effective way to go is to get a radeon 7970M card. If you have extra money, 680m/780m. You will need heatsink + mounting bracket if they are not included with the laptop, you must buy separately. eBay everything or call dell.

 

OP - download and run CPU-Z:
CPU-Z CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting
Go to the Graphics tab, it will tell you what kind of graphics card is installed. Your M17x R3 has dedicated graphics, but may only be showing the integrated card because of Nvidia Optimus (if the system has an Nvidia graphics card).

Regarding upgrades - the CPU is plenty fast, clockspeed (GHz) means little these days. Modern processors are very efficient per-clock; they can accomplish far more in one cycle than older CPUs like the Pentium IV. The i7-2630QM processor is an excellent all-around CPU.

What problems have you noticed with the notebook's performance, exactly?

 

You have a dedicated GPU op, your processor is more than capable for most games.

 

Thanks So Much For The reply!, I haven't had many problems so far, just bad graphics in games, lagging, it can't even handle GTA IV at all! Graphical Errors in some games, but when doing everything else it runs very nicely, but when it comes to high performance games, it's just awful.

Let me Install CPU-Z Real fast and reply back in a few minutes.

 

Screen Shot of CPU : Screenshot by Lightshot

Screen Shot Of Graphics : Screenshot by Lightshot

I have looked around on ebay for a new Graphics card and all, the laptop does include a heatsink, and I did not check to see about the mounting bracket. @ Technos & Charles.

 

Hi. I didnt want to start a new thread since my problem is similar, but i couldnt find answers on any of forums.
So I have similar specs to the case described above: Alienware m17x, with i7-2630QM (2Ghz), 4Gb of RAM (8 GB more is already ordered and on its way) and a stronger graphics card of Nvidia Ge Force GTX 560M.
My problem is that my laptop lacks performance in all new games (problems started since battlefield 3, and were rising through far cry 3 etc.). I got that geforce experience installed and tried to optimize my setttings. Results were that it set my League of Legends settings to ultra high, giving me about 15-30 FPS what makes the game unplayable...
So to sum up, I dont even know what exactly is the weakest factor in my laptop, that is causing all the lagging, but i cant really play most of games at this point even on low settings. I dont think all those problems were caused by the RAM memory (was never full), so i was thinking about upgrading graphics card to 7970M, but im not sure if it will solve my problem. I dont want to throw away 270 pounds, so any opinion about how my specs should relate to games would be appriciated.
If I did any grammar mistakes sorry, English is not my first language

 

Your 560M is going to bottleneck your entire setup. Officially the R3 can go up to 580M or 6990M. I think the 680M and higher could be installed but not without issues like if you have the 3D screen.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Your English is fine. Welcome to the forum.

I agree with Tsunade_Hime that the Nvidia GTX 560M is your problem; it's outdated. You can likely upgrade it as noted ...

The 8GB RAM upgrade will help overall performance (remember to run memtest86+ on the memory to make sure it's error-free: How to Replace or Upgrade Laptop Memory | NotebookReview.com).

I suggest you wipe your hard drive and do a clean install of Windows. Install the latest Nvidia drivers. This way you'll be getting the maximum performance out of your notebook and it won't cost anything except a few hours' time. Try your games then; if it's still not fast enough, then look at the graphics card upgrade because it's the only thing that will make a difference at that point.

 

Alright, thanks for your replies. As for Tsunade_Hime's comment, yes I do have a 3D screen, but I didnt yet read about anyone who would have problems with upgrading their r3 with newer graphic cards, so what kind of issues are we talking about? I also read that there could be a problem with different models of heatsink for nvidia and radeon, so I wouldnt be able to use my old one if I get that 7970M (can anyone confirm that issue).

I read about those new mobile GPUs and my observations were that I dont have enough money for 780M, so I wanted to go with that 770M, but then i read that 7970M is performing much better, so thats why I came up with this decision (even if I lose the ability to run 3D, I'm fine with that since i dont really use it - eyes hurt too much).

Also as Charles was suggesting to wipe out my disc, I did that recently, without any greater performance boost. I also upgraded my drivers to the newest ones, so that case cant cause any trouble. During those two years of usage, my laptop went through few malware troubles and i was also wondering if by any chance my CPU could have been damaged, since I read those comments that my CPU should be doing great etc, but I dont feel like its that fine due to high usage when opening easy processess (100% when opening League of legends while having chrome and skype running - i dont think it was like that like 1 year ago). Maybe it is caused by insufficient RAM (gonna update if it was), but is there any program i can run to check if my CPU is 'healthy'.
Thanks in advance.

 

The 3D screens whitelists the cards that are in the generation. Like I said I think only the 580M is the best card the 3D screen can support in an R3.

More than likely you'll need a new heatsink, alot of the times the VRAM and other various SMD are in different places going from AMD to Nvidia or vice versa. I'm not sure if you can even install a 7970M into a 3D R3. Might be a better question for the Alienware M17x forums. I can move it there if you want.