Nvidia GTX 470m in Alienware m15x

Hey all, I'm looking to upgrade the graphics card in my Alienware m15x from a Nvidia GT 240m. I'm running an i7 620 @ 2.66 GHz and 8 GB of DDR3 RAM, with a 1600x900 display.

I'm planning on going all-out on a desktop after I make some money this summer: I would like to keep my laptop current enough to play games released within the last couple years on medium to low graphics (AC4 Black Flag, for example), but don't need a beast and would like to do so as frugally as possible.

I was planning on going with the GTX 460m as it's officially supported by Dell, but just found a GTX 470m for a great price. The card was a quality sample (opinions on using QS cards?) and needs a vBIOS flashed to it anyways, so any necessary modifications for my m15x wouldn't be a dealbreaker.

Any advice/opinions on using the 470m?

Thanks for the feedback!!

 

You may find your cpu/platform limits the GPU you're thinking of upgrading to.

Save your money on this system and spend it towards your desktop. The gaming will be night and day difference.

 

If you spend 200-300, you can get a AMD 7970M which will be a great upgrade.. You might need a new heatsink/x-bracket though and a 210W PSU...

 

OP only has a dual-core i7-620M. A 7970M will be bottlenecked by anything short of an OCed 920XM.

 

Is the i7 620M going to limit just about any card I put in?

Could anyone recommend a processor that wouldn't bottleneck a GTX 470M?

I do game on the road sometimes, so even with the planned build of a desktop, I would like to upgrade my laptop if possible to do so for 2-300$ (gpu + cpu if needed)

 

make it around 350 and get the i7-820/840QM at least but keep a look out for 920/940XM... As for GPU, 7970M's are going for as cheap as 200-250... The 620M is quite weak so you really need to replace it..

 

beezus, get a proper 9x0XM CPU and 7970M, indeed.

 

The i7-620M will NOT bottleneck a 470M. I don't know why everyone claims this but an equivalent CPU today, the i5-4200M, can keep up with an 860M and not force a bottleneck in games.

You'd be fine with going with a 470M if you got a good deal on it.

 

Can't say with certainty if a 470M will be bottlenecked (or if just the game will...), but the two cpu's you link are not even remotely comparable.

See:
https://cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7+M+620+@+2.67GHz&id=849

See:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-4200M+@+2.50GHz


A 48% difference is hardly an 'equivalent' cpu.

 

Firstly this thread is in the wrong place. Secondly don't even consider the 470M as an upgrade. 7970M and 680M are the minimum upgrades at this point. Nothing else is worth it. Also at this point you NEED XM cpu and clock it to 3ghz+. Again the 820qm or 840qm are worthless chips in this day and age.

 

Listen to King on this.. he's the AW M15x upgrade king ... 920XM + 680M/7970M then