M17x R3 GPU upgrade to gtx 780m

[J95]

svl7's vBios will prevent gpu throttling and both gpus are an overkill 1600x900 resolution anyway not to mention the inferior quality...for US$ 99,00 you can upgrade to a 1080p 60Hz screen, it's fairly easy to do (no teardown/same 40 pin connector/cable)glossy Screen for Dell ALIENWARE M17X R3. Replacement Laptop LCD Screens

[link3rd]

Sounds good, you've got it installed - you didn't wait for the wrist strap then?!

Did you check your temperatures yet, that would be the first thing I would do. If they're fine, then just go ahead and enjoy it! Probably not much need to overclock beyond the +135Mhz that's possible on the core with your existing VBIOS, especially given that you've only got the 1600x900 screen, so framerates will be excellent anyway, so therefore no need to flash the VBIOS really.

You can change the boot order in the BIOS, which you enter by pressing F2 during post after you've turned your computer on. You have to have the USB drive attached to the computer in order for the USB option to be available within the boot order. In fact, for mine, I have to enter the BIOS twice with the USB attached for it to appear in the boot order list.

That actually worked. I see the option to boot from USB storage now. I'm actually tempted to flash the bios now, lol. I was able to back up my vBios, i even typed "NVFLASH -6 780moc,rom" in the dos window. I just didn't press ENTER, I pressed ESC instead. The temperatures look ok for stock voltage. I really don't want to open up my laptop again tho. REALLY! ignorance is bliss

svl7's vBios will prevent gpu throttling and both gpus are an overkill 1600x900 resolution anyway not to mention the inferior quality...for US$ 99,00 you can upgrade to a 1080p 60Hz screen, it's fairly easy to do (no teardown/same 40 pin connector/cable)glossy Screen for Dell ALIENWARE M17X R3. Replacement Laptop LCD Screens

I'm actually ok happy with my 1600x900 resolution screen. Remember I bought that intentionally because I know the VGA card will perform better with the lower resolution. It's all about gaming. I will ALWAYS sacrifice pretty graphics to get the frame rate fluidity I want.

On another note guys. I was playing tomb raider on ultra, not ultimate *fudge that hair*, with the +135MHz and the card isn't stable. It keeps crashing. So I only did +120-125MHz and it was ok. Another thing I noticed was that the peak voltage on this stock is 1.012V and not 1.0V... is that weird? I know i did not touch voltage settings, because I have the stock vbios.

[J95]

137MHz limit with stock vBIOS/ GPU boost 1.012v, GPU-Z check ASIC quality.

http://forum.techinferno.com/nvidia/5054-modded-nvdmn-inf-v331-65-alienware-m17xr2-r3-r4-3d-m18xr1-r2-nvidia-gtx-680m-780m.html

[link3rd]

GPU boost 1.012v, GPU-Z check ASIC quality.

http://forum.techinferno.com/nvidia/5054-modded-nvdmn-inf-v331-65-alienware-m17xr2-r3-r4-3d-m18xr1-r2-nvidia-gtx-680m-780m.html

is it bad?

[J95]

I will ALWAYS sacrifice pretty graphics to get the frame rate fluidity I want.

This is not the case with the 780m 4GB, absolute overkill for that resolution.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]9430[/ATTACH]

is it bad?

Nope, you probably will need to increase v. for the core, memory OC 300-500MHz no overvolting required.

[link3rd]

This is not the case with the 780m 4GB, absolute overkill for that resolution.

Nope, you probably will need to increase v. for the core, memory OC 300-500MHz no overvolting required.

I understand, but remember I bought this laptop over 2 years ago. I only had a 1Gb 6870m at the time. Which is far less powerful than this 780m. What's your ASIC?

[Robbo]

@link3rd, if your GPU is working fine & the temperatures are good, which you say they are, then no need to open up the laptop. Just relax & enjoy it now! I happen to agree with you on the 1600x900 screen topic, the 780M isn't overkill for it if you max out all available settings in the latest games, and it just means that when games get more demanding over the next year or so, you'll be able to maintain better frame rates than the bods with the 1080p screen. If I was you, I wouldn't upgrade the screen to 1080p, I'd leave it as is.

[link3rd]

@link3rd, if your GPU is working fine & the temperatures are good, which you say they are, then no need to open up the laptop. Just relax & enjoy it now! I happen to agree with you on the 1600x900 screen topic, the 780M isn't overkill for it if you max out all available settings in the latest games, and it just means that when games get more demanding over the next year or so, you'll be able to maintain better frame rates than the bods with the 1080p screen. If I was you, I wouldn't upgrade the screen to 1080p, I'd leave it as is.

Same thing I had in mind. Btw, what's your ASIC? my other card, it was like 73% I believe. Is 68% better or worse? IDK

[Robbo]

Same thing I had in mind. Btw, what's your ASIC? my other card, it was like 73% I believe. Is 68% better or worse? IDK

Mine is 76.6%. It's supposed to relate to how easily you'll be able to overclock, the higher the ASIC quality the higher you'll likely be able to overclock. I'm not sure how good of an indication it is though, and besides it's not like you can change it; if you're gonna overclock, then all you can do is find the highest stable settings, knowing the ASIC quality is not going to affect that.

[link3rd]

Mine is 76.6%. It's supposed to relate to how easily you'll be able to overclock, the higher the ASIC quality the higher you'll likely be able to overclock. I'm not sure how good of an indication it is though, and besides it's not like you can change it; if you're gonna overclock, then all you can do is find the highest stable settings, knowing the ASIC quality is not going to affect that.

I gotcha. You won't believe how TERRIFIED I am to do benchmarks, flash the vBios, and even overclock or increase the voltage (if i flash)... it's sad:33_002:

Everything's finally working again and I don't want to screw it up!

EDIT: when I had my 6870m and my 6990m, I didn't care about overclocks or bench marking... I don't know why I'm like this now.... it's so weird!

If load up svl7's bios, will it change the ASIC reading in gpuz?

[J95]

Nothing will change the ASIC reading it only means that you will need to increase v more when overclocking, as I said before no overclocking is required at all even more with the 1600x900 resolution.

[Robbo]

I gotcha. You won't believe how TERRIFIED I am to do benchmarks, flash the vBios, and even overclock or increase the voltage (if i flash)... it's sad:33_002:

Everything's finally working again and I don't want to screw it up!

EDIT: when I had my 6870m and my 6990m, I didn't care about overclocks or bench marking... I don't know why I'm like this now.... it's so weird!

If load up svl7's bios, will it change the ASIC reading in gpuz?

I guess you're a bit paranoid about your new 780M dying after your last one! Just use it as normal & don't worry about it, keep monitoring the temperatures to make sure that's alright. Maybe stay away from overvolting if you're worried about it, that's where the increased risks are. Overclocking shouldn't really reduce the life of your GPU as long as you don't overvolt, and as long as your temperatures are OK. That's all there is to consider really, nothing to be concerned about! Flashing a modified VBIOS to it will invalidate your warranty if you send it back to Eurocom after a failure, but the warranty only lasts 3 months right? So, after 3 months you have nothing to lose by flashing a modified VBIOS; I personally don't think that flashing a modified VBIOS can damage your GPU, just flash one that is commonly used - svl7 780M VBIOS. (If you flash the wrong VBIOS then I think that could brick your card - that's the only risk I see).

[bikaso]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]9430[/ATTACH]

is it bad?

congratulations for the new one bro , NO overclocking for now Plz and no crazy bench marking like what i did before (NOOO Geek 3D furmark like J95 said) first of all show me idle temp. and loaded one with the benchmarks

[link3rd]

congratulations for the new one bro , NO overclocking for now Plz and no crazy bench marking like what i did before (NOOO Geek 3D furmark like J95 said) first of all show me idle temp. and loaded one with the benchmarks

Ok. Soooo I downloaded cod ghosts mp right. I was getting 90fps on normal clocks. Nice... However, the fps was dipping ALOT! What did I do? I overclocked it to the max at the stock vbios. Crashing due to low voltage. "Instinctively and subconsciously", lol... I flashed it with svl7's vbios in order to get stable clocks at the overclock with raised voltage... Same thing... Conclusion:- cod ghosts needs a patch ASAP!

Idle temps are 54-56C with no hwinfo... Stock overclock:- High 60's

cod ghosts temps with +25mV +157/500Mhz & hwinfo:- high 50's- low 60's... Conclusion overclock is not needed and a patch is needed ASAP!

You think I should load back the factory bios? Or u think I could leave in the modded bios in and just don't overvolt as intended? I think the latter of the two is better. Bf4 runs nice on stock clocks... Ultra and high setting... High 60's temps... I overclock with stock voltage to avoid the dipping in frames. It helps a little... Hwinfo keeps the temps in the 60's... Anyone else tried those games? I don't wana do any bench marks tho. I'll just be the ignorant gamer, lol

Recommendations anyone?

[Robbo]

Ok. Soooo I downloaded cod ghosts mp right. I was getting 90fps on normal clocks. Nice... However, the fps was dipping ALOT! What did I do? I overclocked it to the max at the stock vbios. Crashing due to low voltage. "Instinctively and subconsciously", lol... I flashed it with svl7's vbios in order to get stable clocks at the overclock with raised voltage... Same thing... Conclusion:- cod ghosts needs a patch ASAP!

Idle temps are 54-56C with no hwinfo... Stock overclock:- High 60's

cod ghosts temps with +25mV +157/500Mhz & hwinfo:- high 50's- low 60's... Conclusion overclock is not needed and a patch is needed ASAP!

You think I should load back the factory bios? Or u think I could leave in the modded bios in and just don't overvolt as intended? I think the latter of the two is better. Bf4 runs nice on stock clocks... Ultra and high setting... High 60's temps... I overclock with stock voltage to avoid the dipping in frames. It helps a little... Hwinfo keeps the temps in the 60's... Anyone else tried those games? I don't wana do any bench marks tho. I'll just be the ignorant gamer, lol

Recommendations anyone?

Why don't you be a little more systematic, you seem to be jumping to a lot of conclusions. Just because your COD crashed when you were overclocking doesn't mean it needs a patch, it probably just means that your overclock is unstable. Just change one thing at a time, retest with a game or benchmark over an extended period of time, and if it crashes or you get artifacts, then first assume it's your overclock, not the game's fault. Then just keep fine tuning the variables like clock & voltage to get the best result. Your temperatures are good by the way. (If you're pretty sure it is the fault of COD needing a patch, then just try gaming in COD at stock clocks & voltages, and then if it happens again, that would probably be the game's fault, at which point you should use other games to test your overclock stability).

[link3rd]

Why don't you be a little more systematic, you seem to be jumping to a lot of conclusions. Just because your COD crashed when you were overclocking doesn't mean it needs a patch, it probably just means that your overclock is unstable. Just change one thing at a time, retest with a game or benchmark over an extended period of time, and if it crashes or you get artifacts, then first assume it's your overclock, not the game's fault. Then just keep fine tuning the variables like clock & voltage to get the best result. Your temperatures are good by the way.

Check this:

Call of Duty Ghosts FOV, Ram Fix, FPS, Lag, Crashes, Freezes, Stuttering, Errors, and Fixes - SegmentNext

By chance, you got it running properly? I did have fraps running btw, LOL!

[Robbo]

Check this:

Call of Duty Ghosts FOV, Ram Fix, FPS, Lag, Crashes, Freezes, Stuttering, Errors, and Fixes - SegmentNext

By chance, you got it running properly? I did have fraps running btw, LOL!

I don't have COD Ghosts. Anyway, if you're saying the game is unstable regardless of whether you're overclocking or not, then you should use another game to test the stability of your overclocks. That way you'll know that crashes are due to the overclock and not a patch required in a game - systematic!

[link3rd]

I don't have COD Ghosts. Anyway, if you're saying the game is unstable regardless of whether you're overclocking or not, then you should use another game to test the stability of your overclocks. That way you'll know that crashes are due to the overclock and not a patch required in a game - systematic!

I understand what you're saying, but read the article. I was using fraps to check the fps, and for some reason or the other, fraps has a conflict with ghosts. I always used to tell myself, "when all else fails, read the instructions"... I wanted to test it out more, but I have to work. I will test the clocks with another game later, but I'm still frightened to overvolt. I'm a BIG call of duty fan. Since COD1&2. That's the only reason i overclocked my card with svl7's vbios. I really didn't want to, but in the moment I was confident. If there are work arounds, I will go around that path, but I'm still afraid to overvolt and overclock.

Did you get a copy of bf4? My cpu is throttling severely with that game. I believe cod ghosts is causing my cpu to throttle as well. i'm seeing temps as high as 90C. I might do the clip retention mod if that's the case. have you done that as yet? Necessity is the mother of invention. I don't want to do it, but if i have to, i have to...

[Robbo]

I understand what you're saying, but read the article. I was using fraps to check the fps, and for some reason or the other, fraps has a conflict with ghosts. I always used to tell myself, "when all else fails, read the instructions"... I wanted to test it out more, but I have to work. I will test the clocks with another game later, but I'm still frightened to overvolt. I'm a BIG call of duty fan. Since COD1&2. That's the only reason i overclocked my card with svl7's vbios. I really didn't want to, but in the moment I was confident. If there are work arounds, I will go around that path, but I'm still afraid to overvolt and overclock.

Did you get a copy of bf4? My cpu is throttling severely with that game. I believe cod ghosts is causing my cpu to throttle as well. i'm seeing temps as high as 90C. I might do the clip retention mod if that's the case. have you done that as yet? Necessity is the mother of invention. I don't want to do it, but if i have to, i have to...

I suppose this thread is not really here to talk about specific game issues, but more the hardware side of things in terms of installing your 780M & maybe overclocking it, so I'm not that interested in the nuances of getting COD Ghosts to run without crashing.

You don't have to overvolt & overclock if you don't want to; but, if you do, then just test it with games you know don't crash in a systematic way while monitoring your temps.

My CPU never throttles, maybe your's is running too hot, but it shouldn't throttle at 90 degC (that's too low). I haven't done the c-clip retention mod because my temperatures are fine without it (less than 83 degC on Prime95). To know if your CPU is throttling or not you have to monitor the clocks so you can understand what's going on. Maybe run Prime95 on it while looking to see how the CPU clocks behave at the same time - then you'll really know what's happening.

EDIT: There's also this link that I showed you ages ago, on how to get the most out of your XM CPU:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-17-m17x/617662-guide-overclocking-2920xm-2960xm-cpus-m17x-r3-without-modded-bios.html

[link3rd]

I suppose this thread is not really here to talk about specific game issues, but more the hardware side of things in terms of installing your 780M & maybe overclocking it, so I'm not that interested in the nuances of getting COD Ghosts to run without crashing.

You don't have to overvolt & overclock if you don't want to; but, if you do, then just test it with games you know don't crash in a systematic way while monitoring your temps.

My CPU never throttles, maybe your's is running too hot, but it shouldn't throttle at 90 degC (that's too low). I haven't done the c-clip retention mod because my temperatures are fine without it (less than 83 degC on Prime95). To know if your CPU is throttling or not you have to monitor the clocks so you can understand what's going on. Maybe run Prime95 on it while looking to see how the CPU clocks behave at the same time - then you'll really know what's happening.

I went off on a tangent, my apologies. Anyways, I will test the clocks with another game and will stick to the thread discussion in my future posts.

To stay on topic, when I was installing the heatsink, I noticed that the screws on the x-bracket on the heatsink mount were incompatible with the x-bracket on the back of the vga card. The screws that came with the upgrade kit are of a different length to the ones on the card. My idea is that this can vary the pressure applied on the card if screwed in all the way. What do you think? Do you think this could have caused problems with me previously, ALTHOUGH the tech in Eurocom said it works with an Eurocom laptop and not alienware laptops? If that is the case, I can't help but feel a bit guilty, but the guy says it works, so i'm even more confused. Obviously if it works on Eurocom laptops and not Alienware, its defective, but I'm humble and conscious of stuff like this.

[Robbo]

I went off on a tangent, my apologies. Anyways, I will test the clocks with another game and will stick to the thread discussion in my future posts.

To stay on topic, when I was installing the heatsink, I noticed that the screws on the x-bracket on the heatsink mount were incompatible with the x-bracket on the back of the vga card. The screws that came with the upgrade kit are of a different length to the ones on the card. My idea is that this can vary the pressure applied on the card if screwed in all the way. What do you think? Do you think this could have caused problems with me previously, ALTHOUGH the tech in Eurocom said it works with an Eurocom laptop and not alienware laptops? If that is the case, I can't help but feel a bit guilty, but the guy says it works, so i'm even more confused. Obviously if it works on Eurocom laptops and not Alienware, its defective, but I'm humble and conscious of stuff like this.

I don't know, but your temperatures are fine now, so what do you have to worry about?

[J95]

Windows 8 / 7 - M17xR3 GTX 780M installation (Windows 7 skip step 2 and 4).

Thermal Pad Placement - Fujipoly Extreme System Builder Thermal Pad - Sheet - 150 x 100 x 0.5 - Thermal Conductivity 11.0 W/mK

Verify that the card is properly seated https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vEk_ZFAzLI#t=3m51s

1) F2 enter the A12 unlocked BIOS M17x R3 BIOS A12 - unlocked & 'SATA fix' Integrated sound card disabled -> disable the integrated graphics - Second Advanced Menu ->Video Configuration -> disable IGP -> set display to PEG ->F10 reboot.

DDU/Safe Mode -> third option 'Clean & Shutdown

Re-enable IDT -> install IDT drivers first -> #1 #3 http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m17x-aw-17/4829-780m-gtx-m17xr3-integrated-soundcard-working-again-no-more-usb-soundcard.html

2) Once in windows disable driver signing (Win8/8.1)

.1 -Open command prompt (Admin) windows key + X

.2 -Type "bcdedit /set {current} testsigning yes" (without quotes) enter.

.3 -"The operation concluded successfully"

.4 -Type exit> reboot.

3) Driver installation.

Download GeForce 347.52 WHQL

.1 Extract driver using 7-Zip/winrar. Right click extract to "3xx.xx-notebook-win8-win7-64bit-international-whql"

.2 -Display.Driver folder -> copy/overwrite nv_dispi.inf

.3 -Extracted 3xx.xx-notebook-win8-win7-64bit-international\ run setup.exe

.4 -Select custom install -> check clean install option.

.5 -Reboot.

nv_dispi.inf (unzip) nv_dispi.inf_v347.52.zip

4) Exit test mode

.1 -Command prompt (Admin).

.2 -Type "bcdedit /set {current} testsigning no" enter.

.3 -Type exit -> reboot.

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[andreicomm]

hello! sorry for my bad English, is there anyone who manage to make 3d working on 780m m17x r3?

thx!

[J95]

Nope, stock cards only - BIOS - 3D Vision certified.

[andreicomm]

thx for the advice!