mihaimoga

This guy Laptop Forums and Notebook Computer Discussion has M18x R1 with dual gtx 780m. Check his profile on the link and send him a message. I think its possible because you're cpu is not even extreme and the 330w AC adapter is sufficient for that setup. To be certain ask him.

THe best GPU you can put in the M18X R1 at this time is the GTX 780m.( GTX 880m its's to expensive ).

Check those threads:

http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m18x-aw-18/4694-gtx-780m-temperature-benchmarks-m18x-r1.html

http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m18x-aw-18/3596-alienware-m18x-r1-running-nvidia-gtx-780m-let-testing-begin.html

A slightly overclock GTX 680m its as good as a stock GTX 780m.

The i7-2630QM wont throttle the GPU.

Hello, just two quick questions.

1. How far can the m18x r1 cpu be upgraded?

Will a i7 3920xm work in it?

2. Getting a ssd for my m18x and I am going to reinstall system on it. Since i lost my recovery partition long ago I was wondering can some with an m18x r1 make a copy of theirs? Or link me to a page where I can get a recovery partition download.

The best CPU that can fit in the M18x R1 is the I7 2960XM. The motherboard doesn't support Ivy Bridge and Haswell. The 2960xm is still a very potent CPU and i recommend it.

Hello,

1.you need to flash an unlock bios and disable Intel Hd 3000 card (integrated graphic card),

2.buy a AMD heatsink 6990m heatsink is compatible with 7970m and 580m heatsink is compatible with 680m. you need new thermal pads too.

3. you don't need new porwer addapter, the 230w is perfect for any single card configuration. i hope you have that one, because my first r3 with gtx 460 came with 230w adapter.

There's a tread at TechInferno about overclocking 650m with unlocked Video bios http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m14x-aw-14/1787-%5Bm14x-r2%5D-vbios-mod-higher-boost-clocks-test-versions-only

Please take into consideration that overclocking might damage the PC and it would not be covered under warranty.

With stock Vbios you can try overclocking with MSI afterburner : go max for core and 250-300 for memory (or find you're own stable overcloking frequencies) . Allways use a gpu monitor for temperature.

Good luck!

You will need probably to flash an unlocked bios to disable the intel hd graphic card and after that is plug and play. The official drivers from nvidia will not work, only if u modify the .INF file and in windows 8 u need to disable the driver signature. I had dual 6990m on my m18x and could not profit on my video cards in rendering and changed them with a 680m (1344 cuda cores) ( and works perfect but i have lost the possibility to use the integrated graphic processor ,lower battery life but i can squeeze about 2.5-3 hours on windows powersave). I recommend to you gtx780m (1536 cuda cores) but if a quadro card is a ''Super must'' go with the quadro, but the K series k4000 ( based on gtx 675mx), k3000 etc.

There was a video on youtube(i cant find it anymore) where a guys replaced his 2920xm with 3920xm in his M18x R1, but when he powered on the laptop, his screen was blank.

hello guys i'm new here just registered 2day i got my gtx 780m today and i have red all this thread and i was very afraid because thats my first gpu upgrade i have ever done but it was strait forward for me like plug and play exactly as what j95 said

1- update my bios to A05 unlocked ( oh yes i forgot to mention that i have M18X R1 with gtx 460M )

2- replace the GPU card with all the steps of opening and apply the thermal bads and the heatsink (which i used the same 75w came with the 460m ) just increased the naked copper area to fit the bigger ship)

3- start the computer and it went straight to the log in screen

4- login and i used the same driver as u said thanks for j95 and SVl7 (v320.49 BETA) and the *.inf file from this link http://forum.techinferno.com/nvidia/3907-modded-nvdmn-inf-v320-49-alienware-m17xr3-r2-m18xr1-r2-nvidia-gtx-680m-780m.html thanks J95

5- custom instal and unchecked the two 3d drivers ( i never used them anyways )

6- repoot and thats it every thing is perfect now

NOTE: i'm using the 75w heatsink and with only browsing i get 46 to 50 degrees and with tomb rider 2013 in ultra every thing i get 66 degrees i think that pretty good for the 75w heatsink with 3 copper pipes and i'm still using my AC 240W yet

hope that helps i will send some pictures soon

Is there another type of heat sink for the gpu besides the one with 3 copper pipes?