Peter18x

Lets hope it will work in SLI without any major issue. Good luck @godfafa

Alright, connect both 980M cards in SLI to my Aw M18x R2 > Black screen at start up and 8 beeps, system restart and keep repeating it Connect single card still same 8 beeps Before replacing cards i did switch graphics output to iGPU, installed both cards 980ms still 8 beeps n black screen. Johnksss log. Hummm, that was interesting. It actually finally booted in sg with both cards. And i was able to enable sli, but it ran flakey. Could be user error though. Then messed around and re enabled igpu and of course sg failed. So i removed one card and went to boot and black screen and 8 beeps. Even after 5 reboots. So I did a bios reset and all is back to normal......This would be really weird if the 980M's worked in reverse of doing this. Where as the 780 beeped out the 980's in turn ran. It's a bit more to this but that was the short version of the story. godfafa_kr log. From my experience of testing 980m in m17x R4, m18x R2, AW17(non3D and 3D) and AW18 for many many hours, I have concluded these. - 980m only works with iGPU enabled (=SG enabled, AKA=optimus) wherever it is installed. (in alienware) - Thus, PEG only, 3D model (in which iGPU is disabled), SLI dont work with 980m. (in alienware) - There are three vbios that I've tested, v10/v12 of clevo and v0A of MSI. All of these work the same in alienware. - If iGPU is disabled (=PEG only), 8 beeps. And to answer your question, yes it works with your suggestion in m18x R2 and the device manager shows two gpu (igpu and 980m) which basically is "optimus". I dont know why this is happening. It may be vbios or bios or security problem. I really dont know the reason of these behavior. I just hope some one can fix this. I've disabled the iGPU in the unlocked bios, And if I do this, 8 beeps when I put 980m. If I just disable iGPU without installing any dGPU, I also get 8 beeps. But this is fixed automatically by turning on and off several times. (and of course the iGPU is enabled again) Hence, 980m in Alienware only works when Optimus is enable, user reported that 980m works fine in Aw 17 or Aw M17x R4 NON-3D. It does not work with Aw18 or Aw m18x R2.

Thanks for input svl7, you can have a look at this NBR thread for log. Aw m18x R2 Dual 980m SLI upgrade!! Actually im really tempt to flash somehtin, unfortunately i got cards without warranty. Anyway if you can mod. it then im willin to take risk. - - - Updated - - - here is 980M stock vbios V12. http://www.filedropper.com/13d7980mv12

I think non SLI system support Optimus. It works on AW 17 system only in Optimus cosz at boot bios detects intel graphics which post it to windows. Actually issue related to start up... Yeah it is Aw 17 indeed, gogle good at Simplified

Well i went through your whole log, Actually i ordered 2 weeks back. Anyway its not solution. i just check bios version it's v12 which is i believe latest from Clevo. Omg M18x n Optimus, i would never consider that option i can use dual 7970m against 980m with Optimus. Yeah i agree with you Cloudfire, it is not solution.

No, it is not possible to upgrade to latest processor, But you can upgrade to 3920XM or 3940XM processors which are fastest and almost near to same performance compare to 4930MX. Still 3740QM is alright for gamin and everyday usage.

Here in UK, PCspecialist do sell system 4900MQ + 780M SLI with only 300W. My Alien18x R2 CPU 3740XM OC 4.29GHz and Dual 7970M OC 1075MHz is runnin stable without any power throttle. Hence, 330W is enough but as i remember from NBR Mr. FOX is usin Dual 330W adaptor.

Well i did use MX-4. But from my experience, it is not good as ICD. MX-4 only performed better just 4 days only, applied same paste almost three times. Now usin ICD on both CPU and GPU, GPUs temp. maximum around 74C and CPU maximum 90C (3740QM overclocked 4.29GHz). ICD scratchin die, well it depends how you remove paste from die, most of time ppl remove it without usin proper technique as drag paste around the die with great pressure. Do use more Alcohol solution with soft cloth and try to pull paste from die instead drag it, hope it help.

You can't play advance graphics demandin game at Ultra quality with __af_placement_id--[AFF-PLACEMENT-ID].html"]Toshiba Satellite. Well may be you were playin auto select graphics. Alienware are indeed smashin systems.

I'm using IC diamond from quite long time, satisfied with performance. Liquid Ultra seems like promising but still risky as it's conductive isnt it? I think it's better option for CPU.