godlikemouse

Hi @MyApocalypse, I've run into the same problem in the past with trying to install modded drivers.  You may need to drop down into the UEFI BIOS and turn off driver signature verification.  Then run the patched installer again.  Either that, or see if you can extract the AltasOS nvidia driver installer from the github repo and run that.  Hope this helps.

I would assume you can.  I'm no expert on BIOS, but if you're running an m18x R2 I would think there wouldn't be an issue.  I'm running the A11 unlocked on mine.

Sure thing, here you go:

https://atlasos.net/

That's correct.  It has a preinstalled application for installing Nvidia or AMD drivers directly.  It downloads the installer, patches it and runs it for you.  I was pleasantly surprised by this and didn't expect it at all.

Hi @MyApocalypse,

I can't speak specifically for the 1070, but I did this with dual 1080 cards and it required me to update to Windows 10 with the latest Swich custom BIOS.  One thing to note though as an aside, I recently installed AtlasOS instead of default Windows 10.  If you're not familiar with AltasOS it's basically Thindows 10.  One of the nice things about AtlasOS is that it comes with a custom GPU driver installation program that basically sidestepped the known driver issues.  I was having to manually patch the drivers, turn off signing, etc..  But with the driver kit that comes with AtlasOS I no issues.  The drivers just installed and now the laptop is solid.  I wanted to share this just in case you start having driver issues as a possible solution.

Hi @xapachewolfx, SLI is pretty much dead, especially with the m18x R2.  You'd be better off just running the 1060 in single graphics mode as suggested above.  It's super unfortunate that SLI was killed in this manner.  If I'd known this was going to happen, I wouldn't have spent the money to buy 2 1080s and would have instead just got a new laptop.  Best of luck with your mods and do keep in mind that the m18x R2 has a power limitation of 300v.

I was never able to get the 980m to work in legacy mode.  I had to mod the BIOS (I went with Swick) and boot in secure mode for the 980m's to get up and running.

@freedomofthedarkendheart @MattyB Regarding the Eurocom power adapter.  I actually purchased this device, but be aware that it doesn't work for some Alienware models.  For example, my Alienware M18x R2 would not support it.  The motherboard itself has a power limiter that won't allow it to accept beyond 330 watts, even though my dual 980m cards could easily draw more than that.  Outside of that, if you have a system that will accept the power, then the Eurocom is a pretty elegant power adapter.  I wanted to give you guys a heads up just in case you were thinking about moving in that direction and hopefully you could avoid some of my mistakes.

Yes, I tried rolling back to Windows 7.  Same issue, just a bit slower performance.  The throttling has always been an issue, just recently it has gotten really bad.  Part of the issue could be the SLI cable, but I'm not sure.  I've had to replace that cable a few times since owning the machine, so that could be a contributor.  Every once in a while a reboot would get it so that the throttling wasn't as noticeable, but it has always been present in some form especially when running very heavily under load.

@MattyB Yeah, unfortunately.  I've searched everywhere but have had absolutely zero success.

@Siplast I haven't been able to get any of the vbios to work with my cards due to the difference in RAM manufacturers.  If you notice, my RAM is using Elpida.  If you know of a vbios that works with Elpida please let me know.  I'll definitely give it a try.

Thanks guys

Yes, I tried several different drivers including relatively new and very old ones.  Didn't seem to make much difference.  There were minor performance boosts but in all cases throttling still occurred.  Unfortunately, I don't know which specific update caused the issue.

Hi Siplast,

I've tried everything I could find in this thread including reboot, switching from igfx to peg and nothing works.  Thanks for checking though.

Hi Everyone,

I've recently run into an issue with my Alienware m18x R2 and I'm hoping someone might have some advice.  I think this may be due to updates of Windows 10 itself but I'm not sure, I reinstalled Windows 10 and wiped everything just to be safe.  I've noticed that the GTX 980M GPUs throttle like crazy when running any game or 3DMark, this happens when in both SLI and single mode.  Thinking this was a PSU issue I went and bought the Eurocom 780w PSU.  I noticed however, that the entire machine bottlenecks around 300w and throttles back.  I'm not sure a modded vBIOS would help or if there's something else I should try.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  I'm currently running Swick's A11 BIOS and stock vBIOS.  I've attached my GPU-Z info in case it's of any help.  Thanks in advance.

@Zoldago Thanks for the reply, this was the systemscore.  I've managed as of last night to get this to 13000 for the systemscore.  I'm still working to get it up to around the 17000 range I know it can do.  For me, the major fix so far was that the 2 cards were actually running different stock vBIOS.  So I synch'd those up and boom, instant jump.  Overclocking the system and GPU yields a little gain, but not too much.  Perhaps flashing @Prema's vBIOS will help.  I've also hand modified the latest drivers and used NVIDIA inspector to turn off G-Sync.  Any suggestions are greatly appreciated, thanks.

As a follow up, when I say poor 3DMark scores, I mean the highest I can get so far is around 8000 on Firestrike for high-performance gaming PCs.  Every time I run the bench I get different, the usually run around 6800 - 7500.

Hey Guys,

I'm running an Alienware M18X R2 with the Swick modded bios along with 2 GTX 980M video cards on Windows 10 Pro.  I've noticed that my 3DMark scores seem very low for dual 8GB cards.  Does anyone have any suggestions as to possible sources/fixes for this issue?  I've been trying to install different modded drivers, vbios and tweaking BIOS settings to no avail.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance.