DaneGRClose Posted October 29, 2013 Share Posted October 29, 2013 Hey guys,Just wanted to check to see if anyone had any additional info on something I've been looking into the last couple of days.I'm looking at an Alienware 17 and wondered if anyone has the specific bios info on what gpu's are supported in the factory bios or if Svl7 or anyone else has realeased an unlocked bios that could have additional cards added. I know Dell used to lock the Bios by putting in strings for supported graphics cards and even used to release the info on which ones were but have been unable to find it.I'm considering putting a 7970 into one of the 17's as I do a lot of 3d rendering and cad for my job and the data I was able to find shows the 770m/780m getting murdered in cad and rendering apps when compared to the 7970.Any info would be amazing!Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneGRClose Posted October 30, 2013 Author Share Posted October 30, 2013 No one has anything....? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khenglish Posted October 30, 2013 Share Posted October 30, 2013 No one has anything....?AW laptops are traditionally very good at accepting cards that did not come with the system. Both the Clevo and Dell versions of the 7970m should work fine. Keep in mind though that the 7970m only has 2GB of memory while the Nvidia cards and the 8970m have 4GB. I am not aware of someone trying a 7970m in the latest AW17, but I would be surprised if it did not work flawlessly.Also if you get a 7970m and are into overclocking, get the clevo version. It has many more capacitors on it for voltage filtering which lets the card run slightly faster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneGRClose Posted October 30, 2013 Author Share Posted October 30, 2013 The card I'm looking at is the Clevo version. The only reason I'm considering a 7970m over a 8970m is I've found a few 7970's for just over $300 whereas the cheapest 8970m I can find is about $500. Based on the tests I've seen the 8970 is a few percent more powerful at best so I'm having a tough time justifying the nearly $200 price difference with such a little performance return. I'd love to just slap a Nvidia in there but with the amount of rendering and cad I do now it's not even a thought with how badly AMD is beating Nvidia in these types of apps. The only concern I have at this point is if the bios is locking supported gpu's or not, I found absolutely nothing in the bios update files hinting to any of the cards even the supported ones after running it through Notepad++, XVI32, and a few other programs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khenglish Posted October 30, 2013 Share Posted October 30, 2013 The card I'm looking at is the Clevo version. The only reason I'm considering a 7970m over a 8970m is I've found a few 7970's for just over $300 whereas the cheapest 8970m I can find is about $500. Based on the tests I've seen the 8970 is a few percent more powerful at best so I'm having a tough time justifying the nearly $200 price difference with such a little performance return. I'd love to just slap a Nvidia in there but with the amount of rendering and cad I do now it's not even a thought with how badly AMD is beating Nvidia in these types of apps. The only concern I have at this point is if the bios is locking supported gpu's or not, I found absolutely nothing in the bios update files hinting to any of the cards even the supported ones after running it through Notepad++, XVI32, and a few other programs.The 8970m's memory cannot be overclocked while the 7970m can usually go up to 6ghz effective, so after overclocking the 7970m is the faster card. The 8970m wins at stock because it has a higher default core clock speed while the memory is the same.Also the cheapest place to get an 8970m is rjtech. They have them for $455.http://rjtech.com/shop/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=30229 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svl7 Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Software flashing is locked down. If you don't mind doing some soldering I can send you a bios chip with an unlocked bios... but that's currently the only way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneGRClose Posted October 31, 2013 Author Share Posted October 31, 2013 Well that's some crap, have they locked registers or have they gone to a different bios type? Depending on the amount of soldering and type of soldering I wouldn't mind, how much is the chip? Also what's your opinion on if the rig will run other cards with or without it such as the AMD 7970/8970? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneGRClose Posted November 1, 2013 Author Share Posted November 1, 2013 Well I found my answer in a strange way, most of you guys are familiar with UpgradeMonkey aka LaptopMonkey on ebay, I know a lot of you guys purchased the QS/ES extreme cpu's from him.He states on his listing for one of his 8970's that the Clevo cards have been tested as compatible with the AW 17(r5)AMD HD 8970M 2GB GDDR5 for MSI 1762 16F4 Clevo SM Alienware M17x R5 M18x R3 | eBay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneGRClose Posted November 1, 2013 Author Share Posted November 1, 2013 Here's the only question I have left, in your opinion if I do a decent amount of gaming and a lot of 3d rendering using 3ds Max would you go with the 8970m(4gb Clevo), 7970m(Clevo), or 770m?I'd love to snag a 780m but with the price range it's out of the ballpark for me with Christmas coming up.Thanks as always! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khenglish Posted November 1, 2013 Share Posted November 1, 2013 Here's the only question I have left, in your opinion if I do a decent amount of gaming and a lot of 3d rendering using 3ds Max would you go with the 8970m(4gb Clevo), 7970m(Clevo), or 770m?I'd love to snag a 780m but with the price range it's out of the ballpark for me with Christmas coming up.Thanks as always!If you overclock the 7970m. If not the 8970m. The 770m is considerably weaker than either card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svl7 Posted November 1, 2013 Share Posted November 1, 2013 Go with the 7970m. Should be a lot cheaper than the 8970m, especially on ebay and the forums.The problem with the bios is that you can't flash unsigned code. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneGRClose Posted November 2, 2013 Author Share Posted November 2, 2013 K so here's a kicker, I've seen a lot of negative stuff about the AMD cards and a fully muxed chip pushing enduro still an issue or no? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khenglish Posted November 2, 2013 Share Posted November 2, 2013 K so here's a kicker, I've seen a lot of negative stuff about the AMD cards and a fully muxed chip pushing enduro still an issue or no?The issue is nothing like it was. Current drivers have the enduro penalty roughly the same as the optimus penalty now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
armyoftigers Posted May 9, 2014 Share Posted May 9, 2014 Here's the only question I have left, in your opinion if I do a decent amount of gaming and a lot of 3d rendering using 3ds Max would you go with the 8970m(4gb Clevo), 7970m(Clevo), or 770m?I'd love to snag a 780m but with the price range it's out of the ballpark for me with Christmas coming up.Thanks as always!Hey there, did you ever upgrade on your new alienware 17? I have the same card (7970m) coming in the mail and I'd like to know if it would work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naruto_kun Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 I have experimented with putting my 7970M from M15x in Alienware 17. The problem that I found is the GPU fan will not works, you will need HWinfo to get it works (with EC reading disabled, this is the only way, and you only get 3 level of fan control:61:) With maximum fan speed, max temperature is 76 degree, and the card can run with full speed. The biggest problem I found is, 3dmark11 only get P4700++ points which is worst than my M15x (I can get P5400++). Maybe some one can give me some advice or suggestion to make that works so that it can benefit others. I am using 230 watt Flextronic PSU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godfafa Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 Software flashing is locked down. If you don't mind doing some soldering I can send you a bios chip with an unlocked bios... but that's currently the only way.Sir! I am ready to try my R5 with your godly bios chip. If you can send one to me, I am willing to break the law! Adios to complete cover! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J95 Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 Sir! I am ready to try my R5 with your godly bios chip. If you can send one to me, I am willing to break the law! Adios to complete cover! Yep that's the way to do it...finally someone with Show Frank/ie and his 'console' how it should have been done, together with the passive behavior of most AW17 users(former R4) and what they call "minor performance issues"..., don't abandon the R4 though, we will fix it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godfafa Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 Yep that's the way to do it...finally someone with Show Frank/ie and his 'console' how it should have been done, together with the passive behavior of most AW17 users(former R4) and what they call "minor performance issues"..., don't abandon the R4 though, we will fix it. Nope I will never abandon R4. She has been with me for more than 2 years. I love her more than any alienware 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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