m18x graphics card upgrade from AMD Radeon HD 600M

Hi ‌,

18x R1 or R2?

curious aswell on that BUT ...

depends on budget ..  regardless which model  NVidia 560MM 580M 660M 680M 760M 780M 960m 980M   7970's  and so fourth will work  there is kits out there that are plug and play  with proper loaded dell bios   when I had my m18x R2  I upgraded to 980's wasn't cheap but was plug and play setup, was nice and well worth the 2K~ paid... 

R1

Was hoping to stay with AMD Radeon but will keep those NVIDIA cards in mind. Thanks.

problem with amd is they are fairly notorious to premature failure so finding any that work used is a turdshoot at best lol 

the 7970 would work without a problem but isn't much upgrade, most amd cards after that for the laptop that work aren't much better.. NVidia is more widely supported for adding  cards that the system never supported direct from dell 

So If I switch to NVIDIA what should I shoot for that’s plug replaceable for the two cards linked as they are now.

sorry for the delay been busy  

the 6870 ati  and the 560M/580M was stock original for the M18x R1  but dinosaur in terms of performance .. 

any and all above I mentioned would be plug and play assuming you got  dual cards now and the 330 watt psu , otherwise you gotta make sure you get fans and heatsinks with the cards you purchase for left and right side.. 

it all  comes down to budget,  the 980M's I purchased are far superior but for 2 grand as an upgrade might be out of your range, but like I said, if you get a card it must have dell version bios installed or it wont play well   if at all, any kit you purchase new from a reputable place will have such done and support it  as updated for drivers etc, might not be as simple as downloading from NVidia/amd directly.. 

Thank you.

I found eurocom.com which has kits for upgrades for the Dell products so will be looking into the ones they have.

Had a look and am confused.

Using HWInfo I see I have two identical 6970M/6990M cards.

Should I bee looking for a matched pair (primary and secondary)?

Ones I looked at in eurocom are £524 each and  best matched are 700M cards.

Hope you don't mind me asking but where did you get your 980M's from?

Thank you for responding and keeping with me. Its very much appreciated.

I have a matched pair of cards so believe I should go for a matched pair to replace them.

I also believe that I should go for cards where the first digit of the type is as high as my budget can allow.

As for costs I just saw an advert for a laptop with dual SLI 8GB 980M’s for £750 so was wondering if it would be worth buying that for parts.

What do you think?

sorry my previous post was meant as ati 6 series as you know and the nvidia 5 series..  sorry if confusing this is all that was was meant when i said 6870's..  just used it as example...

is it a dell/alienware system?  and does it guarantee the cards work...  cause if it isnt a dell system .. no worth it as flashing dell bios can brick them.. and if wont guarantee working...  but seems like a to good to be true price..  and depending on the system it actually is (other then a M18x r1/r2) you might still need the proper heatsinks for the nvidia cards

in all honesty tho  the kit i got was from europe somewere, dont have link handy since im at work  but i also remeber that some cards require you to use a modded unlocked bios (sorry this slipped my mind)  since my R2 already was modded with a modded bios..  eurocom is really good with support and any help you may need, this is something you should take in consideration with upgrading to an unsupported (by dell directly) video card ..

going with a single card isnt the end of the world either, in all honesty a single newer card would outperform the dual you have now..  i know a single 980M blew my dual 680M's out of the water..