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18 R1, SLI GTX 765m, GPU upgrade
Hi, new Alienware owner.. My first Alienware!
I,ve bought from a friend the Alienware 18 2013 with i7 4700mq and Gtx 765m Sli...
With games that make use of Sli, I play fine, but Sli has been discontinued i guess, and some moderngames dont make use of Sli and only one gpu works.
I have searched in the web and found that my Alienware 18 2013 can work with a single Gtx 970m or 980m that outperforms by far my 765m in Sli.
I am posting here just to make sure that it is ok doing this upgrade.
I have updated the motherboard Bios to the latest one (A15). I don't need any modified bios for this upgrade, or do I?
Also, the Gtx 970m or 980m must have Dell vbios, am I correct? Where can I find this vbios?
Sorry if someone else posted similar questions. Just want to make sure that is safe to do this upgrade.. Since in modern games, my sli 765m dont work and a single 765m struggles..
Thx in advance.
mattyb3
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September 20th, 2020 16:00
Really, you're best to upgrade the heatsink even with the 970M. This card is a little bit better than the 780M which also needed the 3-pipe heatsink.
Alienware Area-51 ALX 2006
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October 16th, 2020 20:00
They are all SATA 3.0 which means they should be at 6Gbps but if you use a cheap SSD without a DRAM cache then the speeds will slow down.
mattyb3
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November 10th, 2020 15:00
You are best using a Dell vBIOS. There is one available in the Driver and Downloads section for the AW 18 in the Support section of this site. From what another guy said, it is very easy to flash and you don't need to use NVFlash.
There is only one version of the 18 so yours is the R1 as there are no R2's or R3's. Some people do consider there to be other revisions because they were released with the 700, 800 and 900 series Nvidia cards. The 18 is also sometimes referred to as the M18x R3.
You will have driver incompatibility issues if you have the 980M and 765M in your machine. Driver support for the 700 cards ended some time ago. There is no benefit to having two different cards in the laptop either. You shouldn't lose HDMI in with the 900 series as it is a supported GPU with the latest BIOS. I believe the feature is lost with a 10 series card.
The 980M does not have to run in Optimus. It can run fine on a 17 R1 that has the 120hz display that has no Optimus. You need an unlocked BIOS to be able to switch your video mode between iGFX, SG and PEG modes. iGFX is the Intel Graphics, SG is Switchable Graphics (Optimus) and PEG is dedicated graphics only.
The 18 is set to use iGFX or PEG and it can be changed between the two using a Function key to save battery power when required. The BIOS is not set up for SG as Optimus is not available when running two dedicated GPU's.
If you don't want to leave the secondary MXM slot empty then there are options such as an MXM to NVMe adapter. I should be receiving one for my M18x R2 in a few weeks.
mattyb3
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September 20th, 2020 14:00
The 18 was released with the 980M so you'll have full driver support if you decide to go for the 980M. It should still work with some of the other vBIOS' but yeah it is probably best with the Dell one. You can find all the vBIOS' you need from TechPowerUp.
LMMCG
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September 20th, 2020 15:00
Thx @mattyb3 for the response
I,m still thinking about the 970m or 980m, beacuse I think the heatsink for my 765m works in 970m, but for the 980m, I have to change the heatsink, and it will cost more.
But thanks for the reply.
mattyb3
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September 20th, 2020 15:00
Yes you will need to upgrade to the 3-pipe heatsink as the 765M would have only come with the 2-pipe. The 970M will still give much better performance that your old cards.
LMMCG
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October 16th, 2020 17:00
Hi, me again..
Just to not open another thread..
I've installed a 256gb msata drive in this laptop, and added a second drive (sata ssd 480gb) in the drive bay that already have a 750gb sata hd.
The sata Hd works only in sata 3gb/s, but the sata SSD goes up to Sata 6 gb/s, but its only working in Sata 3...
The msata is running at 6gb/s.
The Sata ports on Alienware 18 R3 only work in Sata 3gb/s? Is that right?
Thx in advance
LMMCG
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November 4th, 2020 19:00
Thx for the reply.
I've disconnected all the drives, and conected again, and now they are working properly. Both ssd's (m-sata and sata) are in sata 6gb and the hard drive at 3gb.
Go figure...
LMMCG
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November 10th, 2020 14:00
Hello Guys.
I'm about to buy the Gtx 980m for my laptop.
I've already flashed the last bios for the laptop. Bios A15.
My Alienware 18 is from 2013. I dont know if it is R1 or R3. But since the A12 Bios, it says it works with gtx 9xx series in windows 8/10.im Uefi mode (I'm in w10 in Uefi, no problem here).
But I've read it in the web, that the 980m must work in Optimus mode, using the Intel for regular and the Nvidia for demanded 3d graphics.
Problem is that since my laptop works in Sli, the Intel gpu is not enabled, and on Bios dosen't have any option to enabled it.
I'll change only the primary card. Can I leave the second gpu (765m) installed (no sli cable connected, only installed in slot) or does I have to remove all the 765m's and install the 980m. Also, do I lose the Hdmi In feature, if I change the Gpu?
I've already have the 100w heatsink for the gtx 980m.
I'm a bit worried beacuse I've read it lot of information on the web, and don't want to make a mistake.
I've found various Gtx 980m cards, some with Clevo vbios, other with Hp, or Msi, and one with Dell vbios.
Is there a problem to use any other vbios or can I use only Dell one?
Sorry for all the doubts, but don't want to make a mistake.
mattyb3
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November 10th, 2020 16:00
Samsung memory is usually the way to go but I'm not too sure on the codes sorry.
Also, you may be able to get your iGFX swap function to work again if you reinstall the Alienware OSD driver. I have heard some people have had success doing this after upgrading to Windows 10.
You should just be able to flash a new vBIOS on another manufacturer card but I don't want to say it will work all the time. Depending on the vBIOS, you may not have to change it at all. A Clevo or MSI one may just work anyway
LMMCG
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November 10th, 2020 16:00
Thx matty for the reply.
So, any Gtx 980m I buy, I can just flash the Dell Vbios on it, is that right?
My 18 have the fn+f something to switch to IgFx, but the command dosen't work.
I've seen that are 3 different models for the 980m. Gpu codes that initiate with 14, 15 and 16. I guess it is the year of the manufacturing. Some have Hynix memory, other Elpidiq and the most common is the Samsung one.
The one 980m I,ve found is code 14 (2014 I think) and with samsung memory. So any of these I'm good to go or better choose a newer (revisioned I guess) ?
Sorry for all these questions, and I thank you for your time to help.
LMMCG
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November 12th, 2020 08:00
Does the 970m is a good card? I'm thinking in save some money ans go for the 970m, instead of the 980m.
The 970m performance gain over my 765m sli will be significant?
Thx again.
Alienware Area-51 ALX 2006
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November 12th, 2020 10:00
I prefer the 970m as I did a benchmark comparing my super custom clocked 970m vs dual 675 in sli and the single card one in terms of average fps and the 97th percentile.
mattyb3
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November 12th, 2020 12:00
The 970M will be much better than a single 765M in more modern titles as SLI is basically dead. If you're just playing older titles that still have SLI support then the gap closes but the 970M will still be better. The 980M is a good amount stronger than the 970M (about 25%) but is obviously more expensive. On paper, the 970M looks to be the best option for a price/performance upgrade but if you really want to play newer titles then the 970M will lag behind these days.
EDIT: The good thing is that once you get the new card and make sure it works then you can sell your old 765M's. The secondhand market for old MXM GPU's is still strong. If you go for a 980M then it should end up costing you $50-100 to upgrade.
If you look at the PassMark Software scores at https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html the cards score like this;
980M - 7356
970M - 5717
765M - 1982
LMMCG
18 Posts
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December 24th, 2020 06:00
Hi, me again..
My Gtx 980m arrived and yesterday I've managed to install in my Aw18...
First boot, no problem.. But when windows try to install driver other than Microsoft basic adapter, Windows 10 freezes, giving me pink stripes all over the screen.
In Bios, everything works fine, it appears as Nvidia Gfx.
Im in original bios, the last one, A15.
In safe mode, it works with no problem. I've managed to uninstall with DDU and made a reboot, windows 10 loads normally but when it tries to install newer drivers, freezes again...
Every advice is welcome!!
Thx in advance.