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M18x R2, graphics card upgrade? #4
Hi all I’ve got an Alienware m18x r2 with dual nvidia 675M cards. I have noticed that not many games support sli any including Fortnite. So I was wondering what’s the best option of upgrading them. I’ve read multiple posts with different or opposing things stating on one post everything runs fine but on another there’s many problems. These posts are pretty old though so not sure if these glitches have been fixed. There’s things about 10 series cards not working correctly due to power supply issues. I’ve looked into the newer 1660ti’s specs and it doesn’t seem to require much power but there’s nothing out there that shows compatibility with my laptop. Only thing I can find is up to 1060m and anything above is not recommended. As these posts are pretty old I’d like to get some updated advice before I do anything.
Thanks for any advice
ejn63
10 Elder
10 Elder
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24.8K Posts
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July 4th, 2020 04:00
It will depend on how willing you are to install a third-party BIOS and how risk-tolerant of that you are.
For some options known to work, see one of the large Clevo system suppliers (Clevo is the largest manufacturer of the MXM III cards used and was an ODM for Dell for some time, so it may actually have built the m18x.)
https://eurocom.com/ec/upgrade(2,267,0)Alienware_M18xR1
mattyb3
5 Practitioner
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July 5th, 2020 14:00
Hello, As you can see in my signature below, I have the M18x R2 with the GTX 1070. To do this upgrade you will need the Unlocked BIOS and a modded Nvidia driver. The unlocked BIOS allows changes to the video settings. If you want to keep your old laptop running on newer games then it's definitely worth it.
You will find there is a small power issue but it's easy to overcome. They never designed these laptops thinking what cards could be available in the future so you have to expect some compatibility issues. Sometimes the card will not run on full power but you just have to go into the BIOS on startup and toggle the video setting from SG mode to iGFX and back again. It only takes a minute and then it works great.
Some people have been experimenting with the Quadro RTX 3000 and 5000 cards with some success. There are rumours that MXM format RTX 2060, 2070 and 2080 cards will be released later this year and I'm sure there will be guys who will test these for us.
You are best to partner a 10 series card with an extreme CPU like the 3920XM or 3940XM.