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alienware 18 2015 gpu upgrade
hello i am new here but i own an alienware 18 early 2015 model thet came with an intel core i7 4710MQ 2.5GHZ cpu and gual Nvidia Geforce GTX 860M 2GB in SLI and i was wondering if i can upgrade to dual GTX 980M 8GB... I need to know if its safe to upgrade without modding any thing or replacing any extra components. Any i deas would be Highly appreciated
89fordprobee
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March 1st, 2017 09:00
can be done and can be safely not sure of the heatsinks on the 18 but i did my upgrade from 680's to 980M's on my few years older M18x R2 i purchased a kit that was 2 grand at the time and came with everything needed including driver support and proper video bios's flashed to them to run on the alienware system. when i received it was much teardown install and reassembly.. it did require me to mod nvidia's inf when updated but was fairly simple and the company supported that if you needed it. but looking back at the cost.. buying a newer system was roughly the same give/take a few bucks .. shortly after my board failed but it was heavily modified so i stripped it sold off the 980's reinstalled the 680's and sold it off with known dead board.. bought a X51 R3 desktop instead haha them modification began all over again hahaha
Liky
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March 1st, 2017 09:00
It's very easy to answer you that such an upgrade by no means will be safe or easy, so before you even attempt it you should understand the risk of burning the two new GPUs that you want to install - 980m is not a cheap gpu... or the motherboard of the laptop. Ok after I said that, the next question, which is the harder one is whether it is possible, mmm take a look here www.tomsguide.com/.../wanting-upgrade-alienware-gpu-ram.html the person wants to install a single 980m maybe it will be helpful
Game7a1
727 Posts
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March 1st, 2017 13:00
The GTX 980m is supported on the Alienware 18. You just need the Dell vBIOS for it (if it doesn't already), and it's a regular GPU upgrade process.
The GTX 970m is a cheaper alternative that is also supported and a good upgrade.
Alienware-Eimy
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March 2nd, 2017 08:00
Hi,
These are the validated cards for your model:
Discrete (Dual Configuration):
NVIDIA® Dual N14E-GE with 4GB GDDR5 MXM
NVIDIA® Dual N14E-GS with 6GB GDDR5 MXM
NVIDIA® Dual N14E-GTX with 8GB GDDR5 MXM
NVIDIA® N16E-GT (GTX 970M) with 6GB GDDR5 (Oct 2015)
NVIDIA® N16E-GX (GTX 980M) with 8GB GDDR5 (Oct 2015)
AMD Radeon™ R9 M290X,4GB
So, dual GTX 980 is a valid configuration, you just need to have the latest Bios installed and the 330W AC Adapter.
Reaper39
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March 7th, 2017 05:00
thank you for your reply Eimy, and all of you guys so(Eimy) you mean that i can upgrade up to dual GTX 980Ms without having to change the heatsinks or fans that my system came with? by the way i already use the 330w AC Adapter. and where can i get the parts. thank you