Alienware 17 R3 GTX 980M Upgrade

Hey guys, so I have a Late 2015 Alienware 17 R3 with a 6820HK and a 4GB GTX 980M. I am interested in upgrading from the 4GB version to the 8GB version. I do not see an MXM 3.0 slot on my board. It seems like the GPU is soldered on to the board. Is this upgrade able and am I right in assuming the GPU is soldered onto the board? I've attached a picture for confirmation.


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There is no way to upgrade other than buying a new board I'm afraid. Also, there is no real need for the extra 4GB VRAM, only in 4K or using specific apps that use VRAM will you ever go over that 4GB envelope and if you did, the 980m wouldn't have the minerals to run properly anyway.

I would go for a re-paste while you have it open though

 

I have the 980M with 4GB on my alienware 15 R1.
I don't have 4K screen, though I have never had any issues with any game running at ultra texture quality at 1920x1080.

But I do plan to upgrade due to various reason in the second half of 2016 with the 10X0 series release. I would be fine with a 1080M but I do hope a desktop 1080 gets into an alienware laptop just like the 980 did on many other laptops.
and HOPE that oled also comes to 15 inch

 

Yo ucan only upgrade by doing a motherboard swap. 8gb is useless on these cards. I have the 8gb version and the card itself is simply not fast enough to fill it up to over 4gb and run those high res textures on those high resolutions.

 

Probably not. Maybe Dell continue to shrink their Aw models. Acer have already increased their old Predator to fit Gtx980. This model haven't been launched yet. So Clevo, Acer, Msi and Asus have now models with Gtx980 in their laptop line. A new desktop card will not be released now.

 

Gotta love BGA and the new disposables.

 

Its not like upgrading is economical really feasible. MXM boards are priced ridiculously.

 

Maybe when they initially come out, but they drop in price substantially a generation later. No way in hell i'm paying $700 for a GTX 980M. However, I have been able to buy GTX 780Ms last year for 150 a piece and upgraded from a single 6990M to dual 780Ms for 300$...that was a huge performance increase GPU wise, for not a whole lot of money really....

 

This has been the case with high performance laptops since they have been making them. You gotta pay to play. You pay premium for cutting edge in laptop parts, always have and always will.

 

THose are nice deals, I am not too fond on used products myself. But if you dont mind that, those are sweet deals. The MXM board market in Europe sucks though.

Thats true, but for me personally that gap is too big but that might be because I also have 2 fairly powerful desktops. If I would rely on a laptop only it might be a different case.

 

They weren't used, they were new pulled from systems that were immediately upgraded to GTX 980Ms. I can't speak for the euro market, we usually get things much easier in the USA.

 

I am always extremely jealous when I see the pricing in the and also the products available.