Alienware 18 r3 nvidia gtx 1070m

About three years ago I got myself alienware 18 r3. I bought it for a low price with nvidia quadro k4100m and now I thought it's high time I change it for a new graphics card and gtx 1070m looks just perfect to me. The only issue I have is compatibility and I have no idea if it's going to work on this one and if not what can I do for it to work? I'm just not sure what is my mxm in this one. The service tag is 8GB0VY1.

 

is there enough space for one of these?





@woodzstack

 

Yeah, there definitely is enough for those. At least the 1070 one which is what I'm looking for.

 

If you could post some pictures with heatsink removed we may see if you can cram it inside your chassis.
If your gpu is mxm type a, its a bummer for you

 

It's an alienware 18

Its built for mxm3.0b.

 

most 1070 are over size, you may modify your model

 

There are 2 that are over size and 2 that are standard MXM 3.0b dimensions.

Clevo and MSI are oversize while Zotac and Eurocom are standard dimensions.

 

are you planning use it for sli?

 

Okay, sorry for long inactivity and also thank you all for answering me. I'll try to get photos today or tomorrow. And I am not planning to use it for SLI as for now

 

AW18 is capable of holding the Eurocom 1070 just fine, but you'll likely have a hard time with the heatsink, one mosfet is not covered, so if you want it covered you would need a low profile heatsink to stick to it.

Other than that, lots of grinding on the heatsink. I crushed something on a Eurocom 1070 with the AW18 heatsink when I tried to do mine, and I've been fighting it for 4 months...so it just ended up inside an AW17 I got for almost nothing because it had a dead LCD.

 

I forgot to mentioned that I would recommended you using the R9 heatsink... buts it is already too late.

 

I wonder if this one is ok: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Clevo-P870...956021?hash=item1ec2f68a35:g:t8AAAOSw32lYwGJ8

 

NO. It has to be MSI or Zotac brand.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/MSI-GTX-10...575249?hash=item285d27b551:g:pX8AAOSwzHRbHy4p

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NVIDIA-GTX...:eboAAOSw-RFaX9la:sc:USPSPriority!94605!US!-1

 

Shouldn't it be mxm 3.0b though? Someone else earlier said so.

 

can the r18 run two 1070s in sli?

 

No

LVDS screen means you must use SG mode.

 

and what happens/is SG mode?

 

Screen is driven by Intel HD

 

oh i get it . so all the signal passes through SG (intel) so the bandwith is not enough to send sli .

one more question.
i just bought an m17x R4 with an 120hz display (edp) and a 980m . so i am thinking of getting the 1070

in this case what exactly will be needed to change in the bios?
1 . go to pure uefi mode (no legacy support)
2. what about screen mode? what is the correct?

 

Pure UEFI is correct and the screen mode SHOULD already be PEG/dGPU mode since 120hz panel is done through eDP which doesnt work with Intel HD.

You'll also likely want ot pick up the 330w AC adapter for full performance when PROCHOT is disabled.

 

yes thats what i beleive 120hz should mean edp already. so i only need to turn the laptop to Full uefi and reinstall windows as MBR wont work

by the way i see 980m is selling for like 400 dollars now? thats a good rebate off the 1070 i will buy if i manage to sell the 980

 

They sell regularly for 328 with make offer options on ebay now. Might be able to pull off 300 for a 980m as a buyer, either way, its a healthy chunk off the 1070 investment for sure.

 

if you see my sig i had an alienware m17xr2 back in 2012 i think and i was amongst the first to crossfire 2 x 7970m there.
after that i was the first i think to put an gtx 965m mxma in an elitebook 8570 .

so now i want to again do something new with the R4 ... thinking about an 1080 ;-) u think its possible? an msi one? i will take care of thermals ...will probably insert another heatsing and fan in there somewhere like i did in the elitebook . i think there is enough room in the R4 dvd drive space

 

It's not possible without modification.

The mxm port on alienware can't feed the 200w it needs to function in 3d loads, power throttling will occur.

However if you splice a power connection off the DC jack to feed a 1080 with a supplementary power port it may well work with a 330w AC adapter.

It has been tried in both the R4 and the Ranger with various 1080 cards with mxm only power and has failed to become a successful upgrade.

The theory above is just my supposition from watching the other members here attempt to do the very same upgrade.

Much like the modification done in Germany to get the 980 DT working in the Ranger.

 

It's not worth the effort, Alienware 18 motherboard is fragile enough as is with el-cheapo power delivery components being used.

 

so the only hope for something faster than a 1070 is the 2070 if the mxms will be compatible and if they only need 125W

 

I guess, but the price commanded by another new MXM GPU with marginal performance increase will likely not be worth it.

 

well reviews show like a 25% fps gain from 1070 to 2070... so its not marginal

 

Power draw is just as much as the 1070

 

I'd have to see those numbers, but I expect it to be double the price of the current MXM 1070 option when it becomes source-able. Which is pretty normal with new cards.

We would be waiting a long while to see them in MXM format I bet though, but I would love to be proved otherwise for sure.

 

desktop camparison 1070 vs 2070... its impressive