Dual R9 M290X in M18x R2

Has anyone done this? I just installed my 980m in my AW18 and it is working good. I have a M18x R2 and I wanted to install at least 1 R9 if not 2 R9s in it. What drivers did you use if you did install it? Thank you for your time.

 

Why dont you install 8970m? It is much easier and you do not have to play with crossfire cable for R9... Right card is the problem with crossfire port location.

 

I'm sorry you are speaking a little bit over my head with this comment. The R9's I have came out of my AW18. My AW18 had dual R9 M290X video cards and I swapped them for a 980M. Now I have 2 R9's left over and I need to put a video card in my M18x. I believe with newer drivers the R9 name changes to 8990 or 8970, I forget. My original loadout on my m18x was dual 7970s but one went bad.

 

I think I understand. You are saying the crossfire cable connector location is not ideal on the card and it interferes with the installation. I can install 1 R9 m290x, I dont mind. Which drivers would I use though? I'll just sell my 2nd card.

 

Dell 8970M has different cable connector

 

So? It is much easier to get 8970m card and crossfire cable and install it than R9 GPU.

 

I'm assuming he has the crossfire cable since he pulled it out of his own Alienware 18....

That being said you will not have native fan control, the Dell R9 M290X does not function with the M18x R2 EC and will cook itself unless you use HWINFO
R9 M290X = 8970M

 

Clevo 8970M has normal one. Dell 8970M has this weird crap.

 

Yes. CLEVO...

 

Ok so I got the dual m290x R9s installed in crossfire configuration with HWINFO as a fan control.

I am having the same issues I was having with the cards in the AW 18. Micro stuttering. This seems to be known but I can't seem to get it fixed for some reason. What drivers are folks running even with 1 m290x r9 card? I don't mind running just one, I got the 980m running like a champ in the aw 18 laptop. Just trying to get this one functional.

 

any news on that 295/395mx xdma over mxm?

 

never tried, no cards to test and not willing to shell out 950$

 

Throwing the towel in with these R9s in my m18x. Temps are rising too high, not sure why. Either way I need 1 GPU that is equal to a 7970 which is what the m18x I have came with. Any ideas? Price conservative please.

 

Single 7970M or 7970M crossfire? I have a set of 780M SLIs which were factory stock in the Alienware 18 they were pulled from. Works in the M18x R1, R2, and Alienware 18 with native fan control, and 4GB of vRAM. Can sell you 1 or both, PM me for details

 

I'll PM you when I get off

 

Going to put the R9s up for sale. Guess I have to use eBay since I don't have enough posts. Pretty sure I'll grab 200 per card with a free CF cable. I want to put a set of 780s in my system. I don't have time to keep messing with drivers in the m18x. I did get the micro stutter on the AW18 pretty much figured out and got some good 3d mark scores but I had a 980m already so that went in my AW18. Just had to change drivers on my AW18.

 

New cards from china are running about $230 shipped, used R9 M290X might fetch 200 a card. It's the cable which is the ringer though, very very scarce to find and you can probably get 50-75$ for it

 

If I could get around that value out of it I would be interested in the 780ms.

 

You'd be better off with single 980M or 980M SLI in yout R2 with the Swick BIOS mod than 780M. The 780M is a fantastic GPU, but NVIDIA has pretty much abandoned support for it and severely crippled it with cancer drivers. The introduction of drivers developed for Windows 10 has all but ruined them unless you use antiquated drivers that don't work well with newer games and cause throttling. More than a couple of people I know, including members of this forum, are struggling with terrible performance issues using 780M SLI. Below is a quote from the most recent victim.

I had three Alienware 780M SLI systems that refused to function correctly unless I used 345.20 (released February 2015) or older drivers no matter what OS I used. And, had is a key word. They're gone now. Couldn't put up with the nonsense any more. " Gee, thanks NVIDIA."

 

880M still works without throttling which is weird as 780M is basically same chip. They're probably limiting overclock of older chips to force you to buy new.

Don't know what about drivers newer than 353.06 as I don't want to risk my display and don't need to upgrade to Win10 now. Just installing SLI profiles that I got from my friend.

 

I managed to counter throttling with a slight undervolt.

 

That might have fixed the problem for me, too. But, with overclocked benching being my passion and the primary reason for having something better than Intel integrated graphics undervolting is absolutely not an option. Hours spent benching versus gaming for me is probably more than 5:1 ratio in favor of benching. NVIDIA's immeasurable incompetence basically cost me about $1,000 for each of the three laptops that they ruined with cancer drivers.

 

So here is my take.
I have a M18x that I almost ruined. It had a bad 7970 primary card. I purchased a 980m from a forum member. In the process of testing my spare 7970 prior to receiving that 980m I actually burned my HDD connector and cable (the cable was slightly sideways and shorted). I figured this laptop was pretty much toast due to not being able to find another cable connector. I purchased a spare motherboard with the intention of swapping that connector over. I jacked up my connector so bad that I ended up just using the other motherboard and replaced its connector because it was loose.

Before I replaced this connector though I bought a AW18 from a forum member here because I honestly thought my laptop was toast. This AW 18 had 2 m290x R9s in it. I had him clean load it and it took me forever to get the drivers where I wanted them to where it was operating as it should. I already had the 980m laying around the house so obviously I put that 980m in the more capable laptop (processor and ram much better)

So here is my dilemma, my M18x R2 works. It is a spare laptop but I want it to be fully functional. I'm not looking to put 600 dollars in video cards in it unless I sell my r9s for that price. So far I can't find drivers for the r9s that make me happy. It has pegged at 81 degrees, and it gets kinda jumpy, even with online video streaming (I read this is an issue). I haven't found the right drivers to make this work yet. And I have tried using CF on and CF off and same results, still jumpy internet video and some jumpiness in game. Definitely a driver issue because these cards screamed on the AW18 for the benchmark.

I'd prefer to get a quick solution to the r9s so I can just leave them in there and call it a day but I don't want the laptop working half ass, I would like a set of cards or single card that it can operate with that is solid. I think some 980s are selling for 500ish now and if I can get 400 or so for my r9s I'd throw in a 980m.

 

Unfortunately the R9 M290X really didn't play well in anything other than the Alienware 18. I tested in the M15x, M18x R1, M18x R2 all with mediocre results, the worst offender being the lack of native fan control. I sold them at a loss so I could get nvidia cards to regain native fan control, which was important to me since I didn't like dickering with HWinfo every boot.

Only thing I can recommend is a clean install in PEG mode, install latest crimson drivers from AMD and hope for the best.

 

I'm currently running the latest crimson drivers and the stutter is still there. I was recommened to install the last certified catalyst so I will give that a shot.

 

Unfortunately AMD drivers are pain in the ass.

 

How do I undervolt? I read some people fixed the stutter with a slight OC. Not sure how to do that on my setup.

 

custom bios, check TI or maybe @Prema