nVidia on a M17

If I purchased an nVidia (MXM 2.1) card would it work with the M17? Not sli or anything just a single GTX 280M.

I have purchased nVidia boards and placed ATI cards on them for desktops but I'm not sure with laptops. Is there a compatibility issue on laptops?

Thanks!

 

Could be if the system bios doesn't recognize it. I'd be surprised if someone didn't try this already.

 

i tried this it wont boot. i also tried a 260..... save your money

 

There is a good chance it will work with one of the OCZ BIOS's and not the Alienware BIOS. The OCZ ones are much more open and I know there were resellers offering the system with a single 8800m GTX

 

Thanks for the quick responses!

I have been having trouble for a couple months now with my dual 3870's and was really looking to replace them with a single card solution. Most games I have played had little to no improvement with crossfire. I check ebay often for a 4850 but noticed a bunch of nVidia cards lately.

Anyone else experiencing this...

My display will stop working about 10-15 seconds into boot every other start-up. It happened when I had vista installed and it still happens with 7. When I boot with confirmation on it always happens right after the realtek drivers are loaded. I have uninstalled audio but it keeps happening. I also tried other drivers.

Thanks!

 

If you are having that sort of problems, just get a system replacement under warranty

 

Yeah just try it with z-factors OCZ BIOS as found near the top of this guide;

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/426562-official-alienware-m17-drivers-page.html

you will get massive NBR rep if you can get this working.

 

Thanks for the info. I'll try the BIOS.

No luck on the warranty though. I paid for one year and Dell gave me the cold shoulder when I called after 10 months to extend.

 

That is because they were killing that model off for the Dell-Alienware stuff. The M17 was the last true Alienware machine

 

Just an update:

It's been 3 days since I flashed zFactors .28 bios and I'm having zero problems with the display. Hope it stays like this.

 

Why did you flash it to 0.28 when 0.29 is available?
Is there anything "wrong" with the newer one, I thought it improved some things. (am thinking about flashing myself, so I can OC my T9400)

 

I only used .28 because the rapidshare link was no longer available for .29. My lazy googling didn't turn up much either.

 

hi, fskdc

just want to know which nvidia video card are you using on your M17 right now?

Thanks

 

i dont think he is using any Nvidia card. He was asking if a Nvidia card would be compatible with the M17 because he was having stability issues which have now been resolved. Thats what I read anyway.
The only question we need answering is whether cleverspuedonym tried any of the OCZ bios when he attempted to install the NVIDIA cards into the M17?

This could be a great option for you guys with 3870s. A decent 1Gb NVIDIA card such as the 280GTX would be surely be an improvement over the 3870s?? wouldnt it? or was there another later MXM II card made by NVIDIA just as, if not more powerful that could fit the bill.??

 

there is no single MXM 2.1 card that can beat dual 3870s actually

which is why no one has bothered trying that upgrade (and I think the GTX 280m would run even hotter than the 3870s taxing the cooling which is already barely adequate)

 

the ati's 4850 are reported to be equal or superior to the 280m depending on the cpu and even with the best cpu availible a single 4850 is around 80% better then a single 3870 so poprob not the lvl of a CFX system

 

3870cf is about as good as a desktop 4850 - but the desktop model has clocks at 625/1000 if I remember correctly

the laptop 4850 is about 80% better than a laptop 3870 as stated above

 

the ones from AW are at 500/800 so in short don,t go nvidia at best go dual 4850

 

that and the machine was "designed" to handle dual 4850s

 

by that i guess you mean that it was NOT designed for NVidia lol

 

well, the system bios does not allow for it (although a custom BIOS could in theory allow this)

 

i've seen report of nvidia working in the m17 with z bios or ocz's one

but no bios is gonna bring sli suport because it's not made for it

 

ya the M17 can take a single MXM Type HE card

 

i had .29 and i tried a 260, and it wouldn't boot. cant speak for the OCZ though

 

thw M17 was supposed to be launched with a single 9800m gtx but it got scraped midway through when every ones favorite company came