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    Upgrading Graphics

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by MAXIMILIAN250, Aug 17, 2011.

  1. MAXIMILIAN250

    MAXIMILIAN250 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Bought my m15x for college last summer and really like it so far. But I noticed they started to phase in the 460m cards before they stopped making the laptop.

    I am pleased with my specs for what I've been playing (SC2, Crysis 2, plus some others) but I want to play Battlefield 3 but I don't think I could run it that well and I was thinking about upgrading graphics cards. If I could get some opinions on which ones to buy or where to get them from that would be great.
     
    MAXIMILIAN250, Aug 17, 2011
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  2. svl7

    svl7 T|I

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    svl7, Aug 17, 2011
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  3. MAXIMILIAN250

    MAXIMILIAN250 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Specs: Alienware m15x i7 Q740 / 4 GB / GTX 260M / 500GB HDD / 1080p
     
    MAXIMILIAN250, Aug 17, 2011
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  4. svl7

    svl7 T|I

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    Other options are the 5850m and the GTX 560m. Sources are ebay/Dell and for the 6970m also MXM-upgrade.

    Take a look at the forum here, there several threads about this, and a lot of them are only a few pages back.
     
    svl7, Aug 17, 2011
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  5. MAXIMILIAN250

    MAXIMILIAN250 Notebook Enthusiast

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    OK thanks.

    I was just worried cuz I was looking at some and he put in a 560 i think and he was worried about overheating.
     
    MAXIMILIAN250, Aug 17, 2011
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  6. Fancysauce

    Fancysauce Notebook Consultant

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    Wouldn't upgrading the cpu be good too? Going from a 740qm to something like a 920xm should give a boost in performance for battlefield 3 (if its cpu heavy like bad company 2).
     
    Fancysauce, Aug 17, 2011
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  7. MAXIMILIAN250

    MAXIMILIAN250 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yeah but Im in college and I don't have money to just throw at my pc. I would rather upgrade the GPU then look at the CPU
     
    MAXIMILIAN250, Aug 17, 2011
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  8. Mexic00ls

    Mexic00ls Notebook Deity

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    good choice of gpu over cpu upgrade especially when switching from the 260m
     
    Mexic00ls, Aug 17, 2011
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  9. MAXIMILIAN250

    MAXIMILIAN250 Notebook Enthusiast

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    what would you say about the 6950m?? Just comparing it to the 6970m, its just a little slower with the same amount of memory and it uses 50W instead of the 6970m's 75W.
     
    MAXIMILIAN250, Aug 17, 2011
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  10. svl7

    svl7 T|I

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    Should work as well, if you find a place where you can buy one...
     
    svl7, Aug 17, 2011
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  11. MAXIMILIAN250

    MAXIMILIAN250 Notebook Enthusiast

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    do you have any ideas? i've tried searching ebay and other popular places but i haven't seen any. but i've heard of places like mxm
     
    MAXIMILIAN250, Aug 17, 2011
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  12. svl7

    svl7 T|I

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    I haven't even heard of a system which uses the 6950m...
     
    svl7, Aug 17, 2011
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  13. MAXIMILIAN250

    MAXIMILIAN250 Notebook Enthusiast

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    have any ideas where i could look for one???
     
    MAXIMILIAN250, Aug 17, 2011
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  14. IrateMike

    IrateMike Notebook Geek

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    Just get the 6970m. It's been tested and works well in the M15x. You won't be disappointed.
     
    IrateMike, Aug 18, 2011
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  15. MAXIMILIAN250

    MAXIMILIAN250 Notebook Enthusiast

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    what about the fan? i use this for school so i dont want the fan blowing like crazy in a silent lecture hall or classroom
     
    MAXIMILIAN250, Aug 18, 2011
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  16. svl7

    svl7 T|I

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    svl7, Aug 19, 2011
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  17. widezu69

    widezu69 Goodbye Alienware

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    The fan can be controlled by HWInfo64. You can also set it to rev up automatically based on temperature readings.
     
    widezu69, Aug 19, 2011
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  18. MAXIMILIAN250

    MAXIMILIAN250 Notebook Enthusiast

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    OK. Sorry Im just erally paranoid cuz I don't want to f up my pc.
     
    MAXIMILIAN250, Aug 19, 2011
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  19. steelballrun99

    steelballrun99 Notebook Guru

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    you have the exact specs as mine before i upgraded to intel 940xm, ati 6970m, and vertex2 240gb ssd.. now i play all the games at max and its running great.. just beware of the heat..

    P.S listen to svl7 he'll help you out a lot also the revelator as well.. they are the guys to go to for help.. so thanks to them, guys like u and me get to breed new life to our m15x..

    +rep
     
    steelballrun99, Aug 22, 2011
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  20. MAXIMILIAN250

    MAXIMILIAN250 Notebook Enthusiast

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    steellballrun how much did it cost you to do all that???
     
    MAXIMILIAN250, Aug 22, 2011
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  21. steelballrun99

    steelballrun99 Notebook Guru

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    940xm costs me $350, 6970m was $600 and the ssd was $400.. not cheap but cheaper than buying a new notebook that has these specs.. and i'm still trying to sell my 720qm, 260m, 500gb hdd so even if i get back $400 from that, its kind of a good deal.. i know one guy that sells the 6970m directly from dell, brand new.. just let me know if u want it, i'll give you his email.. goodluck
     
    steelballrun99, Aug 23, 2011
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