What GPU should I upgrade to

I am planning to upgrade my m15x with a new GPU. I would like to get the best thing possible, but I'm not sure at what point the CPU might become the bottleneck. Right now I have i7 Q720 cpu and gtx 260m gpu. I'd like to go for gtx 680m, but I've also seen people having 970m in there which sounds mighty fine. Could anyone enlighten me what card should be the best suited and/or less problem to install, I haven't installed anything in a computer for a decade now I think.

 

Hi mate, take a look at a thread I opened a while ago on upgrading a vanilla Alienware. I'm basically blogging about my upgrade process and got lots of good guidance from the community.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/upgrading-a-vanilla-alienware-m15x.779862/

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

 

It is all a question of money

If money is no object then a 970M will work just as well as the 680M with about twice the potential lol.

However it will also cost twice as much. Still because of its performance and great temperatures it is the best price/performance fit period at the moment.

Why I haven't upgraded is because I ain't got the funds to upgrade lol

A new Nvidia card works plug and play but the drivers need to be inf modded before installing them. There are plenty of guides to follow online and it is a simple process though.

Have fun!! I wish I had money to play once again with my M15x. Maybe next year......

 

Thank you both. I'll go read that thread MadK17.
I already fit an SSD in my m15x as a first upgrade and I am super happy. It seems I'll go for 970m and leave the CPU as is for now. Will any 970m do? This for example : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nvidia-Ge...7x-r4-stock-/251984328347?hash=item3aab6fb69b ? It's $130 more expensive than 680m, but it seems to be worth the $$$.
Won't the CPU be the bottleneck though? I see that i7 920 would put me back another $300, and that's not the way I'd like to go. Maybe that 680m would be better after all?

 

Even a 920XM @3.3Ghz would bottleneck a GTX 970M so your 720QM will definitely. I would say rather than spending the extra on a GTX 970M, try to get a 920 or 940XM and a 7970M or GTX 680M. The faster and overclockable processor will be a big big upgrade and allow you to get the most out of your graphics. $300 for a 920xm, seems expensive. Maybe look elsewhere?

 

Yup that card you linked to would work. I paid $220 for my 920xm only a few weeks ago on Ebay so worth to continue looking. I didn't bite the bullet on a 970m because of cost and went with an 870m instead but have a weird sound card driver clash at the moment (which I think I might have a solution for). I'm going to keep posting in my thread (got another update coming soon) so keep your eye on that.

 

Ok, I actually found something cheaper while browsing ebay. If I was to change the CPU should I go for 920 or 940? It seems most of the people go for 920. Coincidence or is it better in some way?

 

Not different in any meaningful way. Get whichever is cheaper

Sent from my One using Tapatalk

 

Price check now. Found 920XM for $200 and 970m for $530. It's 200 more than I anticipated, but it might just last me another 4-5 years... Or I can get 680m for $400 also.
Are these prices ok or should I look further? I found something cheaper but with US only shipping, so no go for me.

Another thing, what will I need to make this changes. Thermal paste for cpu, x-bracket for the card maybe, anything else?

 

Might be worth picking up some 1mm thermal pads if you don't think the old ones on your current GPU are in good shape anymore.

 

I just bought a 920XM for $109.99 with free shipping. If you want to save money on the CPU, the key is patience my friend.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

 

Ok, I think I'll go for that 970mx now and grab the cpu later this year. Who needs city breaks when I can stay home and mod my laptop.

 

500 dollars sounds about right for the 970M. There will be a price drop but not considerably until the next generation of cards are launched.

Hold off on the cpu if strapped for cash but you will see bottlenecking occuring

 

I'm coming from 260m, so the boost should be noticeable even with bottlenecking. Hopefully.
One thing I forgot, I should probably grab a new PSU?

 

Yeah you'll want a 210W or 240W PSU to run an upgraded GPU and CPU. I went with a 240W

 

I am thinking of getting 980M SLI for my M18x R2 and transplanting the 680Ms to my pair of M15x's.

One M15x I have been messing with had an i7-620M and a GT 240M. In CS:GO I was getting 15 fps at 1600 x 900 on lowest settings. Then I installed the the 920XM and immediately got a bump up to 35+ fps. Overclocked the 240M a bit and getting 55+ fps. The 920XM makes a huge difference even with the lowest end GPU. I can play WoW on low with 30+ fps.

I did have 98% CPU utilization in CS:GO before I swapped out to the 920XM. Now I mostly am down around 12% with spikes up to 20%. Everything works smoother too.

 

Thanks to another thread I managed to get the 970m for 290 euro and thanks to that I should be able to get the CPU sooner. Paste, bracket and PSU are here, card is on the way. I'm considering thermal pads, and looking around for the cpu, but will probably start with gfx first.

 

Card updated! It took a while and thanks to crappy videos on youtube I have almost broken the front panel, the one with the power key. Also, removing the incompatible x-bracket screws took me literally an hour. Then I couldn't install the NVIDIA driver, because the drivers refused to see the gfx card. Fortunately Windows Update to the rescue, it installed some drivers and from there I was able to update to the newer ones. The latest drivers still don't see the card, but the 355.x drivers are working perfectly fine. Not sure how the thermal pads are doing, as it seems the 1mm ones might be too thin, but so far everything seems fine - 39 C idle, 71 C while playing The Witcher 2. I think that's not too bad.

Next, the CPU...

 

You need to mod the driver inf before you install. It is pretty easy and there are guides all over the net. Then the official drivers will install without a hitch