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On 7/26/2025 at 11:42 AM, Durabat said:

All upgrades installed, 3080 is up and running. I've never done custom drivers or unlocked bios, so I appreciate all the info you guys put on here. I've built dozens of desktops and practically built this M18X at this point. I swapped everything over, the motherboard and all to a nebula red case and upgraded everything in it. 🤙

Good job. Best is to use nvcleanstall which does clean inf mod with all customs options that you need (telemetry, trackers off, optimus...). It's pretty straightforward

hi,

it's probably doable, but you'd have to use dual GPU mode (Master GPU to drive internal display and Slave GPU RTX 4000 for 3D app via passthrough on internal screen, and direct output on external screen via HDMI / DP). 

you should flash dell vbios for m4000m, as it will enable PEG mode that does not work with HP vbios

On 6/19/2025 at 5:03 PM, Yarema said:

Wow Guys! 680$$ rtx 4080 from Xvsion!

Can it work in M18x R2? 

150W TDP btw

Frame Gen + 3940Xm overclocked should allow it to run wvery possible game @75hz full hd!

Hi,

ask @SuperMG3 

He bought the card and tried it already.

On 6/12/2025 at 6:58 AM, lime said:

Hi all, 

 

Swapped my m290x for a rx480 last night, card isn't detected in bios. 

 

I've switched to sg mode, tried setting peg always enable to both on and off, and have tried setting to igpu only and still no discrete graphics found. 

 

I've heard these cards can be finicky with BIOSes, but is this uncharted waters? 

 

Thanks in advance

hi, my rx480 is not detected in my AW17 R1 either, but works in m17x R4 though. Figures...

On 6/20/2025 at 12:39 AM, Maro97 said:

for anyone who owns a fulty AW M18X R2 motherboard  here is the boardview program and motherboard file... to help diagnose and repair the issue ..  good luck for everyone 🙂

Dell Alienware M18X LA-8321P REV1.0 BoardView File.zip 412.74 kB · 2 downloads BoardViewer 2.1.0.8.rar 2.03 MB · 1 download

Thanks a lot mate!

By any chance do you have the same for the AW 18 (Viking)?

not 100% sure about resistor mod though. I've got a 3060m in my AW18 and TDP is around 55W (instead of 80W) but performance is still pretty good. RTX3k on the other hand, has very low performance with 40W TDP as only memory throttles (core frq is unchanged)

2 hours ago, KOAO said:

Wait, does that mean that this heatsink, which is the same as the one pictured above but linking to it, will work in the Alienware 18 as a drop in the same way it works for the M18x R1 and R2?

yes 

8 hours ago, SuperMG3 said:

Hello. Not gonna test in M18X r2, the 3080 stays in.

My bad, in your Clevo p570wm3 🙂

@SuperMG3

already gave it a shot and ordered 4070 RTX. He's gonna test it in his M18X R2 and let us know

Can't wait  😃

On 8/20/2022 at 10:50 AM, TheQuentincc said:

Hi,

I just came on this thread and found out that there seems to be a some "OC" vbios for the Quadro P4000 and maybe P3000 mobile version : 

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/imac-2011-maxwell-and-pascal-gpu-upgrade.2300989/

Don't try to contact them, looks like they are a bit higher up in their mind and doesn't want to deal with "non mac user" hahaha.

That said, I didn't tried them, your luck may vary, it might not work on normal laptop, I'm currently investigating how it's modded and might be able to replicate it.

Here is a preview of what's this modded vbios is capable on the P4000 : 

Comparing to it's stock graphics score of about 3900~4000, this is a 20% performance uplift that's above a 1060 level of performance.

P3000 + P4000 modded overclocked vbios.zip 1.03 MB · 79 downloads

The two p3000 modded bios don’t work on m17x r4 with edp 120hz screen. Got 8 beeps.

86.04.70.00.1B works nicely. But no overclocking possible 

On 2/26/2025 at 10:36 AM, igcfck said:

I've been thinking about upgrading the display panel of my ASUS FX503VM.

The laptop has an N156HGA-EAB (which I'll call CURRENT) panel, that I'm planning to swap out for an N156HCA-EN1 (which I'll call UPGRADE).

I was thinking of discussing my idea and reasoning with the people here to see if I missed something before pulling the trigger.

 

Both displays use a 30-pin, 2-lane eDP1.2 connector located at the bottom right, the pinouts also match.

The UPGRADE has a ~10% higher max power consumption (4.27W), but it offers significantly better viewing angles, color accuracy, and a bit higher brightness.

The UPGRADE has no mounting points but is a physically smaller package and I'm thinking about creating a laser-cut or 3d printed mounting solution.

 

From my limited experience with the topic, I'd assume that the UPGRADE panel should work just fine, apart from any whitelisting issues, which I wouldn't know how to solve or check for beforehand.

 

In any case, I wanted to make a post and gather some feedback before spending ~80$ on a display panel.

 

 

Hi,

it should work flawlessly.

As long as it's same type (EDP and same number of lanes & pinout), no worries.

Go for it

On 3/23/2025 at 11:42 PM, ssj92 said:

880M + RTX 5000 was using older drivers that had both kepler and turing

 

M2000M + RTX 5000 are both supported in latest drivers so I can use one driver for both (2 INF mods). 

 

I can use every feature of RTX 5000 even DX12, ray tracing, dlss, etc. 

 

In PEG mode.

Hi.

Do you still suffer from low TDP on the RTX in PEG mode or did you find a workaround?

Dreaded 7 beeps are mostly pch / chipset failure. Usually BIOS corruption is 1 beep and can be resolved by blind flash (or ch341).

hi, I got an LCD lid for M6700. It's the covet edition (RED color) if you are interested.

I live in FRANCE but I can send in EU.

s7100x does not have native LVDS/EDP outputs. But it works OK on R4 / R5. But on R3 you end up with blank screen and no POST.

It's great news that wx7100 works. It's actually the fastest card available working with the venerable R3 🙂

Not sure about rx 6600 though. Someone tested it here and did not work on any alienware (was from xvision IIRC)

unfortunately you never know with GPU. Especially with lower quality chinese boards. MSI mxm (1060 / 1070) are much better (better power rails & many more VRMs) but if you cool the card nicely (RAM & VRM are prevailing) and  don't overvolt (or increase TDP) it should last long

With PASCAL cards, you can edit frequency/voltage curve with MSI Afterburner: you can reduce voltage to 0.85V and push 1800Mhz easily on Core. That way card stays super cool (<60° on full load) and lasts longer in the end.

Hi,

M14x pushes 5x more airflow than 17 CPU fan, so it's definitely a huge improvement over it.

Old AW are a bit temperamental with RAM above 1600Mhz. Some 1866/2133Mhz RAM work, some others don't. Even from one R4 motherboard to another, there's a difference. Better stick with 1600Mhz and put 32GB.

how did you bypass the batt check?

IIRC one of the unlocked bios has default settings to SG. Which one did you install?

INCREDIBLE!!!

I tested an RX480m 4GB a few years ago and it did not work at all (black screen).

I also tested s7100x and black screen, again.

I assumed that radeon did not work passed 7970m

Good job!

BTW where did you get the overclocked vbios for wx7100?

On 4/2/2025 at 2:26 PM, Yarema said:

@ssj92 you told us that you are not sure rtx 4090 would work due to encoding issue - i found you 160W RTX 3080TI
I wrote a letter to seller, he told me price is 1200$$
https://en.zrt-tech.com/product_details/95.html
I think this should fit to M18Xr2 due to 3080 Success! You could try it! 3080TI 160W should give you at least 35 000 FS graphics score and over 13, close to 14000 TimeSpy Graphics score and also it should run ANY current game with DLSS4 @60FPS Full HD

Wayyy too expensive mate!

You can get a full blow gaming laptop with 4070 rtx for that price...

On 4/3/2025 at 1:49 PM, Yarema said:

Hi! So i can buy M18X r2 Nebula red for 450 dollars, it is equipped with i7 3840QM and single gtx 770 , 16GB ddr3 1600 ram and 256GB ssd

I also can buy 18 ranger with 4810MQ and 980M (8 gb) also single , with 100% battery, 512GB SSD and 2TB HDD and 32GB ram HyperX

Im planning to buy 3 pipes CPU heatsink ( for m18x r2 its twice more expensive than same for Ranger)

I also plan to use Honeywell PTM 7950 for CPU

What CPU ( i will OC it anyway) will be more bottleneck for 3080Xvision?
Will this 3080 fit in Ranger, or heatsink from Ebay only designed for M18X r2?
I also like design of m18x r2 much more but 18r1 is much better price and better specs, especially HyperX 32 Ram and 2,5TB disc space
I heard also, 3920/40XM can handle 4,7GHZ which im not sure 4930\40 can handle, and i doubt that 4th gen IPC growth will be suficcient to higher clocks of 3920\40

Please, advice!

 

m18x r2 is better than 18 viking... Motherboard has better voltage rails and lasts longer, MXM port also takes more power.

Heatsink are the same between the 2, only CPU one is much better on 18 as it has vacuum chamber

hi,

that's the plan yes!

You don't necessarily need the AMD 100W. Nvidia HS will do just fine as the gecube 1070 has "low" TDP.

Thermal pads are mandatory on RAM & VRMs. Be sure that proper contact is made with heatsink as VRM heat up A LOT!

If you do everything by the books and don't overclock TDP (do not use MSI 150W vbios on this card, it will burn quickly), you should be ok for a few years.

put a 4930mx in it, with the vacuum chamber it should overclock nicely

On 4/2/2025 at 1:48 AM, ssj92 said:

Aside from there being some weird "universal tdp" limit (example: RTX 3000 is 80w TDP. The card is only using 55w TDP while M3000M in primary is using 20-25w TDP.) This means there's some driver issue where both cards TDP is being calculated together. If I can fix that issue, the card can run at full power.

 

Same issue affects M18xR1 with M2000M + RTX 5000. One way to get past this (just a theory for now) on Pascal would be to increase TDP by 25-30w on the card. I may test this with P4000.

 

Anyways the secret is simple, SLI laptops have 2 MXM slots. Primary is used for any GPU that can run in M17xR2. (NO AMD cards, this causes no boot).

 

Then secondary card is any card we can fit. In My case Adlink RTX 3000. 

 

Here's some preliminary results:

 

 

 

M3000M seems to cause inverted colors issue same as 980M. I thought @Komputers-Best mentioned M4000M worked fine but my M3000M causes messed up colors with HP and Dell vBIOS. Going to try a M2000M next.

 

 

just a theory but IIRC there's an option in drivers to emulate SLI (or hybrid SLI as the cards are very different). Maybe this could solve the TDP issue.