Alienware 18 R1 4980HQ Upgrade

[lime]

Hi all,

 

Recently picked up an 18r1 for an absolute steal.

 

Wanting to know if anyone has tried inserting the crystalwell microcode into the A12 unlocked bios to get 4980hq support? Don't really wanna fancy dropping $150aud on a CPU if someone knows for certain that it wont work.

 

Thanks

- lime

[panda_zzz]

If we are talking about 4980hq from aliexpress you should be prepared that it is a lottery. I personally received one non-working, one partially working with one memory channel.

[lime]

3 hours ago, panda_zzz said:

If we are talking about 4980hq from aliexpress you should be prepared that it is a lottery. I personally received one non-working, one partially working with one memory channel.

I am aware about the QC issues, but it's either that or finding one on Taobao/xy which is proving difficult.

 

Looked in the bios earlier today and although Dell says they added the 40661 (crystalwell) microcode in BIOS A05, this is actually a typo and they meant 40660.

[sliderfra]

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

[ssj92]

Not sure if I am missing anything but a 4930MX or 4940MX will provide much better performance when overclocked. 

 

You can hit 4Ghz all day without any additional voltage. 4.3Ghz should be easy to obtain and cool. 

 

I guess the biggest advantage is the Iris iGPU but if you're losing one memory channel it;s already not worth it to me. 

 

If you provide me the microcode I can try updating the BIOS for you but be sure you have a programmer and backup your original BIOS.

[zerokool]

On 4/14/2025 at 4:07 PM, ssj92 said:

Not sure if I am missing anything but a 4930MX or 4940MX will provide much better performance when overclocked. 

 

You can hit 4Ghz all day without any additional voltage. 4.3Ghz should be easy to obtain and cool. 

 

I guess the biggest advantage is the Iris iGPU but if you're losing one memory channel it;s already not worth it to me. 

 

If you provide me the microcode I can try updating the BIOS for you but be sure you have a programmer and backup your original BIOS.

The 4980hq has better ipc do to the 128mb l4 cache the igpu is also as fast as a gt 740 . So at least for the os elements it will feel smoother and more responsive . The only thing is if you plan to use more then two ram  slots I think you need to have single rank dimms similar to the QTJ1 on the clevo p870

[sliderfra]

On 8/14/2025 at 2:21 PM, zerokool said:

The 4980hq has better ipc do to the 128mb l4 cache the igpu is also as fast as a gt 740 . So at least for the os elements it will feel smoother and more responsive . The only thing is if you plan to use more then two ram  slots I think you need to have single rank dimms similar to the QTJ1 on the clevo p870

As you'll be cuffed with 2 RAM sticks DDR3, there's no point. Rather go for 4930mx & 32GB RAM. Igpu is not needed anyway on that kind of laptop.

[ssj92]

On 8/14/2025 at 5:21 AM, zerokool said:

The 4980hq has better ipc do to the 128mb l4 cache the igpu is also as fast as a gt 740 . So at least for the os elements it will feel smoother and more responsive . The only thing is if you plan to use more then two ram  slots I think you need to have single rank dimms similar to the QTJ1 on the clevo p870

I would be surprised if you can "feel" the "IPC" difference between a 4930MX/4940MX vs 4980HQ. A 4930MX OC to 4.3Ghz without any additional voltage. It can hit 4.5Ghz easily. 

 

4980HQ is nice for Optimus since it has the extra cache but won't make a significant difference. 

 

I'd rather have OC 4930MX with 1866-2133Mhz RAM (32GB) vs 4980HQ with 16gb ram.

 

Take it from someone who owns 10 laptops from Core 2 Quad to Ultra 9 275HX. 😁

[zerokool]

1 hour ago, ssj92 said:

I would be surprised if you can "feel" the "IPC" difference between a 4930MX/4940MX vs 4980HQ. A 4930MX OC to 4.3Ghz without any additional voltage. It can hit 4.5Ghz easily. 

 

4980HQ is nice for Optimus since it has the extra cache but won't make a significant difference. 

 

I'd rather have OC 4930MX with 1866-2133Mhz RAM (32GB) vs 4980HQ with 16gb ram.

 

Take it from someone who owns 10 laptops from Core 2 Quad to Ultra 9 275HX. 😁

I have about the same . I've seen comparations with the 4989hw and ryzen 4500 check it out on YouTube it's crazy hue that l4 cache boosts things . 

[zerokool]

On 8/17/2025 at 1:58 AM, sliderfra said:

As you'll be cuffed with 2 RAM sticks DDR3, there's no point. Rather go for 4930mx & 32GB RAM. Igpu is not needed anyway on that kind of laptop.

That's true . Sadly though with the 18 not having edp and relies on a mux having faster igpu helps with general os gui elements . Had a Alienware 17 r2 with the 4980hq . The one with all the msata slots instead of the MXM  shd it felt snappier then my old ranger with 4930 mx or my 18 at 4.3 . That's just me though . I'm still curious how hard it would be to get the mutant version working or above 4g decoding working on these