Alienware M17X R4 MXM upgrade for eDP 120Hz.

[Nizmeïster]

Do these cards work in Optimus mode?

[SuperMG]

4 minutes ago, Nizmeïster said:

Do these cards work in Optimus mode?

Yes but not recommended. 

[ssj92]

10 minutes ago, SuperMG said:

Yes but not recommended. 

why not recommended? 

[Nizmeïster]

Because of the 10-15% performance drop? I'm asking to know if the card is still viable even if it doesn't necessarily perform at 100%. I ran Optimus for a long time with a Quadro RTX 3000 and a GT60, and frankly, it worked very well!

[ssj92]

1 minute ago, Nizmeïster said:

Because of the 10-15% performance drop? I'm asking to know if the card is still viable even if it doesn't necessarily perform at 100%. I ran Optimus for a long time with a Quadro RTX 3000 and a GT60, and frankly, it worked very well!

it's not even 10-15%. I'm running 3080 in my M18xR2 and it runs fine. 

 

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (notebook) video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3920XM Processor Extreme Edition,Alienware M18xR2

 

2133mhz ram helps and 4.4ghz on cpu will help too 

[Nizmeïster]

And your 3080 isn't too bottlenecked by the processor? I still have a GT60 running Ivy Bridge that I just repaired. I might consider a Quadro A3000, for example, or even an A4000, we'll see... I also still have a Precision 7720 where I need to put a 4060, but I need to check something about the backlight mod.

[ssj92]

2 minutes ago, Nizmeïster said:

And your 3080 isn't too bottlenecked by the processor? I still have a GT60 running Ivy Bridge that I just repaired. I might consider a Quadro A3000, for example, or even an A4000, we'll see... I also still have a Precision 7720 where I need to put a 4060, but I need to check something about the backlight mod.

In gpu bound situations, the 3080 performs well. look at the gpu score and compare to native 3080 laptops. Honestly, I regret not buying 4090 MXM when it was only $950. now it's $1300

 

keep in mind it's a 115w card. 

 

I'm going to sell the v1 backlight mod cables on ebay that I bought since I cannot use them in my AW. Apparently they work fine in Clevo/MSI. 

[Nizmeïster]

I already have the cable for the backlighting. I have the 4060, which will be perfect in the Precision 7720. I had tested the 4060 in an MSI GT60 before, but unfortunately, even though the card worked very well, the EC (Electromagnetic Computing) would go into panic mode with the fans running at full speed, and there was also a problem with the DisplayPort and HDMI outputs, which was a deal-breaker for me. So I wanted to see if a solution like the A3000 would work better on those models, or failing that, a 3060 or 3070. If it works on the 17 R4, maybe it would work on the MSI too.

[SuperMG]

I had a 3080 in a SG and I was getting 9100 score in TimeSpy, The same card with the same settings, got me 11500 in dGPU eDP.

 

Even on my RTX 5000 Ada with iGPU on, I was losing 10-15% performance, Dell Precision 7780.

 

eDP is preferred because you can upgrade to better displays (not in M6800) and it's in DisplayPort standard with full dGPU performance.

 

dGPU > SG

[ssj92]

21 hours ago, SuperMG said:

I had a 3080 in a SG and I was getting 9100 score in TimeSpy, The same card with the same settings, got me 11500 in dGPU eDP.

 

Even on my RTX 5000 Ada with iGPU on, I was losing 10-15% performance, Dell Precision 7780.

 

eDP is preferred because you can upgrade to better displays (not in M6800) and it's in DisplayPort standard with full dGPU performance.

 

dGPU > SG

11,500 in eDP? I was getting 11,051 in SG, So 4% less performance. 

 

I agree eDP is preferred but not every laptop supports eDP. 

 

m18x series is perfect example. But at the same time SG generally has better compatibility for upgrades too. On M17xR3 I can't use RTX 4000 (HP) on eDP but it works SG. Keeping in mind P5000 and all older GPUs work fine. 

[SuperMG]

Okay guys.

 

The 4 heatpipes (2in1) heatsink for the M17X R4 has been shipped and so the backlight mod v2 cables.

 

I'll test the A5500.

[Nizmeïster]

Il y a 3 heures, SuperMG a dit :

OK les gars.

 

Le dissipateur thermique à 4 caloducs (2 en 1) pour le M17X R4 est livré, ainsi que les câbles de modification du rétroéclairage v2.

 

Je vais tester le A5500.

 

Bon!

Did Chichen make the heatsink? Can't wait to see how these cards perform!

[SuperMG]

Okay so the RTX A5500 is soso

 

Worse to equal performance than the RTX 5000 Turing! 

 

Not even RTX 3080 LEVEL!

 

Backlight mod works with the M17X R4.

 

I tested it on the M6700, M17X R4 and even in the P775. Same results!!! 

 

HDMI (DP_C) doesn't work in the M17X and M6700 but works in the P775

 

It's not about the PCIe bandwidth as I tested with a PCIE x16 3.0 laptop.

 

8000 pts in TimeSpy (all)

22600 pts in firestrike (all)

160FPS in Heaven benchmark (M6700 and M17X R4) 235FPS (P775 wtf)

 

...

 

Normally I should get 10000 pts in TimeSpy with the A5500 115W. X-Vsion told me it's a "132W" variant, that's a lie, the VBIOS has a max TDP of 115W.

 

Very disappointed, don't buy the RTX Quadro Ampere from X-VSION!! Just get the GeForce ones, they perform better and normally.

 

By the way, why the card is consuming 20-30W in idle??? Turing and Ada cards I have do 5-8W in idle

[SuperMG]

On 5/15/2026 at 8:39 AM, ssj92 said:

11,500 in eDP? I was getting 11,051 in SG, So 4% less performance. 

 

I agree eDP is preferred but not every laptop supports eDP. 

 

m18x series is perfect example. But at the same time SG generally has better compatibility for upgrades too. On M17xR3 I can't use RTX 4000 (HP) on eDP but it works SG. Keeping in mind P5000 and all older GPUs work fine. 

Did you try to overclock the RTX 3080? 

 

Like +50MHz on the core and +100MHz on the memory

 

By the way I got the WirelessHD SiBeam M17X R4/M18X R1 DMC card. DMC is enabled in the SBIOS but it's not detected on Windows and not detected in the SiBeam software.

 

Is the SiBeam card called SIMG SB92xx COM3 on device manager? If so then the card is definitely detected but not in the software...

 

I have both sibeam card 3W4MD and SiBeam 60GHz antenna. Do you have any experience on this?

[ssj92]

4 hours ago, SuperMG said:

Did you try to overclock the RTX 3080? 

 

Like +50MHz on the core and +100MHz on the memory

 

By the way I got the WirelessHD SiBeam M17X R4/M18X R1 DMC card. DMC is enabled in the SBIOS but it's not detected on Windows and not detected in the SiBeam software.

 

Is the SiBeam card called SIMG SB92xx COM3 on device manager? If so then the card is definitely detected but not in the software...

 

I have both sibeam card 3W4MD and SiBeam 60GHz antenna. Do you have any experience on this?

Haven't tried any OC on 3080 yet. Working on too many bios mods right now

 

Actually I have been looking for the card for M17xR3/M18xR1. 

 

Not sure if the M17xR4 is the same card. 

 

I see part of the card on eBay but don't see the part that connects to the wireless display.

 

One of my goals is to get that too.

 

Looking at the model, it seems you bough the WiHD card for AW14/17/18 not the M17xR4 one. 

 

From my understanding, there is 3 "generations" of cards. SHould be backwards compatible though? 

[SuperMG]

5 minutes ago, ssj92 said:

Haven't tried any OC on 3080 yet. Working on too many bios mods right now

 

Actually I have been looking for the card for M17xR3/M18xR1. 

 

Not sure if the M17xR4 is the same card. 

 

I see part of the card on eBay but don't see the part that connects to the wireless display.

 

One of my goals is to get that too.

 

Looking at the model, it seems you bough the WiHD card for AW14/17/18 not the M17xR4 one. 

 

From my understanding, there is 3 "generations" of cards. SHould be backwards compatible though? 

There's the 5XHG5 for M18X R1 and M17X R3

There's the 3W4MD for "M14X", "M17X" and 18 R1, 17 R1.

 

The 60GHz antenna + cable part is: KVR0Y

Receiver is: VIZIO XWH200 HDMI

 

Couldn't find anything about the "M17X R4" card one.

 

Yes the SIMG SB92XX is the card. It's detected but the software for it, doesn't detect anything.

[ssj92]

6 minutes ago, SuperMG said:

There's the 5XHG5 for M18X R1 and M17X R3

There's the 3W4MD for "M14X", "M17X" and 18 R1, 17 R1.

 

The 60GHz antenna + cable part is: KVR0Y

Receiver is: VIZIO XWH200 HDMI

 

Couldn't find anything about the "M17X R4" card one.

 

Yes the SIMG SB92XX is the card. It's detected but the software for it, doesn't detect anything.

What driver have you tried? 

[SuperMG]

2 minutes ago, ssj92 said:

What driver have you tried? 

The SIMG SB92XX one from Dell.com. It redirect me to the Alienware 2013 laptops download link.

 

The software is WiHD but it states "Not detected". Not sure if I use the software correctly. It's a niche tech that no one used.

[ssj92]

10 minutes ago, SuperMG said:

The SIMG SB92XX one from Dell.com. It redirect me to the Alienware 2013 laptops download link.

 

The software is WiHD but it states "Not detected". Not sure if I use the software correctly. It's a niche tech that no one used.

Try this:

 

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-ag/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=5ycy7

 

 

My m14x has antenna for this already so maybe I will try a card for that one.

 

this one is for the older part number but give it a try:

 

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=4h54n