M18x R1 Upgrade Choices

[Braintwistah]

Recently got a M18x R1 off eBay for my daughter but I plan on upgrading to the “max”. From what I understand best cpu is the 2960XM and the best ram would be 32GB(1600mhz) but for the gpu I can’t seem to get an idea on what the best gpu I can put in this is there’s a lot of info here but I can’t exactly find a clear answer as what to get my choices I’m thinking of is a 980m or a rtx 3000 more so leaning the rtx route. Any help is appreciated thank you.

[ssj92]

880M SLI is the fastest "stock bios" setup in PEG.

 

If you don't mind mismatching, you can get around the limit by using something like a M2000M on primary slot then use rtx 3000 in secondary slot. 

 

using windows 10 registry mod you can assign 3d programs to use rtx 3000. 

 

M2000M can be found quite cheap sometimes so it's a viable option.

 

I am working on a bios mod to fix 980M SLI support but the issue is, if you want to use anything newer, you need to use "SG" (Optimus mode). unless you use my dual gpu workaround.

 

In SG mode, the m18xr1 is limited to dx11 only for some reason, and I haven't solved this yet

[melissa2006]

2 hours ago, ssj92 said:

880M SLI is the fastest "stock bios" setup in PEG.

 

If you don't mind mismatching, you can get around the limit by using something like a M2000M on primary slot then use rtx 3000 in secondary slot. 

 

using windows 10 registry mod you can assign 3d programs to use rtx 3000. 

 

M2000M can be found quite cheap sometimes so it's a viable option.

 

I am working on a bios mod to fix 980M SLI support but the issue is, if you want to use anything newer, you need to use "SG" (Optimus mode). unless you use my dual gpu workaround.

 

In SG mode, the m18xr1 is limited to dx11 only for some reason, and I haven't solved this yet

Does m2000m + rtx3000 work in win11? Were you ever able to fix the 55w tdp issue? Thank you again!

[ssj92]

9 hours ago, melissa2006 said:

Does m2000m + rtx3000 work in win11? Were you ever able to fix the 55w tdp issue? Thank you again!

Yes win11 works. 

 

I haven't tested it yet, put covering pwr pin might be the fix. Hoping to test it in a week or two 

[Braintwistah]

On 5/11/2026 at 3:42 PM, ssj92 said:

880M SLI is the fastest "stock bios" setup in PEG.

 

If you don't mind mismatching, you can get around the limit by using something like a M2000M on primary slot then use rtx 3000 in secondary slot. 

 

using windows 10 registry mod you can assign 3d programs to use rtx 3000. 

 

M2000M can be found quite cheap sometimes so it's a viable option.

 

I am working on a bios mod to fix 980M SLI support but the issue is, if you want to use anything newer, you need to use "SG" (Optimus mode). unless you use my dual gpu workaround.

 

In SG mode, the m18xr1 is limited to dx11 only for some reason, and I haven't solved this yet

Interesting I knew this wasn’t gonna be a plug and play thing and I might have to mess around alittle. Funny how much issues the r1 has for upgrades compared to the r2

[ssj92]

1 hour ago, Braintwistah said:

Interesting I knew this wasn’t gonna be a plug and play thing and I might have to mess around alittle. Funny how much issues the r1 has for upgrades compared to the r2

Actually R1 can do almost everything R2 can do upgrade wise. 

 

You can do up to 880M SLI dual cards. R2 can do 980M SLI. With my bios mod R1 can also do 980M SLI. 

 

R2 can run RTX 5000 in SG, even 3080. 

 

R1 can run RTX 5000 in SG too but due to some issue with drivers it's limited to DX11. If you put a sandy bridge CPU in R2, it has the same exact issue. 

 

My goal is to fix R1, M17xR3, M17xR4, AW17 R1 and AW18 bios. Because "back then" only the M18xR2 received a full bios mod. 

 

Ironically the AW18 can run more cards than all of them (A4500 didn't work in M18xR2 at all but did in AW18 with code 43). I may have found a solution to that too.