Ray Tracing on M18xR2 - RTX 3000 MXM Upgrade!

[Clamibot]

@DDAY3493 Thanks for all of this information. We now have a nice little upgrade guide here for anyone who wants to stick a Quadro RTX 5000 in their Alienware 18.

[DDAY3493]

@Clamibot No problem! Always like to help out my fellow computer enthusiasts. If any of you have more questions, don't hesitate to ask! 😉

[ssj92]

20 hours ago, DDAY3493 said:

Also when I first installed the graphics card I also noticed that it doesn't fit in directly, unless you cut off the mxm port graphics card holders, here and here! 

What did you use to cut these safely? I may need to do same thing in m17x r3. 

[DDAY3493]

@ssj92 if I remember correctly it was diagonal wire cutters...something like this. 

[razor0601]

Here are some old pics from my AW18 with RTX 3000

[razor0601]

[ssj92]

Ah yes your HP RTX 3000 has offset core/mounting. 

 

the Aetina/Adlink/PNY RTX 3000 is standard mxm 3.0b and required no mods for me on M18xR2 heatsink. 

 

Next up will be testing A4500 mxm hopefully next month 

[jaybee83]

14 hours ago, ssj92 said:

Ah yes your HP RTX 3000 has offset core/mounting. 

 

the Aetina/Adlink/PNY RTX 3000 is standard mxm 3.0b and required no mods for me on M18xR2 heatsink. 

 

Next up will be testing A4500 mxm hopefully next month 

pics, temps, perf numbers, wattages, u know the drill 😋

[razor0601]

16 hours ago, ssj92 said:

Ah yes your HP RTX 3000 has offset core/mounting. 

 

the Aetina/Adlink/PNY RTX 3000 is standard mxm 3.0b and required no mods for me on M18xR2 heatsink. 

 

Next up will be testing A4500 mxm hopefully next month 

When I installed that RTX there was no Aetina… or any other cards in standard MXM. 

[ssj92]

6 hours ago, razor0601 said:

When I installed that RTX there was no Aetina… or any other cards in standard MXM. 

Yes cards from the Quadro partners came later but most of the time they do adhere to mxm 3 standards. 
 

there was a member who got HP RTX 5000 working in M18xR2 back then as well. The A4500 (rtx 3070ti) in mxm format is coming from aetina/adlink next month. 
 

that will be an interesting card to test since the core is now offset as well

[anarky321]

where can you buy the A4500 when it comes out? 

[ssj92]

4 hours ago, anarky321 said:

where can you buy the A4500 when it comes out? 

You need to contact Aetina. Go to their website and find contact email. Obviously don’t tell them you’re putting it in a laptop. Just say you’re looking to upgrade from P5000 or RTX 5000 or something. 

I will warn you, you can buy a whole new laptop for the price of the mxm itself 

[luisxd]

That laptop refuses to die. Amazing work.

[razor0601]

On 7/25/2022 at 6:19 AM, ssj92 said:

You need to contact Aetina. Go to their website and find contact email. Obviously don’t tell them you’re putting it in a laptop. Just say you’re looking to upgrade from P5000 or RTX 5000 or something. 

I will warn you, you can buy a whole new laptop for the price of the mxm itself 

Do you know the prices for other Cards from Aetina? 

[ssj92]

On 7/26/2022 at 3:26 PM, razor0601 said:

Do you know the prices for other Cards from Aetina? 

No you will have to contact them.

 

I do know adlink wanted $1,534 for a rtx 3000. 

[razor0601]

Oh man, that’s too much. Then I have to wait and maybe sometimes they’re some cards on eBay 

[GMP]

@ssj92I'm looking into reviving my M18x R2 myself. Just ordered a 3940XM and a triple pipe cpu heatsink to start off. Just a question, how does the rtx 3000 do against a gtx 1070? Why did you go the rtx 3000 route if I may ask? Do you know how they perform in comparison in real life conditions?

And any specific reason you used the left GPU slot to mount the rtx and not the right slot? Isn't the other slot the "primary" slot? Or doesn't it make any difference...

[ssj92]

On 8/7/2022 at 5:12 AM, GMP said:

@ssj92I'm looking into reviving my M18x R2 myself. Just ordered a 3940XM and a triple pipe cpu heatsink to start off. Just a question, how does the rtx 3000 do against a gtx 1070? Why did you go the rtx 3000 route if I may ask? Do you know how they perform in comparison in real life conditions?

And any specific reason you used the left GPU slot to mount the rtx and not the right slot? Isn't the other slot the "primary" slot? Or doesn't it make any difference...

I get 16k firestrike graphics score, so it's similar to rtx 2060 performance. 

 

I went with RTX 3000 becuase:

 

1) This is a professional well-built gpu made for medical, military, etc. It will outlast all of those 1070 gpus that are "standard mxm 3.0b" format

2) RTX 3000 supports DLSS, Ray-Tracing, has full HVEC support (I can play my 8K video from Nikon Z9 smoothly)

3) The RTX 3000's I purchased were only around $150-200 more than the GTX 1070 card. This card MSRP is $1,534 so I paid an excellent price. 

4) GTX 1070 has been done many times, no fun in that. 

 

Left slot in M18xR2 is primary. GPU needs to go there. On AW18 it can be in either slot. 

[GMP]

21 hours ago, ssj92 said:

I get 16k firestrike graphics score, so it's similar to rtx 2060 performance. 

 

I went with RTX 3000 becuase:

 

1) This is a professional well-built gpu made for medical, military, etc. It will outlast all of those 1070 gpus that are "standard mxm 3.0b" format

2) RTX 3000 supports DLSS, Ray-Tracing, has full HVEC support (I can play my 8K video from Nikon Z9 smoothly)

3) The RTX 3000's I purchased were only around $150-200 more than the GTX 1070 card. This card MSRP is $1,534 so I paid an excellent price. 

4) GTX 1070 has been done many times, no fun in that. 

 

Left slot in M18xR2 is primary. GPU needs to go there. On AW18 it can be in either slot. 

Thanks for the clarification @ssj92! The 1070 seems to score a little bit better in a synthetic benchmark as far as I could tell, but it's close enough. And as you say stuff like DLSS and Ray tracing give it an edge that tips the scale towards the RTX 3000 for sure.

Can't wait till you get the A4500 to see what it can do.

I've been searching online for an RTX 3000 all day. I found some but all of them need some modding for the heatsink and alignment of the mounting holes which is off. I prefer not to mess too much with modding stuff. I couldn't find any that have the same layout as the Adlink/PNY/Aetina card. If anyone does know where I could get one, preferably on the second hand market, I'd be very happy with that information. In Europe they are impossible to find for sure ☹️

[DDAY3493]

@ssj92you were right, the screen in my 18 was degrading! I got the matte screen from the MSI GT83/80 series and I was able to overclock the screen up to 105Hz...it's a night and day difference for sure! 

[ssj92]

7 hours ago, DDAY3493 said:

@ssj92you were right, the screen in my 18 was degrading! I got the matte screen from the MSI GT83/80 series and I was able to overclock the screen up to 105Hz...it's a night and day difference for sure! 

How hard was it to put in gt83/80 series panel?

[DDAY3493]

It was actually straight forward, the connector was in the same position as the OEM screen. The only thing that I had to do was put the brackets from the 18 screen on the MSI screen. 

[zerokool]

really cool to see a new forum about our alienwares since tech inferno and notebook check both went away i have a ranger r 1 . i see a bunch of hp quadro 3 4 and 5 k cards i thgought the hp ones lacked a vbios as the informations was loaded into the zbook v bios . am i incorrect ?

[ssj92]

On 10/26/2022 at 6:01 AM, zerokool said:

really cool to see a new forum about our alienwares since tech inferno and notebook check both went away i have a ranger r 1 . i see a bunch of hp quadro 3 4 and 5 k cards i thgought the hp ones lacked a vbios as the informations was loaded into the zbook v bios . am i incorrect ?

Yes they do lack a vBIOS chip. You would have to buy a vBIOS chip then flash it with a programmer. There have been a few for sale where sellers claim they added vBIOS chip and flashed it. Those HP cards also have a offset die so heatsink will probably need to be modded. 

[Maxware79]

On 10/26/2022 at 11:31 PM, zerokool said:

really cool to see a new forum about our alienwares since tech inferno and notebook check both went away i have a ranger r 1 . i see a bunch of hp quadro 3 4 and 5 k cards i thgought the hp ones lacked a vbios as the informations was loaded into the zbook v bios . am i incorrect ?

 

TechInferno is still there but I'd suggest against spending much time over there. Years ago they thought it was a good idea to virtually use users computers for mining (or something like that) without their knowledge or permission. They still try and scam people out of money for 10 year old unlocked BIOS' and if you DM someone with a link to a free BIOS then they'll delete the message. 

 

NBR and Alienowners were closed down.