GTX 980/970m in Vortex-3 (Clevo p170em/p150em)

mrducking

Bright Spark
what will decide if you can or cannot use the 970m will be size and motherboard, but mostly size/form due to the motherboard
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
You'd need a new bios most likely to accept the new card also, you'd need to contact pcs directly to confirm if it's possible. They don't monitor these forums.
 

thisisevilevil

Enthusiast
what will decide if you can or cannot use the 970m will be size and motherboard, but mostly size/form due to the motherboard

I'm quite sure the 980m/970m will have the same size and form as the previous generations. The 980m/970m is based on the maxwell chip identical to the 880m, while however it is know that the new generation of maxwell graphics card is up to 50% better than the previous generation. The new clevo laptops at clevo's website also has several models listed that supports both the 980m/970m, 880m and M290x. I only think it would need a BIOS upgrade to support the new graphics card, as the other users also mention on the notebookreview forum post. Clevo has listed the p150/p170em as discontinued though :(

I'm very curious about this, as the 980m will be a well-worth upgrade over my current 7970m. Not really interested in buying a new laptop yet, as the current 4th-Gen Intel CPU's barely hold any performance improvements over my 3rd-Gen Intel CPU.
 

thisisevilevil

Enthusiast
UPDATE: PCspecialist and Clevo has both confirmed that officially the GTX980M/970M will NOT be supported on Clevo p170em/p150. However, A well known clevo-modder named Prema is working on a custom BIOS to get them supported. It looks very promising so far: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9008902 - Just keep in mind, should you choose to flash this custom BIOS, it's at your own risk.

I'm running the latest Prema-mod on my current Vortex/p170em and it works like a charm :)
 

keynes

Multiverse Poster
UPDATE: PCspecialist and Clevo has both confirmed that officially the GTX980M/970M will NOT be supported on Clevo p170em/p150. However, A well known clevo-modder named Prema is working on a custom BIOS to get them supported. It looks very promising so far: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9008902 - Just keep in mind, should you choose to flash this custom BIOS, it's at your own risk.

I'm running the latest Prema-mod on my current Vortex/p170em and it works like a charm :)

Is that with the gtx 970m/980m?
 

thisisevilevil

Enthusiast
Is that with the gtx 970m/980m?

Yeah, as you can see on his 3dmark, he's using the Clevo p150em (Which is almost identical to p170em) and the graphics card he's using is gtx980m. He confirmed here that support will be added in a future BIOS mod: https://biosmods.wordpress.com/p150em/ - Again, I must reiterate that if you should choose to flash this custom BIOS, it's at your own risk. Remember to read premas guidelines for flashing his BIOS, before actually doing it, as you might risk bricking your motherboard.
 

swiftstep

Active member
Hi, I have the vortex 3 and also am looking to upgrade my GPU, currently have the 7970m. Which modded bios would I need since it does not state it adds compatibility for the 980m.

Also which 980m would I need to buy? Would any work or is there a specific brand I would need.

Thanks.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Hi, I have the vortex 3 and also am looking to upgrade my GPU, currently have the 7970m. Which modded bios would I need since it does not state it adds compatibility for the 980m.

Also which 980m would I need to buy? Would any work or is there a specific brand I would need.

Thanks.

You would need a clevo card specifically for your chassis. Eurocom do them but they're not cheap at all, $980 at the moment, couple of pages down the list:

http://www.eurocom.com/ec/vgas(1)ec
 

thisisevilevil

Enthusiast
Hi, I have the vortex 3 and also am looking to upgrade my GPU, currently have the 7970m. Which modded bios would I need since it does not state it adds compatibility for the 980m.

Also which 980m would I need to buy? Would any work or is there a specific brand I would need.

Thanks.


Hey. Sorry for the slow response, I don't really follow this thread.

Before you decide to buy this card, (if you haven't already done so), You need to also be aware of the risks involved, in the unlikely event it goes wrong. A simple mis-step could end up bricking your motherboard and/or GPU. This is NOT covered by your warranty. Be sure you know what you are doing.
For this, I would also recommend you flash the latest prema BIOS called v2, before installing the graphics card, as Clevo no longer provides official support for these models. You can find them on his page: https://biosmods.wordpress.com/ -> Select your model. Be sure to follow his instructions closely and make sure you have the minimum required BIOS is 1.00.04. If you don't have this, I believe PCSpecialist can send you the latest officially supported BIOS on a pendrive.

The mod itself, that allows this graphics card to work in our laptops, is actually a vBIOS modification. So you would first need to install the graphics card, then flash the modded vBIOS from prema which can be found here: https://biosmods.wordpress.com/mxm-vbios/

Feel free to add me on steam if you have additional questions: http://steamcommunity.com/id/thisisevilevil/

P.S:
There's several resellers that sells the clevo/MSI/Alienware version of the card. You can find them on ebay mostly.
 
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