Upgrading my Acer Aspire 8935G

I'm planning to upgrade my old laptop during summer, but I need some tips before I order any components.

My current setup is as it was bought new in 2008.
*Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P7450 (2.13 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB)
*Acer SM80-MV GM45 Mainboard
*ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670
*4 (2+2) GB DDR3 Memory
*1000GB dual HDD

Right now I'm running Windows 7 32-bit, but before starting to upgrade anything, I will install Windows 7 64-bit and update the BIOS.

I've been reading different posts on this forum, and it seems my options for upgrades are as follows:

New CPU: I'm considering T9800 or T9900 ( do I need a new fan, or is it enough to renew the thermal paste?)
Can I run PM45 processors when my mainboard is GM45?

New GPU: I haven't found much info about this. Are there any better GPU's I can install in this particular laptop?

SSD and maybe more RAM if I can afford it after everything else.

How does this look? Is it a good plan, or should I change it somehow?

 

you can run all the p45 dual-cores i know someone got q9200s to work also

renewing the thermal paste is enough

check for for your gpu

http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/396320-acer-mxm-models-cards.html#

 

The Acer MXM thread is pretty old and outdated.

Basically to answer your question about the GPU, the sky is the limit. A 7970m will probably work for you as well as pretty much any MXM 3.0 type B card.

The thing is, I wouldn't recommend a q9200 with a beast graphics card like that, because your overall thermal output is going to go well over 100w when its probably designed for like 50w.

a 6970m would really be a bad idea because its 100w alone on top of the CPU.

A 6870m is a great option for only 130$ but its really not ideal.

Basically, as GPUs get newer they perform better with less heat, so what you want is the newest GPU possible. Unfortunately, a lot of the Nvidia cards are overpriced, and there can be issues with clocking them past power saving clocks. Thats why I'd try to stick to AMD/ATI cards, but the thing about that is there really isn't anything out but the 7970m.

All that said, I really think the best fit would be a GTX 660m. What you want to do is wait maybe a month, then start contacting some Clevo, Sager and MSI resellers, such as rjtech, Malibal, XoticPC, there are many more. They can get you the best price on a GTX 660m.

If you're looking to spend a little less than 200$ on the GPU, like I said there is the 6870m, but a better option is the GTX 560m. I can sell you one of these if you're interested.

To reiterate, you're extremely lucky to have this laptop, I bet you didn't know you'd be able to upgrade it to current GPUs for years down the line when you bought it.

 

On second thought, it looks like the 6870m is only 50w... which means its a better option than I originally thought.

 

Thanks for the great replies! I'm excited to start working on upgrading. Right now my laptop is over-heating and turning itself off after about 15 minutes of playing Diablo III...

I guess I should open it up, clean the inside and renew the thermal paste a.s.a.p.

Regarding the 6870m though, where can I buy it (or any of the newer cards for that matter)? I can't find it anywhere.

Also, can I be sure that it will fit inside my laptop, or does it have to be modded in some way?

 

Did you get any further with this? I have the same laptop.. same spec with the exception of CPU (running a Core 2 Duo T6600 @ 2.20).

I was thinking about putting a Q9000 quad core in there? Didnt know if the Acer SM80-MV motherboard supported it or not?

Didn't consider the GPU (seeing as laptop GPU's can rarely be upgraded) but have to admit i'm pretty excited to find out it can be!!

Any links / pointers to compatible hardware would be very much appreciated!

 

All mxm 3.0 cards are somewhat supported, though better to stick with ATI cards. A 5870 or 5850 MXM 3.0 will work but will be difficult to keep cool.

Also I think the q9000 will work but your t6600 will perform better at some tasks.
I would recommend a high end P series dual core like maybe a p8700 or p9600.

The only thing limiting the upgrades is the cooling however, if you can find a way to keep the parts cool enough then you can go for a q9200 + 5870m. Make sure you have a 120 watt adapter.

 

What's the best card I can put in my acer 8935g ?

 

I'm curious why you think a my 2ghz dual core would out perform a 2ghz quad core? Is that because of software not being optimised for quad?

 

Hi all after while
I read this tread and decide to be upgraded my 8935G...

I bought 560m GTX for my 8935G and it is not easy at all to get that card working on 8935g. First I purchace 560M GTX , heatsink - all from M17X R3 + new power supply 180W. OS was oryginal Win7 64. After I asebled everyting, card was not detected. No any oryginal Nvidia driver will let me to install. Aida 64 recogised card so I know that the software problem. I used moded drivers from here: LaptopVideo2Go: Drivers and finaly my card start working. Now the problem is to nvidia will work only on external screen and I dont know how to fix that. If I decide to play games or watch HD movie I need to connect 2 display other wise games will crash. Another thing is that rating scores on Win 7 showing me:
GPU in Aero only 4.8
GPU in games only 6.2

Some info from GPUZ:
GPU core clock is 202.5Mhz
GPU memory clock is 162.0 Mhz
GPU Shader Clock is 405 Mhz
VDDC is 0.8200V
This results are much lower then oryginal Ati card HD4650 6.6 and 6.7 .

Can you give me any idea please how to fix that?
Kind Regards
Tomasz

 

Ok small update, after flash 8935g to oryginal bios and disable onboard GPU 560m gtx start work on primary (laptop) dispaly.
Another strange thing is to after test in 3dmark 2011 I have that message:
"your results has following problems:

Graphics card is not recognized

Graphics driver is not approved"

As you can see on picture it is 560m gtx - why is that happen?

 

I think your Windows Index is lower, because the card is not working in 3D clocks. You can check that with Furmark and GPU-Z. The clocks should be the same as reported in the first
page of GPU-Z. If not it's locked in 2D.
You get this message in 3D Mark 11 because of the modded driver.

 

Thank you for answere.
I think you right - my card may work only on 2D. I find another think - in GPUz small box with PhysX is not mark.
I try use MSI afterburn to be force clock but I cant unlock settings.
What can cost that problem?

 

I think you have to modify the psastes. I don't really know what that means, but Meaker can help you I think.

 

The 560m gets stuck in the low power state as it needs system bios hooks to clock up which is why amd cards are usually recommended. You could edit that state using svet's vbios tuner but I would never run off battery and run 3d as it uses the same state which could overheat the battery.

 

Thank you for your attention, I just need make sure to this is only vbios issue. Here is answere from a very nice Man who make a SVET vbios tuner:
"Hi Tomasz,



Yes, you can modify desired P-state with my tool to set desired core clocks, memory clocks and desired voltage for each P-state.
But i dunno if that would help, the card can become unstable due higher clocks.
Else yes you can modify desired parameter to desired setting with my tuner.


BR,
Svet

 

Ok,
I had my 560mm gtx flashed with moded vbios and as you can see on picture card can work on max speed.Now the question is what cost that problem to in normal vbios card just running on slowest speed?
Do you know how to fix that?

 

I know this post is a little aged now, but I'm looking at a spot of upgrading on my 8935.
Did you (or anyone) ever source one of these GFX cards and get it fitted successfully? Any issues with cooling - my chassis has the 35W capable cooling system as it originally shipped with a P7350 which I intend to replace with a T9800 chip that I've sourced.

 

Hi there, i'ts kind of optimistic after almost another year from the post which got no answer... but i as well hope to know if anyone upgraded the 8935g-GPU successfully to whatever. I replaced the p7450 with a p8800, works fine, but i tried 2 geforce gts 250m's (just to sure and i have a radeon hd 6770m, but i already found some1 who said it didnt work for him. So, did any of you guys make it beyond the original hd 4670m-Level? And if yes, on windows 7 or also on 8 (8.1) ? And how ? Thx a lot in advance for any kind of answer