upgrade graphics card

hi guys i know there are some other threads about upgrading graphics cards but i thought id post my own (mods if you feel it should be merged then fine go ahead)

anyways i recently found out about the nvidia 8600M GS scandal as such. by this i mean the huge amounts of these (and other similar models) that were all faulty to begin with

ok so i have an aspire 5920G with the 8600M GS 256mb, and after looking at some of the other threads (as mentioned above) i thought maybe i should ditch this soon to be faulty card and upgrade...

ok so i was think for starters 512mb-1gb of ram and at least a 9600 or 9800(or the equivlent radeon, btw whats the equivlent radeons to these two?)

now i dont know much about the laptop graphics cards (desktop cards are fine) so how do i tell what connector it is (does anyone know?) and what will be compatible? also how is the card connected to the vga output? is this connected to the actual card or after the socket? so basically will i just have to lift out the old card and slot the new one in, or will i have to find different plug etc and pull those out etc etc?

any help would be greatly appreciated, also any recomendations for this laptop specifically?

 

Hey mtarm, you're being quite proactive by thinking about an upgrade now. The 8600M GS is a bit of a ticking time bomb due to the questionable manufacturing materials used; it may last as long as you need it to, but it may not.
So, what options do we have? Your Aspire 5920G has an MXM-II slot, which means it can accept an MXM-II card.

Thus, your options are:
GeForce 8600M GT 256/512MB DDR2 - Readily available, but probably suffers from the same time-bomb scenario as the GS.
GeForce 9500M GS 512MB DDR2- Same core as the 8600M GT, but with a few revisions. Could be safer, but no one knows for sure.
GeForce 9600M GT 512MB GDDR3/1GB DDR2 - Unfortunately, this thing is incompatible with the 5920G due to a BIOS lock.
Radeon HD 3650 256MB GDDR3/512MB DDR2 - Slightly more expensive than the 8600M GT, but if you get the GDDR3 version, it'll be faster.
Radeon HD 4650 1GB DDR2 - These are just being leaked out of Acer's warehouse now, but they have GONZO performance, even with DDR2 memory.

Unfortunately, you won't be able to get a 9800 of any stripe into your system. Those are MXM-III or MXM-IV cards, and too large and powerful to fit.

You can locate your MXM-II card easily - it's the thing covered by your heatsink OTHER than the CPU and northbridge. It connects to the motherboard, which routes it to the VGA output.
It's a simple remove and replace job.

 

any links to where i could get any of them and how much are they, as i dont have much money however i want to keep my laptop running....touch wood^infinite... lol

 

The 8600M GT and HD 3650 can be acquired at MXM-Upgrade, and the 9500M GS and 8600M GT will be back in stock at MXM Video Quest soon, I hope.
9600M GTs are out on eBay along with the 8600M GT and HD 3650, but I'd be slightly careful that you aren't getting an Engineering Sample card (ES).
The Radeon HD 4650 is exceedingly rare, so expect to pay through the nose.

 

buggger....

es?

 

I'm interested in this. So, if the 8600M GS in my 5920G dies, I can replace it with one of these cards.

Is there a guide how to upgrade a laptop GPU?

 

hey tehsuigi after looking at that reveiw of your 6920G do you fell like doing a trade?

 

ES = Engineering Sample. May not be stable, even at stock voltages. Not meant for resale, so whoever's gotten ahold of them is breaking the rules.

McMaster, get yourself over to The Acer Guy's blog for their most awesome guide. It's made for the 5920G, but it should work for just about any system.

 

Thank you for the guide.

 

yes agreed that guide will help so much, just got to get the cash now...

would this void my acer warrenty i got a 3yr warrenty and im not even a year in (i live in oz if that makes any difference)

 

It may, it may not. Call Acer up and ask!
Acer Canada's warranty is surprisingly lenient - I just need to put my original T5550 CPU back in, and they'll service it just fine.