So my HD7970m died what now? HD8970m or GTX 8xxm?

Hi there,

so now my HD7970m died 6 Beeps of death... I am out of Warranty, so i need to buy a new GPU. I found on eBay those two offers:

HD8970m
GTX 870m

I think i can use my old X-Bracket for the HD8970m. For the GTX 870m i would need a new X-Bracket which would be another 30 Euro (40$) just for a new GPU.

My first Question is:
Can i buy the HD8970m without any consideration? I mean it is tested for Clevo Notebooks.Do i need to flash the vBios and if yes, can i just flash the vBios from Dell over it? Is it possible to do it using the Intel GPU for Video Output?

My second Question is:
Can i use the old Heatsink from my HD7970m with the GTX 870m?

Thx for the Help

raiden_87

*EDIT* I got a R4

 

The 870M is leaps better than the 8970M, lol. The 8970M is just an overclocked 7970M.

Go with the 870M.

 

yeah i know that. But it is 100€ more then the other one and i need a new X-Bracket and maybe a new Heatsink?!
I just would take the gtx 870m if i cant use that HD8970m in my R4 because of incompatibility...
Whats with vBios flash etc?

 

You should just need a new bracket. The heat sink is 3-pipe with the 7970M, right? It's the same for NVIDIA.

Honestly, you may be better off getting a GTX 680M. The 680M was made for the R4 - it should be plug and play, except the bracket.

 

ah guess i'm not alone w/ died 7970m recently (sept 4,2014) i just replaced mine w/ gtx 680m tho, few minutes ago.
was going to buy 880m or 780m but 880m got awful reviews and 780m got heat issues (according reviews).
so i was suggested by mickyd to get the 680m instead. says its a great card that w/ a mild OC can reach 780m performance w/o the heats.

 

The 780m is a beast with a little tweaking. It's tricky to invest a lot so close to a new gpu generation though.

 

Nuff said

 

@Black-bean: The 780M doesn't have heat issues. It's the 880M that has issues. The 780M is perfectly fine.

 

That's not what I was seeing in the AW 17 thread. 80+c is simply not acceptable on a laptop, but all I see is the complaints. My 680m runs all day gaming @ +210mhz and stays around 68c. Exactly the same as another user I helped out with overclocking a 680m.

There are also sound issues on the R3 that can be difficult to fix. On the R4 it's a no brainer IMO since you can get the 780m performance and it's fully plug-and-play. You even get to use the NV drivers straight off their web site .

Not seen a single 780m failure though so the silicon seems good. Did you repaste your 780m?

 

the thing is.. i only find 1 gtx 680m on ebay... for the exact same price then the 870m... so what i should i do?
*EDIT* i found 1 gtx 780m for nearly the same price

 

My 780M runs at like...71C~ while gaming. I've never seen above 78C, even before re-pasting it. It's the 880M that runs at 80C and above, not the 780M.

 

are u sure about that (780m no heat issues)?
the 780m i saw on ebay is refurbished from dell... will that be a problem? or should i buy a new one?

 

Thanks. Since NV/Dell had their cards throttling (until they fixed it) at 78c that is my personal max and would never accept hotter.

Exactly the temps I would expect, around 10c hotter but probably only goes to longevity, as well as warming up all the internals a little more . More accurately, I game at around 63c most of the time with max peak during benchmarks and intense activity of 68c.

R3/R4 with 780m = modified bios and modified driver AND tricky sound issue. Many people have said they get a white screen as soon as they enable the on-board sound.
R3 with 680m = same mods required but no sound issue and 100% success on many cases I have worked.
R4 with 680m = plug it in and go!

Of course right now unless you have to get a replacement it's wise to wait and see how the 980m turns out...

 

Yes, I am sure. I've owned three systems with 780M's. None of them had any heat issues. The Dell paste is bad, so cards run warm, but even with this bad paste, there are no issues with throttling. That's where the 880M becomes a turd. It throttles like a big baby and kills performance. The 780M does not have any of these issues. A simple re-paste will lower temperatures if they are problematic for you. It is rare to see even above 75C with the 780M, in my experience. The most I've ever seen was 78C, and that was on a very hot day in the summer.

You should just get a GTX 680M. It will be the easiest to install and will give you a little better performance than the 7970M.

 

Always bow to owner experience :thumbsup:.

Do you have any numbers from in-game benches/heaven 4 at stock? Again I'm only going on general opinion and not hard data whan I say 'close to 780m performance'. No 3d mark though, the CPU bound physics tests cripple my machine for some reason

TIA

 

My thread in the NBR Marketplace has my latest "stock" 780M benchmark.

 

Having a little difficulty finding it ,any chance of a link? Cheers.

 

The P score was 7837.

 

Sounds like a very good number but like I said my machine is borked in 3D mark but games perfectly (and heaven 4). Just looking to gather some hard data and avoid misrepresenting the 780m .

 

Forget 870M GTX (unless you can get it cheap, cause it has only 192bit wide bus) - better get 680M GTX or 780M GTX - these are nicest cards around for the moment.