Upgrading Area 51 m9750 video card questions, please help :)

Hello guys,

I was going through alot of forums for Alienware support but you are the most active and insightful that Ive found and I wish if you could please help me in my problem, Im gonna get to the point and not chit-chat any further^^

I have an alienware area 51 m9750, 2G RAM and nvidia GeForce Go 7950 GTX with T7200 2.0 GHZ processor,recently installed Win7 64-bit

Well, I want to upgrade my video card and RAM because I am willing to play some new games such as ff14 online...etc, I have been looking for a good replacement for my video card but since I am not that into video cards and replacements and all the different models that might install on my machine and using my limited knowledge and google I found these preferred choices:

1- ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5830
2- ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
3- NVIDIA GeForce 9700M GT

I dont know if they all fit in in my machine, if you could please guide me to choose the best choice for my machine or even if u have any other video card that you see is better and reasonable in price, speaking of prices, I could not find a website where I can purchase these cards for laptops, all I have found was desktop video cards, if you have a good website for laptop video cards that I could buy from ^^

as for the RAM, I learned that mine is DDR2 with 200-pin and are PC-5300, i honestly dont know if i should look for only these specs when looking for a replacement for RAM or any would fit, I would like to have up to 4G or maybe more depending on your opinion if 4G is not enough should I go for more RAM?

The great thing about the machine that I can change those things and upgrade them, but when i wanted to do so I got lost with all the specs and options XD

I would really appreciate it if anybody could help me and if u need more specs about my machine I would gladly and promptly reply^^

thank you guys awaiting ur great replies^^

 

The M9750's chipset doesnt support addressing more than 4gb of ram, by all means install more but you wont be able to use anything over the 4gb irrespective of 64-bit operating system or not. It takes DDR2 667 RAM - that is the type of RAM you need to get.
As for those cards:
1. None of them will fit
2. None of them are a good upgrade on a 7950gtx (maybe 10% performance increase with the best)

Laptop video cards are hard to come by. The M9750 was originally supplied with 7950's or 8700M GT's. The 8700's are inferior cards to the 7950's however. The only other card which is known to work is the ATI HD3870 - a single ATI 3870 performs slightly better than SLI 7950's.
As for the best place to buy cards eBay or the NBR marketplace are the best options. Your best bet may be to get an additional 7950 and enabling SLI.

 

Thank you for ur reply^^

i had a concern, if i downgraded to the 32bit version of win7, is the machine gonna perform better, because as I might falsely understand that the 64bit versions requires more RAM to run so I would have more RAM available, or it won't matter that much

and about the video card, isn't better to just get a single ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 and replace the 7950GTX and working on a single chip instead of enabling SLI ? I haven't used SLI before and Im afraid that I might have problems especially with win7

as for the ebay, I couldnt find any ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 on there, only the PC models, and honestly I dont know what do you mean by the NBR marketplace, sorry I am new here -_-

thanks again and sorry for being the noob i am XD I really need help

 

if you have two 7950 and use them on slii you will see some improvement when switching to a single 3870 if you use only one 7950 you would see massive improvement when switching to a single 3870

and if you search massive gpu performance you could still instal 2 3870 and make a CFX solution

New and used ati radeon mobility 3870, Computers Networking on eBay.ca
here you go

2gb is fine for win 7 64 bit how ever to game 4gb would be better
also switching to a 32 bit os you would be limited to 3.5 GB (.5 gb is still owrth keeping if you plan on upgrading to 4g of ram later)

 

2x3870's require the use of a crossfire cable which is very difficult to obtain - it is also not a huge performance leap (20%) over a single 3870 in the m9750 due to the CPU.

As for your statement that a 32-bit os limits the RAM more than 64-bit that is completely wrong in the m9750, the chipset is limited to 32-bit ram addressing irrespective of operating system installed. Install 4gb in an m9750 and use 64-bit OS and you will STILL have the same amount of usable RAM as you would have on a 32-bit OS.

 

the m9750 bios is limiting or this is not an intel chipset?
cause all intel chipset from the C2D can adress 4GB of RAM or at least should be able to (AW bios might be castrating it they did it to the m17 for a time to)


only 20% increase from single card to dual .....

 

It is an Intel chipset limitation, NOT the BIOS. Alienware made several attempts to fix the problem but the chipset is still holding it back. It can address a maximum of 4gb and that's the key only being able to address 4gb is the identical limitation of a 32-bit operating system. Which means that the resource assignments and the graphics card memory all come out of that 4gb.

 

That seller on eBay had two of the HD 3870 video cards. Now he just has one because I bought one. So, for now, he still has one for Geddoee if he wants it.

Will this be as easy to install as it was for me to replace my blown 7950? Just plug it in, use the same heat sink with some arctic silver and update the driver? Or, will I need a machine shop to make a heat sink for it?

dt

 

Personally I wouldnt have gone near a seller selling those from China. Considering the systems it came in were never sold there
You can just plug it in and go but you need to reposition the memory thermal pads to line up with the hd3870. Please also note you need to get the thermal paste application perfect and screw the heatsink on well.

 

the m17 was and those card where for the m17

there was also a pic of a alienFX m17 keyboard in traditional chinese around sometime ago

 

Thanks for the tips. I was reluctant to buy the card from China but the seller has a 98.7% satisfaction rating and since those cards are hard to find.... I was concerned that it might not be a Master but now I see in its photo that it has the M sticker on it so it probably is.

Thanks for the info about installation. I'll be carefull with the heat sink hardware. Have there been incidences of people frying 3870's because of suspect inferior installation? I see it can use ten more watts than the 7950 (55w vs 45w) which means 22% more heat. Since I fried a 7950, should I be worried or do they hold up well if installed well?

Thanks for the info about the 3870! I wasn't aware of this option until this thread and now I am really looking forward to better gaming and faster photoshop.

 

I dont think anyone has "fried" one yet but we've seen some temps in excess of 100C which is far too hot for the cards. They seem to be fairly reliable and resiliant to heat.
The cards i've installed top out at 85C which is acceptable.

 

WOW thanks guys for the great info, it exceeded my expectations, i didnt think that I would get that much feedback and info in this short time this forum is really the best^^ guess ill be sticking around whenever i need help and try to help others with my limited knowledge >_>

anyways, I have decided to increase the RAM first and run the benchmarks and stuff, if the numbers arent that much of a difference I'll get an ATI mobility HD 3870, and thanks for the info on the installation I have already checked videos and threads about applying thermal paste and installing VGAs and I think im ready, i have replaced the video card cuz it died on me, it was under warranty but im the one who got the parts and replaced it so im familiar with the installation, i just have to apply the thermal paste correctly and adjust the heat sink^^

umm...what do u mean by a Master chip, are there different types of the mobility 3870?

 

yup there are diferent for crossfire cause you need a master and a slave device in that case how ever the diference on the 3870 is only software as thier boards are identical so you can flash a master to lave and a slave to master with no issue

 

There have been reports of problems attempting to flash a slave card to a master bios and I doubt you could do it very easily in the m9750. In any case you need a master card and it goes into the position of the "Daughter" card in the m9750.

 

oh ok, so I should be looking for a master card to put in my laptop

Ive read that the difference between the master and slave cards is only the bios, should i get a slave card if i couldnt find any master available online?

 

As I stated before I doubt you would be able to flash it successfully in the M9750 - nVidia and ATI dont play well together even less so when theres a proprietery nVidia chip soldered in the middle. You would need to do it in an M17 which already has a master card to be successful.

 

ok, thanks for the help, I was reading through this great post and im think im ready

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...319975-m9750-ati-mobility-3870-does-work.html

all i have to do is to get my hands on one now^^

thanks again guys

 

I hope you find one real soon, Geddoee. Have you asked the eBay seller if the one he has left is a master?

Thanks for mentioning they thread about the hd 3870. I learned some usefull stuff there. In that thread people were saying that the 3870 should be cheap and plentiful by now but it looks like that never happened. That's too bad because I wouldn't mind having a second master.

 

it never hapened lol thse card got out of production for a while now and almost every mxm III 2.1 laptop out there wan them because the nvidias are dieing on them

 

Good luck mate.

A couple of us on this forum own a m9750 + HD 3870

 

Can anyone please confirm if an Alienware M9700 NVidia Go 7900GS 256mb is compatible with an Alienware m9750 with a previous 7950GTX?

My video card died and I'm looking for the cheapest replacement.

Does it matter if I use a daughter or parent if only one gpu present?

Thanks!

 

Yup, you can use the Alienware Nvidia Go 7900GS in your m9750, and it doen's matter parent or daughter for single card use.

 

Hey Joker, thanks for your reply!

Are you positive I can do that? Alienware tech support wouldn't confirm it, just told me to follow the guidelines at ztronics.com, where, of course, the 7900GS isn't listed as replacement option for the 7950gtx

 

Its the same socket and the same video bios, so I'd bet money it'd work. And, I think when the m9750 came out the low end option was a Go 7900.