Advice on upgrades please

I've been out of the PC world for a little while. And I'm looking into what are some recommended upgrades for my M15X as I have some free time finally. My main uses for it are gaming, studio mixing, and video editing. I'd like to be able to run modern games coming out at high settings without worrying. Not so much mmo's but more graphic heavy ones. I generally play every FPS or 3PS that comes out.

My current set up:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q740 1.73GHz
Running a gtx460m
6gigs of Ram.

Would I see the biggest boost in performance if I got a new GPU? If so whats the best I can get at the moment that will run smooth, 7970?

Does anyone think I should bother getting 2 more gigs of Ram? Will I notice anything? I'm not sure whether anyone has been successful with adding any more than that.

That's pretty much it, just looking for advice and recommendations from anyone!
Thanks.

 

1.) For CPU I recommend 920XM. Unlocks with throttlestop so no point in spending extra for the 940xm which is essentially the same.
2.) For GPU you are correct. 7970M all the way. Pretty much a desktop 7870 out of the box. And runs much cooler than the previous gen 6990M.
3.) You can install 2x 8GB 1333mhz DDR3 modules for total of 16GB of RAM. Although for gaming you are very unlikely to see any difference in perf doing this upgrade.
4.) Whack in an SSD.

I really recommend doing the CPU and GPU upgrades first. The 920XM once unlocked has so much mileage in it that it can keep pace with the 2920xm (stock speed) when fully overclocked which also puts it at 3610qm levels! Very powerful chip. To put it simply you will see about a 75% increase in performance once you push over 3ghz across 8 threads on the XM chips. Something the Q740 can't even do at 2ghz! As an exampe I can run my 920XM at 3.33ghz across all 4 cores running 8 threads at 100% load for hours on end video encoding. The 740qm can do about 1.8ghz max in this situation :thumbsup:

 

Thanks.
Where dyou look for CPU's or anything else besides ebay? Is it an easy install? I've never manually upgraded anything on my laptop before.
And what would you suggest be the first upgrade, GPU? Not sure I can afford all this at once.

 

Definitely go for SSD first. You will see the a big performance jump coming from HDD to SSD.

If you already have one, then perhaps go for RAM, CPU, and GPU

Take note - the 7970m is still very, very expensive, which is why I place it last But that's just me

 

Doesn't the 7970 go for around 500$? What's the next best thing next to it?
And where do you recommend getting an SSD?

 

I can't say I agree with Anphant.

You say you primarily want to play the latest games and do video editing. This means upgrading to SSD and more RAM are the least important upgrades.

I would seriously recommend upgrading the CPU first as it doesn't cost too much. You can find the 920XM ES for around $200 perhaps even lower once you count the cash you get selling your Q740. Ebay is your best bet here. Don't worry about the chips being new ES. I also run an ES as do many here and they run great! This upgrade will help you with you studio mixing, video editing and also in some more CPU intensive games.

As far as upgrading the GPU is concerned. Always check the NBR marketplace for great deals. I also recommend the 6970M or 6990M although they run hotter than the 7970M. Also if you are looking to play the latest titles on max settings only the newer gen cards can do it compentently (that said I played BF3 on max settings (minimal AA) at 1080p with my old 6990M in this machine, I was running it at stock clocks with the CPU at 3ghz across all cores and the game was perfectly smooth). Not long ago a 6990M went for well under $300 on here.

Top end Nvidia cards like the 580M and 570M don't gel well with the M15x so if you want to go high end it is safer to stick with tried and tested AMD. Also always buy the dell versions of cards. If you don't you will lose native fan control of the GPU and the GPU fan will run full speed all the time.

Now if you do alot of photoshop etc then a RAM upgrade will also help loads, however video editing loves CPU power as do certain game.

So firstly CPU, then GPU shortly afterwards. Then hunt around for a decent SSD. Maybe in a years time 16GB will be cheap and you can upgrade then like I hope to.

 

Thanks dude that's all really helpful.
Dyou have any explanation as to why those Nvidia cards don't work well?
And regarding the 6990m and 7970m, those aren't plug and play correct? You have to have the right pieces to physically install it no? Same with the 920XM ES?

 

Lots of power issues with NVIDIA and the M15x. The cards work awesome, but they simply require too much power that the M15x can't give.

If you are going to go XM CPU and 7970M, you might not be able to OC them even due to power imitations and eventual throttling. The 7970M is a POWERFUL card and worth the money but the XM might not be worth it to run it on stock clocks.

For me, I'd upgrade SSD last since HDD speed won't effect you too much in anything of your desired tasks, RAM will be my next upgrade after GPU. If it was anything besides the M15x, I'd recommend CPU right after GPU, but you might want to weigh your options due to power availability first, if and when the 740qm bottlenecks majorly, then upgrade the CPU. I'd go: GPU, RAM, CPU, SSD.

 

Ooh just got me before I head out on holiday for a few days

The 920xm is completely plug and play. SImply remove heatsink and 740qm. Clean heatsink, install 920XM and apply fresh paste on its die. Screw heatsink back on put fan back and voila its installed. It will work right away.

The GPU is also plug and play. Just like with the CPU you need to remove the fan first, then heatsink. Then clean up your heatsink and 460M. Install new card, apply fresh thermal paste on its die and screw heatsink back on. Try to purchase the 7970M or 6990M with its own backplate as sometimes there are small compatibility issues between cards as far as the backplate is concerned (the metal brace on the back on the card that the heatsink screws down into. This metal brace can be removed with care and swapped with another that fits better if need be.

Once installed you will need to uninstall your nvidia drivers completely and run physion's driver sweeper to clear out any remnants. Once restarted you can head to AMD's website and auto download the latest driver for you new GPU. Process really simple. Once finished it will prompt restart and once again voila you are done.

As for power issues. There are some in that if you push both 7970M and 920xm hard the GPU WILL throttle but this is true with any high end card in the M15x. With a moderate CPU OC and stock clocks on the gpu no throttling will occur. In games where more GPU muscle is required you can dial your CPU back a bit and OC the 7970M a little more for extra performance. Although this card is powerful enough for the moment.

As you do video encoding you will really benefit from having a CPU that is basically twice as fast as your current one once unlocked and overclocked! So for you CPU is where it is at as you need it for these kind of tasks not only gaming. Then GPU then RAM a long while later.

 

One thing to keep in mind re video editing. Both Photoshop CS6 (and last few versions, and Photoshop Premiere Pro CS6 will use an Nvidia card to speed rendering and processing and, as far as I know, they do not use AMD cards in this way. You may want to do the processor and Ram upgrades, then try turning on and off the video card processing with your present card to see how much of a difference it makes. Then check the Adobe site to see if they are now also using AMD cards. The power consumption issues for high end Nvidia cards presently are real, but check with others who are using them to see how big an issue that is. I agree with the processor and ram upgrades for editing.

Keep us posted

Joe

 

Hi All,

Great thread for me as I am in a very similar position as the OP. I have virtually the same machine - here are the important specs:

Intel® Core? i7-740QM
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM(2x4GB)
500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 460M

I've noticed it getting some sub-par performance from newer games (GW2, PS2 beta, Skyrim) and am now investigating upgrades.

I do a lot with my m15x but I would want the upgrades almost exclusively for in-game performance. My first thought was a SSD simply because it seems like the easiest part to swap, is relatively inexpensive, and (from what I understand) you get a pretty substantial boost in performance. After reading this thread, now I'm not so sure. From what I understand, these are my three upgrade options:

1. SSD - ??($150 and up)
2. GPU - Radeon 6970M, 6990M or 7970M ($320-$450)
3. CPU - i7-920XM (what does the ES denote?) (~$200)

Lastly, I'm having trouble with all the SSD options and their differences. I've found a Corsair Force Series 240GB 2.5IN SATA2 for $594 and a Corsair Force 3 Series 240GB 2.5IN SATA3 6GB/S for $154 and can't for the life of me see why the first is so much more expensive. Any thoughts, recommendations, comments would be really great.

Also - if I'm hi-jacking this thread let me know, just thought it was pretty on topic so I'd include it here.

 

I can answer the question about the price difference in the ssd's. The first is SATA2 and the 2nd is SATA3. SATA2 has max transfer rate of 3GB/sec. and SATA3 has max transfer rate of 6GB/sec. If you are running an M15X, the SATA2 is all you need, since the M15X can't utilize the SATA3 speed; it will just run the SATA3 drive at about the same speeds as the SATA2 drive. This is a limitation of the chipset/mobo and can't be changed. You can either just buy the SATA2 drive and be done with it, or buy the SATA3 drive and when you get your next computer transfer it over. Why someone would be charging more for the SATA2 than the SATA3 I can't explain though, that's weird.

The ES when referring to the CPU stands for engineering sample, and these are basically the same as the OEM CPU's when discussing the 920XM and 940XM.