Upgrading my M15x GPU and I have a few questions

Hi guys, im planning to upgrade the 5850m in my M15x to the 7970m and I have the following questions:

1. I currently have the i7 740qm as my CPU, Will this bottleneck the 7970m? (I use my laptop primarily for gaming)
2. Do I need to upgrade my power brick as well? I currently have the 150W one.
3. Upgrade monkey is currently selling the GPU for $468 on ebay. Is this a good deal in the current market? Here is the link:

Promotion Alienware AMD HD Dell 7970M 2GB GDDR5 for M15X M17x M18x Upgrade | eBay

Thanks!

 

1. Most games are GPU reliant, so in general gaming, little or no bottlenecking from that processor. You will of course see an improvement if you upgraded the processor as well.
2. The 150W PSU will be fine for the 7970m.
3. It seems to be the going rate for the card. Worth checking out the Market Place on the forum, and just generally any 'private' sales on eBay. Unfortunalty this card doesn't seem to depreciate much!

 

Thanks for the reply!

Will the 7970m fit into the bracket of the 5850m? Would I need to grind anything? (ie. is the 7970m plug and play?)

 

I believe it will be plug and play, someone with a 7970m will probably comment on that. I had no issues going from a 5850m to the NVidia 770m.

 

I'm pretty sure the bracket will fit. My bracket came from a 6990m and fits just fine. You may need to buy new screws and remove the c-clip screws as I did.

I would immediately start budgeting for an i7 920xm and 210 or 240w PSU as your current CPU and PSU will only hold the 7970m back (not in all titles but certainly in 2014 AAA titles and poorly optimised games such as state of decay).

Sent from my One S running 4.4.2

 

The bracket from the 5800m series doesn't fit and will kill the card if it gets forced into the system with that backplate mounted. Problem described here: [Guide] M15x with AMD 6970m / 6990m - everything you need to know

 

Oh okay, thanks.

With that being said, I guess I will try to find a 770m as I am not comfortable with physically modifying my laptop. However, I have some additional questions with regards to the 770m.

1. I assume the 770m require the 240W PSU?
2. Does the 770m require a modification to the bios?
3. Would I have to buy specific thermal pads for the 770m?

Thanks!

Thanks!

 

1. The 150w PSU will work fine, but to minimise any risk of throttling you may want to upgrade.
2. I would advise flashing the BIOS. svl7 is the man for that, he has done a lot of work on it. You don't have to, but there are benefits in doing so.
3. Ive re-used my thermal pads, though have some new ones to put in. No harm with some new ones, and if you existing ones look a bit 'grubby' worth replacing.

If you can stretch to a 680m then this will offer better performance. The 770m sits below the 7970m / 680m. Note, with any Nvidia card above the 460m you will need to modify the *.inf file when installing the drivers ( Nvidia INF driver modding (Guide) - Guru3D.com Forums as an example).

 

If you upgrade to the 7970m you will not have to modify your system more than you would with any other card you put in above the 460m or the 5850m (which are the latest models supported by Dell), it is true that the 5850m bracket will not work, but the one for the 6990 will work for sure, and there is an excellent guide for this upgrade by svl7 in Tech Inferno, look it up, it'll help you a lot.

 

Thanks for all your input guys. I think I will end up purchasing the 680m after browsing through forums. I would like some more clarifications before I make the purchase on ebay.


1. Will I need to purchase the 240W brick for the 680m GPU with i7 740qm CPU? From what I gathered, the 680m require less voltage compared to the 7970m.
2. Does the backplate and bracket of the 5850m fit the 680m? I've read through svl7 's 6900m installation guide but does this also apply to the 680m? (the 680m being sold on ebay does not come with any accessories or installation kit)
3. If everything is compatible then all I need is thermal paste (I have the arctic mx-4) As for the thermal pads, I can reuse the ones currently on my 5850m if they are not damaged. Am I right?

Thanks!

 

150w PSU should be fine unless you plan to get a 920/940xm and overclock it. You might get somw throttling unless you remove PSU centre pin. Might be worth picking up a 210w or 240w, remove centre pin, for throttle-free gaming.

No you'll need an nvidia backplate. Someone might be able to sell you the right backplate in the NBR marketplace.

You'll need to modifiy the driver inf file and flash svl7's vbios to get full 3d clocks. Should be able to reuse thermal pads. 7970m is more plug and play.

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