Can I upgrade to 8800/9600 myself?

I want to know if is it possible for AW to ship me the 8800/9600 and I can upgrade it myself with the help of Tech Support on call.

I will be visiting Redmond in Feb. for a week (Tech Ready 8), since the tenure of stay is very limited I do not want to send my laptop to AW. I would prefer preorder the 9600 and get it delivered to my friend's place in States and pick it up on my visit.

Does that sounds like a feasible thing to do? AW REPS - Armando, etc???

 

yeah, i think this is how it's done - someone's upgrading their m17x that way too.

 

Thanks Whizzo for quick response, any idea how much would be the price difference. And how about cooling of my laptop... it can already touch 79-80c, will 9600 burn it out ?

 

The 9600m GT wont show much if any improvement over the 8700m GT.

 

Are you sure? I have 8700 and not 8800... I guess 9600 and 8800 are same and double the power than 8700

 

what's this talk about the 9600m-gt? i thought AW offered the 9800m-gt on the m15x?

 

Upgrading the video does not require to send the system in. We would send you the upgrade and a technician will assist you should you need instructions. For pricing and availability information please contact customer service dept.

Thank you.

 

that was a confusion... yeah its 9800

 

You answered it thanks. I am still concerned about the heating problems.. will there be any ? Will you also send me new heat sinks of 8700 heat sinks are enough for it... what about silver paste ?

 

You will receive the heat sink that is for the video card, any other necessary cooling accessory will also be included.

 

At WXGA(1280x800) the 8700m GT should be getting the most out of your games, a 9800 is a bit of a waste unless you hook your laptop up to an external monitor with a higher resolution.

Just my opinion, you'll still see an improvement in games but it wont be worth the price.

 

Yeah, like being able to play Crysis at High Settings The 9800 is 2 times the power of an 8700 and then some. It's definitely not a waste if you are planning to play more of the higher end games.

 

NFS Undercover gives me jerks if I put the AA to 6X, Crysis is best played on Medium with 8700. I made a huge mistake I guess with 8700 I will spend over 350 to get a 9800 now

 

Still I am not paying that for overnight delivery

 

My question would be, can I do it without cross-shipping. I'd rather suffer with only the on-board video while upgrading, and without having a small fortune charged to my credit card.

concept: I get shipping labels, remove my 8700M GT, ship it to AW, when they recieve it, they charge the difference to my ccard, and ship me the new card, which I install when I get it.

With the hybrid graphics on the m15x, I don't see why this wouldn't be an option.

 

They dont take the used ones back, I have confirmed. And the new one will cost me 566.67

 

I too thought of upgrading, im going to wait a few months and see if the price comes down a bit....

good luck with the upgrade

 

I am skeptical about it after hearing the price... i will also wait as I will be in states in feb

 

I dont blame you.. i asume that 566.67 is usd?

have you tried the new drivers 180.48 it made alot of difference to my gaming with the 8700

 

Yep... I am running on 180.70, you cannot past 6000 with any driver or any OC with 8700... I am getting 5600

 

that really sucks... gah. oh well, I guess I'll just wait till the price comes down a little.

 

BAH! 6000 more like 7000 that what I get with my 8700M GT

 

I thought you had 8800... liaaarrr

 

nah ill even give you the bios and whatever u need... its 7000 after that it gets fuzzy

 

You OCed it ?

 

ofc he did.. i guess

 

yeah np... everything is running fine with the OC

 

tell me how... I am gonna try that out.

 

was it $350 (upgrade option when u/we first buy m15x)
on their website before ?

 

It was 300 I guess to upgrade from 8700 wish I had done it in first place.

 

Get gpu-z read the video card bios and save it, then download nibitor and open the bios you just saved now you can change the clock values I may suggest 750/970/1500 but it might prove to be slightly unstable just try different values... now save the bios with the changed clock values. Create a bootable DOS usb stick so you can try this process as many times as you like, now download nvflash and dump both files into the usb stick together with the modified bios and original bios with the custom clocks... now reboot and boot from the usb you will run the command "nvFlash.exe -A -j -4 -5 -6 NAMEOFYOURBIOS.rom" (no quotations) if it completes successfully boot back into your OS and check your clocks with GPU-Z if not flash the original back. Good luck report back with your results.

Sorry for the wall of text, but im busy to write a full guide

 

can you give me your BIOS, I have kept a backup of original for mine. I will try with your to see how it goes.

 

the values are in the order core/memory/shader?
if i want to do this do i have to change to voltages to or is it stable with this setup? (just adjusting the 3D values)

 

Clocks are in order, you don't have to change the voltage settings.
You may download the BIOS HERE

You might want to experiment I would love to hear of better settings

 

It just worked... lemme run some real benchmarking... I was getting 19-20fps from undercover with everything maxed out (x6 AA)... lemme run this and see the difference.

EDIT: Did I said... Thanks!!!

 

You are very welcome! Post back your results I really want to hear more, quick...

 

Wow... 6 points jump at x6 AA.. AA turned off and I hit 35.. not bad. Thanks Francis. +Rep

 

running 3dmark06 now to see the results

 

Synthetic results also improved... still under 7K but I am contended!



and Temps are all under control...

 

Improve your score and results by changing your Driver to 180.44 by DOX. They will also increase FPS on some games...

 

upgraded to 180.70 DOX and got synthetic improvements

3DMark Score 6835 3DMarks
SM2.0 Score 2937
HDR/SM3.0 Score 2748
CPU Score 2248

NFS Undercover showed just little improvement.. 2 points, but still its better than what I had.

 

True great score with the 180.70 by DOX...

 

Thanx for the bios I will try it when i get home i downloaded the 180.70 drivers from laptop2go but it doesnt say if there from dox. Should I update to the 36x bios for extra cooling i now have the x34? I will let you know my 3dmark score

 

Actually I am currently in x32; you might want to downgrade to that.

 

it keeps saying it cant open the bios file even if i put all those letters and numbers behind it
if i save your bios file to.rom instead of .bin would that still let the grafic card handle it? or can it only handle .bin?

 

it worked my 3dmark scores are

normal bios
3DMark Score 5619
SM 2.0 Score 2369
SM 3.0 Score 2165
CPU Score 2144

oc'ed bios
3DMark Score 6554
SM 2.0 Score 2844
SM 3.0 Score 2592
CPU Score 2182

thanx rfrancis that are some nice inprovements

 

You are very welcome... sorry for not offering help earlier I've been busy however I would love to hear more results