6970m in G73JW - fail :(

Gaming hard, my JH lasts about 45 minutes - on a ~80 watt-hour battery, that's 106 watts.
The power pack is designed to handle a theoretical high draw from the laptop AND charging the battery. (imagine being not able to both charge your battery and play at the same time, only having to chose 1 or the other... Asus wouldn't do that)

Also, the Asus power pack has been shown to provide up to 170-some watts (running both prime95 and furmark) from the wall... though it does get hot.

Therefore, I'd think the power pack won't really matter unless you find yourself charging AND gaming hard on a new GPU. My jh rarely goes out, and the battery to me is an integrated UPS for power outages...

As for 6970m in a JH, see my other thread, I expect to have results on success/fail by the 20th (or so)

 

I use a 920xm and the 6970m with the standard 150W PSU and it works so far... but I don't now as much about the G73 as about the M15x... the bigger screen probably draws a bit more power and the second hard drive as well...

I think power shouldn't be a problem with a 720/820qm, and if the 920xm draws to much power you can still lower the multi and TDP/TDC a bit.

...but first of all let's see whether the card works at all...!!

 

I had measured the power draw of my G73JH and the Medion X7811.

X7811 (i7-720qm):
Prime + Furmark: ~146W
But there is a throttling of the GPU while running both. Also with 150W AC.

G73JH (i7-740qm)
Prime + Furmark: max. 149W
Just Prime: 73-82W (differs through brithness level and other sucking lights)
This 82W is with full brightness, wifi, keyboard light etc.
Furmark ran fullscreen in FHD! Windowed max. 142W.

Only Furmark results:
Furmark windowed stock clocks 5870m (700/1000): ~116W
Furmark windowed overclocked 5870m (800/1100): ~125W
Furmark fullscreen overclocked 5870m (800/1100): ~132W

 

I guess you measured with a kill-o-watt or something similar, keep in mind you still have a measurement error of about ±10W, also since you measure between wall and PSU you also measure the power which gets dissipated by the PSU itself.

Anyway, these numbers are pretty insane... did the G73 with the 920xm come with a bigger PSU?
~150W whith prime and furmark and a i7 740QM probably explains why the system of my buddy which upgraded the CPU to a 920xm crashes from time to time when he's overclocking the CPU... not enough power.

 

I don't think it will be possible to run a 920xm Oc'ed to death with a 6970m in the G73 with the stock power adapter. Given the amount of heat it dissipates, i'm guessing a good portion of the power draw at the wall gets converted into heat. Anyways, if the 6970m works in the JH, expect me to test it with my 180W adapter.

 

Another reason why im hanging out for the 6970M before switching to the 920xm the 720qm will work very nice with the 6970M at full pelt.

 

JH+6970m is it compatible?

 

We should be a little closer to finding out by next week according to this post.

We can only hope.

 

But this begs the question: other than the 180W Targus adapter, are there any other, larger power bricks that will fit the G73? If I'm reading this right, the stock adapter is 150W, 19.5V, 7.7A with positive polarity. I know that if I were to run a 920/940XM and a 6970M in my JH, I'd want some more breathing room than 180W just to be safe. Does anyone know if the Targus brick is the only other choice?

 

What did you use to measure the consumption? Is there software that can measure this?

 

@LegendaryKA8: In case the mobo really allows you to draw more power than 150W with a higher rated PSU then you could still hack something together, not too difficult. Some cuts, a bit soldering and some shrink tube = FrankenPSU

 

Can't you try to upgrade the SW series? I guess the SX maybe will work.

 

I was considering that route. I think the 230W PSU from the Dell XPS M1730 would be a good candidate, if it meets the voltage/amp specs of the G73. When it comes to this sort of thing it pays to be careful. I think everything at this point is speculation until someone gets the 6970 into their system; at least those with the 920/940XM CPUs aren't having power issues with their OCs.

Edit: It looks like the M1730 brick outputs 19.5V, so that's a go, but also puts out 11.8A. I'm not really certain if it would work, but if a beefier power supply is needed this one might be worth a shot. Another possibility I just thought of might also be the G74 brick once it comes out.

 

Actually, the power that an adapter can output is P (W) = V x I (A). As long as the voltage output is the same, it's fine. The amperage will be determined by the required power draw. 11.8A is the max the adapter was designed to handle. What i'm really curious about is the power output at the tip of the adapter when the G73's CPU and GPU are fully used. I wouldn't be surprised if the adapter's efficiency is around 80% or maybe even less considering the amount of heat it dissipates when gaming.

 

Well, that goes to show how much I know about the basics of electricity, haha. It's been waaaay too long since I've delved into these sorts of things. However if the voltage is what needs to be the same, it looks like the M1730 brick might be a good candidate for modification if need be. I am also curious as to how the current power adapter will handle any sort of increased load, or if a more powerful adapter will be necessary.

 

What about this one? I think it's good candidate for mod too. HP 230W Smart (AT895AA). Specs: Output: 19.5V / 11.8A (230W). It has good price 50€.

 

Yes, but let's wait and see whether the 6970m works in the JH...

 

A candidate maybe, but what makes you think the connector will even fit the G73's DCIN?

 

That's why I wrote the candidate for the mod. Replacing the connector would take only a few minutes.

 

Cant wait to hear the results.


Rep+ for the person testing the card in the JH

 

I measured with a simple but pretty acurate kill-o-watt.
So it is of course the AC-side.
Notebookcheck tested the 2630 in the SW which draws little more. And there is throttling.

Hehe, let the race begin.
I'm on a good course of get one too.

 

At least if it doesn't work in the G73JH, your GX740 will probably make friends with it. Here's hoping it work though.

 

HW Monitor can give you info on the CPU power consumption.

 

Yeah I have a few programs that provide me with the CPU voltage and wattage but I was wondering if there is a program that monitors the entire wattage drain? I doubt it but before I buy an amp meter thought I would check.

 

batterybar should show your discharge rate on battery - not sure about on AC power. I don't think the power draw is reported by ACPI when it's on AC.

 

This is what I thought I know there are a few sums you can do to work out the amount of drain but I would rather know exactly what draw im getting because I think my adaptor is underpowered for the overclocks I have at full load.

I am using a standard Asus adaptor but as its from the US the fellow I bought it from had another convertor plug that the 2 pins go into and then it goes into a UK socket. I will pick up a meter and check it out.

 

You will see the charge rate while on AC.

Short test with BatteryBar (high perf. profile, full brightness).
Prime: ~76W
Furmark (windowed): ~100W
Furmark+Prime: max. const. ~124W

The BIOS doesn't let the system draw too much. I saw peaks of 145W while running Furmark and Prime, but the CPU quickly throttelt down to 933MHz (lowest freq.). I guess it's a protection for the battery.