GTX260M in G50VT?

Has anyone tried swapping in the GTX260M from a G51 to a G50VT? Does it work?

 

I'm not sure if anyone has tried it since you'd have to own both the G50 and G51 notebooks to try it out.

 

Not necessarily. I remember there was an Asus-type 260m floating around on eBay.

 

Yes, someone on the forums who owned both a G50vt and G51 swapped the cards and it worked. If I remember correctly he had almost the same temperatures too.

 

Or you can buy one from a laptop reseller.Some barebones companies do sell them but asking price is $400+

 

Take a look at this thread, it will answer your q's.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=408163

 

Thank you all for the response so far.

My next question would be:
Does swapping out the GPU require reapplication of thermal compound? Or is the GPU simply slotted in and screwed in securely like mini PCIe modules?

 

You need to reapply the TIM, this is a must. My recommendations are: AC MX-3 or an IC Diamond. If properly applied they should give better results than AS5 or other pastes similar to it. A few degrees lower is crucial in the G5X's series.
Just make sure you do not apply too much, otherwise the paste will do the opposite of what it should. A very thin layer on the core/ chip is what you should be looking for.
I suggest you use the ArctiClean to remove the old thermal compund from the heatsink, but some pure alcohol will do just fine.

 

Don't bother.

The performance increase from a 9800M GS to a GTX 260M is minimal enough that you're better off saving that $400 to spend on your next laptop

 

Or buy one of these new Intel SSD's (32nm). The difference is amazing.

 

I need the storage over speed right now... I have 1.5TB on my G50VT and am not willing to give up 340GB, even if it's mind-blowingly fast.

And I'm trying to grab a hold of a BestBuy G51, swap in the GTX260 and the white casing onto my G50VT.
Then selling the G51 with 9800GS and black/orage casing for cheaper.

 

I agree fully.

Better off getting the next laptop after with the money saved.

My G1S-A1 died, and Asus sends me back a G50VT-X5, I'm not exactly thrilled with this, but it'll do for now until the next Asus gamer laptop comes out, but by then I'll probably pick up a power house desktop, when StarCraft 2 comes out.

 

Hmmm same deal here, except i got the X1 version. Im quite astonished by the performance increase from the G1S that i had before. I also thought of grabbing a GTX 260M but decided against it seeing as how the asking price of one of these cards is too steep to justify its performance increase over the 9800m GS. Better off flashing the BIOS to 9800 GTS speeds and grabbing an X9000 when the warranty expires.

 

Why don't u just sell the G50 and buy the G51 from BB.

 

Because I want to keep the OLED, bluetooth and the higher resolution.

 

O BTW EVERYONE!! When I did the swap of the 260m into the G50 to try it out, The G50 bios did recognize the card but the cooling system went out of whack. In other words, The fan runs on full speed all the time. The only way to stop that is to find a G51 bios and flash that onto the G50.

 

...Thats an improvement from the G51 in my eyes.....

 

Not really since the G50 fan unit spins at a slower rpm and the fan spindle is shaped flat so it blows out less air when matched at the same rpm as the G51 fan. In other words, when I ran 3dmark with my G50 and a 260m, temps hit 105C. 10C over the 260m when in the G51.

 

Yea, same here; the only major features that stopped me from switching from my G50Vt to the G51 was the OLED and the water resistant keyboard. Although it's good to know you can always upgrade the GPU in the future.

 

Did flashing that G51 BIOS onto G50 stop the OLED from working?

 

I never flashed the bios. I actually couldnt find a g51 bios anywhere so i just sold my g50 and kept the g51 but swapped the 9 cell with the 6 cell, swapped my cpu obviously and the disc drives.