Hello all! New here and I am going to upgrade my n80vb

I remember a long while ago when I first got this laptop home I took it apart and was pretty darn happy with everything and how it was built.

It's been getting a bit long in the tooth lately, and I don't really have enough money to buy a new super gaming laptop, so I think for now I'll just slap a 9600m, 9650m, or perhaps a 9700m into it. It currently of course has a 9300m gt/512 in it. (I may still keep this for swapping in if I am going on an airplane though).

I've seen many people upgrade various models of this range from the post history, so I at least think it shouldn't be any big deal. Granted it's kinda of a pain to find 'em because they are based on ye 'ole backwards, inside out, etc mxm slot thing, but they are out on the 'bay, so I know I can at least obtain one.

So my questions (which most of which I am sure are all answered somewhere else) are:

1. Are there any bios issues I'll face with the swap?
2. I'm in the US (Arizona), Is there another (cheaper!?/more reliable) place to find the Asus m50 style video cards that fit in this unit?
3. How many/what type of sticky pads will I need to put the new video card in?
4. Is the heatsink built into this unit sufficient/the same as units built with other cards in place?
5. Considering they are all similar in price, am I better off with a 9600m, 9650m, or a 9700m, I primarily play steam source based games.
6. I've settled on the 185.85 drivers under vista 64 for my poor old 9300m, would there be any better in the meantime, and what would you recommend instead for a 9600m/9650m/9700m?
7. Were there any compatible ATI cards made for this slot style by any chance?

Thank you for your time, any help is appreciated!

 

Erm, are you certain the 9700m will work? Are you certain the M50 cards will work? 9700m gt is the highest stock clocked of the 3.

As far as I know, the GPUs in similar models of laptops including the N80vn, N81vp, X83 lines are 9650M GT, 9300M GS, ATI 4650.

 

it might be easier, and cheaper, to just buy an X83VP-X1 from newegg. its 700 after rebate and you get a ATI 4650 video card. basically the same 14 inch computer with a better video card and different cover design.

selling your current puter and upgrading to the x83 seems like the path of least resistence.

 

The evidence I found for that is at the Asus estore

I can't make heads or tails of that part number, but I *Think* that one is for the 9600m that's in the n80v m

That leads me to believe that m50 cards are at least electrically and physically compatible.
As I understand it the 9600m has 512mb of ram, the 9650m has 1gb of ram, and the 9700 has 512mb of ram. The dimensions of the 9700 card on ebay look fine, but I have no clue if it's 'supported', if it would work, or even what the heck the 9700m actually came out of in the first place.

 

I've never been one for the path of least resistance, and I am damn hard on my equipment to boot. I bought this one instead of the vm back in the day because I got this one for $650 and the vm version was still around $1150 at the time. I figure spending a couple hundred dollars on a video card is just fine.

Although I would be lying if I said that the 4650 wasn't appealing... but it ain't in the budget since I cannot possibly sell my laptop in it's current condition due to excessive wear. Do you know if the 4650 in the x83vp-x1/n81 is the same reverse wacko mxmII that's in this n80? (note mine was a cheap at bb, so it's technically a x83vb but I used n80vb since it's the same hardware).

I fail to see how a $200 video card upgrade would be more expensive or tougher than selling my computer and buying a new one.

 

Strange indeed. The part I'm worried about is this bit.

Also, the 9600M in the n80vm should be the 9600M GS, not GT. If the 9700M GT works, go with that. Safest bet would be the 9650M GT.

And yes, it uses that reversed mxm II. It's an Asus thing. :laugh:

 

The one in the N80Vm is the GS, and from what I found on the internet, the one in the m50 was also a GS. in which case $85 is a steal but they are out of stock!!!!! DAMN!!!!!

I am sorry for not mentioning gs/gt, but it seems to me the manufacturers, and nvidia itself seem to flop the gs/gt/le/se/ ratings around so often that no one can tell what differentiates which models and which one is better. (not to mention the naming differentials between model numbers themselves)

so... uh.. who's got a spare asus 4650 lying around that I can try in this old beast?

 

I would personally go with the 9650GT with 1GB ram, that will help your performance greater than the 9700GT with 512MB ram... Just my 2 cents. You can easily reach the 9700GT clock speeds with overclocking slightly.

 

That's sort of the line I was thinking which is why I posted here first instead of buying parts and asking questions later, Thanks!

I don't know if the 9700m model on the 'bay is a GT model though, but the 9650m is.

I may end up trying my luck for a parts unit that contains a 9600m gs (or a 4650 hahah yeah right) though if I can get it cheaply enough.

 

After looking a long time, the 9700m is a gt (with 512mb of ddr3) and it came from an M50 and is rated 45 watt.

But what makes me more confused is the fact that apparently the 9600m gs's shipped in x83vm-x1 and x83vm-x2 have cards with 1gb of ddr3.. go figure :/

The reason I mention that is the 9650m gt has 1gb of ddr2...

 

The 9700M GT with GDDR3 will outperform the others.

Note, for these cards, 1GB and 512MB Vram won't show much of a difference.

 

I'm going to wait a few days for some parts laptops I am watching to sell (If I can get an entire spare parts machine with the 9600m gs video card for cheap I might as well do it and risk the card being fried.). I should note at this point I've gone through all the specs and the 9650m gt is the highest card sent out of the factory by Asus for this laptop line. When I fail to get a whole parts unit with a 9600gs/1gb ddr3, since all the video cards around that range cost the same, I know it won't disappear, and I live dangerously, I think I'll give the 9700m gt a shot. Worst that can happen is it catches fire, burns down, and I am forced to lug around a 15lb laptop or be stuck with one of my netbooks

 

the 9700 is also from a G50V. it does not have a flash of its own and required a module in the system BIOS.

 

so then exnay on the 9700, oh well, it was a thought!

 

Yea if its got DDR3 then yea, I was under the assumption that sense there a newer/older video chip, that it would have been DDR2 ram on them, Thus my previous post.

 

if the n80vb uses an AMI BIOS and you don't mind potentially bricking the laptop, i have the 9700m vbios @ http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4265412&postcount=111

inserting and flashing seems like it would be too easy though. working would be even more of a longshot.

 

Just thought I'd give this an update:
I ordered a 9650m gt, it came today! (came all the way from China). Before I replaced the video card, I dumped bios 209 on it (I still had the original 200 on it, so I figured in case anything was not setup right, I didn't want to have to put the old graphics card back in again after I was done).

The new (to me) card came with some of those white thermal interface pads so I used those on the memory facing the heatsink, and after cleaning up copper heatsink and making sure the GPU was clean, I put a nice thin layer of arctic ceramique on the GPU... I put everything back together, booted up, installed the latest driver, and everything's great!

On another note, my cpu-z now says this is a N80Vn.
Thanks to all here who pointed me in the right direction for a successful upgrade.

 

Is this the Video card you orders in rather in to the whole upgrade a laptop. I also have a Asus n80vb.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Asus-M50-M50V-9...eo_TV_Cards?hash=item23053ab376#ht_4695wt_957

Was this the video card you ordered cause I tried a 9600gt and it didn't fit and I lost about $150.

 

yeah that's the video card I ordered...
These machines have a "reverse mxm" slot and also keep the vbios on the motherboard instead of on the video card so the best thing to do is search for "Asus mxm" on ebay, make sure that it's compatible with an asus M50 and was sold with an N80 series notebook at some time, and make sure that the "slot" is on the correct side.... most of the n80 series (I don't think the n81 does) shares the same bios, I suggest you update yours to version 209 before putting the new card in. After you take the old video card out, clean the grey bubblegum off of the heatsink and make sure it's nice, shiny, flat, etc. The new video card will come with a bunch of pieces of that white thermal tape, I suggest you use those on the RAM facing the heatsink only, and use thermal paste on the GPU.... it will also come with 4 new screws, don't use them, they are longer than the stock ones for the n80 (although they do match the screws in the plastic panels so they are nice spares). Tighten it nice and good too. Personally I experienced a tiny amount of artifacting (don't freak out if this happens to you) until I loaded the graphics card down (I used folding@home GPU version) and got it nice and hot.. you'll need to reinstall your drivers, and I found the stock driver on nvidia's site for the gf 9m series worked fine. watch your battery life dissapear! (but it's worth it). It runs cool at idle and can heat hot chocolate when it's fully loaded.

 

Sorry for reviving a 6 month old thread. But I wanted to do the same upgrade on my n80 as well. I was wondering how much you ended up getting the 9650m gt for cprossu?