The 8600m GT GDDR3 in the Dell M1530's

I have read some reviews on this being a way better gpu than the previous GDDR2 models. So I was thinking ... since it is GDDR3 I bet it can go quite a bit faster than what they have it. How much higher will it go by overclocking it and will this void my warranty (im pretty sure this will but just making sure) ? Have any of you done it personally and did it make a substantial performance or heat difference? Thanks.

 

There are lots of threads on this issue, but yes, it does overclock easily and effectively, and the GDDR3 version does outperform the GDDR2 version in every aspect. Stock clocks for this card are 475/702, but I overclock mine to 560/860 when I play a game that needs a bit more juice, and many people have stable and safe overclocks enabled with 600/900. This does increase the heat on the GPU a good bit, but with proper cooling it still shouldn't go much about 85 C under load, which is a "safe" temp. As for performance, I haven't run 3DMark06 in a while, but I think with my overclock it increased the score from a stock mark of 4200 or so to around 4900, and for me that means 5-10 fps in the game I play the most, GTR2. I've seen some people on here with crazy overclocks scoring nearly 6000 points, but I wouldn't push my card that far. As for voiding the warranty, in theory you don't have to save the overclock settings so that if anything fries, you can send it back to Dell and they won't have any way of knowing that it was something of your doing that caused the failure, but I haven't actually heard of anyone who has tried this, I'd be very careful.

 

Overclocking will not void your warranty, unless you fry your card and they discover you were overclocking. As long as you pursue a "software" overclock, chances are they'll never know. If you don't overclock the beast too much you won't have to worry about frying it. But you can still get a decent overclock that will noticebly up your FPS in-game.

The DDR3 card is better than the DDR2 (I'm jealous ). From what I understand you will be able to have an enjoyable time (thought not an uber-enjoyable time =D ) playing games such as Crysis with the card.

This is the thread for you:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=250226

 

Thanks alot for the input ... so if i do a minor to medium overclock on it do you think the stock cooling will be fine on it?

 

You should be just fine. Watch it in-game. The DDR3 chips are supposed to actually run cooler than the DDR2 (at a given clock speed), so they are built to run at higher clock speeds anyhow.

When I first got my laptop, upgrading drivers and overclocking brought my 3dmark06 score up almost 40% and my temps never went above 75 C.

 

bumping up to 600/800 should be fine, just keep a check on your temps, anything over 90c is a no no.

 

I sure hope nothin gets over 90c or my desk might catch on fire. I have an x850 XT Platinum Edition in my desktop with only the stockcooler so I know what HOT and LOUD is like ... lol. I'm sure too I could just download a fan controller and set it to high or something and it would do fine.

 

You cannot control the fan speed of the M1530

 

But you can always get something like a notebook cooler, they are fairly effective.

 

I had a great idea for a notebook cooler.... but the ice cube shelf prevented me from fitting in it.

 

Haha, I was going to recommend sitting it on top of some ice trays if you got really desperate...but I think it might be a bit overkill for what you'd need =D

...but perhaps not.