Did I get a graphics card lemon?

My first laptop, I was able to overclock on the 169.01 drivers to 550/450 and play bioshock on high with NO lag whatsoever. I got a replacement recently adn not only does ocing the graphics card make the temperature go through the roof, i get constant lag from bioshock as well. what gives?

 

Overclocking ability varies from one part to the next... Two otherwise identical parts can have huge variation in their overclocking potential...

 

i still have my old computer, is there anyway i can switch the graphics card within them?

 

Yeah, you can do that. But I'm sure Dell is going to notice as well...they aren't going to like it.

 

you cant say something is a lemon when it performs just fine doing what it was designed for...not being overclocked...

 

Do you get the lag when you run at default clock settings?

 

i think graphics have dropped across the board actually, with the clock normal, bioshock still plays horribly with lag. how do i change teh graphics card

 

it even crashes now when I try to paly games with overclocking, it's definitely a horrible graphics chip in my new replacement laptop

 

you can't change the graphics card. the whole board needs to be changed.

It's fraud to do so, regardless if Dell is to know or not.

 

lol. I'd love to know where you got that info from.

You can change the gfx in the 1520 quite easily. A friend of mine who ordered the same inspiron 1520 as I did, had some problems with his gfx card, and since we were both overseas at that time, they couldn't send a technician so dell only sent the replacement gfx and a manual how to replace the part. It took us under 1 hour to do so, and the replacement worked just fine.

As for the fraud issue. It would only be fraud if you were using a non-dell part. As both the original purchase and the replacement are dell products, you can by all means exchange whatever you want. A word of warning here: Unauthorized exchange of parts can and most probably will void your warranty though (so be sure to ask dell to OK the exchange and get this in writing).

My experience with dell is that if you know what you want, and are lucky enough to get a smart CR on the phone, they'll do everything for you. We received a lot of goodies this way, as I ordered about 30 dell laptops for my friends ever since.

 

If you are OC it and it doesn't work it is not a lemin. The card works fine without OC right?

 

i dont think it would be considered fraud if its the exact same graphics card - youre not trying to dupe dell out of any cash by giving them a different card (at least, if im reading the op correctly - he has the same card - it just seemed like his old one performed "better")

as far as replacing it - that i have no idea about - if i were you, i would just call dell up and tell them that games you were able to play on your old model you are no longer able to play

 

The 8600m GT wasn't designed to play Bioshock on full anyway, especially with the DDR2 version.

It sounds to me like you overclocked it and damaged the card. Is everyone here supposed to feel sorry for you? And then you want to switch the bad card out? I'm sure Dell will appreciate your damaged card.

 

i don't think anybody read all my posts. I said, when I did not overclock my card, it still does not work as well as my previous card. Plus it overheats consistently.

 

i don't see how it is fraud either. i am not cheating dell out of any potential revenue. I just received a card that runs hotter and can not be overclocked like my last card.

 

Bioshock runs decently at 800x600 on my 8400M GS with all details on high. Not great, but definitely playable. I had a lot of stuttering issues before I upgraded to 2GB of RAM though. On an 8600M GT, it should play awesome. I don't know if it will at 1440x900, but tone down the res a little and it should be great.