Looking for a graphics upgrade for my Sager

I have a Sager NP8170-S1 / Clevo P170HM with the 6970m and MONITOR\LGD0285 listed under the LCD panel. It's starting to show it's age in games and I especially want to play Final Fantasy XIV and it's skipping. I originally bought it from XoticPC in 2011 and it's out of warranty now.

My questions are:
1) What graphics card can I max out to? Can I go 780m, or 8970m with this notebook?
2) Is there a company out there that will do the upgrade for me, I don't have the best fine motor skills due to disease and don't want to mess anything up.

 

1)eurocom.com
2)680m(hdmi works)

 

either the 680m or wait for some of resellers to see if it works, I would go with myth, since they do the necessary steps

 

680m

Although FF14 should run just fine on your card (for the most part).

 

You can upgrade up to the 7970M(you need to mod the bios on the card to accept it youre laptop) and 680M (the 680m is plug and play BUT every time you need to mod youre drivers of youre card so it can recognize youre card from youre laptop)
But say goodbye to 780M and 8970M because they don't work at all,not only from youre HM,but EM too.................I hope this help you out!

 

Prema should be getting his hands on the 780M soon and begin working on functionality with previous generation machines, so there still is hope.

@SystemExcess: If you want a 780M, just have a bit more patience and that could become a reality. No guarantees of course, but time will tell. Since the 8970M is really just a rebadged 7970M with 50MHz clock boosts to core and memory, your current options are really to go with the 7970M (with modded vBIOS), 680M (with driver modifications), or wait and see what comes to fruition with the 780M. If I were you I'd wait and see what happens with the 780M, I'm thinking of grabbing one myself, but in all respects the jump from a 6970M to any of these cards will be a noticeable upgrade.

 

Thanks a bunch for the info guys, I contacted Mythlogic since they're in the same state to see how much I have to hide from my wife As for Final Fantasy XIV running fine, it doesn't it gets really low frame rate drops in a lot of action and I can't turn on all the options I want.

 

I'd try the 770M first. It's cooler than the 680M and only runs around 10% slower.

 

10% slower? only in your dreams

 

Here's 780m results, will update 680m a bit later....

Click on images for full screen, back arrow to get back to the thread.

Settings:


780m Stock


780m OC (985/3000)


FPS

 

If you have the time, could you throw up 770m as well?

 

Thanks HT, you're the man.

 

I don't have a 770m.

No problem. Also note that the dips to 0fps are in between scenes. It's 99% of the time above 30FPS.

 

Just an update so far guys. I contacted 2 companies so far about the upgrade asking about both the 7970/8970 and 680/780 and Sager responded with "Sorry, no GPU upgrade available.The new GPU require more watts power which your model the Motherboard is not support." and Mythlogic has not responded past the initial "Yes, we do upgrades" a week ago. This feels like beating my head on the wall

Is there a place I can buy a 680m or 7970m ready to go for my notebook and just install it with a new heatsink/fan?

 

7970m seems like a safe bet.

 

Prema, the resident Sager modded BIOS guru is looking to make 780m compatible with P150/P170EM systems.

See here: GTX780M FUNDRAISER | Prema Mod