Need a new GPU for w860cu

Hello, I'm new here, hopefully someone can help

I've had a w860cu for a couple of years now, it was made by Kobalt Computers who have since gone bust.
Recently my GPU has been ing up, mostly during heavy gaming (Skyrim, BF3) but also fairly undemanding things like Borderlands.
It's a GTX 285m, and i get the same symptoms in most games, which is a slowing down every 5 minutes or so, and occasionaly a full on freeze/crash.
In general it's become pretty temperamental, and I want something newer.

However I can't seem to find anywhere that will give me a straight answer as far as compatibility is concerned.

Is there somewhere I can go to put in all my hardware and see what will work with my motherboard etc?

I'm after the best I can get, GTX 580m ( + ? ) if possible, but I haven't got any indication if that'll work with my W860CU

can anybody help?

cheers
Jonathan

 

I think that hd6970m is the best you can aim for mate.

 

Thanks for the reply,
How about the 485m?

 

Youre welcome.
So far i know nope, the only "high end card" that can run on w860cu is the 6970m.

 

Oh, that's a bummer
cheers anyway
J

 

Well the 6970m is a bit slower than the 6990m which was currently the fastest AMD gpu card.
With a small OC you should get roughly the same performance.
Its like the 485m that you asked, althought the 485m is basically a downclocked 580m.
The 6970m on the other hand has some shaders cut down, but its a GREAT card. Its like 2 times more powerful than your current 485m.
Now if youre an Nivida lover i know whats wrong with it...but whatever, its always a good upgrade.

 

the 7970m easily beats the 6990m and there is plenty more going to be available soon.

 

True, but is totally unrelated to his question.
He asked which kind of gpu he can use into the W860cu.

 

I just came across this thread

where it looks though somebody is doing a lot of actual physical modding of the components just to get them to fit, is that right? is that what i'm gonna have to do to get a 6790m in my w680cu? that seems crazy, isn't there something better than a 285 that just fits in like it's meant to?

 

I was thinking about that. BTW this is verging on a duplicate of your other thread. But just wanted to mention probably not, Clevo heatsinks are very specific to each board layout which in most cases means 1 or 2 cards.

I think the gt 470m will be a closer fit, but I still don't think it will fit right. However, this listing comes with the p150hm heatsink so you could see if it fits your laptop with that heatsink:
Alienware M17x M18x GeForce GTX 470M DDR5 1.5GB Graphics Video Card Kit GTX470M | eBay

BTW Its ridiculous that they are calling it "dell" because no dell/alienware has ever been released with the 470m. Its a Clevo card.

So you can do that and it might not work, or buy the 6970m, and I will modify a heatsink for a (good) price. I already have a heatsink for your laptop, so you wont need to send me yours.

The heatsink I have is in fact for a different card, the GTX 460m, but the 460m does not perform significantly better than the 285m so it might as well get modified.

 

You would sell me a modified heatsink for the 6970m?
I'd much rather go for something I know is gonna work than get something I have no idea about.

BTW, judging by those symptoms I put in my original post, would anyone disagree this is likely a problem with my GPU? And not something else?

 

Have you been monitoring your peak gaming temperatures?

edit: via a program like HWMonitor

 

Would a W860CU support a 580M or 485M? My Eurocom rebrand shipped with a 5870M from the factory, and it's only a 50 watt TDP GPU card. I'm assuming I would need to upgrade the 150 watt adapter too? (I have a 740QM right now in it).

 

The 470m was also sold with the w860cu and you know its a clevo card so it will definitely work:
http://web.eurocom.com/EC/ec_model_config1(1,210,0)
And its only 65w so you can probably stick with the 120w adapter.

From your original post, it sounds like you want a new card anyway...

The 485m works I think but I don't know about the 580m.

The thing is you'd probably have to make sure you don't get a Dell card, because there could be issues with it...

 

I've not heard of anyone trying the W8 series with GTX 485M or 580M chips, so you'd have to pioneer that experiment. And yeah need a 150W or 180W PSU, assuming one of those works.

But between the $800+ GPU and $150 adapter, should you be considering a brand new notebook?

 

Oops disregard my unedited post, thought you were talking about the 470m

Though he should probably just be considering the 6970m for like 320$ rather than a new notebook.

This is the charger he would need:
New AC Adapter Power Charger for MSI GX780-011US GT683R-242US GT683R Laptop 150W | eBay

 

You might be able to get ES 485M cards pretty cheap, I would probably wait for them to go cheaper or buy a used one.

niffcreature my brother's Eurocom already shipped with that brick, is there a higher rated Hipro or Lite On for 180+ watts?

 

Oh, that's an awesome price. I wish the P170xMs still used the standard plug.

 

The 485m has been tested in the w860cu, but only worked with one 2GB RAM stick.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...le-2gb-ram-succeed-other-ram-size-failed.html

The 120W is enough for the 720qm and 6970m by the way.

niffcreature: is that adapter compatible with the w860cu? I wonder if it will be enough power for the 6970m + 920xm (with OC), or if I'll need a 180W PSU. If so, I might jump on that.

 

I thought the 6970M = 75-100 watt card + 45 watt quad = too much under extreme load? Anyhow my brother has a 150 watt adapter so I guess that isn't too much of an issue.

 

6990M works I tried it out before frying my motherboard from OCing 920xm too much. Don't put one in the W860cu.

Kingpinzero you are wrong. The 7970M will also work in the W860cu just like it works in the similarly aged M15x...


To the OP. Upgrade your cpu to 840qm and no more. If you OC your 920/40xm even slightly you will fry your board and that will suck! As for graphics cards any AMD card works.

 

Why does the motherboard fry?
Which component fails?

 

It's a known weakness on the W860cu. Happened to me twice and to others on this forum too. Of course I didn't know this was a common problem until the second time round.

If you know this machine you will stick with a non extreme chip. The temptation to OC an XM is very high of course and this machine cannot take it safely. It's a shame if I had known I would still be happily working with that machine. In many ways I prefered it to the M15x.

 

Could you elaborate as to why the 7970m would work? Are you sure the HM models would work with the 7970m?

 

Mate dont get me wrong. ID LOVE to be wrong.

If the 7970m turns out to be working as you said then the whole HM scandal will get more ridiculus.

And ill be happy for those w860u users that can upgrade, and wish them the best.

But i want concrete proof...so if you can provide it, it will be awesome.

 

I don't think you should make that claim so quickly, there are a TON of cards the w870cu and w860cu don't work with.

 

Yeah modern Nvidia cards are very hit and miss, AMD cards of late however are much better supported by older machines. I have tried the 6970M (clevo) and 6990M (dell) and through active discussion with other members all varieties of the 6970M work, dell, clevo etc (green,blue and black pcb).

Based on this knowledge and the fact that the M15x which also ran this set of cards no problem runs the 7970M perfectly I can't say conclusively that it will work but it is very likely to work. So likely I would try it out without a doubt!

I can't provide concrete proof as I no longer have this machine. Another owner maybe oan I am sure will try it out with success.

Also what is this "HM" scandal?

 

Check my signature for details on how Clevo is scandalous.

 

They are definitely scandalous. I saw the way they treated a member on here who was selling parts for them. Also I am pretty sure the W860cu motherboard was designed to be faulty with any xm chip. At least the GPU seems upgradeable...

 

I once saw the pictures of W860CU's main board and found it only has 2-phase power supply for CPU.

While M15x and M17xR2 both have 3-phase power supply for CPU as comparison.

I think that is why W860CU has a relatively weaker CPU OCing ability.