Upgrade Ram Or Processor?

Ok im the in the market for a couple of upgrades for my Gateway Fx P7915u. Its the standard configuration which consists of:
4GB DDR3 1066mhz RAM
Gtx260m
and a P8700 (at 5.3 Ghz)
while in some games GTA 4 especially im getting lag or poor performance ingame and from what i can tell its cpu related as my GPU is good for mobile standards
i was wondering i can get another 4GB of ram (Would end up with 6GB and sell the other 2 1Gb sticks) or buy a new processor (sell the P8700) and im wondering wich would give me better performance in game? Im guessing the cpu? Also any suggestions on wich CPU to get im in the uk so a any shops ect apart from Ebay
Thanks ahead
P.S.Whats a good asking price for a P8700? Also im right in saying this notebook is not quad compatible?

 

Upgrade the cpu, look for Q9000 Q9100 Q9200 QX9300 will run you like 500. P8700 idk maybe 125-150?


Missed the not quad compatible? You'd have to look into the total TDP it can handle and if the power brick will support it.
The CPU sockets are the same.If you cant upgrade to a quad then it really isnt beneficial. P9700 at 2.8ghz will be like 300 dollars and is only 277MHZ faster.

 

I don't think RAM upgrade here would help. It's definately the CPU. You can overclock that CPU to almost 2.8 or 2.9Ghz per core and it should remove some lags. No need to upgrade I think. But if you have a lot of money to spend then sure.. Go ahead and upgrade the CPU.

I heard that GTAIV is poorly coded that's why it hogs a lot of CPU power.

 

GTA IV does hog cpu power its ported from the 360 and PS3 to pc. I dont think he can overclock on a Gateway.

 

To kevin the motherboard should support it there was some controversy over in the gateway forums a while back but the older "base" models did not support quads shame really :/ ill look into it though

 

He can try using SetFSB to overclock. As long as his PLL chip is supported then he can do it. Doesn't have to be in the BIOS.

 

Ah you can overclock on a gateway i think the idea you cant is that theres a clock limit cant get over 3.0Ghz i believe thanks guy's this is wierd i cant find ONE thread about this laptop searching in the gateway section

 

Fact. But i never liked doing that or recommended doing so.

If you can't upgrade to a quad id bank the money for a new laptop in like 2-3 years?

 

"Overclocking the CPU:

Not possible unless you have a Intel Extreme Chip "
http://www.overclock.net/laptops-notebook-computers/293505-gateway-fx-laptop-series-thread-mods.html

CPU option: Any socket P mobile cpu will work. (Will list all members setup to the bottom)
Also listed on that website.

 

Woops sorry not the 7905u its the 7915u sorry people

 

Well this is not really a good demonstration but I just simply overclocked my P7450 to 2.35Ghz from 2.13Ghz and my WEI score went from 5.0 to 5.3

It's really easy to do it through SetFSB when you find the right PLL.

Ok.. not sure about Gateways but I know you don't need the Overclock function in BIOS to overclock though.

 

I cant seem to find that anyone has tried a quad in this kind of expensive option if it wont work :/
Ill check on the overclocking

 

I guess you'll have to see if the quad works, i think it would but id keep and eye on temps and check how much power your brick supplies before you go and splurge on one.

The fact of the matter is, it will sit in the socket, and you should have enough power. Aside from the bios not recognizing it that would be your only issue. If the bios doesnt recognize it its downclocked i believe.

If it doesn't fit just sell it on the forums, you'll lose at most like 50 USD

 

Most economical thing to do is to find the PLL of your Gateway and try overclocking your CPU with SetFSB. Your CPU should reach 2.8Ghz or more. It removes bottlenecks for most games.

 

Thanks Kevin but atm i couldnt afford a quad ill overclock until i have enough money then hopefully by that time someone will have looked into it and btw nice machine in your sig

 

And thanks mrPico this has been a real help

 

This will not remove the GTA IV bottleneck or bottlenecks in the future games coming out as they are made to be used with a quad core. Sure overclocking always helps, but only so much. An extra 300mhz per 2 cores is 600mhz. Whereas a quad is 2 whole new cores at 2.0ghz to 2.53ghz in this situation. And if he can indeed overclock he can overclock the quad too. If he decides to spend 500 USD on the QX9300 it consistantly OC's to 2.96GHZ. Faster than his dual core and it would be a quad.

 

Im based in the uk and the availability of processors are at most poor and overpriced :/ at-least id be able to sell the P8700 at a bloated price :L

 

Waiting is the best thing you can do atm. With the Core i3 i5 i7 coming to mobile it will only lower the price of the C2D AND C2Q prices.

 

Thanks If thats how its going ill just upgrade a couple of low cost things that need doing (Blu-ray, Added HDD ect)

 

Yes, Kevin.. I know that upgrading to a quad core would yield better performance but that would cost him 500usd.

I'm just saying that he could still squeze some performance out of that laptop. Core i7 laptops are coming out so fast that they cost only around $1400 (ASUS G73JH) these days. His laptop could by overclocking still last for 1 or 2 years where he can save money and get a new one by the time this one gets obsolete. It's only GTAIV that is giving him some bottlenecks now.

 

Gateway dont even have my notebook listed on there sites Oh god
If i was to spend $500 more usd on this i would probably sell it and buy a G73 :/ But hopefully another person's gain (i7/i5 being common) will be a way for me to get a processor cheaper

 

I'd just bank the money for the CPU if you are that concerned about gaming. If not splurge on the blu ray

 

GTA IV
Crysis
Crysis Warhead
Far Cry2
Bioshock 2
Battlefield Bad Company 2
Battlefield 1943
Supreme Commander
And any games that come out from now on basically will use Quad Cores.

 

This is where the poor man's ASUS G73jh comes in.

MSI GX740
http://www.xoticpc.com/msi-gx740079us-p-2765.html?wconfigure=yes

Lower resolution than the G73jh though.

 

I would personally sell it, save up some cash and buy another laptop that has a more customizable setup. The Gateway is a good budget performer but it just has too many restrictions and is too flimsy for my liking, I had one and I liked it a lot but looking back I would have bought something else.

Overclocking is out of the question unless you have an Extreme model, no thanks to Phoenix and there stupid tight-lipped BIOS.

Just my 2 cents though..

 

Any ideas for finding the PLL for my notebook since gateway have no information

 

QX9300 Performs better than the I7 720QM. Its about equal with the I7 820QM. And the I7 920 XM beats it. Stats are over in the alienware forum somewhere. People were discussing about upgrading from M17X R1 to M17X R2

 

Grr this was a bad purchase and selling isnt a option :/ oh well im sure i can carry on with high's for the next year or two

 

If you looking to overclock, it will not happen. If you scour the Gateway forums there was some more info, but the jist of it was that the BIOS completely locks out any overclocking ( or there was an issue with the PLL) unless you have an Extreme model installed.

 

Not really, was good at the price point, you just are having trouble upgrading it.

 

http://www.overclock.net/laptops-no...gateway-fx-laptop-series-thread-mods-169.html


PLL locked

 

"The PLL is locked you have to physically mod it in order to overclock it. FWIW, I posted the details elsewhere on the interwebs. It's much more cost effective IMHO to just buy an extreme edition processor."

Taken from a post from that link.

 

Oh it just dawned on me dead rising 2 will be so cpu Dependant would anyone say its worth getting the X7900 extreme processor and OC?

 

Processing Die Lithography 65 nm
Max TDP 44 W

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=31730

Uses just as much power as a QX9300.

How much would it run you. If it costs you 25-50 more than after you sell your P8700 then yeah, if it costs more then don't do it.

 

Btw i looked into the quad and from what ive read there are some physical parts of the Motherboard the prevents quad's

 

Elaborate.

 

The socket is the correct socket for the quads, there was something missing that was required for them to work though, I dont recall what it was.

I would try for an X9000 if you could, the 45nm manufacturing process makes the chip more efficient and cooler. They are a tad more expensive, but maybe try for an ES?

I had an X7800 and it was pretty quick, but I cooling problems so I could never overclock it.

 

Hmm ill look into it a t9600 looks nice for bang for buck

 

T9600 will be a nice upgrade and your frames will go up in gta iv.

 

i see you have an x9000 in your 6860 how much did you purchase yours for?

 

I got mine for a little over $300 on ebay. it is a "QS" model not OEM.

 

Argh that seems like a very nice price

 

but it is ES... not the best IMO.... Get a T9600 ... it should be a good upgrade... if u can , get a T9900..... its quite cheap on hp's online spare parts store...

 

well my cpu is an ES but it is the final version so its exactly like an OEM version.

 

anyone know the part number for the T9900 on the hp part's store?

 

Nvm found it

 

Hmm the T9600 doesnt have a 1066 FSB according to hp :/

 

That's false on HP's part. The T9600 does have 1066MHz FSB.

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=35563&processor=T9600&spec-codes=SLB43,SLB47,SLG8N,SLG9F,SLGEM

 

I would get T9900 if u can find it cheap on hp spare parts store... also could u put the link for it if u found it?