What is this big piece of metal doing on my gtx 470m?

Whats the deal here? its about 3mm off the board.
Any way to get it off? or what laptop this was even made for?
Its so big that I think I'd have to bend my heatpipe and then I'm not sure the screws would reach to the right places.

Spoiler

I haven't really tried to just stick it in there yet. I really don't think it would be a good idea without any modifications.
Do you think it would be an extremely bad idea to try and file it down?

Last question that needs to be asked, out of the sheer small possibility; could this be a quadro 3000m or 4000m?
Its a gf104-400-a2.
At first, I would assume it was a quadro card based on where I got it from and how much they know. Then the SLI connector made me think it couldn't be a quadro, but lo and behold, the newest quadro cards are pictured with an SLI connector.
Also in the past with the g9* cores, all the quadro cards had a 900 number, 770m, 3600m & 2700m were 975 and 3700m was 985, so I don't know what 400 could mean (actually I've never seen a model number so low). perhaps things have changed. what do you think?

 

Only option I see is tinfoil the full board except the heat-spreader and try to heatgun melt it off.
Most likely is is glued on by thermal epoxy.

Or if it's done like at the cpu-s then gl .. only hard force can remove it .. and that is more then dangerous.

 

Really? That is the GPU... Why would you want to tamper and remove the heatspreader on your GPU? And a GTX 470M is a GF104 part.

I suppose if you didn't care about your warranty then go for it, have fun taking the risk of destroying your GPU and with no warranty afterwards.

 

Because he can't re mount the heat pipe system.

Took a few cpu apart .. and the metal heatspreders is 1 waste of material ...
Only good they do is to protect the silicone .. but they keep the heat on it more then taking it away.
Without it the cpu stays a lot cooler.

 

That 470M looks a lot different from the ones I've seen.

 

Are we talking plastic surgery or microelectronics?

My guess is that it was put there for a reason. But then again, what does NVIDIA know, they only designed and fabricated it.

 

I would go for the 5850 for 300$ with a free copy of MW2.

 

Where did you get it from?

 

Five finger discount...

 

haha^ I guess so...

superdooper49: And you would be paying more money for an older, worse performing card. I dont think I need mention the value of MW2.

sama98b: Actually I could remount the heatpipe. I just don't feel like it. If I did that I would probably go ahead and get a new copper sink and 2 bigger pipes. But is heatgunning it really the only option you see?

Any comments on filing the heat spreader?

mushishi: I know its gf104. And I know its the GPU. I bet you didn't know the quadro 3000m and 4000m are also both gf104 and the the 4000m is 100w with a 256-bit memory bus. Aaaand what warranty are you talking about?? who bought an OEM laptop??

H. A. L. & ichime: Yep, yes it sure does. Nvidia likely had no idea what they were doing, especially considering the 100% chance of this being an ES card.



I don't know how I'm going to mod my heatsink or the card yet. I do think it is a 4000m however. So I'm going to hold off on anything ambitious for now until I write up why I think its a 4000m

 

What's the P/N on the memory chips?

 

the metal thing is the ihs if thats what i thnk ur talking about...

 

Looks like the one in the top right corner of this pic:

Spoiler

Does that mean it's just a normal 470m?

I wouldn't file it, but I'm not going to tell you what to do lol

 

It can't be a 4000m, or anything 256-bit, with 6 VRAM chips.

 

Why would you buy something that isn't compatible with your motherboard? If you try removing that heatspreader, not only are you going to risk damaging the GPU, chances are it's not going to work very well (overheat) if you manage to install and run it (doubtful).

 

And since you know so much I guess you know how much the Quadro costs right? Or did you think you are the world's luckiest person to get the 4000M at the price of a 470M?

That also looks like 1.5GB. The Quadro 4000M has 2GB. GTX 470M has 1.5GB.

And you bought a GF104 part without know what it is and with no warranty?!?!? To me that's probably one of the more blockhead purchases I've heard of. Even discrete GPUs come with 3 year and if it's XFX a lifetime warranty. At $560 for GTX 470M with no warranty, well that's just dumb. (RJTech even have a 1 year warranty on all their GPUs. Which I think is still crap and unacceptable, should be 2 years minimum.)

And how on earth did you get a GTX 470M without warranty and not knowing if it's a GTX 470M or not? Buy it off Ebay where it says, we guarantee nothing, no warranty and we don't even know it is? No guarantee that it is even retail?

And if this picture is any indication, you have a GTX 470M, not a Quadro. If it is Quadro you should announce it so everyone can get a Quadro for the price of a 470M so we can resell it on Ebay for the price of a Quadro and make 100% profit.

 

You sir know much less about this situation than the info you have presented which is not necessarily related.

Maybe I should just tell you how much you spent on everything you own?

Yes I am lucky. Yes, very lucky. No, not 560$ you are completely out of your mind.

I've gotten a quadro 3800m for 200$ and it wasn't the first time I saw one for sale.

Maybe the people I get it from are not a boutique reseller who wants all my money, instead they are someone who has a genuine interest in my knowledge and testing capabilities. We do not have the same professional, polite/snobby relationship that goes on at ebay, we are business friends. No they would not claim my motherboard has destroyed it if I tried to RMA it, if thats what your saying? they dont even know what it is!

Buying this card what possibly one of the best decisions I've made. I sent the payment before they even agreed on my price. And, yea, thats a price which I wont disclose (they were fine with it).

The reason I thought it was a 4000m is this
http://techreport.com/r.x/geforce-gtx-460/gf104-coin.jpg
that is a desktop 460, which has the exact same specs. The spreader on my card has higher numbers on it, and the model is supposedly gf104-400.
I didn't know about the bus size in relation to memory size, I should have thought about that. It could be a 3000m but yes its probably just a 470m.

 

GF104 is the core name.
400 is the core bin.
A2 is the stepping.

I'm basing that off of a friend of mine that has a new GTX460 Ti for his desktop as it's core designation is GF104-375-A2. I'm guessing they keep the top bin for notebook 470's?

 

Yes, but
g92-700 is 64 shaders, g92-720 is 96
And the desktop 460 has 336 shaders

I wish someone could tell me if a normal 470m is gf104-400. I'm hoping they don't use higher numbers for the mobile chips and I actually have a weird early revision card.
My board ID revision is a00

 

I'm as baffled as you are.

 

How would you know it isn't compatible if you don't try it?

Some people like to experiment

 

This is unrelated, but a guy in the Sager forums got a ES 6970m with 1120 cores.

 

Well that's awesome, I'm going to see if benchmarks were posted

 

I'm closing the thread. It is understandably a flame magnet.

When and if you succeed in this endeavor, feel free to start a new thread detailing your success.