upgrading graphics card (yes i have read the stickies =P)

I was just wondering if i could upgrade my go 6600 mxm II to a go 8600 gt mxm 2 .. this one in particular:
http://www.excaliberpc.com/Asus_NVIDIA_8600M_GT_512MB_Video/90-C1CIZ5-JXBN00Z/partinfo-id-579488.html

If the upgrade is possible.. would my processor bottleneck the gpu? and overall is it worth 185 dollars?

 

May be possible, but make sure both that your MXM slot isn't an Alienware proprietary slot, and that the Asus isn't built around its own size parameters either. Just because it's MXM-II doesn't mean it will work by default.

OT: Also brings up an interesting point- perhaps it would be possible to switch the GDDR2 8600M GT with the Asus GDDR3 8600M GT... it probably wouldn't be worth it, but an interesting concept...

 

thanks for the help... any other help or input would be appreciated.

 

are the card standard size? i know the adaptor is standard, but do they all have the same size and shape?
if not, probably still can't upgrade

 

if its MXMII then yea you can upgrade, however you will probably have to do some custom milling with the heatsink or for the screws. I kno that even with new MXM cards, even if they're the same type they usually fit differently. So i hope u dont plan on returning it. I think it will def help you, but the processor may be bottling, that im not too sure of

 

bottlenecking is way overrated.. You'd notice a huge performance with the new card, regardless of whether the processor was technically bottlenecked or not.

 

I'd rather get a new laptop with a 8600GT. But realistically, if you ask me, I'll wait for the Geforce 9600M GT. XD I think my Geforce Go 6600 will hold up for another 2 or 3 years. And $185 for an 8600M GT? Isn't that a bit too cheap? I remember MXM-II card being over $300.

 

i thought it was cheap too, but that is the price listed.

Im not that familiar with laptop hardware that i could mod the new graphics card if i needed too, so im hoping someone can give me definite answer.

 

I don't think 185 is cheap considering you can buy the desktop 8800 from 275-300.

 

considering the fact that its an 8600 gt? i think it would be a very good deal. and that a geforce go 7900gtx runs for about 500usd. and the 8600 gt can get about 3/4's that performance? price to performance ratio is there.

 

im still just trying to figure out if the upgrade is possible.

 

Bump to the top.

 

theoretically it should work. but there is a possibility that your card or the asus card are modified in some way to make it incompatible.

 

Here's the compatibility list:

http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/Table.html

According to the table, yes, the notebook has MXM-II. It's been upgraded to a Go 7600.

If you're not on warranty anymore, go for it! (Or if you're on warranty but have handled computers before.)

 

thanks romanian but i was curious about the 8600 gt not the 7600.

 

thats about as much info as you are gonna find man unless you or someone else tries it out to see if it works.

 

I was thinking of upgrading the card on my laptop (go 7600 256mb) to this very card - 100 quid doesnt sound so steep. I've had the back off my computer and it looks identical to the mxm type II pictures I've seen (same size, shape, holes in right places) and on my heatsink it actually has two sets of holes - one 41mm and one 46 or 47 mm apart - which I think is to allow use of both types of type II mxm modules. My card is using the ones 41 mm apart which is what the picture of the asus 8600M seems to be showing so I'm about 99% sure that this will fit in my laptop. However, are there any other issues when upgrading, for example, would I have to upgrade the BIOS or anything like that? I dont want to have to do that....
Heres a picture of my graphics card (with the heatsink unit attached)

 

what type of laptop are you using?

 

Im using a generic brand laptop bought in Japan - here's the link ( http://www.mouse-jp.co.jp/m-book/mbp/0708/p530s2.html ) - its the same as this but with a T5500 processor (core2duo 1.66 ghz). A UK company are also selling pretty much the same computer ( http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/nbrange.html?ALP ). I'm running windows vista ultimate.

 

Ok I have looked into this as well and here's what I know
You don't have to do bios updates, the cards have their own vbios that will work with any computer.
As far as I know asus kept to the standard so it will fit (possibly with having to take a dremmel to your heatsink for one or two capacitors and the like, but not difficult)

The things that I don't know
The picture on excalibur only shows two memory modules on top which would make be believe that it has two right below those on the bottom and thats it, now I'm not sure if only having four modules with 512mb means that they will be significantly hotter than having the 8 that our 6600's have for only 256mb. I have noticed that the c90s that this card is meant for seems to have a heatpipe going below the card and I'm wondering if this is necessary to handle hotter memory-just an errant worry because we don't have provision to cool any hot memory on the bottom of the card. (However take note that in user pictures of the c90 some of the cards appear to have 4 modules on top so that whole worry could be unfounded)
Also I still haven't found out what the thermal envelope the 8600gt fits in is as compared to the 6600 because it is possible that our cooling systems couldn't handle it.
Finally, I was looking on the page of some company that was selling those cards don't remember if it was excalibur but it said something like "only compatible with asus c90," now I think that this is very likely just there to discourage people who don't know what their doing from buying it for a laptop that doesn't have mxm thinking they can upgrade their gma950 or something (you know the people who haven't read the sticky ), but then again it could be cause for concern.

All that said, I still think that it would be great for us to be able to do this, but I don't have the financial wherewithal to be the first to try it not knowing if the card will work. So I say someone should give it a try if they have security because it will fit and if asus didn't do something weird the computer will boot and run with it, the real concern that I then would have is just to monitor the heat output of the thing for stability (and there is always underclocking if theres an issue I guess).

 

Some good points there - I hadnt thought about memory modules underneath the graphics card - mines the Go7600 and as far as I can make out it has 4 memory modules on the top - I noticed that the asus card in the picture only had 2 modules visible and I was thinking maybe 2 x 256mb, but I dont have a clue really. I'm not in any hurry to upgrade as, with the exception of Oblivion and DiRT, I can run all my games pretty much maxed out on my laptop's native resolution - but within the next year, I think I'm gonna start to struggle, with games like Crysis coming out. Perhaps, like yourself, I will wait and see if anyone else tries it first, or if other graphics card options become available.

 

Well I know that my 6600 has four on the bottom right on the other side of the ones on top so they have to be 32 each and my cooling system seems to handle that fine but whether if the 8600 had 256 of its 512 in one place on the bottom rather than a 6600 having 128 of its 256 in two places I don't know if that would be a heat issue.
I just realized it probably doesn't make much difference at all since RAM doesn't have a heatsink and we are dealing with more capacity of a higher frequency in a smaller space so common sense would dictate that no matter what the memory configuration of the graphics card it probably doesn't make too much difference as long as our heatsinks can handle what the core puts out.
I put you through worrying over what may be nothing hehe.

 

im a noob with modding notebook hardware... so i think im going to wait and hope that someone else tries this.


On a side note though, did you figure out what was wrong with your laptop codnut?

 

Not yet although I have been narrowing down where the short (and that what I'm pretty convince it is) occurs, I intend on taking the whole thing apart again tomorrow before I leave for vacation for a week. As of now i can get it to work and it only acts up if I move the case the wrong way.

But more on topic, perhaps we could ask around with the asus resellers and see if they would be willing to cut us a deal to see if it would work (since I have followed the c90 carefully I have been over in the Asus forums and they seem like reasonable people) or see if we can find someone who owns a c90 who may be willing to lend (or rent) their card out. I'll see if I can do anything before I leave early Saturday morning but after that I'll be indisposed for a while. Also we should see if we can get Ice Tea involved in this because if this card works in our laptops it will work for pretty much all MXMII's which is something he and his sight would find useful I'm sure and he does things like test cards for compatibility. EDIT: I just looked on mxm-upgrade (Ice Tea's site) and apparently the compal IFL90 uses a 512mb MXMII 8600gt (and from what I read it seems to be the same ddr2 (slightly slower) version as the c90 version we have been concerning ourselves with) so I think that we may be getting some help from that direction soon.

Conveniently enough I happen to have enough cash or once to buy the card but I want to sort out my other issues first before I sink any more money into this computer and I'm not the type to throw almost $200 away and not be sure it will work, but if we get assurances I intend to try it.

 

Those are great ideas CoDnut.

And thanks for looking into it so much, it is quite helpful for those less financially endowed.

I would be ecstatic if i could upgrade my graphics card... that would make this laptop future proof for another 2-3 years... the processor is plenty powerful for me.

oh.. and have some rep =)... even though its only 3 points.. its something.

 

Ok I corresponded with Ice Tea and he is understandably reluctant to do the tests because of the cost involved to him and the fact that he wouldn't be able to compete with the resellers where price of the cards in concerned even if he carried them.

Therefore I think we do now need to turn to the Asus resellers, perhaps I'll post on the topic over in the Asus forum.

 

Ok here's something interesting concerning the heat output concerns, this is back from when the go6600 was released but it's something
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2005/02/08/go6600_preview/1
If you go down to the chart with the TDP it says that at the lower clocks the thing puts out 18W at 375/600 and 26.5W at 450/700, now I have had my card oc'd to 425/700 (haven't tried to go further) and I know that the cooling system can handle it without temps ever getting above the low 70'sC which is still very safely below the threshold.
Thus assuming that the 8600 puts out less than 26.5W or so (I haven't oc'd that far but I would assume that it would work fine) we are good on the thermal front I think.
"What's worth noting about this performance boost is that the GeForce 8M series stays within the same TDP specs of the previous generation" (found here)
I'm still attempting to find exact numbers but we could be good because I know the 7600 wasn't much hotter than the 6600.

Edit: I seem to recall someone in some thread or other throwing out a number like 23W which would be very nice indeed, but I could be wrong.

 

the 7600 was a minor upgrade tot he 6600.. but the 8600gt is a very good card... it benches almost as high as the 7900 gs

 

Right thats what makes this exciting, what I was talking about before was the heat output that out heatsink and fan has to deal with.

I just spent most of the afternoon with my machine in about as many pieces as it could be in with nothing to gain on my issue except now knowing where every darn screw in the thing goes (oh and I got usb 2.0 to work finally but that wasn't because of my messing in the case). I think that since the locking up issue is manageable for me (although it kills any resale value the thing has I think) and I can't afford a totally new lappy I'll bite the bullet and put up with it and still look into the new GPU.

 

sounds good CoDnut... i hope this ends up working.. it really would be great.

 

On vacation, managed to pick up wifi but it is pretty slow so I cant really do anything for us now, just wanted to check in so you knew I hadn't forgotten.

 

Sounds good.. enjoy your vacation

(i was checking for this thread everyday... i was getting worried that you forgot.. haha)

 

hold the phone does this mean I could swap my GDDR2 8600GT with this puppy??

 

Unfortunately no; Dell does not use MXM in any of its notebooks (thats the stuff in the stickies )
Anyway the ASUS card in question is ddr2 anyway (granted with 512mb rather than 256 but it is still not as good as the gddr3 one)
Oh btw I'm back I'm gonna start asking around with the resellers.

 

Ok I have some bad news guys.
It appears that the c90 card doesn't work in other computers at the moment.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=149945
^Thread in Asus forum, person tried it in a diff Asus but Ice Tea also posted to say that he hasn't gotten it to work in the Uniwill that he has.

I'm not totally giving up hope yet, it is possible that someone will write modded bios or something but we'll have to wait and see.

 

too bad...

hopefully a solution will pop up.

 

Just looking at some pictures of inside a C90 ( http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=421&type=expert&pid=3 ) - it looks nothing like the card in my pc - or any other mxm i've seen! As mentioned earlier, the C90 looks like it has cooling above and below the gpu. I'm starting to think this MXM thing is really just a load of rubbish - all these manufacturers seem to be claiming to use the mxm standard, but then get 'creative' with it, changing the shape, size, cooling set-up or whatever, thus defeating the whole concept of a 'standard'. If NVIDIA want to create a standard, then in order to comply with that standard, manufacturers should not be allowed to change any of these things. If they do, then NVIDIA should not allow them to call it 'mxm technology'.

 

i know i am reviving an old thread... just wondering if there was any progress on anything related to this.

 

Hello, you do not know me, I am presenting, I am David, I have recently written in furum of Notebook furums and I came across your speech about a video card upgrade from a geforce 6600 mb 256 go to a video card 8600M gt 512mb mxmII.
I have ordered a few days ago that its card from the site Excaliberpc.com
If you are interested when the dusk on my Alienware m5500 you can tell if I have encountered problems in making upgrade
Hello!

 

... say what now?