Can the Asus G50vt-X5 support a GTX 280M?

I know the video card in this laptop is upgradable via the mxm type III slot. But I've recently heard that the GTX 280M draws a ton of power, and I obviously don't want to damage anything. On the other hand, all I can see happening is the battery life crashing to the ground.

So my question is, can this laptop support the card?

 

and who told you the lie that the video card was upgradable?

The slot is inverted putting any compliant card upside down and causing the gpu to fry without extreme measures to cool it. I was never told wether the pinning was proprietary or compliant but it is upside down.

ASUS puts the gpu core and ram on the opposite side of the card.

 

nope, not possible.

should have gotten a Clevo M860ETU (Sager NP8662) if you wanted a more upgradeable route.

but the GTX 280M is not recommended for a 15.4" notebook since it has high power requirements and generates more heat.

the GTX 260M is the fastest videocard (recommended) for a 15.4" notebook.

 

i emailed asus tech support and they said it was completely upgradable.

 

I doubt they know what they are talking about then.

I have already dissected a G50VT.... its cooling is average (and proprietary) and its not using a standard MXM module.
... looks similar to MXM but (like said) its inverted with different mounts than standard MXM.



therefore, no upgrade path for the videocard.

_____________

here is a pic of what a standard MXM modules looks like:


this is a 9800M GTX .... which is similar to what the GTX 260M and GTX 280M will look like as well.

 

Emailing ASUS tech support gets you teir 1 idiots the same kind of people that you get when you call your phone company's customer support. They are generally knowledgable about technology and read their answers out of a binder, guessing at everything else.

The guy probably knew ASUS makes models such as the C90 which are upgradable, knew the G50 had a removable card and gave you a wrong answer.

 

Thanks for the correction. But humor me, because I emailed them again to see if I might get a different answer.

 

ASUS technical support is probably only technical to the point of basic stuff:
- Windows support
- CPU, RAM, HDD support.

Videocard technology is probably too much for most techs to grasp... especially if we are talking about notebook videocards and modular designs.

 

Make sure you start from scratch when re emailing them. If its the same ticket, same name, same email address their likley to look up support tickets under the same person or get the same person answering.