Gateway NX860XL video upgrade???

I've got a Gateway NX860XL I bought in 2006. It's got a MXM2.0 Type III Nvidia Go 7900GS 256MB card in it. I'm wanting to upgrade it to either a 8 or 9 series card.

I've enclosed an attachment photo of what I got..

From what I have gathered, a 9700M MXM2 Type III card should work, but I'm having a helluva time finding one.. and if I do find a card, they want way too much for it.. $400-500. I'm like, for another $500 I can get a whole new laptop that has the GTX 260M.

If I can't find a 9700M Type III card, then I may just sell the laptop for the best price I can get for it and some other gear and get a new Gateway or ASUS that has the new GTX 260M cards.

It sucks that I spent nearly $2000 for this laptop 3 years ago and now even more powerful ones are nearly half the price..

Gateway has a trade-in program, but I'm not stupid enough to take $119 for a trade-in when the machine is in excellent condition and runs Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit just fine with 2GB.

If anyone knows where to get a compatible upgradeable card for my NX860XL, let me know..

Thanks!
Psybersoma

 

I happen to be using that exact same model, myself. The problem I see, is that Gateway never released the NX860XL with a card other than the GeForce Go 7900 GS, and as a result, there may simply not be BIOS support for any other card. If you're willing to try, though, there are a number of MXM III and MXM II cards up on Ebay for prices ranging from $70-$250. I'd be careful and do some extra research, though. It seems some of the cards, such as the 8600M GT may actually be slower than our 7900 GS.

 

Without Bios support, Judicator's probably right.

I'm inclined to think that the 7900 GS is very much the best card you can have in there.

 

search here for a card http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4726590#post4726590

 

anyone have luck upgrading there NX860XL?? Anyone know if the nVidia Quadro FX 1600 will work?

 

I too have an NX860XL laptop running Vista Home Premium, with a GeForce Go 7900GS removable video card. Has anyone had any luck in replacing it?

There is absolutely NO reason to replace the entire laptop other than gaming graphics are sub-par now. It's a core2-duo, upgraded to 4GB RAM, and I've recently upgraded the HD and have nearly 250GB free.

Bill

 

I never bothered, although mine is still running just fine for the most part. I'm going to replace it before much longer though, mostly because the fan no longer seems to run (at all) on battery. I don't mind keeping it plugged in, and keeping my uses of it on battery very short, but it does make it a bit more annoying. Perhaps after I get a new notebook, I might try playing around with this one, but as this is my current only computer, life would get a bit difficult if it wasn't running reasonably.