HP EliteBook 8770w and 970M 6GB and 980M 8GB - they work!

Double check your PSU, just to be on the safe side. Speaking of which, what's your current configuration?

 

Current setup is

i5 3360M
8gb ram
AMD Firepro M4000
Samsung SSD 850 pro 256GB (main OS)
WDC 0.5TB mechanical for data
230 PSU

I have just ordered an i7 3610QM

Now wondering what GPU to get that will be the least hassle but much more powerful than the M4000



Cheers

 

Another question for you all if you don't mind

Since I am upgrading my CPU/GPU

I am going to get this dual piped heatsink, on this site there are 2 but they look the same.

(this one says MXM)
http://www.alancomputech.com/hp-8770w-nvidia-mxm-k4000m-heatsink-w-o-fan-677601-007-677601-007.html

This one just nvidia-new
http://www.alancomputech.com/hp-8770w-heatsink-w-no-fan-vga-nvidia-new-696435-001-696435-001.html

I take one size fits all or what? my current GPU is AMD and I can't recall if it was dual pipped when I opened it but I think it was single pipped.

Cheers

 

I thought that it might be the case, that's why I asked about the config. Have you checked your adapter? With i5 and M4000 you might have 150W adapter. It's not obligatory, but I know that they do ship with lower power adapters in some countries if you get lower-end/lower-power config. Get the K4000m one to be on the safe side. If there's a K5000m one - even better, although I'm not sure if there would be any difference between the two.You would need dual pipe heatsink for the CPU as well.

 

Agreed, get the better heatsinks and of course a 230W PSU... The 150W will be too small for the 970M+Quad..

 

Hi,

Yeah I doubled checked and it's definitely a 230W power supply (massive brick)

So would this take the 970M you think or is this K5000m is a better option?

Again does it need to be a specific type or Vbios will reject?

Just want something that has a LOT more power than the Firepro M4000

Thanks all

 

That's nice, so you don't need to worry about power.

I meant about the heat-sink, not the GPU, but since you asked, what are you going to use it for? If games only, get the 970m, if you use professional apps, you'd be better off with K5000m or K5100m, since Maxwell is really bad at FP64, especially the GeForce GPUs.

No issues as far as I know.

 

Yup the 970M will burn the K5000M... It will easily have more power then M4000....

 

Would be mostly for gaming so the 970 sounds like a good option although I notice there is a lot of different models I think it just need to be MXM right?

This one says MXM3 on the instructions and wondered if you think that would be the correct model or is my bios going to prevent it?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nvidia-Ge...7x-r4-stock-/141836196881?hash=item2106189c11


Cheers

 

Yes, this one's Clevo so it would work. You might need to remove your bracket of the back of your current GPU and use it on the new one, since I think that the screws are not the same size and/or your new GPU might come without bracket. Heat it up with a hairdrier for a few seconds and then with the back of a screwdriver push it out.

 

Cheers mate I will give it a try, the CPU doesn't come until end of the month or start of April and not ordered GPU as yet, but it will happen and I will keep you all posted on the results.

Thanks

 

Hmmm getting a little worried now, I ordered the 970M on ebay and messaged the seller asking if he heard of any issues getting it running with the 8770w model, he said "don't but it but we will refund if it's not compatible" !!

Funny thing to say since I already bought it but what does everyone think ???

I have the new i7 CPU here but wanted to wait until GPU arrived and do it all together to save opening twice...

 

You should be fine.. Just make sure to flash the Prema vBIOS and you should be fine... Ask OP for the original steps he did to make it work if it's not in the thread!

 

Cheers for comforting words, well it should all be here by end of next week and I will report back how it went and how I resolved any issues that will most likely occur

 

So I got my hardware and long story short it worked-ish, I did have to take the bracket off the old GPU and use on new 970M and buy new CPU/GPU dual pipe heatsinks as suggested, only problem I have now is trying to get a driver to work, I tried those icafe and a whole other bunch but nothing will pick up the card.

I edited the driver inf and included my details and it permitted me to start the install but fails to actually install, I think I may try a fresh install of windows but I am happy that the actual hardware is functioning and I didn't waste all that money


PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1618&SUBSYS_176C103C&REV_A1\4&DA0C248&0&0008

 

Try the modded inf on laptopvideo2go.com.. Use the 362.00 driver + modded inf..

 

Thanks for that mate, it didn't work however....

I rebuild the OS on windows 7 instead of 10 downloaded the latest drivers from the nvidia website and modded the inf myself inputting the 2 lines below in correct area and it WORKED!!!


%NVIDIA_DEV.1618.176C.103C% = Section246, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1618&SUBSYS_176C103C

NVIDIA_DEV.1618.1CED.1043 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M

I can't believe the performance of this laptop now!! thanks for all your help!

 

Windows 7 is better anyways .. Enjoy your souped up laptop

 

Can this video card work in a Dell m4800?

 

No. You are limited to MXM-A, which means M2000M, or W5170M.

 

hello, what you think if use 980m?

 

Did you notice that laptopvideo2go.com only provide Drivers till 359.12? Aren't they providing no new(er) Drivers anymore?

 

They should be around.. I don't think they provided modded inf though, seems that whole section of drivers has disappeared and you have to go to the forum thread where the NVIDIA website is linked to download the drivers

 

I can`t believe how time flies, wow.
Didn`t have too much free time recently, but just for the records and future 8770w card swappers here is some info about 980M.

So, to put it simply - IT WORKS!

Yes, 8770w with 980M 8GB works without any problems (almost). No hardware modifications are needed, Nvidia heatsink fits perfectly, just plug in, that`s all. Drivers needs inf modding, but that was a given and is really easy.
Using tanzmeister research, simply edit nvcvi file and replace strings (all of them):
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_77021558
with
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_176C103C

So we are basically using Clevo p771 with 980M and without Optimus hardware IDs as a driver injector for 8770w lol. Install them and enjoy!

BUT and there must be some "but".

Many weeks later and many finished games later after 980M swap I personally do not recommend this upgrade for ours 8770w. Because of the temps...
Only dual heatpipe, single fan (and again, I`m using non stock fan, but one with more blades!) shared with CPU is simply not enough for this card. High 80C (88-89C) were a norm. I was frame rate capping games all the time (using RivaTuner) to 30 fps to avoid higher temps and damage of the card. Without it, with unlocked setting, when a card was given the freedom to run at 100% power - PerfCap reason Thermal was just a matter of few minutes and games were dropping frames like a mad (card couldn`t cool itself and stayed in lowered clocks state permanently).

What is the point to install 980M when you must hold it back and not use it to its full potential? Money wasted. It`s simply is too powerfull, too hot for our basic cooling solution. So after all my experiences with 8770w I`m thinking that the 970M is really a sweet spot for all 8770w gamers but even it runs a little too hot for my personal comfort zone. I`m back to Quadro - not my first K3000M but K5100M My GPU never reaches 80C now. Yes, I managed to make it work too but it`s a topic for a new thread maybe

 

That`s a crosspost, please continue discussion (if any) here -> http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/8770w-compatible-video-cards.795753/

Ok, it`s time to uncover another truth about 8770w.

After my successful GPU upgrade to 970M, then 980M and now to K5100M (all confirmed to be working) I switched screen to glorious Dreamcolor. It`s the real deal, as you can see here:



Now there is discussion whether or not Dreamcolor 10bit screen is working with Maxwell GPUs (GeForce and Quadro). There are some reports with older EliteBooks that there are issues with this configuration, supposedly seen as banding in gray scale (?). I want to know what is the situation with 8770w and put this discussion to rest.

So I`ve managed to get 980M 8GB and I will be testing it with my 10bit screen equipped 8770w. We will know for sure, without any questions how that config works (displaying). BUT my time with 980M will be limited: I have it here right now but by monday it must be returned to its owner. So it gives us few short days only to do some test and I need your help and guidance.

@triturbo, @sinitar, @Blacky, @win32asmguy @Anybody
what game to install, what specific menu do open, what picture to display, what software to use, what test to do, what setting to use to identify any issues? What sort of issues I`m looking for: gray scale, strange patterns, banding, missing colors, flickering?

 

it's a crime that you have no pics

 

There are in the HP's section.

 

If you are wondering how it all looks inside 8770w, I`m planing some maintenance in coming days, so will post few of them.

After seeing again how WELL 980M performs, I decided to keep it for some time and do some tests. So I have K5100M and 980M side by side, two best cards that fits 8770w MXM slot, from two generations - still wondering which one finally stays. For now I`ve installed 980M and with it 8770w is totally maxed out: 980M 8GB with Prema vBIOS, 3940XM, 32GB RAM HyperX, Samsung 850 Pro (system), Crucial MX200 mSATA* (games), 2TB Seagate HDD (data), 320W power supply**, F.63 Rev.A BIOS, Win10 64bit Pro, 372.90 GeForce Drivers.

Results:








All of it on absolutely stunning DreamColor panel with its 10bit glory and in a classy metallic case that meets military standards (built like a tank ). I don`t like the look of gaming laptops ("Star Trek`ish"), HP Elitebooks line, especially 8770w, still looks the best for me. You can take it to work on any meeting in the day and play games later (with wireless Xbox One controller it`s console like experience with much better quality).

I`m maxed, I`m happy, now to cool this monster...

* no, you still can`t boot OS from it, still no BIOS option to do that (HP does not care anymore) but it works like regular hard drive for storage @3Gbit speed
** if you are planning to buy one, I will save you time and costs - the newest revision marked as Y90RR does not work, its plug fits but only got few blinks of power LED and no charge; older revision marked as XM3C3 works great (plug and charge ).

 

I meant pics of the setup. of the hardware, the card inside the notebook and your special fan and information about that mod :|

 

Fan? Am I missing something? I do run ZBook 17 fan though.

Nice system setup and nice brick (I have one as spare). You have to overclock in order to tap into that extra power though. BTW if you get a warning in Windows, like I do, me and a friend fixed that with a modified right-angle adapter fooling the system that it runs on stock 200W PSU. This way I got a VooDoo 350W running (and charging)

 

There is no fan mod, I just swapped original with 8740w one, because it have more blades - is it better I don`t know (didn`t compare temps before/after).

triturbo
just bought ZBook 17 fan (735373-001) and will try to fit it too (it will be long delivery from China). Its black plate - is it thick and hard to cut?
I don`t plan any OC, but thought that running 320W Dell adapter at its ~60% max power output is healthier than stock 230W at ~86%. I don`t have any warning in Win10.

Updated 980M vBIOS to Prema v2 and ran benchmarks again (the same benchmarks with the same settings in the same order). Results are even a little higher now but max GPU power consumption (reported by HWinfo) went up too and unfortunately it`s a significant increase. 980M peaked at 126W, while with previous vBIOS at 108W - Prema made it run at full capabilities and full potential and it shows lol. But I think that it`s much too much for 8770w and its cooling and I will consider vBIOS "downgrade".

 

More blades = better, as long as we are talking about the same rotor diameter and thickness.

You can cut the metal with scissors. Well the fine tune/shaping required some "Dremel" work.

Yep, it's always better if you don't push things to their limits, but sometimes it's necessarily. Pushing the 350W to its limit, that's my dream Do you have "HP Quick Launch Buttons" installed?

Yeah, the 980m really is meant to consume more than what it was restricted to by default - 108W. Most users claim about 130W, so you are pretty much spot-on.

 

HI, unfortunately I didn't find this thread after already buying a 980m... I was reading at the DC upgrade thread that the the upgrade is possible and bought one...
I'm unable to get it running however on 8770w with Win 10 x64...

I've downloaded the latest nvidia driver (376.09) swapped the pci ids in nvcvi.inf and used nvdmi... I checked @tanzmeister 's post, however the installation of the driver didn't proceed either....



EDIT:
Fixed it, using another guide http://null-bin.blogspot.de/2015/08/how-to-modify-nvidia-notebook-driver.html

 

@triturbo about your Zbook 17 fan mod, what change of temperature you see? I'm running a 980m on my 8770w, but it's getting too hot for playing with the Oculus Rift (which works, you just need an high quality DP to HDMI 2.0 Active adapter. Unfortunately after 20 minutes the thermal protection kicks in, and the HMD (or goggles) start loosing image. )

 

About 6 to 10ºC at full blast, which is 4000rpm. I had issues running it at that speed in one of my systems, so take that in mind.

 

What kind of issues if I may ask, also what does the actual mod involve? Is it similar to the mod for the 8740w?

 

I mean I couldn't get it to run @4000rpm, it topped @3500rpm, not sure why. That's the same fan, the HWInfo version was different, so this might be it (I've tried it on my test machine first and was unaware that it can go to 4000rpm, after I saw it running that high I couldn't be bothered to return and retest). It's the same mod, you have to reduce it to the form of your stock fan (which is the same assembly as 8740w).

 

So I can place a Zbook 17 (g1) Fan heatsink to the 8770w? because the zbook has better GPU cooling. that the 8770w

UPDATE: It doesnt fit :c

 

You have to grind/cut and match your existing fan layout and then rearrange the wires.

 

Hey guys, I'm pretty new to all this but I'm hoping to get a gtx 980 working in my 8770w running windows 10. Will any 980m mxm card work? I just ordered one off of ebay before finding this thread so I hope I won't have issues with the card . . . Also, regarding the fan mods discussed above, which fan is preferred, the 8740 one or the zbook 17 one?

EDIT:

Does anyone who has tried a 970/980 in the 8770w have any input on this? http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...compatible-with-3-displayport-screens.803486/

 

Well, i suck doing physical mods, so i wont risk it.

What brand was the 980M from? if its from dell or hp, it will work, but if its not, find a vbios from hp, if it doesnt works well with a HP vbios, then try a Dell one, most Dell Vbios work on HP laptops,

also youll need a better Power supply, or it will throttle, since it needs 112 watts.

the 980m might support the 3dp with the dock you have from hp (the 230w version recommended)

Well about the fans, i dont know, i dont do mods on laptops physically

 

It was an Alienware 980m. Are those equivalent to the ones for other Dell laptops? I currently have the 230W power supply. is that not enough?

As for the displayport issue, I'll just copy what I said in the other thread here:
"My concern was less about whether the GPU could handle 3 displays but more about if the GPU itself was actually the limiting factor (not some aspect of the mobo I was missing). For instance the K5000M is vastly more powerful than the AMD M4000 but only the M4000 can output to all 3 displayport outputs on the 8770w (out of the default gpus available for it). I'm certain a 980m could run 3x 2560x1440 displays at 144Hz, I'm just not certain if something else would limit me from outputting to all 3 DP outputs."

The reason I need to be able to run all 3 via DP is because I need the 3 displays in an eyefinity/surround configuration, and therefore need all displays running at 144Hz. Currently my m4000 is able to do this, it just doesn't have the best gaming performance.

 

a 230w will handle the GPU,

You wont have any issues at all just because its another brand, just try mounting the card and if you see no video output at all youll need to flash the 980m, if it doesnt you are good to go,
The only issue you might find is a driver problem, and thats when you have to make modified drivers.

I also think that the 980M would handle the 3 DP,

 

I'm happy to report that upon receiving my GTX 980M today, I've successfully installed it and the drivers (using the wonderful tips found earlier in this thread) and EVERYTHING is working GREAT. Performance is good. So far, I've only hit 88C max and haven't noticed any throttling. I'm also using an external cooler with my laptop so whenever it's not under load, it goes back down REALLY fast. The only tricky thing was consistently getting all 3 of my displayport screens working, but I think I finally cracked it. You have to start with the DP directly on the laptop DISCONNECTED. Have the laptop OPEN, then connect it to the dock (which connects it to the other 2 DP screens. THEN close the laptop to disable the laptop screen. ONLY THEN plug the 3rd DP screen into the laptop's DP connector. It's not too much of a hassle once you've done it a few times, and the performance gain VASTLY outweighs the slight inconvenience.

EDIT

For anyone curious, this is the external cooler I'm using with my 8770w: https://www.amazon.com/Temperature-...&qid=1494555409&sr=8-2&keywords=opolar+cooler
Unlike most cooling pads and such, this actually draws air directly out of the laptop, causing it to be MUCH more effective at cooling. Installing it on the 8770w isn't as straightforward as on most laptops, but dead simple still. This is due to a thin permanent mount you adhere to the back of the laptop. A metal clip on the unit slips into this, holding the fan in place when in use. The only thing is, the area the mount has to adhere to overlaps with the rear cover slightly. The solution is to just cut the corner of the adhesive off the back of the mount in the corner that overlaps the rear cover. Then the rear cover can still be removed easily while still using the mount (which is vastly better than the optional temp mount included, a plastic flap that hardly secures it).

 

Excellent! can you keep me updated on any errors or anything great from the card? I might consider save up $$ to buy a 980m

 

I'll be sure to let you know if anything comes up.

I've played a few different games on here now and it's NEVER gone over 88C so far. Within minutes of stopping the game, I see it return back to around 65C (but keep in mind this is with chrome still open so the card hasn't throttled down to low power states at all). I'll note that according to MSI Afterburner, I have a TON of room to overclock this card as well. Obviously unless I did some crazy hardware mod to watercool my laptop or something, I probably won't be overclocking lol.

A funny thing happened just now when I realized I hadn't tested Overwatch yet. I loaded up the game and my very first thought was "Why the heck is the frame rate so low?", as it was around 55fps or so. I took a peek at the settings to see if something had happened, and sure enough, Overwatch's thing to automatically detect the "best" settings had noticed my change in GPU and promptly set half the options to high and the remaining to freakin ULTRA. I did end up putting the settings down to something a bit more sane for a better frame rate, but still, not bad for a workstation laptop that's just over exactly 5 years old now (the 8770w was announced on May 9, 2012 according to Wikipedia).

 

Well, IDK if the CPU Will ever Bottleneck it, i dont know how to guess it or test it at all, but yea, even for a 5 year old laptop its still great!

 

I was lucky enough to get the i7 3920XM (2.9GHz turbo to 3.8GHz) in here as well so I don't think I need to worry about my CPU for quite a while . . .

So upon closer analysis, I am seeing the GPU occasionally throttle from 1038MHz to 848MHz. Seems to happen when it's been setting in the high 80's for a while. I wonder if there's a way to control this behavior or at least fine tune it a bit more . . . I was actually considering looking into some of those hardware mods that people have done for better laptop cooling (soldering on more copper pipes and such).

 

Well, Here a little thing that happend to my K4000M when i started using the 8770w again, the gpu had heat throttles at just 80c, after some weeks,
i get over 100c on cpu and 90c on gpu (somehow this **** doesnt shut down) and the GPU no longer Throttles, just try playing games, if it goes off then idk, i did so and the throttle went away,

Also to have your Laptop fan at 100% download NoteBookFanControl in Github, and select the profile from the 8760w, im using that one and it has been working fine,

 

Nice, I'll have to try that. Looking up NoteBookFanControl right now as well. Between that and my external fan, I'll be moving quite a bit of air.
Quick update for you, with no games and just chrome running (so the GPU still hasn't fully clocked down), it's resting at a nice 62C at the moment.

EDIT

Wow. This tool is nice. I'm now idling at 5̶9̶C̶ 5̶8̶C̶ 5̶7̶C̶ 56C (?!?!?!?!?!?!) with both the internal and external fans running full blast (and chrome still running). It actually took 5̶C̶ 6C off. I'm impressed.

EDIT

ayyyy comment #100

EDIT

after flipping between 55C and 56C over and over, it finally settled on 55C.