Quick help upgrading an Asus G50Vm-X1

I have been doing research all over this forum and all over the internet about increasing the gaming performance of my Asus G50Vm-X1. I have come to the conclusion that the only worthwhile upgrade aside from the 9700m GT overclock would be a processor upgrade. Can someone confirm the the Intel X9100 is the best available processor for this laptop but more importantly what is the cost benefit of this chip because I realize I might not see the full potential of this cu and should go for a less expensive upgrade. Maybe just forget about it and save up for a new laptop altogether as this rig is growing old fast especially with the 200 series now going mobile.

 

I would also recommond the t9900 cpu. It operates at the same speed 3.06hz, but has a tdp of 35W compared to the 44W of the x9100.

i have seen several asus 9800m gs cards on ebay; I have even seen one asus 260m card.

 

i'll second that))

 

id save up and go for a new lappy

 

ASUS gtx 260 For sale!
http://cgi.ebay.com/Asus-260M-GTX-1...ards?hash=item1c0bd39b9c&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

 

Thanks everyone for the help. That is a good point about the power consumption I will look into it. Also, you suggest upgrading the video card but I have read all over this forum that the G50Vt (I have the Vt-X1 also called the G50Vm-X1) can physically hold these but cannot utilize them because the video bios is part of the computer bios and not on the card. So basically as I understand it if I were to put this in my pc it would not work.

 

nay, don't do a CPU(unless you have like a celeron in there). Grab a Decent SSD. once you try it you can't go back! and it will give system that extra zip your looking for.

 

CPU upgrades rarely are worthwhile. And there are no true 200 series for laptops. Your 9700M GT is still among the best of the mainstream (128-bit) cards.

 

I'm quite sure that u can the cpu and the extra speed would help. I know of a guy on this forum who put an X9100 in his ASUS G50 i think or G51 so u should have no problem with that. BTW u should also be able to put in a ASUS GTX260M module.

 

The thing is, I really don't need the power of an X9100. If anyone is familiar with the G51vx line, it's notoriously hot. I'm not melting anything, since it was designed that way, but most people would squirm at 95+ temperature ratings. And my X9100 is significantly warmer than my old P7350.

Honestly, I keep my X9100 undervolted and underclocked to 2.79 with a voltage of 1.175. Except for the truly demanding and CPU-intensive games, this is was what I use.

You do not need the full power of a X9100 unless you're doing rendering or video editing.

Or want to brag about your 3DMark score.

 

well I have a t5750 in here now so I am sure most cpu's are in fact somewhat advantages as upgrades but I figure the x9100 cost isnt worth it. Also I am now 99% sure that my particular G50vm-x1 will not support a video card upgrade, unless someone can confirm they have figured a way to do this. (the G50vm-x1 is an older best buy model and I do not believe to be the same model as most other...better...G50vt's) But thanks for all the info this has helped tremendously

 

GPUs are usually the hardest things to upgrade on a computer. I'm not conversant as to why, though.

By the way, a good thermal paste is a lifesaver. Running the exact same 3DMark trial, I dropped 3C with AC MX-3. Lovely stuff.



Anyway, figure out a processor, yet? I'm not familiar with the compatible chips, sadly.

 

Nothing in the way of a decision yet, I am still researching what between either RAM upgrade, HDD to SSD, HDD to RAID 0 config or the processor will give the maximum performance for games and video editing at the best cost...

The deeper I dig the more unsure I become

 

Well, I can give a semi-informed opinion.

Most modern games require heavy GPU power, which, like I said, is hard to secure. I had a lower-end P7350 (2.0 GHz, 3MB L2), and it ran every game I threw at it. With that said, note that I have a high-end graphics card, and as I mentioned above most games need GPU power, not CPU power. More CPU power will definitely help in rendering or editing, but depending on the upgrade the improvement might not be noticeable.

Most people say HDD -> SSD is a great choice, and I more or less agree. However, for what you're doing (gaming, editing), the difference would be negligible. In games you'll notice faster loading times, but, say, your FPS won't change a bit. For editing, ditto. You'll load things faster, but when you're rendering or applying changes or whatever, it won't speed things up.

RAID 0 is the same thing with the SSD upgrade. Makes your drives run faster, but for what you're doing the gains will be mininal.

RAM... I'm not entirely sure. It might speed certain things up, it might not. Get a second opinion.


For what you're doing, I'd say this is the priority list:
CPU
RAM
SSD
RAID

 

ok here is what i know. the gpu is upgradeable but thats if you can find an asus 9800m gs or gtx 260m. if you do upgrade go for the 9800m gs less heat issues. and try to find the gpu heat sink out of a g50vt.
and as for cpu the most bang for the buck its the t9600. anything up to the x9100 can be used. s

 

I don't mean to say it again but I have researched under the asus specific section of this forum and have come to the conclusion that in my particular laptop a video card upgrade would not be possible. I am thinking a t9600 after researching prices and almost 100% sure I will be doing a cpu upgrade especially after rendering a movie in 1080p today and it taking close to 3 hours. However if a gtx 260m would work in a G50Vm-X1 I would consider doing this upgrade when I have the cash.

 

For the sake of those looking for answers to this in the future I will post this one last bit of info. This is paraphrased directly from an engineer who helped design the original line of G50's. Asus builds their laptops with regard to upgades except in the case of video cards where they try to maximize efficiency. So while some Asus laptops can have the reverse MXM cards physically interchanged most have to be trial and error due to the changes made to each system after it is built. He told me in the case of the G50Vm-X1 they removed the video bios from the MXM card and integrated this into the mobo bios because it helped this particular model with some jibberish I didn't quite understand. AKA contact tech support and beg to speak to an engineer if you dont know if a part is upgradeable and you cannot figure it out for sure online

 

It's been done already. Your G50 can accept the GTX 260M.

I doubt they would move the GPU BIOS onto the system BIOS. The "engineer" you speak of must be talking about the microcode for the G92 architecture in the system BIOS.