Viability of Replacing the 6850M in the HP Envy 17

Hi everyone,
I bought an HP Envy 17 2090-NR recently, and although I like the feel of the computer, its gaming power has me rather disappointed. Even while overclocked with 11.10 drivers I get only 25-30 fps on Crysis at high settings 1080p. The Envy 17 has a great processor and my RAM is more than sufficient. I believe the issue with the computer, especially on GPU-heavy games like Crysis, is that the GPU is simply not good enough. I was looking to replace the 6850M with either a 6990M or 6990Ms in crossfire. If this is even possible, how difficult would it be?

 

i think it's not because of the 6850M will be 'glued' to the motherboard
6990m will draw 100w, which your power adapter cannot deliver> and heat will be too much from 100w in such thin notebook

 

Is it physically glued to the mobo?
And I have an 120W adapter, as well as 2 external fans, so heating and power shouldn't be an issue.

 

6990M alone consumes 100W. Total notebook would be around 200w. also fans doesnt help that much if they are not inside the notebook. The graphics card will warm up stuff like cpu and ram too

 

then just lower the resolution... it still looks awesome in 720p and runs great

 

The GPU is soldered directly to the motherboard via BGA (ball-grid array). You need VERY expensive equiptment to work with this style IC package.

Anyway, the ENVY is not designed properly to deal with the heat created by these power hungry GPU's; hence being underclocked to begin with.

I've been playing with overclocking my 6850 for the last few days and the most I can get out of it is 700MHz core and 1200MHz memory. I could push the core slightly higher, but the machine get's HOT and will shutdown after playing for more than an hour. Also, the voltage is locked at 0.95V which limits how high the core clock can be pushed.

IMO, if the ENVY isn't up to your gaming standards, just sell it and buy a different laptop. It's a waste of time to dream of changing the GPU, which just isn't practical.

 

Ah, I see.
I'm not exactly well versed in notebooks, so thanks for telling me that.
In that case, if I could replace the 6850m for something better, what is the best possible card I would be able to put in the computer?

 

The AMD gpu isn't glued in...it is soldered to the motherboard. In order to replace it with a different model...you would have to make sure that the pin out is compatible (some vary with the number of pins that go into the socket), etc. Long ago, I wanted to get an Nvidia GPU replaced on a laptop I had...couldn't do it. Old gpu couldn't be removed. Not sure about whether HP makes it so cannot be upgraded. Another forum to ask would be the Envy 17 1xxx forum. Those machines have been around a lot longer. Would be interesting to see if anyone replaced the 5850 in one...

 

Replaceable notebook GPUs use a slot called MXM, which unfortunately has a couple different standards so you can't always take a GPU from one MXM laptop and put it into another. If it's not MXM, it's effectively not replaceable, and the Envy 17 is not MXM. Typically those GPUs are only found on gaming-class notebooks, such as some of the offerings from Clevo and Alienware among others.

Bottom line: it can't be done. Laptop GPUs aren't really a very good part to worry about upgrading, though. Even if you've got an MXM laptop, the upgrade is typically unreasonably expensive for the performance boost. Generally, if your laptop's gaming performance isn't up to your standards, it's time to either get a desktop or get a better laptop. One of the things about buying a laptop is balancing wants and needs with realistic expectations: portability and battery life are generally sacrificed for power and vice versa, so your Envy 14 is a somewhat better on-the-go machine than, say, an Alienware M17X would be, but it's not as good a gamer. If you want to game well, you have to accept that your laptop is going to be big and heavy, and if you want to use your laptop around town often, you've got to sacrifice power for portability. If the Envy 17 doesn't fit your profile, use it as a learning experience to guide your next laptop purchase to be more to your liking.

 

Darn.
Well, in that case I guess I will actually have to get an Alienware or something similar, because the HP Envy's gaming performance is lackluster at best.
It's really unfortunate too, because I absolutely love the look and feel of the HP Envy 17.

 

Heh, I'm not much of a "modern" gamer, so 400fps playing CS 1.6 is good enough for me.

Newest game I have is DeadIsland and it runs flawlessly on the highest settings.

 

Try running Crysis and see what happens.

 

OK, done. Running with the DX11 patch. What is supposed to happen?

So it's not playable on Ultra settings @ 1920x1080. Should I expect it to be?

Playability with Extreme settings @ 1920x1080 seems reasonable and graphics still look good to me. I'm not much of a gamer though (never played a 360 or PS3), so my standards are probably lower.

 

1. I'm not surprised at all, I got similar results on Crysis 2.
2. Try running Crysis, not Crysis 2. The second one actually has worse graphics.
3. It looks nice regardless.

 

Hello, i have the hp envy 17 1010nr model, im wanting to overclock it, i see you did yours, could you help me do mine?