Replacing W530 GPU

Hi everybody,


A few months ago I bought the W530 (i7-3820qm, Quadro k2000m, 8gb, ...) and I added/replaced following hardware:
256gb crucial m4 msata, 1000gb samsung HDD and 16gb kingston ram.
I'm really satisfied with this laptop. The power this beast has is unbelievable.
EXCEPT... I'm not satisfied with the k2000m at all!

I'm a student digital arts and entertainment. (game design, animation, gfx, ...)
I bought this laptop with my eye on the professional gpu 'optimised for CAD and professional applications'
But the gpu tends to strugle with a scene in 3ds max with around 20k poly's.. which is not normal in my opinion.
I updated, uninstalled every possible driver and/or update. (and no, optimus is disabled)

Let alone the gaming performance isn't that great eather.


To make a long story short..
I want to upgrade the gpu.
I've been doing some research and the k2000m has the same mxm type as the hd7970m and gtx 680m.
These gpu's are performing way better in 3ds max and gaming as I compare to colleeges at school.

The build quality and performance this beast would have.. It just gives me a nerd-boner.
So, would it be possible? Anybody has experience with this? Thoughts?

I'm planning to keep this laptop for a loong time, so I just want to get the best out of it!
Any advice would be welcome.


Thanks in advance.
(sorry for grammar, Dutch... )

 

It can't be done. period.

If you are stationary when work , then maybe eGPU if you find that is the bottleneck,

 

GPU is soldered to the motherboard so like baiii says it can't be done.

Brad

 

Yup, soldered, and even if it was MXM, it would likely be MXM type A like on the M4700 and 8750w while the 7970m and 680m are MXM type B.

 

I read somewhere in these forums that nVidia crippled double point precision performance (or something of that sort used in 3d pro work) in k series compared to previous gen 2000m series to get better benchmark performance and higher fps in games. If you have someone around you with Q2000m (comes in w520), try out your files in that and see what happens. They're saying fermi was better than kepler at this kind of work. Will post link to that if i can find it. In the meantime, give q2000m a try.

Also, not sure this is relevant or not, but are you sure you're not throttling?

 

Thanks for the replies.
Didn't know it's soldered..

@prosetheus: it'd surprise me if it's throttling since the scene isn't that big at all..
I do have noticed that the core clock and memory clock are being fully used while working in 3ds while the gpu load stays rather low..

 

You've got a problem with a 3d scene - 20k poly? 20k or 20M poly?

Replacing a GPU is not a real solution. You clearly have big software or configuration issues. I've been working on W530 for over 6 months and it handles 5-85M poly project very well. Of course it may vary, depending on project's characteristics & designer skills but up to 2-4M poly you can work comfortably even on integrated HD4000.

Which version of 3ds max do you use?
Have you tried testing your laptop with one of popular gaming benchmarks(eg. 3dmark06)?
Which API do you use in your 3ds max? OpenGL, DX, nitrous, nV performance?
Did you check clocks of your CPU i GPU while running 3ds max session?
Did you try different power profiles?
Have you ever tried opening other 3ds max projects?
What are your viewport shading modes? Shaded. realistic, etc.
Is ambient occlusion enabled in your viewport settings?

This is a highly optimized project running on a high-end spec. W530:


Peace brother

 

I forgot about 2 major questions:
What OS do you use & which version of graphics card is installed?

I remember I've encountered series of serous issues while testing Win8 with any GPU drivers between 3xx.xx - 309.xx. Apart from this single case it performs flawlessly.