The Official MSI GT60/70 970m/980m Upgrade Thread

Hi, first post and Thanks OP for this thread.
Paz Legalces there are no official MSI mxm upgrade Kit for GT60/70 users thus ( The [un]Official MSI GT60/70 970m/980m Upgrade Thread). Only GT72 are officially supported as this MSI kit comes with an heatsink designed for GT72 - GTX970/80M setup.

Talon has found an unofficial way (not supported by MSI) to upgrade his notebook by modifying the heatsink of his previous MXM card. However you can buy the heatsink from the ebay link as it apparently supports old GT70/(60?pretty sure) upgraded to 970M ( same layout as the 980M ). Then you won't have to do any heatsink modding !

I repeat there are no official MSI kit for GT60/70 to upgrade from GTX 880,780,770,680,675,670 to 970/80M. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I'm 100% sure.

Anyway I have a GT60 2PE-Dominator-Pro (880M/1080p) and I ordered the ebay heatsink as well the 980M from the MSI MXM UPGRADE KIT (for GT72) and will report here if everything works plug and play. I have already updated my bios to the latest. Can't wait to properly play the Witcher 3 on my laptop

 

Sorry, upgrade kit is only for the GT72.. you will have to upgrade yours the old fashion way like ever one here.

 

eBay link not showing up.

 

Sorry fixed here it is one more time
http://www.ebay.com/itm/271860555750?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT .
Also I realise there is only one left and I'm sure it won't be easy to find another one so I'm happy to have secured one. I also feel better about my upgrade if the heatsink is compatible with the new Maxwell card, it will look more professional than any dremel work.

 

let us know if it is compatible. I order my Dreme tool. it was either pay £50 for heat sink or £11 for the tool.
Spend the chance buying Compressed air, its sad when a man has to buy compressed air and also thermal paste. Plus i am going to add 8GB ram to make it 16GB which i think is the max upgrade with my 970m. There no point whipping a dead horse ​

 

Doing the dremel to the heatsink is super easy and does not take too much time. I had never dremel before and it took me about 10 minutes to do it to my heatsink, and the 980m fit perfectly on my GT60 2OD

Max temps without turbo boost I've seen on my laptop with the 980m are about 88°C for the GPU.

 

Hi adriano_banano thanks for your input. I received the heatsink and from the looks of it it's going to be 100% compatible with the 980m but I'll be sure when I receive the card tomorrow. I understand it is not hard however I would not risk damaging the heatsink on my expensive laptop receiving an expensive card so even if there was not another compatible out I would still order an extra heatsink to dremel mod just to be safe .

I am very much interested in the temperatures your cards are operating at especially since you have a laptop similar to mine. Can I ask you what brand of thermal paste you used and what kind of temp you get on demanding games with cooler boost on?

I'd appreciate it Thanks !

 

I'm using 6w/mK 0.5mm thermal pads and I order some Gelid Extreme but meanwhile, I'm using Cooler Master Thermalfusion 400. If I use turbo fans or even fans at 70% (using Pherein Tools) I get ~80-84°C on GPU in games like Witcher 3 or GTA V within an hour of use. In less demanding games like FIFA 15 or Batman AC it stays ~70°C max.

I thought initially that my lappy would struggle with power consumption (180w adapter) but battery boost works very well, I've applied about +100Mhz clock/+200Mhz memory OC and played without any problems, only consuming about 5% of battery power after an hour or so. No freezes or blue screens at all

 

Wow that is excellent ! And that is with overclocking very impressive indeed !

Well thanks for the info I will be using Noctua NT-H1 paste since it is what I ordered and I'm hoping for similar results. I will take this opportunity to re-paste CPU while I'm at it since I heard I could drop temp more than 10°C. My 880m max temp always sit at 88°C for reference.

Also I've discovered this nifty Pherein Tool thanks to you

 

Well, maybe I wasn't clear at all but I didn't play ON BATTERY. I was playing PLUGGED IN and Hybrid Power only consumed 5% of the battery after an hour. If you want to play on battery, you can limit (more or less) the power consumption directly with GeForce Experience.

 

Oh sorry Somehow I thought it was weird 5% after an hour lol. I'm sorry this is my first laptop after years of desktop computing, what is that Hybrid Power you speak of ?

I found this quote "So Hybrid power lets you go beyond what the AC adapter can provide, by sucking some power from the battery while maxing out the AC adapter" does it mean better performance in some scenarios?

 

It allows the machine to exceed the capability of the brick and deliver more power for very stressful loads where otherwise it would have to scale back slightly yes.

 

Hi,
GT60 2PE Dominator Pro (GT60 Haswell) MXM upgrade report : 880M to 980M
- Success ! 100 % Plug and Play !
- System BIOS Version: E16F4IMS.51A (lastest)
- GTX 980m 8GB with stock MSI vBios: 84.04.22.00.0A (This is the card that comes with the OFFICIAL MSI MXM UPGRADE KIT)
- Windows 7 x64
- Official Nvidia Drivers -- everything works flawlessly

The MSI Heat Sink for GT60 GT70 that is on sale on ebay is 100% compatible with the 980M.

Performance is exceptional as well as temps ! Tested different Benchmark and so far max temp reached by the card is 82°C after 1 hour of Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0. The Witcher 3 runs at 60fps 99% of the time at 1080p and a mix between medium and high settings and temps never go beyond 74°C with cooler boost on.

 

Well, ain't that great news. I have immediately grabbed the last heat sink available on ebay upon reading your post, thank you very much 'v'b
Anyhow, now for the acquiring of the GTX980m itself... any GTX980m online should do right? I am planning to grab the GTX980m from the MSI upgrade kit just to be sure... but maybe will look for some cheaper solutions
For the thermal pads, which one would be better, 0.5 or 1mm? Or is it possible for me to reuse the one from the old GT880m inside my machine?
...and just a bit of side wondering... can I sell off the old GTX880m with its old heatsink on ebay? Would anyone actually demand it?

Also just an extra question, there is a video of online instruction on how the folks at MSI upgrading the GT72 with their update kit... I have noticed that how come they didn't have to apply any thermal paste or thermal pad and only mentioned it offhandedly? :/


*Sorry for asking so much question... I am just kinda new to handling hardwares and just kinda nervous *

 

I am sure some one will want it, maybe some one who has a broken 880m or a some who wants to do SLI with there laptop. I sold my 770m added cash and bought 970m. Definitely sell it now. you will get a better price now. You still need to apply thermal paste or reuse or replace your thermal pad.

 

Hi Paz Legalces,
Glad I can be of some help!

- Yes 900 M series card with Clevo vBios and MSI vBios are compatible. However with a Clevo card you may have to use modded .inf GeForce drivers unless you flash the correct MSI vBios on that card. Before you do any upgrade you might need to update you bios so your laptop will recognize the new Maxwell card (Be sure to triple check that you are using the right file for your laptop model). I think I saw somewhere that there are Alienware MXM upgrade: those are not tested and likely to not work with your laptop.

- For the thermal pads I used those that came with the ebay heatsink. After all they are the ones MSI put in their laptop to ensure contact between their heatsink and the Nvidia card so why not use them? You will have to compare with the thermal pads layout of the heatsink from your MXM upgrade kit as there was just one small and long pad missing. By then between the two heatsink you will have plenty of new thermal pads to work with so there is no need to use the old ones from your 880M.

- The heatsink you just purchased as well as the ones from any other MXM kits are pre padded and with a thermal paste layer. For slightly better temps you can scrape off the thermal paste layer and use your preferred paste (I used Noctua NT-H1). If you chose to re-paste, remember to use a correct method for applying your paste ( no spread method with credit card, not too much, not anything that will add air bubbles).

You are nervous about upgrading your laptop, it is understandable. It is not hard at all but being used to desktop hardware it is indeed a little bit scary. If you concentrate and have steady hands you will complete your upgrade successfully. A few things to take into consideration:
- Your new card will come with a heat spreader on the bottom side which must be removed. (Clevo or MSI)
- The screws on your heatsink are numbered 1 to 4, take them off in the right order. Same procedure when you put your heatsink on obviously.
- When you put the heatsink back on make sure the thermal pads are still in place where they should be and do not overtighten it!
- If you feel up to it you can use that opportunity to also re-paste your CPU. It improved my IDLE temps by as much as 15°C!
- Finally watch as many disassembly videos as you can before you work on your laptop.

 

My problem is already continue. I want to sure , maybe my gpu is dead.

Nvidia optimus isnt working , if i diable hd 4000, my computer is opening. But any games and app dont using nvidia gpu

I removed card , than install again, i tried bios reset, changed bios, i tried everything, but already is not working. Maybe this card is dead. How can i understand??

Everything happened, after hdmi connection. I unplug and my computer gone to black screen , mouse cursor and left side sometimes wifi indicator(wrong side). What can be problem ? This is software problem or hardware problem ??

Thank you for your helping, sorry for my bad english


Edit: if i install windows 7, hd 4000 and gtx 980m driver can install together, computer is opening, everything looks working but any games and app is not using gtx 980m. I cant use my gtx card.

 

Unrelated but just saw this thread of a leak+speculation of a GTX990m on the horizon possibly at Q4 of this year
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/nvidia-2015-mobile-speculation-thread.775782/
Anyone think there's any chance in elk the GT60 can handle it?

 

Which version nvflash i must use to upgrade vbios? Becoz no nvidia display adapter found

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I had the same problem as you. My problem turned out to be the Vbios. When I tried flashing it I got the same thing (no nvidia display adapter found). I kept searching the net util I found a certain nvflash that worked. If I still had it I would have given it to you but I've deleted it a while back. But keep looking. Your card is not dead, I thought my card was dead too because optimus wasn't working, but once I changed the vbios everything worked. You might need to mod the drivers if you change the vbios though like in my case.

 

I changed vbios , already i got same problem. When i install driver , it needs to restart, when i did screen is going to black. If i close computer (not restart) than open , my computer is working and showing both gpu. But nvidia gpu is not working. How can i check exactly it is dead or not ? I have no chance to plug another pc

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Ok, well in that case I cannot help you. Talon or whatever his name is, the guy who started the original post on the fist page was the one who recommended that I use a prema mod clevo vbios on my MSI GTX 980M in my MSI gt60 (barebones) after suffering for a month with a problem similar to yours (except for the black screen thing), and it worked. I think you should try the prema mod vbios as well. assuming that your laptop is also a MSI GT60 ot GT70. If that doesn't work then someone else with more experience will have to help you out. I just decided to respond to your post because I suffered for a month with that same problem and I thought I had thrown $900 down the drain until someone told me that as long as the GTX 980M is being detected by the laptop (like GPUz, CPUz, Nvidia inspector, in your case, geforce experience), then it is not dead. I don't know if that's true though. But I truly think that your problem is a software one, not a hardware one. Your pc is showing both gpu but that doesn't mean that all is well. My laptop use to show both gpus too but optimus wasn't working which in turn caused the card not to work. However after using prema mod vbios, I can tell you that the 980M is fully compatible with GT60. Try the prema mod clevo vbios, if that doesn't work, try contacting Talon. He was the one who got me out of my misery. Good luck

 

Thank you very much for your respond, i flashed prema clevo vbios gtx980m, (for my gt70 ms1762 ) , now nvidia driver cant install , it say that could not found compatible gpu. What i should do ?

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You can use the one on prema's website.

 

you need to modify the drivers. it's very easy

 

I told you that you would need to modify the drivers when you flashed the prema mod vbios

 

I changed nv_dispi.inf file after extract, now i am trying to instanll but it said unsuccessful. What is the wrong ?

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Ok, I'm no expert on modifying drivers. On my laptop I didn't modify that nv_displi.inf file. Here is what is did. I went to Computer - Local Disk (C) - Nvidia - Display driver. Good, once your're in there look for a file named nvdmi thats the one you are going to mess with. I suggest uninstalling the drivers just to make sure that the nv_dispi.inf file you messed with go back to its original state and then upon attempting to reinstall, copy your hardware ID to the correct place in the nvdmi file. If you don't know exactly where to put it, then send me picture a picture of your GPU hardware Id and I'll fo it for you. (assuming that you know a way that I could send you a 300mb nvidia diver file)

 

I think i could not put correct place , becoz it could not install again. i can send to you nvdmi file , also my hardware id. It is enough to modd?

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No problem, go ahead and do that. I will give a try. but how are you going to send it to me and how am I going to send it back to you? Let me know. I'll do it as soon as I receive it. Also you said you had a 980M. I hope you flashed the correct vbios with the 8 gig ram.

 

You have also disabled driver signing enforcement in windows as well?

 

I disabled driver signing , nothing is changed. After clevo vbios , my computer didnt detecy my gtx 980m. Trying to install driver but i could not get success

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At least, it is working with clevo vbios and modded driver. Thank you very much for helping to me Mr. Aladin thomas. i checked on benchmark software, it is working. It will work prabably with games.

 

See, I told you that nothing was wrong with your GPU. Remember the way I showed you how to modify the drivers because at some time the future you are going to need to update your drivers and you will need to modify them. Different laptops have different ways to modify the drivers. the way I showed you is the correct way to do it for your laptop. so if someone else shows you how to do the modification they might be telling you to do the wrong thing. So remember the way I showed you. Now before you go gaming, unless you don't want to mess with the GPU again, you need to install a different vbios from prema mod. There are two vbios on their website that gave me the same score like yours, about 6500, but there is a certain overclocked unlocked vbios on the website that will give you about 8400 to 8900. I was experiencing the same thing and when I put in the overclocked unlocked vbios I got a good score about 8700 like the MSI vbios would have given me. The overclocked vbios has a clock speed of 1202 instead of the 1038 stock clock speed. It does make a bit of a difference in games. I think you should try it because with the score you are getting on 3D mark 11, your card might be under performing

 

I need a little help. I installed the gtx980m and it shows in the device manager a 'Standard VGA Graphics Adapter" that when googled shows to be the 980m but I can't install a driver. I tried the link from the OP but it says "An internal error has occured" when I click it. I looked around for how to modify a driver but cant figure it out. How do I do it for the 980m?

 

Hi, can you give more information?
Did you update your Bios to the latest available for your laptop?
What kind of card did you buy Clevo or MSI? If Clevo did you try to flash correct MSI vBios?
If you are on Clevo vBios you will have to use modded driver whereas if you have the MSI card you can use official Geforce drivers.
Quoted from Aladin Thomas "Good, once you're in there look for a file named nvdmi that's the one you are going to mess with." and "copy your hardware ID to the correct place in the nvdmi file." If you are on Clevo card and don't want to flash MSI vBios did you try that?

 

I got a custom 71x Bios from Svet.
I got the Clevo 980m and haven't flashed a vBIOS. It already looks like it detects it as a generic card so I thought I just needed the modified driver but I could be wrong and don't want to bork it if I cant flash back to the Clevo vBios unless it is possible. Is going to the MSI vBios recommended and reversible if I need to?

 

I think it is reversible but I'm not 100% sure. I don't see any reason for not being able to flash your cards multiple times with different vBios but it could be dangerous (provided you flash the right file for the 8gb or 4gb variant). Still if you can't get your hand on a correctly modded driver have you tried to fill in your hardware ID in that nvdmi file?

 

So can anybody just upload somewhere modded drivers again?

 

I can upload but what you need ? I have only for gtx 980m

 

So just upload for 980m, and somebody else will upload for 970m.

(As for me, I have not decided yet which one to order)

 

This is gtx 980m ,353.12, windows 8 64 bit

https://yadi.sk/d/53LIT9N5hEwyJ

 

Does anyone have a guide on how to modify the drivers so we can do it ourselves? I would be very grateful!

 

Is your 71x Bios from Svet unlocked? I wanted to know because I want an unlocked bios for my MSI GT60. I'm on Svet website right now, but I can't find where to contact him. Any suggestions?

 

You will have to create an account on there in order to reach him.
But if you want his email then just send me an email and I will give it to you.

 

It's ok, I figured it out. I've already reach him and he has already responded. Thank you though

 

So have had my GT70 2PC modified to 2QE for a couple months now. (870M --> 980M)

I've overclocked my Core +135Mhz and Memory +480Mhz

So question, I will need a modded VBIOS to run a unlocked Afterburner setting? (To increase my core clock)

I attached my results of 3D mark.

 

Yes, in order to get more you will need unlocked VBIOS.

 

Hi, I am going to pickup a faulty MSI GT70 0ND tomorrow. The seller says it has a faulty GPU and that it is not included in the sale. Can the laptop be partially powered up without the the GTX 675m installed?

 

Yes, but fan is @100% afaik.