Buying a replacement GPU(980M) advice(P751DM-G)

Hiya,

So, with the help of friendly NBR'ers, i managed to pinpoint that my GPU is on it's way out.

I am just looking at where to buy a replacement 980M - since it covers all the games i play at a fair price. The official reseller in the UK quoted a hefty price, as i'd have to send it back in for an out of warranty repair.Tbh, i really enjoy doing this kind of thing myself and am more than capable. However, i have little experience with buying replacement laptop parts, and much to my delight... it's not that delightful! I've trawled though a number of ebay/aliexpress resellers, they all seem to be coming from Shenzhen or thereabouts, which is expected.

At the moment, this one looks like the best option compared to the others. It offers fast shipping(the rest are all 20-40days) and the store seems to have a successful/high rating, despite not selling many of these cards previously:

New Original GTX 980M Graphics Card GTX980M with X-Bracket N16E-GX-A1 8GB GDDR5 MXM For Dell Alienware MSI HP via free DHL/EMS

Any of you have experience with this reseller or buying cards on aliexpress/ebay? I know there is lots of concern about modded/fake components but tbh, that could happen with anything on ebay/aliexpress. I wish this experience was the same as it would be if i were looking for a new desktop component!

 

You got a similar model to me so I'll chime in and just say be careful with eBay cards especially ones coming from Shenzhen. I've tried a couple of those when my 980M died and they refused to work. They are usually going to be non-GSYNC versions as well so you'll lose that functionality if you have a DM-G model so also keep that in mind. Also confirm if they ship with the x-bracket on the back (mine didn't, had to reuse my old one which is kind of a pain to remove and swap over) or you won't be able to mount the heatsink. They seemed like legitimate cards they just wouldn't work for some reason. Only replacements that would work for me were Clevo cards. Maybe you'll have better luck (those prices can be tempting) but just make sure the seller accepts returns.

 

Thanks for the reply. Yeah. I went ahead with the seller I linked. It is a risk, but apart from finding someone on here - there's not many options unless I send it back to the official vendor. This one comes with the X bracket.

On a positive note, this reseller accepts returns and has already messaged me to find out what the model of my laptop is, to confirm it will work. They've also asked the situation of my current card not - sure why yet. Perhaps they want to buy it off me? Strange, though I plan on keeping it since it works for low settings on most games. Yes, i won't have G-sync but I always used an external screen which isn't G-sync, so I don't think it's something I've ever used.

I mainly just want to get this laptop back to running games at a decent spec again, I plan on getting rid of it in 2021 and going back to building small form factor desktops.

 

Selling mxm cards is tricky as most users don't know what they are doing. They are building up a picture to see what you are doing.

 

They always listed my model as compatible as well, but no dice everytime, lol. Like Meaker said MXM can be tricky in regards to compatibility, but I would be curious to know if the replacement works for you.

 

Yeah, agreed. I told them the issue, seemed to understand. I suppose they wouldn't want to be accused of a faulty component if it was something else causing the issue. I'm in the fortunate position that my GPU still works, so I'll definitely know if the one they send me isn't right straight off the bat.

I'll update you went I've fitted it. Got all my thermal pads and paste ready to go, the card should be here some time next week.

 

Good luck

 

Decided to stress test my GPU one last time to double check my results were synonymous. Now, under any load the laptop starts emitting a high pitched whine, intensifying as loads increase before shutting off. Any idea what this might be? Am thinking it might be a hazard at this point . Strange because the card is running around 55/60degrees. I normally associate a card dying with unflappably high temps, but i suppose it's just been well used these last 5 years!

 

Sounds like coil whine, usually not a sign of failure.

 

I might be in the same boat as you however first have to try and find a proper thickness of the thermal pads to see if the card is toasted or is not cooled properly

 

You can usually tell if pads are making contact with the impression they leave on most kinds of pads.

 

Hi all,

TL R - Bought "new" GPU from Chinese reseller linked in my first post. Installed it, everything runs perfectly and I'm happy with my purchase.

Thought I'd check back in here. So the card arrived today, from the seller I linked in the original post. It was New as stated, no observed previous useage.

I replaced all the thermal pads on both GPU and CPU sides. I had ordered a range of different sizes on Amazon a coupe of days ago.

I can draw up a blueprint of the pad sizes if anyone wants. But for the thicker ones, I used GELID 3mm and for the rest I used Artic pads 1.5mm-0.5mm.

The only frustration with the installation process was that the new GPU had an Xbracket fitted but the screw sizes were larger than my old GPU screws, thus I lacked the right size screws to connect the bracket and GPU heat sink together.

Anyway, I got the hair dryer out and peeled the old Xbracket off my burned out 980M, I figured it was worth it since it broken anyway. The next problem was that the thin black material between the metal Xbracket and the chipboard was super stuck, and actually separated from the metal xbracket. So I heated it off and then restuck it to the Xbracket, smoothing it as flush as I could. Felt dodgey at the time, but the material didn't look like anything heat related i.e thermal padding.

After that, I popped some Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut on both the GPU and CPU then reapplied the heat sink.

Everything booted up perfectly first time, I ran up Heaven 4.0 to trial it out. I ran through all the same gaming scenarios where my old card would shut off the whole laptop - no issues. Everything is stable.

Just finished playing COD MW on recommended settings for 30mins, CPU and GPU running at 60 degrees Celsius solidly. I manually adjusted the fans up to 100% to see what the temps would do. Got the GPU runningat 55degrees celsius and the CPU at 60 degrees celsius consistently.

Idle temps are 35-40 degrees Celsius CPU and 42 degrees Celsius GPU. The house heating on and I'm in the smallest room.

I think that's ok? Tbh I remember my thermals being fine before, can't remember how these compare. Not sure what's considered "good" under gaming loads for the P751DMG. Let me know if you have any idea.

Very happy to of solved my issue after about 8 months of knowing about it. Hopefully will get another year out of this thing before i spoil myself with a SFF desktop.

The cost after express shipping and duty import tax was £238.00 . I also have a supposed warranty on the card from the reseller for 190days, but I wouldn't want to try it out haha.

Thanks for all your help, and I'm happy to be of assistance to anyone else who wishes to do the same.

 

The pressure of being mounted will snugly seat the xbracket, might want to double check your screw tightness in about a week.

 

Nice. Glad it worked out for you.