Clevo w860CU HD 7970M/7950M upgrade?! am I crazy?

Bought my w860CU right when they came out around Oct of '09. Worked great as an all around laptop for me in Iraq and I'm looking to breath some new life into it.
Reading about the power requirements of the 7970m/7950m give me some glimmer of hope that they could maybe work in the w860CU.
Am I nuts to hold out for this? If so I have no problem getting the 6970M and calling done.
Guess I was nuts. After Eurocom told me they tested and it failed in a w860CU I put in an order for a 6990M, still worlds apart from the GTX 280M I started with!

 

Wait for sure. It's due out within a month, then give a few days/weeks to see if it works. The ~90% increase in performance over the 6970M is worth the wait.

Which GPU do you have now?

 

sig updated

 

i heard somewhere that 7970m could perform close to desktop 6950. That's worth waiting for. And if it doesn't work, get 6990m and not 6970m.

 

Something tells me there will be PLENTY of both available in the marketplace soon...

 

same with GTX 485M models! ^^

 

It works in the m15x, so I have high hopes for it working in the w860w as well.

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that would actually be very soothing indeed, implying that there is a slight possibility of me upgrading to an additional gpu generation down the line, following the 7970M

 

If the 7970m works on w870cu ill be stoked but pissed at the same time because I just upgraded mine to a 6970m.

 

id say bad timing indeed lol

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I'm sure you could - and you shouldn't have any power issues or heat issues as well which is a good thing.

FYI: some testing done with the 7970m in a 15,6" MSI
http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi/659226-7970m-heatsink-modification-5.html

 

Does anyone know how much they would go for?

 

500 - 600 USD / EUR depending on what u need (heatsink, TIM, x bracket, screws, shipping)

 

If this in fact works on w870cu with no problems, then I must get it.

 

Since you asked...yes, you are.

 

I am trying to get a 7970m from the forum but I am not sure if it will in fact work... I don't want to be the guinea pig either and take a risk of wasting money lol. The person that I'm trying to deal with will accept a trade for my 6970m plus $275 cash does it sound like a good deal?

 

So, with my GTX280M heatsink I'm guessing I would not be able to reuse it if I do go with a 7970M/7950M. Eurocom is showing a 7970M "available" but I am not sure what heatsink would work with my w860cu or where to purchase one. Sorry for the newbish questions, I can build with the best of them when it comes to desktops

 

I installed the 6970m on my w870cu with the stock heatsink but I had to do some modifications. I suspect you may have to do the same with 7970m if it does work. How much is eurocom selling a 7970m for?

 

I guess there is quite an interest for 680CU owners (I have the one _without_ usb 3) to upgrade to the 79xxM cards.

I know some vendors are monitoring these forums and if would be great if we could do a group buy for a card +heat sink+ thermal pads combination.

In such fashion we could get a better price and the vendor can have a significant revenue in one go.

Who’s in? I am!

 

Eurocom has is listed at 514 (USD). I figure I would need to mod whatever heatsink I use with the 7970M but I am worried about the one on my GTX 280M not being good enough for the thermal needs of the 7970M.

 

I guess the only way to find out is for one of us to try it... btw I just saw the tdp for 7970m, it's 65w, lower than the 6970m tdp of 75-100 tdp.

 

Where'd you see that?

 

I googled it but I forgot the exact website... just google 7970m tdp and I think it's the 4th link down.

 

Interesting.. Seen in a few places here that its a 100W card..It's listed as a 100W card from Dell anyways..
Help Me Choose: Video Cards | Dell

 

Yeah i just googled 7970M and i saw the site ickillah is talking about, but i then clicked on other links and they report 100TDP. The site you're talking about also says ~65W, so that was an estimate.

 

I believe the actual wattage draw is really 75W (whole card).

 

I think I'm going to take a chance on it...
Not sure where SlickDude80 and others may have purchased their cards, he was only asked about 50 times in the post http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/658084-amd-7970m-available-buy.html
but never did reply from what I saw. I'm just going to see about getting it from Clevo. May be on the high side but considering the original video card lasted me this long, I don't mind. Only other things I had to replace on it was a fan and the optical drive (20 months in Iraq ).

 

Based on?

 

I think it's best to stop speculating about the TDP and the power draws and all that stuff until official releases occur. So in a few weeks they should be. When the card has real drivers and proper supports, that type of stuff. Dunno, speculating like this (just like the websites are doing) is kind of a waste of time. Plus right now it seems to run at a decent TDP cause slick and geo and others were overclocking it quite successfully with good temps based on Fumark.

 

Hell, I wouldn't mind if I had to underclock it a bit to keep it stable, would still rock.
I just need to do some thread reading about w860cu bios/vbios updates to see what I may be getting myself into!

 

well considering that the 7970M is coming in the Clevo 150EM i don't see why it wouldn't work stock in the 860CU. It was also tested and shown working for a m15x from alienware. the 860CU comes with dual separate exhaust one for the GPU and one for the CPU so in terms of cooling i really don't see how you can go wrong. I think you'll be perfectly fine with stock settings.

 

Its really not that simple. I mean yes, cooling is often an issue but its always possible to fix without too much trouble.
Cards need BIOS support or the laptop will just shut off in 30 seconds. Additionally Clevo has announced that they will no longer be adding support for newer cards in older laptops. This doesn't mean it wont work, but theres nothing saying it will ATM.

So someone, please, just try it already!

 

Yeah i agree completely with you. I think at this point it's nerves that are cracking over wanting the clevo release of the card haha. Once June hits there'll be a lot more info out there (if things go to plan)

 

I just pm'd Mythlogic, they said the card comes out this month and it's $475 and if I remember it right, shipping was only $5. Mythlogic is great btw, I've dealt with them before. And by the way, when I upgraded my w870cu to 6970m, it was plug and play like everybody else, no need to update the bios and vbios. Of course I am not sure if that's the case with 7970m...

 

Hrm, well I will see when Eurocom is looking to ship and then see if Mythlogic is doing it around the same time. I'm all for saving 50$ if I can

 

Mythlogic also offers military discount. They added it to my order. Also I think they give discount to nbr members.

 

Kinda OT but i notice a lot of you guys are military? Guessing the high end laptop scene is interesting for people who travel that much heh

 

Well most stationary people would keep a desktop imo. It's mainly students/travelers/military that would need something powerful on the go.

 

Yeah when you have some down time in the military during deployment video games are your only sanity I guess haha. But ive been out of the military for 2 years now, just going to school and working security where I play games on my laptop all day haha

 

I do contracting work, when I did my first bit in Iraq I sold all my desktops and bought the 860cu when it came out so I could game and be somewhat portable. I would have taken a 14" setup but the video card offerings were not great for below 15.6" screens. I over spec'd it when I bought it because I wanted to be able to use it for some time, and since I was contracting I didn't care too much about the 3300 pricetag.

 

So aggie113 are you gonna try and put the 7970m on your 860cu? Let me know... Also, if you need help modding the heatsink, there's a great thread by oan and others on how to do it.

 

Assuming the 7970m has the same layout as the 6970m/6990m you should be able to modify your 280m heatsink. The only question is if some of the components on the 7970m are taller and interferes with the heatsink.

I don't think this is the case though, so you should easily be able to modify yours. There is little point in buying a 5870m heatsink to modify as the difference in temps isn't noticable. I have a spare modified heatsink that works with the 6990m, give me a PM if you're interested.

As for vBIOS/BIOS, there are no upgrades available. I am really optimistic that it will be plug and play like the 6900s.

Good luck!

 

Same here oan. I have a feeling that it will be plug and play as well. Are you planning on upgrading to 7970m as well? Funny how a month ago I just upgraded to 6970m, now I am thinking about doing this upgrade... or maybe I should just wait it out a bit until I can't really play a lot of newer games on my 6970m anymore and then upgrade when the 7970m drops in price a bit? Also, wouldn't the gpu bottleneck with the CPU?

 

Or you can buy the 6990m heatsink and just use that because it is the same, other than slightly different thermal pad placement. I guess it comes down to how good you are at modification or whether you can be bothered. At least with a new heatsink, you wont render the old one unusable with its old GPU.

 

There is no 6990m heatsink for the w8*0cu's.

As far as I can recall, there are three different heatsinks for this model. Two for 280/285m, and one for 5870m/460m. All of them need to be modified to work with the 6900s, though to a different degree.

 

7970m in my sager 8690?!?!?1 is this possible or will my laptop blow up

 

Good question. Only one way to find out

 

Well it's been 4 days (business days) since I contacted Eurocom regarding buying a 7970. Tried calling twice and didn't have much luck so I guess it's a waiting game for someone else to offer it. Maybe someone who doesn't charge 50-80$ for shipping!

 

Try Mythlogic. They have spectacular service!

 

Any news aggie? Are you going through with it? We are all cheering you on if you do