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

Hello i have a question, i have w860cu but with i7 620m cpu
will hd7970m will be ok with that cpu?

 

Yes, so long as the system has been shown to work with a 7970M you should be fine.

 

Completed my reading on all the applicable threads regarding GPU upgrades for the W860CU chassis.

I must say, thank you all for taking the initial risk for the benefit of all of us, and to all those who added great information to these threads.

I've been using an Oct 09' model (Q820, GTX 280m, non-USB 2) for some time now, and so this information is a god-send. I've contacted Eurocom, Mythlogic, and MXM-Upgrade to see if any of these guys can put together the parts needed, or source a 7970 for me. I know my way around rotary cutting tools, but out here in Afghanistan they're hard to come by, so hopefully one of the above mentioned retailers has good news for me.

However, if any of you guys have any leads on a parts source, and are willing to share, I'd be very grateful.


Congrats to all on keeping this platform up to date!

- Mike

 

Apparently 7970m works with both usb 3.0 and older models

 

So, I got myself a 7970m off of ebay for $444. Modified my GTX 285M heat sink to be used with the new video card.

I plug it in my Sager NP8690 (W860CU), and...... nothing happens. The system will not power on. I see the power light come on momentarily (for a split second), and then it goes off. Plugging back the 285m makes the system work again.

I removed the hard disk, took out one of the memory sticks to ensure that the card gets the power it needs,but no luck.I am using a 120watt power adapter, I know I should be using 180w psu, but I expected the laptop to at least do a POST.

Has anyone had a similar experience? could the video card be shorted out? Anyone know what might be wrong?

 

It could be the MXM card yes, a short on it would cause that behaviour.

 

Thanks for you input! I promptly returned the card and got a new one from e-bay.

The new one works! It came with its own heat sink, IC7 thermal paste, and thermal pads.

The only issue now is that I cannot adjust the brightness on my screen, seems like a driver issue. If I uninstall the ATI drivers, and use generic ones, the brightness control works, but as soon as I install the ATI driver, the brightness control stops working.

I'm looking all around the forum for a solution, but any insight would be helpful. I'm on WIndows 8.1 64-bit, and have the latest Sager bios (the '18s' one).

 

A partial fix I found on another system was to turn the display on and off using an FN key combination or switch monitor button and it would then set the brightness to what you had requested.

 

I wasn't able to force 7970m to work in my w860cu (usb3.0 ver). With the correct vbios after installing driver I was getting ERROR CODE 43 device was stopped.
Now after I have returned GPU to seller someone told me I should've tried updating my laptop bios to w870cu version. Never seen info like this anywhere. Can someone confirm this? Or maybe it will help someone.

 

Man, save yourself some nerves and just dont upgrade dead hardware with newer dead hardware.
Just buy a new machine, sell the old one and spare yourself the waiting, the disappointment and the sweat from enduring error messages after error messages.

It is not worth your time, your money, nor the physical and mental stress of "upgrading" a laptop and going trough that hell of VBIOS-es and BIOS EC versions.

 

The 7970M is hardly dead, it's a heartbeat behind the 8970M.

 

Hello all,

I've been reading about all of the grand attempts to upgrade GPUs for the w860CU and my hat off to everyone who got the 7970M working. My Eurocom w860CU Cougar was bought with a GTX 280M graphics card. My desire to upgrade is a bit more humble as I don't think I would be comfortable modifying heat sinks etc. and I thought that I would instead upgrade to a HD6990M, which appears to be supported even via Eurocom's default upgrade website for the w860CU.

My question is whether this is worth it? Will I see a substantial gaming performance upgrade over the GTX 280? The price for these cards on ebay seems to be around 500-600 bucks new ( New AMD Radeon). Is it something I can install with the stock heatsink without having to make modifications?

I was also going to buy 2x8gb ram chips for the system, as my original unit came with just 4gb. I assume that so long as I match the Eurocom specs for the memory (204Pin SO-DIMM DDR3-1333（PC3-10600） I should be ok....

Thanks in advance.

 

Yes it's faster but there are issues of reliability with the 6990m.

 

So I've discovered reading a bit more since I posted the above. What's the best choice then? The 470m? Or the 6970m? Any of those would probably be an upgrade over the 280m but I also want something that'll last more than a year.

 

Well the 7970M offers the most performance per $, you could see if the likes of the 570M will work in there.

 

I have the laptop in my sig but I think the GPU died. Is it worth the hassle and money to upgrade for the 7970M?

 

That's up to you. It's certainly a lot faster than the original card. Is that price worth it to you over a more modern system and it's cost?