Embarking on a grand adventure: upgrading the GPU on my Clevo! All help is welcome!

Hey guys

My Clevo P170EM is turning 3 this summer and I'm thinking of tinkering with its innards, you know, just for kicks. I'm getting a nice SSD upgrade for the hard drive, doing a little cleaning, nothing much, but there's one bit I'd like to upgrade but never have: the GPU.

So I want to take my time and do it right. That means I have to research and ask a lot of questions. Would you mind helping me? =)

At the moment I have a 7970m. It's served me well so far but tbqh it's also been a source of headaches (drivers, temperatures, enduro, the lot). I'm thinking of upgrading to something nVidia-based, but I have a few questions:

1) Any MxM card should fit subject to TDP constraints; is this right? This means anything up to 100W TDP should be fine eg for cooling etc, correct?
2) I found a couple of threads talking about BIOS issues; old threads, predating my laptop, which mentioned problems upgrading older machines to switchable graphics cards. Given that mine came with switchable gfx already, will it still be a problem?
3) Where's the best value at the moment in mobile GPUs? A quick google around suggests it might be the 970m, does that sound about right?
4) Should I be wary of anything besides driver issues when switching from AMD to nVidia? I've done this on a desktop before, but never a laptop, so I'd rather be sure.

Last but not least, which would be the best place to buy an MxM card in the EU? It's not easy shipping over from the US...

Thanks!

 

1) Any MXM card will fit but there are currently none significantly faster that are compatible with the bios.
2) It's not to do with enduro at the moment but the way the machine handles temperature data from the GPU.
3) N/A
4) N/A

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Prema was working on it but he has a ton of projects on at the moment.

 

The EM series is kind of dead in the water. The HM series would have been a better bet I think. Sorry bro/sis =(

 

Well that's a downer :/ does Prema have a thread I can check to keep up? I don't presume to help -- I don't know how to be honest -- but I'd like to know what's happening at least.

As far as I can tell from other threads, ~2 years ago HM series laptops had a similar problem that somehow got resolved (presumably through a BIOS update). What are the odds that Clevo might/might not do the same for the EM series?

Thanks!

 

Clevo doesn't. Prema does. If you donate to him he usually works a bit faster at things, but if Meaker says he's swamped he probably is. The 980Ms have a big priority at the moment, and I assume he has another day job or two.

 

Prema is swamped, plain and simple. He's got other projects he's working on. Hoping for some 970m/980m unlocks soon.

 

There might still be hope: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3740QM Processor,CLEVO P150EM

 

Well, I am an optimist also, found PremaMod.com, so I can keep up with developments. Seems I'm far from the only one with an EM wanting to upgrade. I just might donate to him =)

It's all put a bit of a damper on my plans for now though... ah well, it wasn't urgent anyway.

Thanks for the help!

 

Certainly worth keeping an eye on, good to check first