Is my 6990m really dead?

Okay so I bought (xoticpc) and received my laptop on Dec 2011 (NP8150) and it was all fine till last month. The screen split into two halves vertical (meaning my screen became distorted and cut in half. Left Side being displayed on right side and right side be displayed on left side), so after shutting it down I got weird zigzag lines around the startup screen. The screen went blank at the area where you type in the password. So I had to go into Safe Mode and went into device manager to uninstall my gpu and now is a vga. When I restarted my computer, the screen still had the zigzag and now it has vertical lines on my screen, even after logging in. So after a few days of reinstalling my gpu drivers and doing system restores, I was able to make my gpu work again. Hell, I played Crysis 1 maxed out for awhile. But after couple of days working, it started to mess up again when I was playing MoH 2010 (humble bundle). It got all the vertical lines and stuff from before. So again after couple of days doing the same thing, it worked... again. I tested it out by playing Mirror's Edge (maxed) for some hours. The next day, I decided to play MoH 2010 again, first it worked out okay, but I quickly turned it off and went back to class. When I came home, I played it again and guess what.. It messed up again. This time, I decided to reinstall windows 7 and reformat my hard drive. It still showed the vertical lines and blank screen on startup. So, I decided to use my laptop w/ vga and those lines for a few weeks. Today, I tried to do the same tactics and it WORKED... again. So my question is, is it really dead? and how much does it cost to replace/upgrade it? Oh, and I also checked around the forums and realized that other people are having the same issue.
My laptop is a Sager NP8150 w/ W7.

 

Another one bites the dust!

 

Lol, I know.

 

You could try oven/bake method. Do a search for it. Could be solder joint is loose and needs reflowing.

 

Sorry, but I really am not good with opening out the laptop and take stuff out from it. Nor am I able to understand some of the stuff thats being said.

 

It's not that difficult. I think you should be able to find something on Youtube.

 

If it's dead then the oven bake method won't make matters worse for it, even if it doesn't work. But if you're uncomfortable with opening the system up and don't think your technical skills are up to par, then don't do it; you won't want to risk damaging something else inadvertently during disassembly.

 

Your best method is probably contacting your reseller about getting a replacement if you are not confident opening it.

 

Do you know how much it cost to replace/upgrade the gpu?

 

Depends on the card.

 

Too much. $460 for 675MX for example. $350 for 670MX. $490 for 7970M. GPU replacement is very expensive. Maybe the 650M will be more reasonable. Though 6990M? I think you'd want a GTX 670M minimum.

 

That's not too bad for say the 7970M considering the price of a new machine.

 

But, dam $490 I can buy myself a GTX 680 or 7970.

 

But they wont fit

It's a case of number manufactured, core cherry picking and expensive power circuitry capable of delivering 100W in a small space with high efficiency.

 

Well, that's always an issue with upgrading any component on a laptop. It's always a lot more expensive when compared to their desktop counterpart. That's the price we have to pay for portability.

Personally, I will go with the 7970m. That's a sweet card. Best bang for the buck.

 

Yes and with the HM there are no enduro issues.

 

Though the newer ones seem the better bang for the buck, like Meaker as stated the HM models are not compatible with the newest cards, because of that you are stuck purchasing the older compatible cards for almost the same price. Or try to sell/part out your laptop and upgrade to a new one.