M570RU -- time for an upgrade

It's only been about a year and two months since my dual 2.4Ghz processor and 8700m GT were considered top-of-the-line, and already this thing, as expensive as it was, is really getting tired under the slew of new games.

I would like to upgrade my M570ru (bought from RJTech) but I have quite a few questions regarding when to do it, how to do it, and who to buy it from.

The biggest upgrade I need is the video card. This card is almost useless when it comes to Far Cry 2 (crappy framerates at just "High" at 1440x900??) and I'm not even going to attempt to open Fallout 3 or Clear Sky again since my eyes will never adjust to the ugly setbacks. Anyways, you get the story.

So, I wouldn't mind a 9800m GT (I heard the GTX is overpriced for not much better performance), but my biggest wish is for a new mobile card to be announced already; it's been long enough since the GTX 200's have been released to desktop; what's the wait for a notebook counterpart??

As for processor, 2 x 2.4Ghz can wait, but it's starting to show signs of aging as well.

Given that I live in both B.C. and Ontario, Canada, who's the best and cheapest to upgrade a m570ru? How should I go about doing it, what do I do with my current parts once I buy new ones? Essentially, I just really want to play some new games that I can't play AND have fun with at the same time with these performance setbacks, so even if a desktop is a cheaper alternative I'll do that. Would it be better to just buy a new notebook or is upgrading in fact cheaper?

The notebook consumer parts industry is ridiculously expensive and even overpriced in my honest opinion, so a desktop PC isn't out of the equation here, but best case-scenario would be to upgrade so I don't have to go back and forth from one computer to another, as long as it's reasonably inexpensive.

 

you can get a 9800M GTS for the best bang for the buck... and it will perform twice as good as your 8700M GT.

you can get the videocard module from RJtech or other major Clevo vendors.

 

I'm in the same boat, trying to upgrade my 8700m GT. I tried looking at RJtech site among others and I can find nothing on separate upgrades. I assume I need to call them if I want to purchase the 9800?

Does anyone know offhand the price on the 9800m GTS/GT/GTX?

 

Most likely you will have to call any reseller to purchase an upgrade card.

Make sure they know how old your laptop is etc, as different revisions can support different cards ( if i'm not mistaken? )

an upgrade to the 9800m ( any version ) would be a super huge huge improvement over the 8700m.

Just a guess, but I would expect a card to be like $500-600?

Your CPU is just fine for a long time. It will remain efficient, until the next 'obvious' upgrade. Meaning, one that is cheap, and significantly powerful. For instance, when the next generation of mobile quads comes out and all other cpus start getting sold for really cheap and it is ok to pick one up.

The wait for a GTX-2xx mobile counterpart could possibly be very painfully long... and expensive in the end... hehe

It seems a new video card releases about once a year. ( based on 8700, 8800, 9800 and possibly from 7950->8700 )

 

Eurocom is retailing the 9800M GTS for 440 CND and 9800M GT for 540 CDN.

 

Okay, not too bad. I remember the 8800GTX being nearly $1000. Anyways, speaking which, if I upgraded to the 9800M GT would I have that S3 problem everyone was talking about with the 8800M GTX? Would I have to send my laptop in to Eurocom as well?

 

Which S3 problem? I have had no trouble sleeping and waking with my laptop so far.

 

But did you *upgrade* your laptop to the 8800m gtx or did you purchase the laptop with it? My motherboard has a dated BIOS that need manual tweaking/replacing as it's over a year old.

 

there were multiple confirmations of previous gen M570RU notebooks that upgraded to 8800M GTX (and newer) without the S3 issue.

you can search for it in this forum.

 

Ah, that's promising. Thanks.

 

Just be sure that you flash your M570RU with the latest 1.00.11 BIOS that add support for 9800M XXX cards.

I flashed the SBIOS v. 1.00.11 and KBC/EC Firmware v. 1.00.09S(from Sager) on my M571RU without any problems.

NOTE: Remember to flash first the new 1.00.09 KBC/EC Firmware and then the new BIOS.

 

Um... is there a walkthrough on how to flash my BIOS/firmware? This is something I have not done.

:edit: Out of curiosity, does the M57 0RU support a 9800 GT X?

 

On the supposed S3 sleep issue, I would pm Zfactor - he's one of the members (that I can recall) who knows a lot about that little issue and has apparently had first-hand knowledge of systems that upgraded to the 8800M without the motherboard revision and have not had significant problems.

 

Yes

10char

 

So I but the bullet and got a 9800M GT from Eurocom. Hopefully I don't screw this upgrade up.

Anyone want a 8700M?

 

so how did it go?

 

you will NOT HAVE any issues as long as you use bios .08 or newer the kbc firmware doesnt matter as far as the gpu goes..if you need help lmk ive done the upgrade numerous times