M860TU, is 260M GTX the best video card that i can add to my laptop?

As i wrote in the title, i'm trying to use my M860TU as long as possible. For now i've added 8 Gb 1333 Mhz Kingston RAMs(they work at 1066 Mhz because of the maximum motherboard support though) and 128 Gb Plextor M3S SSD drive which really made a big difference on performance. I guess the last thing i can add is a graphics card. I found this card for a reasonable price and read somewhere that it's compatible with my system. I would like to verify if this information is true. And is there a better upgrade(it can be a different graphics card or another part) for my laptop?

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You can install a GTX 280M, but the 260M in that auction is MXM 3.0; you need to get the MXM 2.1 version.

The 3700M would also work, but I'm not sure if that will work without issues.

 

Sorry, but, how can i understand MXM version? As an example i found this, is it 2.1 or 3.0?

ASUS G71G MXM nVidia GeForce GTX 260M Graphics Card, P/N 669N0EVV10A02-01 | eBay

 

Btw i made a mistake. Clevo M865TU is my computer, i guess M860TU is a better one looking to your signature(mine has Intel Core 2 Quad Q9000, Geforce 9800M, 1440x900 resolution etc.)

 

This ASUS 260M GTX is a MXM 2.1 card. It will fit in your computer but you may need to flash the Clevo M860TU vBIOS on that card.

 

As others said you can install both gtx280m and fx3700m.
I personally own an 860tu (not the quad core thought) and I've upgraded it with an x9100 running stable at 3,6ghz and an fx3700m.

Fx3700m are cheaper than 280m althought they are manufactured with the same process of 9800m gtx, thus they have a larger heat footprint and a slower clock. But based on what version you get, you can flash it to a gtx280m and overclock it higher than it.

However I remember that you need the HP version of fx3700m because it's able to do the things I listed above, otherwise you're stuck using the card as a quadro with lower clocks.

Honestly thought there's little to nothing gain in performance since the main difference between 260m and 280/3700m is just the increased shader count.
Memory bandwidth and other stuff is identical.

My choice would be keeping the gtx260m and boost the performance of the laptop as you already did. Besides 8gb of ram probably is overkill if you don't plan to do professional work on it such video/photo editing or cad/3d modelling. 4gb of quality ram is still enough for everything.

Since those gpus will not come cheap I guess your best bet will be save those money for a future laptop upgrade. Even if you decide to upgrade the gpu trust me you will not notice any substantial gains and you'll feel rather disappointed.

Maybe try to upgrade the CPU, that could lead to a better performance.

 

260M GTX is the best video card for your laptop. Just overclock it until you reach a stable clock and you are good to go. The 260M has aged very nicely, so did my 280M, I am surprised that a 3 year old-card still plays games very well. You can upgrade the CPU for a few extra fps if you wish.

 

It is Neither 3.0 nor 2.1.

Asus often makes non MXM cards.

 

Yeh, Asus uses their own proprietary form of MXM; their cards won't fit.

This is an example of the kind of MXM 2.1 type III card that will fit:

 

Thanks everyone for the answers.

Kingpinzero, i'm dealing with amateur photography and rendering process is killing me. RAM prices are very low nowadays, even i didn't sell my 2X2 RAMs on my computer because i thought it's not worth dealing with it(find a buyer, ship it, at last you'll get max. 10-15$?), that's why i decided to upgrade my RAMs easily. I didn't think of power saving though. As i understand you think that i already have the 260M? I have 9800GS, and the question i'm asking is will upgrading to 260M make a big difference?

5482741, thanks for the picture. It'll help me in my research.

I don't play games(except Microsoft Flight Simulator, but it works well IMO). As i've already said i'm dealing with photo editing, will upgrading CPU make a big change or not necessary?

 

when my 9800GT card died i had it replaced under warranty with a 260gtx
3dmar06 and the 9800GT gave me a score of 9549 and once upgraded i was getting an average 10,160 with the 260GTX
strange thing is with vantage the scores dropped from P4949 to P4507

 

That ASUS card doesn't have the HE tab but it seems that the MXM 2.1 key is in its place. Also it doesn't seem to be reversed. The HE tab doesn't affect anything from the MXM 2.1 interface but the additional power lines present in the AW/Clevo cards to run full speed. This may explain why the ASUS MXM 2.1 laptops had their top of range cards downclocked, especially the 260M GTX series.

 

NVidia Quadro FX 3700M MXM 2.1 III Work as a GTX 280M | eBay

Is this a joke?

 

1,6k USD? I´d say stay away

 

22 sold.

Make an offer.

One-eighth to one-sixth the asking price seems good.

 

The fastest Nvidia module you can fit into the M860TU is one of the 128-shader variants of the G92b chip, i.e. GTX280M or Quadro FX3700M. It isn't a worthwhile upgrade if your GTX260M is working, though (128 vs 112 shaders), and the GTX260M runs a little cooler. Beware the temperature increase when upgrading.