Old Sager looking for new video card

Hi guys ...

Long long time ago, I came here and you told me to buy a Clevo M570U. Thanks for that, great machine.. happy for many many years!

Now times have changed. 80 giga is nothing and the old GeForce Go 7950 GTX is starting to fail ...
We need to upgrade !! But to WHAT?

Once again this n00b comes here to ask. What is the best video card that would fit this old (but great) machine?

Is it easy to replace it? And since you know this big monster here, should I (could I ...) replace the hard drive for something bigger?

Last, is it a good idea ?

Let me know if you need any other information. Looking forward to your feedback!

Thanks, SanGiovani

 

MXM notebooks before 3.0

Check the Clevo section, apparently it's upgradable to GTX280m, which is a good upgrade i think. However I'd prefer a confirmation on this before upgrading, whether you can support it or not. Clevos are known to be replacable, well, more user-friendly than most laptops. And before you upgrade, find out what your MXM version is...but I assume that it'll be MXM 1.1/2.1 as its an older machine.

A BIOS upgrade might be needed too, to support the newer card.

HDD upgrade is a good idea as well, since you have 80Gb, as the current market stands at 250GB and above.

Correct me if I'm wrong tho, NBR.

 

If I'm not mistaken the M570U uses a non-MXM socket and thus has very limited upgradability. You're better off getting a new system.

 

And how do I find out all this info?

 

Open the notebook, take the GPU out and see what the connector looks like.

If you have the older card (non MXM), then I would just get a new notebook.

But if it's an mxm card, try an FX 3700m (can be found on ebay new under $200).

Clevo 571tu Upgrade Guide

 

The M570U is NOT MXM, it is clevo proprietary and the 7950GTX is the best you can get for it. You could easily upgrade the hard drive, but if you need more graphics power, then you need a new machine.

 

When I was toying with the idea of upgrading, I found that you can drop in a 9800m Gt or 8800m Gtx. I never upgraded the card, though, and have instead been saving for a new machine.

The HDD is easily upgraded, and a modular bay for a secondary drive can sometimes still be found as well. You might also be able to upgrade the CPU, depending on your current specs.

 

theriko is alright, M570U is non-MXM and the 7950 is in the top of this machine

 

If you have the M570U, then this information is incorrect, the gfx card cannot be upgraded past the 7950, if however you have the M570 RU, then this is correct, and you can upgrade to the 8800/9800 (and i believe that some are even using the quadro fx 3700M)

 

His post history says it's a Sager 5760. M570U it is.

 

Thanks for the correction; I've been operating under the wrong assumptions all along. Glad I didn't plunk down any cash on a new card...

 

No problem, glad we provided the info in time.

 

Is this the one I am after?

NEW NVIDIA GEFORCE 7950 GT 7950GT 512MB AGP VIDEO CARD (eBay item 130466856419 end time 17-Jan-11 10:06:34 AEDST) : Computers

 

That's a desktop card, so no ).

 

Maybe this one will work:
NVidia GeForce Go 7800 GTX 256MB Alienware m7700 D9T - eBay (item 320635227682 end time Jan-02-11 17:10:49 PST)
Hard to say, really.

 

I'm pretty sure that is the correct connector on the card, but I know people have had problems with alienware cards not displaying full screen (probably because of vbios'es from the D900 series being different to the M570U)