P170SM-A upgrade from 870m to 970m

Hi sorry if this has been answered before, but am new to upgrading laptops and want to be sure.
From my understanding, the clevo P1xxSM-A with stock clevo bios should accept the 9th Gen GPU without any need to modify the BIOS or vBIOS right?

Thank you

 

seeing as the SM-A series was indeed sold with the 900M series gpus before they got discontinued, it should indeed be the case. just make sure to either update both the BIOS and EC to the latest versions or check out Premamod

both can be found at www.premamod.com

 

Thanks a bunch.
Much appreciated.

 

I would go with the latest to be sure yes, prema bios files also unlock lots of nice options.

 

Thanks for replying. Am currently considering whether to just upgrade the dGPU or get a new laptop along with skylake (and selling the old one)
Will post some benchmarks if i do upgrade.

 

I would look at the cost of both and consider the condition of your current machine to make that choice.

 

also consider your main usage scenarios. if ure a gamer, the 980M upgrade would make more sense than a whole new machine. if ure a professional and absolutely need the extra bit of cpu power and additional I/O (m.2 pcie drives, usb 3.1, tb3, etc) then getting a new machine "might" make more sense. again, in the end it rather depends on the current state of your wallet

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

I think I fall in the middle.
Primarily gaming (to increase the details while keeping smooth gameplay) but some professional use (engineering and CAD applications).
CPU performance gains are not essential but would imo make a small noticeable difference.
The speed of USB 3.1 would be a plus but not needed.

I'm just a bit apprehensive about updating the bios in case I brick my laptop. Never done that before.

Thanks for your replies; after reading the forums I had thought it would be a friendly place and now I sure feel it.

 

bios flash is actually pretty straight forward. again, i can warmly recommend premamod.com, it includes detailed instructions on how to flash stock and modded bios
if u follow those instructions, the risk of bricking ur system is minimal at best

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

I highly recommend Prema's BIOS (and vBIOS), it's literally the best and one of the 3 reasons why I only buy Clevo laptops.

As for whether you should sell your P170SM-A and buy a Skylake Clevo - I would say no. The performance increases you would get from the better CPU would likely not be that noticeable over what you currently have. Of course, if you can afford it and really want the performance increases and want the latest technology you could get a Skylake Clevo, I just don't think it would the THAT big of an upgrade.

 

That's what I was thinking. The skylake would mostly be about battery life rather than raw performance.
Thanks for the assurance about BIOS flashing and bricking.

 

Skylake is about that and storage performance, for the most part.