W870CU highest video card support?

well i found out it cant do sli, however what is the highest video card it can be upgraded to, 485m possible or am i limited to 470m/5870m

 

Why not go for its replacement: the P170HM? It can have a 485M, as well as the new Sandy Bridge CPUs.

 

i was asking about this model support, cause my buddy wants to sell it to me.

 

As of right now: 485m no, 6970 80% yes.

But buying either of those cards is going to cost you at least $500 ($900 for the 485m), so the price needs to be under $800 to make it a deal of any kind.

 

well whats the highest from nvidia and ati that the w870cu can do?

 

The 470m, which is $730 and only 3-5% faster than the 5870m.

 

will not "officially" support
but 485m and 470m s heatsink are the same
some one managed to run 485m on 860cu......no reason 870cu cant

 

The total power draw of the system would be too much for the board. That was one of the main upgrade points of the w880cu, better power circuitry. Users here have killed their motherboards by drawing too much power.

 

Bare in mind that there have been unsubstantiated reports of the GTX 470M either not running to its full potential on the W870CU or not being completely compatible. Some suggest only the W870CU that have the more recent Motherboards that include USB 3.0 are 100% compatible.

 

To follow up, I just killed my w870cu running Mass Effect at a TDP of 75w. That's only 20 watts over the stock 940XM and I've undervolted my video card which dropped it's usage 8w. The 25w+ of a 485m would kill it for sure.

Guess I'm getting SB after all. :s

 

Did you kill the CPU or the motherboard?

I Had a chance to look at the schematics of both the 8760 and w880cu and the power circuits inside are the same, so really the difference was a larger heat sink assembly and a higher wattage charger. That's why I am curious as to how your failed.

 

Ack! I just found out about ThrottleStop several days ago and was using the settings you had in your old sig. Think I might go back to stock settings...

 

this thing wont sustain 5870m correct? or would it be able to with out problems?

 

it will work with a 5870 no problems. What CPU does the laptop you may buy have?

 

720qm proccesor,

edit:it uses mxm 3.1b right?

 

The layout is the same, but it uses different vegs. The codes on them are different. My temps were ok when it died, all under 90*C.

It's the board, everything connected to it has tested ok so far. As soon as I plug it into a power brick though, not only does the laptop do nothing, but the light on the power brick goes out as well. Not a good sign.

I just got greedy, I was running 70TDP for 6 months without issue.

3.0B.

 

must upgrade the power supply so will adapt the 485m

my w860cu-470m notebook , determine upgrade to 485m , in early q3-2011 ...

the mold of w860cu , is better than ph150m on the cooling parts ，

w870s is ok too , no doubt .

I'm CHN player CAN'T speak English , sorry .

 

I ask the dealer of CLEVO

He told me , he has a customer that has already upgrade the GPU to 470m , with the 120w power . And this 860cu holder has no problem till now .

But he also told me , 470 to 485 , no nessesary to upgrade ,

"Why not waiting for the 5xx(6xx)m series using 28nm"——he said .

I think if mxm3.0b port is not change , the TDP is less than 485m , is much valualbe and efficient .

the 470m is very low temperature , when I use CoolerMaster pad with 4 fans , in MAFIA2 the temp. of GPU never overheat to 60 celsius.

and the CPU only 56 cels.

 

your saying this notebook can do 485m, with a power supply upgrade?

 

I'm telling you straight: That's a bad idea. You're basically going to spend $900 to shoe-horn in a card that's going to cook your system. I'm all for modding and trying new things, but it's not an issue of power supply. Myself and 3 other seasoned users have fired our boards now, and I had a 220w PSU connected when mine when it went. These things came with a 120w brick for a reason. The voltage regulators aren't made to handle too much more.

In the end, you can do whatever you want of course. I'm just trying to save you a lot of time and money.

 

well he stated clevo reseller told him it's possible, if clevo builders are saying it's possible then there's nothing wrong about it. Maybe the board is a fresher model or something, thats the only logical explanation, as for the heat, cooling definitely needs to be proper, in any system.

 

Second hand information from one new user with 7 posts. All due respect to him, I would require a little more evidence than that, wouldn't you?

There are a tonne of resellers in this forum, why not directly ask one of them?

 

yea i'm doing my diligence been doing a diligence last couple of hours on lots of versions. I actually asked before i posted that also, waiting on a reply.

 

I myself have serious doubts about the quality of the power circuitry used in the Wx80CU series. Others (including myself) experience power-related porblems even while using the 120W PSU and without any overclocking. Using a stronger PSU or any hardware that puts more load on the system than the original hardware it came with is a sure way to destroy your laptop. In my view, offering the HD 6970M in these models is a big mistake, even if it is only paired with a 45W CPU.

 

The circuitry they use use is pretty standard fare as far as topology, the design is pretty good (There are things I would do to add to the robustness). one area that concerns me is the MOSFETS they use. While the spec's are good enough they should tolerate loads way higher than we can even apply, the brand they use is a no name china brand. I would feel more comfortable in the quality if they used something like IR (international rectifier) or ON semiconductor.

 

Sorry, didnt want to make such a broad accusation. I have no detailed knowledge about such things, I also believe that most of the circuitry conforms to a high standard, all I wanted to say was that there is something wrong on the motherboard. Soviet also identified the MOSFETs as the possible source of the problem. They are responsible for breaking down the voltage, right? Because that seems to be the problem I've been experiencing here, the GPU does not get enough voltage and therefore runs unstable. Had 3 GPUs in the last couple of months that all died on me.

Do we know if Clevo uses quality MOSFETs on the X7200 and P1x0HM series?

 

No problem, I think the MOSFETs are the weakest link in the power control. The MOSFETS don’t break down the voltage; they are acting as switches that route which voltage source provides current to the laptop. There are 2 sets of 2 MOSFETS in parallel that switch the power between the charger and the battery. When the charger is plugged in, that set of MOSFETS turn on, allowing the current from the charger to flow in. When these get damaged from large currents and high heat, the resistance rises (the resistance of good MOSFETS will be on the order of the milliohm range), this causes all kinds of unpredictable things to happen. There is a good probably this has caused some of the failures of the unit not turning on. If I had access to one of these laptops I could confirm this, but obviously I don’t.

When I was suggesting things above that I would do differently, one of them is the MOSFETS have no protection from ESD (electro static discharge). Over time this can degrade MOSFETS.

 

the w870cu supports a 460m correct, with out any issues, i'm debating whether to get a 5870m or 460m performance difference i think the 5870m might have slight edge but by how much.

 

so i got the w870cu and i'm going to put a 5870m since it'll do with out a sweat right. Also somebody was mentioning that the w880cu all share the same layout of board, the difference probably being better quality parts, but then again you can't rule out the psu shorted and took the motherboard with it.

5870m should be safe right, i need to buy it with the official 5870 heatpipe right, my w870cu has a gtx 280m so a new heat pipe is a must right?

 

yep you need a new heatpipe, since the gtx 280m heatpipe is wider while the 5870m is longer.

 

it'll fit right, also the w860cu is newer version right?

 

w870cu = 17" model
w860cu = 15" model

 

same motherboard though right? which motherboard is newer revision from the models?

 

What ever motherboard that has USB 3.0.

 

but if u can find a 485m can 100% run under 75w tdp.........870cu can use it for sure
a guy in china picked a 485m from hundreds of cards that run good on 860cu.m15x.....then sold it about $2400USD

 

Sure he did

 

old thread but i've been looking at sagers website for there drivers on the w870cu and they have the 470m listed? is this true that the w870cu handles the 470m, including non usb 3.0 versions.

 

According to resellers, only the s1 revision machines will work perfectly with the 470m.