most powerful graphics card into a p370sm ?

hello everyone,

I bought my clevo from overclockers uk in Nov14. Unfortunately a few months ago one of my 8970's failed and the laptop wouldn't boot. now i think my other 8970 is on its way out aswell.

So, with that in mind... whats the most powerful gpu which can be fitted to the 370sm ? I'm not looking to go SLI/Crossfire this time, because I think when the next card fails it will be a full laptop upgrade.

I also don't mind tinkering either, if that's whats needed to get it to fit... so be it!! (it still has to be a "laptop" mind )

thanks,

Scott.

 

You can get a MSI GTX 1080 or MSI GTX 1070

 

Thanks for the reply. I didn't realise I would be able to go that far up the product range with this laptop. OK, so next set of questions then...

Whats needed for me to fit one of those in ?

Will my heatsink be sufficient ? will i have to mod the BIOS in any way ? E.T.C... (laptop still has the BIOS it shipped with)

 

Shim is needed, some different sizes Thermal pads, and a dremel to cut some plastics, now be sure that you do not purchase a 1080 or 1070 which needs an external PSU.

 

So not the Clevo ones for example.

 

Thanks for that! you just saved me an expensive mistake. theirs a 1080m on ebay right now for clevos, luckily i asked the seller a question and he hasn't got back to me.

my screen is only 60hz aswell will this be a problem ? I think I read somewhere that the newer cards will only work on 120hz screens ?

 

massive problem. It needs to be 120hz eDP screen otherwise no pascal will work. If you have an LVDS 60hz screen you can only opt for GTX 980M's.

 

You can look to see if you have the connector in which case with a cable and panel you could swap over.

 

Ok, so i had a few hours spare this afternoon. I stripped down the laptop to see if i had the eDP connector on my motherboard. can anyone confirm its the empty connector on the left ?

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hx85u6DWrjh8-XJsHX4aIaI0IxFoVDH_

 

Looks like it

 

confirmed

 

Right guys, I've ordered these at the weekend, they are on their way.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/New...E1-020-J-for-P370EM-P370-375/32863728724.html

First time I've ordered off aliexpress, hoping it turns out good....

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/17-3-LG-...D-Screen-TFT-Panel-LP173WF2-TPB1/223068436161

I know the screen has scratches, blame the makers mark and a free saturday night.... but on the upside I seriously low balled him and was quite surprised when he accepted the offer. praying for those scratches not to be that bad though.

So, am i right in thinking im going to need a modded mobo bios for the laptop for everything to run at its full potential ? if so, where would i get one from ? i signed up to premas website but after a bit of digging it seems he pulled it down because people got greedy. (such a shame)

Would my 4800mq 8970m heatsink let a 1080 fly or would it be better to buy a 1070 ? is there any guides on the shim and thermal pad heights i would need ? i cant seem to find any.

Would i be able to install the cable and screen whilst using my 8970 ?

thanks for your help.

 

yeah u can use the AMD. I would suggest going for a 1070, since the 1080 is a pain in the ass to build into your system.

 

Yeah I second that, about the 1070. 1070N are great honestly, just don't get the Gecube 1070's statistically speaking there are larger number of failures. Also I think the 1070N from MSI can basically run with both panels and run well. Less hassle.

 

The cable and screen arrived today after a hold up in customs. Ill go with your recommendations, I'm not very good with software. Probably shouldn't be doing this project in hindsight .
Thanks for the advice woodzstack, i have read the gecube green 1070's like burning up.

I've found this on ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NVIDIA-G...le-MS-1W0V1-MSI-Vortex-G65-G65VR/123391590032

In you guy's opinion, would this one work ?

If so and after i get it all buttoned up nice, whats the next step ?

 

That's the MSI card, good vrm but needs a little heatsink work iirc.

 

Hey guys, put the screen screen in the other week. All ok, which i'm really glad about. Don't think its as good picture quality compared to the IPS which was in it though. But i suppose that's one of the downsides of trying to squeeze a bit more life out of this laptop.

I've just managed to bag a 1070 on ebay for really cheap, the guy sold it but had it returned because of error 43. After a bit of googling it seems that this is a software issue.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/113733422407

Could you guide me in getting this card into my laptop working ? I would appreciate your help.

Thanks.

 

It should be plug and play getting it booting software wise.

You will need to match the heatsink to it and see what might need modding to sit it flat.

Once installed you can use a driver set with a modded inf from laptopvideo2go.com

 

Meaker you were correct. It was almost plug and play, bar a few minutes of cutting the frame. However it seems i have ran into the same problem as the previous buyer of this card.

I have tried modding the INF file myself, which may not have been the best of ideas. But i tried following the various guides and videos to the letter. I have signed up to the forum you suggested but the conformation email has not arrived yet. When it does, ill try those ones instead.

If i cannot get this running properly, can you suggest anyone or any business i can pay to diagnose it and get it right ?

Scott.

 

It really is not supported from any business really. Are you booting with driver signing disabled?

 

I assumed that, thought maybe there is a modder or influential person in the community you may have been able to point me in the right direction with. everyone likes beer money....

I installed the drivers with driver signing disabled and tried booting with it turned off and on. This evening ill try the inf codes in the different sections to see if I've put them in the wrong place.

Still not had any email off the website you suggested, I've just put a message to an admin to have a look for me.

I have contacted the seller on ebay this morning and he has informed me that the card has came out of a MSI Vortex pc. I don't know if this affects things with the BIOS ? When the card was returned to him he put it back in his system and it worked fine, but ill take that with a grain of salt at the moment.

 

Ah that's not a laptop so it might have an impact.

 

Obtained the modded .inf file from the website you recommended.

Ran DDU in safe mode to delete all the Nvidia and AMD files from my computer.

Turned off driver enforcement and ran the drivers with the new .inf

Still no luck in getting rid of the error 43. So, after having a little google its either my laptop bios (still on vanilla clevo bios with hoover fans). The card bios or the card is indeed faulty. Any ideas on where to go from here Meaker ?

I'd rather just ship this laptop somewhere and say to the person, here is my money can you diagnose/fix it at this point, messing around with bios flashing is something I've never done and seems a bit scary to be honest.

 

I would say the next step is looking for a notebook vbios for the card and flashing it.

 

If I do have to flash the bios on the card, is there a MSI laptop model out there which resembles my p370 ? I've tried looking for the model 1070 which most people buy to do this mod but I've had no success.

 

OK, so short of begging Prema, who does not seem to be getting back to people asking him for bios mods on this forum. who else does bios modding ?

 

I would have thought tech inferno would have a copy from the notebook card from an MSI notebook. Save the original first of course.

 

There are old and new hardware revisions of the Vortex GPUs.
The old ones only work in Vortex systems (in Notebooks = error 43) while the new ones can be used in Notebooks as well.
All we could do with another vBIOS is make it usable on an external screen, but it won't work with newer driver on the internal screen with any firmware or Mod due to a change in NVIDIA driver affecting the older hardware revision.
The only way to get a picture on the internal screen is by using driver 384 or older.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post and clearing up the issue. I will try 384 now and report back.

 

The latest rev of driver I could get to work on my P370EM with v1.0 vortex 1070s was 375.70. Download off MSI website, INF mod, internal plus HDMI plus DP all functional.

 

What change is crippling the card I wonder.

 

After a very productive afternoon/evening I've managed to get this thing working. Thanks to everyone involved in helping me.

After being given a bios/ec and vbios which I greatly appreciate by the way, I flashed the pair and installed 382.53 with a modded .inf and still got that pesky code43. I was about to give up and declare the card toast.

Then bennyg came to the rescue with his 375.70 post and that was what made it finally work. I did not realise you had the same version card as me, would have tried that weeks ago if I knew. Thank you for that input.

Now, onto the next hurdle. Is a timespy score of 5100-5300 respectable ? I've noticed the power limit is being tripped on gpuz a lot when running the benchmark, max temp is 75c. I've installed afterburner but even though I have the options ticked for voltage and power, they are still greyed out. Am I missing something ?

 

Finally a happy camper!

Check this to undervolt your GPU:

 

Hardware mods needed if you want to go beyond that posted by prema by shunt resistor modifying.