Graphics Card upgrade for M6800 ?

So, you did such upgrade, but rather than sharing your experience, you prefer to patronize others, just because did not post in an already overly loaded thread.
I believe that having a new thread for a certain problem is WAY BETTER, because it focuses on that problem alone, rather than having ALL M6800 talks in one thread and then get lost in it. -because it keeps things separate. So, if you ask me, there should be a sub-forum for each major model, or at least make... where problems are discussed on separate topics. To keep things organized.

And yes, I searched that thread, finding only random info, partly conclusive (i also searched other forums, youtube, other websites, wrote to Eurocom).

So, please be nice enough to point what should be the aspects where I should be careful, if is better to take from clevo or eurocom, share a bit of the performance improvements, etc... If you do so, next time a user will search for this problem, instead of being "spoon feed", will find your so generously post and will learn from it.

P.S. - you are not only trying to be rude, but you are also arrogant in your attitude and most unhelpful.

 

DynamiteZerg helped me through private message, so I think it is not him who do not want to help He is quite helpfull.

You need special heatsink if you buy 980M without proper one for Dell M6800. I bought 980M and waiting for it to arrive and than I will know what I need to dremel in my K3100M Heatsink. On ebay you can buy proper heatsink for 980M for M6800 for about 99$ and the wrong one for 19$. Still, if you buy the wrong one, you can mod it a little. I do not know how much, cause my card need to arrive. And if you buy 980M with xbracket from MSI, than it will have long thread and for M6800 in need to be short thread. So, either you change the xbracket on the card for Dell xbracket, or you will change the screws on the heastsink to fit xbracket. I do not know which option I will choose cause, as I said earlier, my card did not arrived yet

 

Now that's what I call useful information, @vwrafi .Thank you very much!
I was thinking between K5100M and 980M. From what I could see, 980M is preferred for gaming, whilst the other one I've seen some tests, seems to work better in CAD software... I'm a bit confused in this matter (what makes K5100 behave so good in CAD?)...
As regarding to buying, I found 980M kit for M6800, from eurocom (on ebay)... but they didn't say anything about heatsink. I currently have FirePro M6100, so I don't know if my heatsink will work... probably not.

 

K5100M is not 980M. M5000M is.

If eurocom did not listed a heatsink, than probably it will not be included. Even used one cost 99$ on ebay, which is a lot for me ( regular one cost 19$ ). Once, in the past, I mod heatsink for 7970M for MSI GX660 ( which originally was shipped with HD5870M ) and it took me an hour to cut unnecessary bits. It is easy, but is going slowly.

 

I finally got an answer from eurocom regarding heatsinks... they didn't even know if is any incompatibility, so as they said, they had to do some research. In the end, I was told that heatsinks are compatible between FirePro M6100 and GTX 980M (still, I have my doubts).

-So, the only modding is to cut parts off? what parts, can you be more specific please, eventually show a picture?
-Also, for this more powerful card, there shouldn't be needed a more efficient heatsink (thicker?)...
-Last question: i found heatsinks for NVIDIA, coded K6D33 around the price you mentioned ($19), but I couldn't find the more expensive ones, to compare. Could you tell me what part code I should search for?

Thank you very much.

 

do you have a photo of your old card?

this is a clevo Gtx980m


this is a Msi Gtx980m

 

I don't have any real picture of it (the card is still inside my computer and actively being used), but after looking online and trying to figure out which may be the real FirePro M6100 image (as there are many "placeholder" images there and as I never seen one for real, I can easily be fooled), I noticed small difference around the inductors (R22 on your images, R27 on the AMD cards I found). -see attached.

But if the extra parts from the heatsink don't interfere with the card, I think I shouldn't worry about cutting them, should I? Now my biggest concern is if I should look for a new heatsink (more efficient, or more suitable for GTX 980M), or I should stay with my current one and just swap the cards...

As I said, my machine is actively used at this moment and I am planning to collect all parts and get all the intel possible, before attempting any disassembly.

heatsink model that I found on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precis...tsink-for-Nvidia-Graphics-K6D33-/222505429400
But I would like to drop an eye to the "more expensive" model, to check for differences and see why those are so expensive, if you know the part number/code.

I found instead the difference between AMD (9184J) and NVIDIA (K6D33) as shown in the img below. It seems there is a small difference in layout, but I don't know if that has any negative impact or not. - Please advise.



Radeon HD 8950 (FirePro M6100), as found online


Thank you.

 

No, don't use AMD heatsink for NV card or vice versa. Main difference at the main chipset. AMD heatsink is extruded at main chipset area, so using NV card will have problem of RAM and other ICs not touching the heatsink or u need thicker thermal pad. Using AMD card at NV heatsink will have problem main chip not touching the heatsink and need thick thermal pad for main chip instead of thermal paste which is not good. Not sure about the screw depth, if need to remove existing spring screws and use normal screws then it is dangerous, you will feel like still have plenty of room to tighten and if really do so, the card could break into 2 or bent. The X-bracket that comes with new card most probably won't fit properly with default spring screw anyway.

 

Thank you @iieeann ! This was by far most valuable tip i got until now! Indeed, such mistake could easily cost me my video card.
So, you are saying that for 980M to use the K6D33 model of heatsink, or is it any other model available (that dissipates heat even more efficiently)?

Cheers!

 

Yes K6D33, no alternate model. If possible, if the X-bracket is not fixed on graphic card and you have chance to install your own, look for the suitable one for the heatsink. If not mistaken, Dell use M2 screw size. The pic shown by Sicily428 980m is screw M1.5 which will not fit with the default heatsink screw. If you really have no choice but getting the card with ready X-bracket using screw M1.5, the best way to do is to remove existing spring screws and use the M1.5 screws to secure the card. DO NOT tighten until the end, just until you feel it is secured in place. It is difficult to remove and replace the X-bracket, it requires heating to melt the glue and some forces... hey the card is more valuable.

Furthermore, you need to buy also some thermal pads of different thickness. The card will have exactly same RAM position but the capacitor and other IC may have different layout. All of them need to be in touch with the thermal pad.

Make sure the heatsink is delivered with good protection. You won't want to see the fins dented or the worst part, the heatpipe is dented.

Why i knew all these, because i learn by hard way after burning 2 units GTX 680m few years ago. It was the same price as 1070 today at that time.

If you are buying P5000, please make sure your LCD is output through eDP and not the old LVDS connector. M6800 has 2 types of mainboard using different internal LCD port. Pascal does not support LVDS output. Why i know this again, because i just got caught last week... M6700 anyway.