Why not just replace the nvidia 160's?

I've been reading the posts about overheating problems with the nvidia 160 board in the E6400/6500 machines, and also reading about how selection of the standalone video card when configuring a machine for purchase is good as it allows one to upgrade or change cards later if desired.

While I fully understand that people paid for a working video card and most certainly deserve to get a properly working video card in their machine, with the level of concernation about heat issues with this particular card I have to wonder why some people don't just replace it with something else and be done with it? Again, I understand the cost issue with regard to not wanting to buy another card because the one you have "should" work, but has anyone just thrown in the towel on the nvidia 160 and put in another card that doesn't have heat issues?

Is there no other suitable card for the E6400/6500 machine available on the market at this point?

Or is this a case where all laptop video cards have heat issues to some extent?

Just trying to understand the situation a bit better.

Thanks

 

You can't upgrade the video card on an E6400 or E6500. The discrete GPU and the IGP are soldered to the motherboard; a video card swap implies a motherboard swap. That being said, there are only compatible boards with an NVS 160M or an IGP, so there really isn't any other option for E6400 or E6500 owners (you can count the M2400 and M4400 boards, but they all have even higher-power GPUs).

 

Exactly. I will probably have to allow Dell to exchange my motherboard and heatsink at least once, and I have a degree of hope because some people with the Nvidia GPU have no issues, but I am pessimistic. If after the exchange the temperatures are still not acceptable I plan to ask for a new machine with the Intel graphics, and a refund of the price difference.

 

I believe that only some of the E class laptops have heating issues...not all of them are affected. So, that shouldn't affect your decision.

 

Yeah, I guess. They are coming over tomorrow to replace the motherboard and heatsink. Let's see...

Wish me luck guys.

 

The 160M isn't that bad. I have a laptop with a 3450(the Studio 15) and it overheats like crazy. The 160m is relatively quite cool

 

What temperatures do you reach with the 3450?

 

Thank you for the replies, the situation makes much more sense now. I didn't realize the card could not be replaced.

 

The silly thing is that this card is actually quite enough for my needs. I can max out Guild Wars and Trackmania which are my more demanding games, but the card starts to overheat and downclocks. With a proper cooling system this GPU would be 1) plenty enough and 2) not powerful enough to eat a lot of battery life.

 

Normally, you should be able to do all of that fine. You probably just got a lemon GPU wise.