Ati Mobility HD 4870 or 4850 in a M9750 => does it work?

Hello everyone!

Been doing some reading on the net, seems the upgrade for many HD3870 owners should have been both:

1) the Ati Mobility HD 4870
2) the Ati Mobility HD 4850

@tomX

 

the 4850 should work

the 4870 your refering to is not a 4870 its a 4850 rebranded


but yes it should work but heat will be a issue

 

Notebook check :

"AMD published a current consumption of about 45-65 Watt for the HD 4850-4870. Still it is unclear if this value represents the chip alone or the whole mxm board including the memory (which would include about 5 Watt)."

Nvidia 7950 GTX : 45 W,
the 7950 GTX SLI being 90 W
8700m GT SLI : 58 W

The 3870 works and it is 55W...

HD 4850 Heat would be almost equal wouldn't it?

Any tests been made?

 

no nobody has gotten 4850's to test with a m9750

 

Alienware Europe just told me they have so few of them (for repairing purposes), they are forced to replaced them with HD3870 and HD3850 + extra money to those who have to replace their 4870/4850... what a mess.

 

yea ...........3870's are good but 4850's are extremely rare but should/could work it all depends on the bios

 

Ouch. Doesn't sound good for Alex....

 

They still have HD3870 available for sale, or so they say... wait and see...

Now, the idea is where to get a HD4850 to see if it works...

 

In theory, at least one MXM 2.1 4850 would work in the M9750. Seeming as 3870 Xfire works, I think 4850 Xfire would probably work too.

As said above though, heat will likely be an issue. A single 4850 is 65W, compared to the 55W of the 3870. That will create more heat, and while it won't be much it could make the difference between peaking at, say, 85C and peaking at above 100C.

 

i guess a lappy couler would be a good idea t get to test that but then if i where you i would not dream to much about them they are ultrarare and mines are staying in my m17 ;p

 

They send me 3870s and the machine is going straight back, I didnt pay for an old spec, and I wont accept the machine without 4850 or equivalent. If they cannot provide the goods I will not be a happy chappy. As a small note I actualy got a DHL shipping note through the email this evening, so I will be checking the laptop for defects and graphics model as soon as it arrives. If they have sent me 3870s they will be recieving a machine back; as thats not what they are contracted to supply, even with a refund, it mean the machine is not worth the outlay to me.

 

Heat will most certainly be an issue with a 4850 in the M9750, the Hd3870 runs hotter in this than in the M17 and i'm reckoning that a 4850 would run hotter. Theres a reason why the M17's GPU heatsink is made of copper whereas the M9750's GPU heatsink is made of aluminnium and ofc Copper>Aluminium at heat transfer.
I got my second 3870 today so plan to do some tinkering over the weekend

 

the "4870"s of the W90 do not work out of the W90, this has been proven

However, the 4850s "should" work in the M9750. Heat will absolutely be a problem. You should absolutely have a cooler if you are going to try this.

It sucks that the option for the 4850s, let alone the M17 as a whole, is gone now (In the US anyway). Was an amazing value gaming laptop.

 

It's still for sale under recertified .... I'm sure they are new ... Just aw trying to get it off the page because it takes the focus off

 

just the 4850s or the whole laptop?

 

The whole laptop. We're still unable to purchase the 4850's as an upgrade

 

is it even available? as I understood, AW asked ati to specifically make those cards for them... but stocks are over?

 

Nvidia doesnt make 4850s ati does. I've been badgering aw uk for 4850s upgrades for m17 but so far, they've said that it is not possible right now and that they would contact me if they get new info. Im still hoping but personally, I think that 4850 upgrade's a no go.

 

yay it is there!

Now my mom CAN get one (these are just the best $1k laptop you can get right now)

 

??? didn't quite understand your post...

 

On Alienware.com if you go to products and then recertified systems you can still find the m17 there is what he's saying Yes we got screwed over in Europe once again and dont have this option.

 

grrrr.....

but we might get the HD3870 for sale more easily...

 

Then again the new M15x looks pretty damn reasonably priced and i'm very tempted to order one once Windows 7 is released and it comes pre-installed

 

just so you know, 3870x2 gets about the same GPU score as a single GTX 280m I believe

Some one needs to check this as I have no single card results. I will do a quick run with stock GTX 280m SLI DISABLED to see what I get

 

look at bottom of page:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-280M.14558.0.html

the crossfire HD3870 does better...

 

Ya I just ran some runs and see that too, the GTX 280m (single) got 5300 stock

My 3870s from whitebook managed 6500

So 3870's CF still beats a single GTX 280m

 

Now we have to see 2 things:
- getting them
- heat with crossfire

 

Any news/updates on the availabilities of the mobility 4850s?

 

It looks like some of the 4850s are beginning to come out and sell over the net...

one is for sale here (thanks to mandrake):

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=449084

Considering this thread here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=316079

I have been thinking that making a custom copper heatsink for the HD4850 + m9750 would make this heat issue less problematic...

now we just need someone to try it (and I would definitely try it of I had the money and the spare card)..

 

Another good project for someone well off would be seeing if they can get 4850 CF to work in a Clevo D901c chassis

This was an idea to me but it does not agree with me financially unfortunately

 

I might get my hands on a 4850, MXM version 2 type III ...

imagine if it worked in a m9750?

of course I would have to find a custom cooling solution...

 

that MAY work, but I would not get my hopes up. And yes, the stock cooling will be far from adequate

 

Do you recon it would boot? (nor regarding heat issues)

is there a big big difference with the HD3870 vbios wise I mean?

 

the issue would be whether or not the system bios recognizes the video card device id as set in the vbios

 

hmm.

How long after the 3870s did the 4850 come out?

the card might not be recognized at all by the m9750...

 

the 3870s were around october 2008, the 4850s were released around july 2009

but the 4k series of cards were designed for the M17/W840DI when the original laptop was designed, they were supposedly going to come out all along but never did since the project was abandoned due to the quad core stuttering (which zFactor could fix but OCZ/flextronics could not?!)

 

we might then have a problem on the m9750 recognizing the hd4xxx... cause if was released much later...

only test will tell..

 

but it also recognizes the 3870s, which were around the same time as the 4850s, so we shall see

hope it works from an experiment standpoint haha, then you don't have to worry about getting that 8800m gtx to work anymore (unless that was someone else....someone was trying it in the M9750)

 

its an expensive test, at least $400.

 

he can easily recover the cost haha, or just get an M17 to throw it in!

I still really want to see someone try it in a Clevo D901c (sager np9262)

 

unless he fries it trying to keep it cool!

 

It should be ok. Might get really hot but it is designed to be hot afterall - just not all the time for years. Rarely hitting 100c on the GPU is acceptable as long as they are few and far between

 

Fixed it

 

Thanks Moo haha, something like that happened....long story short - no more M17

which is a shame, it was an outstanding system for the price

 

Might I point out that the 3870's run "hot" in the M9750 as it is. The 4850's also ran hot in the M17 which has a better cooling system (The GPU contact surfaces are made of copper not aluminium). I seriously doubt a 4850 would run cool enough to not fry prematurely in the m9750 even if it was detected ok.

 

fWIW the guy working @ the local computer shop claims to have installed successfully a 4850 in one of these. hes kind of a BS'er but he has done some crazy stuff over the time i have known him..... good luck!!! i would keep the bottom cover off and use a good cooler before attempting this

 

maximum cooling will be a must for the 4850

 

Any ideas on how to modify the original cooler of the m9750?

i had these crazy ideas:

1) Take parts (the copper heatspreader part in contact with GPU/CPU) of the M17 cooler and mix it with the m9750's one

2) Build a home-made heatspreader copper cooler such as this idea in this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=316079

any other ideas?

(i'm worried abou the whole pre-fry the GPU even if it is detected)

 

take the bottom cover off

attach a lot of heatsinks to increase the surface area for air/cooler heat exchange (see project freeze)

use something like a Cryo to force fresh air into the system constantly cooling it

 

project is put off from lack of money to buy a 4850....

will try it as soon as my bak account gets better

thanks to Shinj, he was going to provide me with the initial 4850.