Hi Need help on upgrading m15x Gpu

hi, im new to the site if i did anything wrong im sorry in advance.. I recently upgraded my cpu from a 720qm to the 940xm.. but i want to upgrade my gpu which is currently the 260m.. what r the lists of possible upgrades i can hope to run on my system without a hassle? eg. temps, mobo compatiblity etc..

my options are 460m or 560m and 5870 or 6970.. which would be best on performance to temps ratio? thanks..

 

Performance to temps ratio: 5850m. The 6970m performs better, but runs definitely hotter. The 460m is pretty cool as well, but less powerful than the 5850m.
The 560m should work in the M15x, but it hasn't been tried yet. Should run pretty cool.

 

thanks svl7, im tryinh to find the 5850m on ebay but cant seem to find any right now.. i guess i'll be going with 5850 as ppl are telling me that its identical to the 5870, but with less clock speed?

 

Less clock speed in stock dress, but that can be soon and easily rectified.

 

The revelator, may i ask how is the 6970m running on your m15x? hows the preformance, heat, installation? cus if its not that big of a problem i might as well go with the 6970m to be future proof..

 

Yea, it's kinda hard to find a 5850m on ebay. I have one for sale, it's almost new, has only been in the system for a couple of days before I replaced it with a 6970m. PM me if you're interested.

 

sorry but i cant pm u.. dunno why?

 

Oh, yeah... sorry forgot about this. You need at least 5 posts to PM, and then wait until the system updates your account settings, this happens once a day as far as I know.

So either make one more post and wait for your account to get updated, or send me an email.

 

ok heres my 5th post! haha sent u an email already..

 

The 6970M is running great. In stock trim, it does about P3500 in 3dMark11, about P12,000 in Vantage and around 17,000 in 3dMark006, all with a 920xm (stock). It is highly overclockable from there, but power limits hold you back somewhat. Nevertheless, it is the current King GPU for the M15x. My 6970M idle temps are usually 43-47C; under heavy load, it ordinarily tops out in the low- to mid-80C's, assuming decent thermal paste. It is a surprisingly civilized, easy-to-live-with card for one so powerful. However, I recommend that you obtain the Dell version of the 6970M, if possible.

 

thanks.. its hard to find though no one ships it internationally.. definately want it..

 

Best of luck.

 

do i need to change the heatsinks and backplate for it? or can i just use the one that came with my notebook where the gtx 260m used to be..

 

No, the M15x heatsink works for the 6970m, the 5850m, 460m, 260m, 470m, etc.

 

And don't overlook the 5850M. It's a great card that works perfectly in the M15x.

 

How about an oem 6970m? The one direct from ati?? Would it work flawlessly? Or is the Dell one better suited for the m15x? If yes how so?

 

It will work well, but perhaps not quite flawlessly. The Dell version is the only one that provides automatic activation and adjustments of fan speed to temperature; none of the others do. However, HWiNFO32/64 permits automatic start-up and temp controlled regulation which is customizable by the user, so the functionality is available through a third party utility. The construction of the Dell 6970M seems somewhat more robust, resulting in increased overclockability and stability. However, this is a matter of degree, often small degree. I intended to buy an ATI/PCPartners card from MXM Upgrade (same one svl7 uses) or through Fortnax (our friend Akimox) until the Dell card showed up on eBay. It's not a question of Dell or nothing; rather, Dell if you can find it. The other cards work well, just not quite as seamlessly as the Dell. One man's opinion.

 

Yeah.. I thought so as well.. Just wanted to make sure.. Thanks for the thorough explanation..

 

steelballrun99
where did u bought your cpu 940xm?? ebay?? how much it cost..

and another thing..which one people always recommend...nvidia or ati..

currently with gtx260...thinking to upgrade to ATI Radeon HD 5850

 

The Dell 5850M is a great upgrade, but they're hard to find.

 

Im in the process of swaping a 6990 into my M15x with a 940XM already in it. The problem with running these GPU's with the XM CPU's is the overclocking. You cant do both without drawing too much power which will cause it to throttle.

 

That's right. I had to go right down to 17/17/23/24 @55W/47A on my 920XM to be able to run the GPU without throttling. KurtH I suspect that even with your 940XM at stock 18/18/24/25 @62W/62A you will run into a few issues, maybe. The newest version of throttlestop has per-profile TRL and TPL so it is a good idea to make a profile specifically for gaming.

 

I know Im almost thinking about dropping the XM cpu for a 840 just so i dont come into problems.

 

Lol, that's not necessary since you can easily just set your 940xm to act like a 840qm....

 

yeah kurth really waiting to see how this set up works for u please keep us informed, and congrat on your new beast....

 

I will keep you as informed but dont hold your breath on me cause Im currently deployed to afghanistan so things will get done around the Army's time.

 

To the OP looking for the dell 6970m, what I did out of curiosity is talk to a dell rep on their 24/7 online chat. I told the rep that I bought a m17x/m18x off of a friend and wanted to upgrade the gpu to the 6970m and he said he can get it done and gave me a price which I can't remember. However, I do know of people on here that tried to get the 6970m gpu from dell and it would keep getting delayed/cancelled from dell's end, and the nbr users just gave up (others successfully got theirs).