7950GTX go in a Dell M90

Hi all. I recently purchsed a Dell M90 for work. Relevant specs are T7200, 1GB ram, and Quadro FX 1500m. I'm delighted with the machine, but I regret not getting a better GPU. (The machine was a cancelled order, so I didn't actually have a choice about the GPU.) I'm in the process of acquiring a Dell 7950GTX go (with the dual heatpipes) to replace the 1500m.

My understanding is that the M90 is basically the M1710 but without the bling bling (i.e. the chassis and internal workings are he same between the two models). Am I right in thinking that I can just swap the cards? I think my M90 has the A05 BIOS, but I'd expect the card will be supported. Can anyone confirm?

Ginga

 

I can not say for certain whether this will work or not. What I will say is that it is not always possible to simply swap out the video cards between even similar laptops. My 9300 is identicle to an XPS Gen2, yet I can not just swap out my 6800 for a 7800 card from a Gen2. It requires me to use a hacked Gen2 bios on my 9300 to get it to work. The Bios on your M90 is different from the Bios on the an M1710. The file sizes are different between the 2 downloads. Dell may have the video card limited to only the specific ones that were available as options, and the 7950GTX is not an option on the M90. But as I said, I don't know for certain. I am just giving you as much factual information as I can.

 

Thanks for your thoughts. I've done a little more investigating, and it seems that the Dell twin-heatpipe 7950GTX go card is actually physically identical to the Quadro FX 3500m, which is an option on the M90. I'm therefore pretty confident that the card will fit physically. It's just a matter of whether the BIOS will allow the machine to talk to the 7950GTX go card.

Well, I think I'm going to give it a try. Assuming that I don't make a mess of it, the worst thing that can happen is that it won't work, and I'll have to put the 1500m back in. I'll report my findings.

Ginga