GT72 2QD 970m/980m

I couldn't find an answer to my rather specific question, so I hope it is OK to start a new thread.

Last December 2015 I bought this model: GT72 2QD(Dominator)-405US, which comes with an Intel 4720HQ CPU, and the Nvidia 3GB GTX 970m. Of course, most of you know that the 2QE variant models of the GT72 come with the 8GB GTX 980m.

Recently I considered upgrading to a 8GB 980m, but I have certain doubts. The 970m has a 192 bit memory bus, whereas the 980m has a 256 bit memory bus. The 980m has more computing power, but I have the nagging doubt as to whether the main board of the 2QD supports the wider 256 bit memory bus --- so that would be a problem, since I would not be able to use the 980m to its full potential.

My question then: is the 256 bit bus of the 980m supported, or will I be under-utilizing the card? I know I can overclock the CPU (I do that already a little bit), but the question is not about how fast data can be transferred on a 192 bit bus, but whether the 256 bit bus will be used to its full potential. Maybe I am just misunderstanding something, so I just want some advice/explanation if anyone can or is willing to give one. I would be very much grateful.

Thank you very much in advance for any help.

 

I'd suggest all GT72 2Qx motherboards are principally identical.

 

Thanks. I know it's not simply a question of the number of connectors --- MXM v3 cards like the Maxwell 900m series have 230 connectors, so the bus must be something internal to the card, as obviously 256>230, and some of those 230 must serve a purppose other than data transfer, so that would be my guess, but then again, the bus for the mainboards may be different between the 2QD and the 2QE versions, that is what I am wondering. I mean, the memory and CPU for either has the same number of connectors, so I am inclined to believe that the bus for both must be essentially identical, as you imply, but it never hurts to ask.

Thanks a bunch, and I hope somebody else can comment a bit more

 

The MXM cards are principally interchangeable if the connector is the same version. V3 has several different form factors afaik, A, B and the desktop ones. at least 82x70, 82x105, 83x115, 108x115 .

 

The motherboards on the GT72's are the same across the model(I'm talking about the same CPU Gen.) so you won't have any issue swapping the GPU to the 980M and losing performance. The GPU slot is exactly the same the memory bus is determined by the GPU and not the MB.

 

Thank you, very much, really appreciate your answer! That is the assurance I wanted.

 

So, what thickness of thermal pads does the card need? I just saw some killer 17W/mK pads, but the are pricey, and they come in 1.5mm, 1.0mm, 0.5mm thicknesses; I can probably settle for 7W/mK, but over here it gets VERY hot in summer, and the best heat dissipation of is preferred, of course. I just need to know what thickness pads to buy

 

Still you should consider if need the upgrade to 980M instead of overclocking the card you have, and save the money for MXM pascal card.

 

Thank you. Problem is whether there will be support for my model from MSI, and whether the MXM will fit -- as opposed to the MXM with the 980m chip, the MXM for the notebook GTX 980 (without the "m") doesn't fit inside the GT72 2QD models, since it is wider and it overlaps the fans. If the Pascal modules are not the same size as those for other MXM 3.0 cards (like the 970m/980m) I'll be out of luck. And I already overclock my 970m as far as it'll go with an unlocked vBIOS, and I wasn't lucky enough to get a good overclocker.

In any case, the point is moot right now: my salary comes in Mexican pesos, and since the Brexit vote the currency has lost more than 7% value (the British Pound dragged the Mexican market and currency down much more so than it did for the UK) --- I haven't checked the news today, so it could be even more: over 7% was just on Friday. As it was, I was barely able to afford a VERY much discounted and used 980m. I can no longer afford it now, and I doubt I will be able to afford any card now for a long, long time...

 

980m should still be available, and when pascal GPUs hit you should have an upgrade kit available to get even more performance.

If you have an overclocked 970m , the upgrading to a 980m will net you up to 30% more performance. GT72 will have official GPU upgrade to Pascal, so that shouldn't be a problem. And even if it didn't, 980m will not disappear this year at all, probably will be available for a couple more years.

La verdad, te conviene ahorrar más y conseguirte un upgrade kit de Pascal. Me imagino que tendremos más información de eso hasta octubre.

 

Muy amable, gracias por el consejo --- Very nice of you, thank you for the advice

Doubtful I can save now, though, as now I will have to spend extra on mundane stuff like bills and groceries, which are bound to skyrocket very soon because of market instability, and on the US-Mexico border we need to import a lot of stuff from the US. I was taking advantage of a summer bonus, but that's out the window mostly now. I' ll see what happens by December.

As for the upgrade for the GT72, what I have read is that MSI will likely offer Pascal upgrades to the newer versions. The one I have, with a Haswell CPU, may or may not have an official upgrade kit -- still I would hope a solution may come up, and nothing is set in stone right now about this

 

I know what you feels. Selfish britols, deterained Eastern Europe markets too. I would pounch them in front of the face...
But pascal should work with GT72, it should be updated with newest gen. And still even if not 980m will be cheaper in coming months.

 

Thank you. As of now, I've been fiddling with the settings for the Witcher 3 by changing some variables in the .ini files --- they changed those quite a bit in the latest couple of patches, and it seems to be running smooth enough, so I can live with playing it like this, and with the biggest overclock I can give my 970m without any odd glitches for now. I don't overclock all games, and those that I do, I don't overclock the same way. I'll be happy for now, and wait to see if later on any Pascal upgrade is available and affordable, so I will keep my fingers crossed