Upgrading MSI GX640 cpu

Hi everyone,
I've been enjoying the mmo, Guild Wars 2, lately, but when there are a lot of players around fighting an enemy or when I'm playing WvW (the game's large-scale PvP mode), my framerate drops significantly (30-40 fps to framerates in the mid teens or lower, depending on what's going on). From my understanding, the game is pretty cpu-bound, and since I only have an i5 430m (2.26 MHz to 2.53 MHz), I think my cpu is the bottleneck (my gpu is a Mobility Radeon 5850). Because of this, I've been thinking about upgrading the cpu in my laptop, because I can't afford to build/buy a new computer right now. The cpu's I've been looking at were the i7 620m and the i7 640m, with clock speeds of up to 3.33 and 3.46 MHz, respectively. Would either of those make a significant difference in my framerate? If it is good enough, I would like to go with the 620m since I found it for much cheaper on eBay. Also, would newer generations of i5/i7s work with my GX640? Thanks!

 

MMORPGs do make a good use of a quadcore CPU. Why don't You consider an i7-720QM, 740QM, 820QM or 840QM CPU? The GX640 does support these CPUs.
Newer generation (2nd and 3rd) i5s/i7s will not work. They are designed for a different socket and chipset.

 

Thanks for the reply -- I'm thinking about getting the 820qm. I think I'll get some good thermal paste to put on the cpu and gpu when I get this, too. Do you think I would have any heat problems with it in my laptop? Would I have to do some heatmods on my laptop (I've never done that before, so I'd rather not have to)?

 

As long as the CPU is not an XM, there shouldn't be any problems related to heat (if the thermal paste has been applied correctly, of course).

 

Hi im also thinking about upgrading my Gx640! Is the 840QM the best cpu i can put in this laptop? Also, what would be the best gpu-upgrade?

yours sincerly

 

Good question. I have a GX740 - its cooling system is very different from the one in GX640. After some heavy modifications my laptop could barely handle 6970M (stock clocks 680/900, core undervolted to 0.96V). The card was reaching 91C in FurMark.
Now I have a Clevo 7970M, which runs considerably cooler than 6970M. I think You might be able to put a 7970M in a GX640, You would need to modify the cooling system though (adding copper heatsinks - using Arctic Cooling Thermal Adhesive - stock double sided thermal sticky tape on most available heatsinks is crap, getting rid of meshes from the bottom cover of the laptop, drilling additional ventilation holes in it - especially on top of the fan). I wouldn't risk overclocking the GPU though.

Keep in mind, that when You change the GPU, the laptop will loose fan speed control. You will need a tool named Fan Control Tools and RW-Everything to be able to control fan speed manually. Both tools were made available for downloading here in this forum a while ago (if You can't find them, PM me, I can e-mail them to You).

CPU wise - my best bet would be i7-840QM. 920XM/940XM are compatible, but they run considerably hotter.

Along with GPU upgrade, a 180W PSU is a must.

 

Oh, ok thanks for the detailed answer! Though i think some of theese things are a bit to complicated for me to try, or isnt it as hard as it sounds? What would be the best things i can put in without modding it at all?

/Vysotskij

 

Sorry for spamming questions here, but i read in another thread that the 820qm sometimes dont work because of Bios-issues, how can i get around that? And also, ugrading a PSU for a laptop, what do i need to buy for that, just a new charger or install compnents inside the laptop? Im a bit noobish in this field ;-)

Vysotskij