Laptop/Mobile Graphics Cards

LanceStorm

Can you purchase mobile graphics cards on their own?

I have what looks to be a faulty Nvidea GTX 580M, for Dell to replace it will cost me the bones of €600, the card is now 3 years old, so thats bonkers money, it'd be almost halfway to buying a new top of the range laptop for me, so screw that!

I've only ever found them on ebay and for something so expensive I couldn't risk a 2nd hand one.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

cherryghost

It's possible to replace it. The 580M is a swappable component in Dell laptops. What model do you have? You may be able to a cheaper, more power efficient equivalent 6/7/8 series depending on the bios compatibility on the laptop motherboard.

TerrorFirmer

You're really have to get one off Ebay or similar - it's gonna cost about €200 though I'd say.

You could maybe look at getting a 560M or 570M instead of the 580 to make it that bit more affordable.

cherryghost

If its an Alienware, there's a bios update to support 6xx's on some motherboards.

LanceStorm

Dxdiag attached so you can see the current setup.

My worry is that i'll spend 200-300 upwards on a GPU and then it wont even turn out to be the issue, I dont know how I find out if its 100% that.

I also worry about buying 2nd hand off ebay for an expensive part like that, I was there was a store option!

TerrorFirmer

What is the issue?

LanceStorm

a description of the issue is usually helpful yes lol

so my Alienware m17x R3 has been crashing to a black screen constantly, this normally happens when launching anything graphically intensive, but i've also had it happen playing videos, browsing via Chrome or just idling on the desktop, but if I try any benchmark software it'll crash to black 100% of the time.

I've been monitoring heat and it'll crash at 65 even, so I dont think its an overheating issue, or at least isnt now, i'm thinking maybe it was, I used to see 90+ at times gaming and maybe at some point it fried the card?

i've taken the laptop apart, cleaned the fans, re-pasted the GPU and CPU but i'm no closer to knowing the root cause.

looking_around

have you tried the tests/using it with the card removed? the onboard should take over (it'll be low quality in comparison/laggish)..but if it doesn't crash you know it's the gpu..if it does..it's probably something else.

LanceStorm

I've not tried this, but that'll be my next step, thanks!

I've found that by using a lower wattage power supply my laptop will not crash at all, i'm assuming this is as the laptop will only use the onboard GPU as the laptop is effectively running on battery power, but if nothing else it means its stable but very slow and cannot game.

TerrorFirmer

Or your old adaptor could just be bad.

Usually if a laptop isn't getting enough power, it'll just power off under strain, so chances are if you try to game on that lower wattage model, that is what will happen still - but that is normal.

Your laptop would only be using the onboard GPU anyway for everything except games, it's not adaptor dependent, it's usage dependent.

But if it's working grand for desktop use now, it could mean that the old adaptor just needs replacing.

looking_around

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Or your old adaptor could just be bad.

Usually if a laptop isn't getting enough power, it'll just power off under strain, so chances are if you try to game on that lower wattage model, that is what will happen still - but that is normal.

Your laptop would only be using the onboard GPU anyway for everything except games, it's not adaptor dependent, it's usage dependent.

But if it's working grand for desktop use now, it could mean that the old adaptor just needs replacing.

this actually, it could be your charger, remember having a similar issue with my laptop, brand new charger did the job.

LanceStorm

I hoped and hoped and hoped but... I managed to grab a spare like for like charger in work, same issue however...

At this rate, I cant see how it can be anything other than the GPU...

thank god Football Manager is the number 1 game I play, onboard GPU on the lower wattage charger still holds up ok on that, anything else though and i'm screwed...

TerrorFirmer

You said it sometimes happens when you're web browsing, watching media, etc.

The onboard GPU would still be used for that, which is why it seemed to possibly be a charger issue.