Upgrade the MXM video card on HP TouchSmart 600-1170a

[michaelghickey]

Hi Forum readers:

Notwithstanding that the HP TouchSmart 600-1170a is a fantastically capable machine, the GT230m graphics card in my HP TouchSmart 600-1170a is just no longer powerful enough to play the latest games, so I'm looking to upgrade the GTX 230m MXM 3a module that's in the HP TouchSmart 600-1170a to something more modern. I have been looking at cards like the GeForce GTX 670m.  

I have reviewed many of the support forum questions that are similar to my position, but none really get to the heart of the matter. Please note that I am very comfortable with removing screws, heatsinks and the like, but have some residual concerns:

• Even though the MXM 3.0a standard includes dimensions and mounting position specs, I have ssen non-compliant MXM boards designed to fit only particular laptop motherboards. Does the HP TouchSmart 600-1170a have similar fitting issues?  Can I assume that the existing heatsink and mounts will be compatible enough to perform an upgrade to another nVidia board? 

• Does anybody know how can I find a list of MXM cards that will work in the HP TouchSmart 600-1170a (even with a BIOS upgrade)?

• Are there power-budget concerns on the MXM 3.0a that I need to be aware of?

• Is there anything else that an intelligent, handy person should know before doing this?

Thanks for your consideration.

Michael
 

[banhien]

Hi,

The following link shows the specs of your machine:

   http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02025304

It clearly says you can use card less than 35W therefore the GeForce GTX 670m is out of this picture, you need to find the right one which is UNDER 35W. You can't find HP MXM cards because they not come out directly that why we call them OEM cards. You may want to try:

    http://www.logicalblueone.com.au/store/44-mxm-graphics-cards

or eBay.

Regards.

[michaelghickey]

Ahh, yes,

I see the reference under the integrated graphics information. I didn't realise that it applied to the MXM card as well.

Thanks for pointing that out

M

[bsevern]

I picked up a used HP TouchSmart 600-1120 (I believe same as the TouchSmart 600-1170, except it uses the built in motherboard Intel HD video card, not the Nvidia card) and have upgraded the DRAM to 8GB and the CPU from the stock dual core i3 to the Intel Core i7 720QM Quad Core.

Now I'm looking to add a MXM video card, and am trying to figure out what's the best bang for the buck, aside from the antiquated HP NVIDIA GeForce GT 230 1GB DDR3 MXM Video Card that I know will work.

We're you able to get your TouchSmart 600 upgraded to a newer MXM video card?

[michaelghickey]

Hi bsevern,

Sadly, My research showed that only the GT230 or worse would work.

I needed to get an MXM III card that would give better performance, yet be limited to 35 watts, as that is all the power the 600-1170a  would supply to the card.

Not only that, but the BIOS needed to support the card  as well. The card I already own was the only one that I could get hold of that would meet these parameters.

Most MXM III Cards required 75 watts, so clearly were out of the picture. MXM II cards only offered worse performance.

Regards,

Michael

[bsevern]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the (ultra) speedy reply.

I was thinking about upgrading to this video card:

http://gpuboss.com/graphics-card/Radeon-HD-7650A

The AMD Radeon HD 7650A MXM 2GB DDR3 is a MXM 3.0 TYPE A socket, and It uses 23W, which would fit the bill perfectly.  All one would (theoretically) need is that HP custom liquid cooled heatsink, and the drivers right?

Spec wise, it blows the Nvidia GT230 away:

Higher clock speed 600 MHz vs 500 MHz 20% higher clock speed

More memory 2,048 MB vs 1,024 MB 2x more memory

Better floating-point performance 576 GFLOPS vs 105.6 GFLOPS Around 5.5x better floating-point performance

Better passmark score 793 vs 340 More than 2.2x better passmark score

More shading units 480 vs 48 432 more shading units

Slightly higher texture rate 14.4 GTexel/s vs 8 GTexel/s 80% higher texture rate

Higher memory clock speed 900 MHz vs 800 MHz Around 15% higher memory clock speed

Slightly more texture mapping units 24 vs 16 8 more texture mapping units

Passmark Industry standard benchmark for overall graphics card performance

Radeon HD 7650A

793

GeForce GT 230M

340

Floating point performance How fast the gpu can crunch numbers

Radeon HD 7650A

576 GFLOPS

GeForce GT 230M

105.6 GFLOP

 

texture rate Speed at which a graphics card can perform texture mapping

Radeon HD 7650A

14.4 GTexel/s

GeForce GT 230M

8 GTexel/s

floating point performance How fast the gpu can crunch numbers

Radeon HD 7650A

576 GFLOPS

GeForce GT 230M

105.6 GFLOPS

shading units Subcomponents of the gpu, these run in parallel to enable fast pixel shading

Radeon HD 7650A

480

GeForce GT 230M

48

texture mapping units Built into each gpu, these resize and rotate bitmaps for texturing scenes

Radeon HD 7650A

24

GeForce GT 230M

16

This comparison data is from gpuboss.com, but the difference is night and day.   I see these cards pretty inexpensive on ebay, but the heatsink is a rare commodity without bitting the bullet and buying the factory HP GT230 setup just to use the heatsink. 

I'm very, very tempted to try it, as I beleive with the i7 Quad Core CPU and 8GB of RAM, combined with the Radeon video card, I'd have a fairly capable gaming system.

What do you think?  

Thanks,
Brian

[michaelghickey]

Hi Brian

Yes, the  AMD Radeon HD 7650A MXM certainly looks like a very good fit.

I think that at 23w even a standard chunk 'o copper heat sink could remove enough heat to keep it cool. Add a small fan and you'd be in clover, but I'd bet that you wouldn't even need that at 23w! Use a good heat xfer pad to ensure good contact, of course. 

Some idle thoughts:

Would the Touchsmart BIOS talk to the 7650A? 

Would the cutouts/drilled holes line up? (Have dremel - will drill/carve)

If you choose to risk it, please post your results here. I love my Touchsmart 600 (keeps my kids out of my office) and would really like to get more "life" out of it.

Michael

[bsevern]

I tried to upgrade my 600-1120 Touchsmart, with a Intel Core i7-620M quad core CPU which HP lists as a supported CPU on the 600-1120 Touchsmart Spec page and a video card.

I tried the AMD Radeon HD 7650A MXM, no joy, no video what so ever.  The computer did boot into Win7, but no video at all.

Next I tried the GTX 230m MXM 3a module, and all it did was cycle colors on the screen.  Better then the Radeon card I suppose, but apparently it needs either a BIOS upgrade to recognize the card, OR I noticed on the motherboard there is a bank of four DIP switches labeled GPIO, which I'd bet is Graphics Processor Input/Output.  I would be very curious what this is set to on your motherboard, as you clearly are running the GTX 230 video card.

I looked every where for a manual for the motherboard, or some info on the DIP switch settings, but there appears to be nothing. 

[michaelghickey]

Good effort! Shame it didn't just work. 😞 From my research, a BIOS upgrade is required to provide video card compatibility.

While you are hunting BIOS, I'll have a look at my DIPs and reply with my settings.

ENJOY!