GT72-2QE 980M Graphics Upgrade

[ciscokidd]

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[ciscokidd]

The answer is yes it is worth it, but how much will it cost?

Mine cost ?460, a 1070 laptop is about ?1999, so it was worth it for me. I sold the 980m on eBay for ?360 so it cost me ?100. Massive improvement for ?100.

That eBay card is expensive though. If you can get a private seller that is upgrading to 1080 you'd be better off.

1060 is also an option for all old cards as the power consumption is so low it would go in pretty much anything. It's size is standard 3.0 MXM so should replace any 9 or 8 series card.


Wicked to see that the 1070 works, could you reference the exact 1070 you bought and provide a link to a 1060 card that will work as well. I just bought a Gt72 2QE same as you have and I have the 980M 4GB, I would be fine with upgrading the gpu to either a 1060 or 1070, whichever is just easier on the wallet and I will be purchasing out of the USm, worldwide if necessary. Have you also swapped out the 1600 DDR3 and moved to 2133? I really dont want to use the GT Trade up program which I already submitted to and am awaiting MSI reply to their offer for me. I dont want to give up the ability to have 4 x M.2 as I run 2 raid 0 arrays and my transfer speeds are 1000/1200 roughly so I would rather keep this then have 1 nvme M.2 ssd. I also like the i7 5700 over the i7 6700 so for me to get better the upgrade cost is somewhere between 1000-1400 US, what for , for 700 US plus shipping I can get a 1070GT upgrade but overall I lose alot so I would rather swap out my current gpu. I can use some help and feedback as I am fully into this for sure, would not mind conversing via email if at all possible as well

Just to clarify an acxtual MSI 1060 GTX mxm  should work correct?

 

[hacktrix2006]

I have the GT72-6QD and have upgraded from the GTX 970m to the GTX 1060n. Bought the GT72VR Heatsink (as on the 6Q series the GPU to CPU block are the same, but on the 2Q series you need to mod the current GPU heatsink).

Simple taking out the MXM card and replacing it with a new Pascal MXM card, then Modding the Nvidia Driver and booting into Driver Enforcement Off mode to install said driver.

As with all upgrades their is Pro's and Cons, the Pro's are simple pure performance. The cons are you loose G-Sync (MSI can Fix this with a Bios Update with a new Nvidia G-Sync License Cookie) and i can't use UEFI-CSM or SecureBoot (MSI can fix this too with a System Bios Update). So it really begs me why they can't make the Upgrade Kits. GTX 1060 and GTX 1070 is the max any of the GT72's can take so forget about GTX 1080.


So all they really needed to do is make a New Heatsink that was Compatible with the GT72-2Q's ship the GT72-6Q's with the GT72VR's heatsink and have Drivers and Bios updates waiting for us to install and flash.

My results

GTX 1060 Firestrike:

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GTX 1060 TimeSpy:

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GTX 1060 Heaven:

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GTX 1060 Valley:

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GTX 1060 GPU / CPU:

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Yes as said until MSI offically support this upgrade path then VBios and sBios updates will not happen nor will Offical Nvidia Driver support with G-Sync. However we can only hope.

 

[brettsidford]

Just incase anyone else wants to upgrade their laptop this is a link to the only 1070 I can find on eBay. Try the best offer. The same seller has 1060s also.

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/NVIDIA-GTX-1070-N17E-G2-8GB-DDR5-MXM-3-0-Module-150W-Upgrade-Kit-/112144267554?hash=item1a1c51b922%3Ag%3Ap9IAAOSw44BYePr-&_trkparms=pageci%253A67f7da03-248b-11e7-9b32-74dbd180cbcf%257Cparentrq%253A834f936f15b0a786cc40c023fffd45b9%257Ciid%253A1

 

[linkhoochoon]

Hello

I just purchased 1070 from ebay. I have the MSI GT72 2QD-406 970m. Do i need to buy a new heatsink or do i need to modify the one already in the laptop?

 

[drake6234]

I have the GT72-6QD and have upgraded from the GTX 970m to the GTX 1060n. Bought the GT72VR Heatsink (as on the 6Q series the GPU to CPU block are the same, but on the 2Q series you need to mod the current GPU heatsink).

Simple taking out the MXM card and replacing it with a new Pascal MXM card, then Modding the Nvidia Driver and booting into Driver Enforcement Off mode to install said driver.

As with all upgrades their is Pro's and Cons, the Pro's are simple pure performance. The cons are you loose G-Sync (MSI can Fix this with a Bios Update with a new Nvidia G-Sync License Cookie) and i can't use UEFI-CSM or SecureBoot (MSI can fix this too with a System Bios Update). So it really begs me why they can't make the Upgrade Kits. GTX 1060 and GTX 1070 is the max any of the GT72's can take so forget about GTX 1080.


So all they really needed to do is make a New Heatsink that was Compatible with the GT72-2Q's ship the GT72-6Q's with the GT72VR's heatsink and have Drivers and Bios updates waiting for us to install and flash.

My results

GTX 1060 Firestrike:

[attachthumb=2]

GTX 1060 TimeSpy:

[attachthumb=1]

GTX 1060 Heaven:

[attachthumb=3]

GTX 1060 Valley:

[attachthumb=4]

GTX 1060 GPU / CPU:

[attachthumb=5]


Yes as said until MSI offically support this upgrade path then VBios and sBios updates will not happen nor will Offical Nvidia Driver support with G-Sync. However we can only hope.
Hey anywhere I can get that heatsink? I am looking into upgrading my GT72s to the 1060 as well. If I can't find it what modifications would need to be done to the currently existing heatsink?

 

[linkhoochoon]

I installed the 1070 but now all i get is black screen. Everything else seems to be fine it loads the windows and i know that because the steelseries keyboard lights come on.
I tried the mux key and using a mouse blindly tried to switch to igpu. It worked. I tried disabling the igpu from device manager once windows loaded up and the pressed the mux switch to switch to the 1070. Laptop rebooted but nothing changed and got the blackscreen again. Is the 1070 not compatible with my laptop or am i doing something wrong

 

[rlabaune]

Is your bios set to legacy or UEFI ? Check notebookreview forum, one guy had the same issue I think.

 

[linkhoochoon]

I checked it while on igpu, it is set on UEFI.
Can't get to bios on 1070 because the screen is black. Tried uninstalling nvidia drivers, that did not work either. Tried the latest bios for my model after downloading it from msi website which is from 2015 and still no change.
I don't know what i am doing wrong. I might have to just return the card and forget about it

 

[linkhoochoon]

Any other suggestions? I cannot find anything. The screen doesn't turn on or is black after powering the laptop on.
Do i need a modded or unlocked bios? Would that even help?since i can't see the bios while on 1070, can only access it when on igpu.

 

[arestavo]

I suggest using http://forum.notebookreview.com - find your laptop model sub-forum and ask there. These forums are dang near dead compared to over there.

 

[matmat92i]

Hi linkhoochoon.
I have had exactly the same issue (black screen) with a 1070 on my GT72S. It was due to my Windows 10 Install and boot mode (LEGACY), I had to do a new one in UEFI Boot mode and with UEFI partition for windows. Then I had a distorted image, but enough to mod nvidia driver and now it's working very well.
Also make sure your mxm port is powered up, making a bios update (even if you have the last version). Hope this will help.

 

[brettsidford]

So sorry for late reply just seen the updates.

You need to modify a nVidea driver.

You do this by searching for the device id in the control panel. Or a friend can do this with remote assistance or use safe mode or onboard graphics to see this. Then, once you have the id you need to extract the drivers you want to use (double click driver exes to extract to c:\NVIDEA, then abort and navigate here), copy file nvimi.ini to desktop to mod (cannot be changed in NVIDEA folder). open nvimi.ini with notepad ++, search for the first part of your device id. There will be a device id almost identical to yours except for one character. Modify every instance of the similar entry to your device id. Save file, copy to NVidea folder. Restart computer and startup with windows driver signature enforcement disabled. (Restart options). Install driver.

Hope this works message me for help!

 

[brettsidford]

As far as heatsink get one out of VR series or use a hack saw blade on its own to shave off the bump on the GT72 heat sink that is no longer required. It can be shaved flat and perfectly due to to shape of the heatsink allowing the blade to sit flat and more back and forth. Takes a while. But worth it. Only use silver based heat sink putty. Never the silicone.

 

[chintu200121]

As far as heatsink get one out of VR series or use a hack saw blade on its own to shave off the bump on the GT72 heat sink that is no longer required. It can be shaved flat and perfectly due to to shape of the heatsink allowing the blade to sit flat and more back and forth. Takes a while. But worth it. Only use silver based heat sink putty. Never the silicone.

Hi Brettsidford,

Just wanted to ask where did you buy it? I own MSI GT72 2QE with Nvidia 980m and looking to upgrade the card.

 

[bunashi_91]

Hey can u please help me how to make it work? i have upgraded my 980M to 1070M but its not recognized by my laptop also in device manager and instead, its showing Microsoft Basic Display Adapter instead.. my laptop is GT72-2QE

 

[jiapei100]

I'm using MSI GT72 6QE Donimator Pro G.
Wondering if I can upgrade the GPU from 980M 4G to a 1080M 8G ?

 

[Killertruth186]

I'm using MSI GT72 6QE Donimator Pro G.
Wondering if I can upgrade the GPU from 980M 4G to a 1080M 8G ?

First reply had explained why MSI can't do MXM anymore.

 

[giltheone]

First reply had explained why MSI can't do MXM anymore.

This is not an MXM issue, not exactly, at least not for the GT72 model, and that reply is not entirely correct -- plenty of people have put Pascal cards on GT72s and made them work -- it requires some modding of the Nvidia driver, and possibly changing or modding the heatsink.

I'm using MSI GT72 6QE Donimator Pro G.
Wondering if I can upgrade the GPU from 980M 4G to a 1080M 8G ?

Unfortunately the answer is no, not with the motherboard of the GT72 -- the MXM GTX 1080 card draws too much power (it's rated for 180 Watts, if I'm not mistaken) for the motherboard to be able to make it work. The best you can do is a MXM GTX 1070, and even then it can be iffy because some motherboards seem to refuse to have the card work due to possible compatibility issues. I am trying to do that with a 1070 on my GT72, and the card worked, but the motherboard had some previous damage (long story, which I posted in another thread) and it wasn't working well with ANY MXM card (not even with the original MXM GTX 970m it came with). I bought a new motherboard (used, but slightly newer model, but still the same motherboard), and this one works fine with the 970m, but it produces no video output with the 1070 for some unknown reason: the system boots, and I can see from the device manager (using the 970m or the integrated graphics and using the option to "show hidden devices") that the card is recognized as a display adapter by Windows (either as a 1070 using a modded driver, or as generic display adapter if I remove that driver).

So you see, a 1070 may or may not work with your system. The motherboard can supply enough electrical power to have it run, and it can deliver enough to have you game on it fairly well, just be careful and keep it cool, and don't overclock it, but you would likely not need too, the 1070 is powerful (in the sense of "very capable") enough as it is, but a 1080 will be a no-go: it draws way too much electrical power.

 

[DenisAlmos]

Hi guys, I'm looking to upgrade my GT72 2QD (GTX 970m). Is there any new upgrade possible since GTX1070m? I was looking at RTX generation but don't know which one could work.