My admittedly old laptop uses this video card. Its is not detected by BOINC. I did a search and found nothing listed for this card. Anyone know how I can get BOINC to detect and use this? Seems like some wasted processing power (not much, but hey every little bit counts, right?) Any takers?

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My admittedly old laptop uses this video card. Its is not detected by BOINC. I did a search and found nothing listed for this card. Anyone know how I can get BOINC to detect and use this? Seems like some wasted processing power (not much, but hey every little bit counts, right?) Any takers?

Are you completely certain about the graphics card model? It doesn't appear on the CUDA reference lists, and the closest I've been able to find is

Alienware M9750 NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950-GTX 512MB

Note that the computer and graphics card have the same figures in the model number, but in a different order.

If it is a 7xxx series GPU, I think it will almost certainly be too old to use here - NVidia introduced CUDA with the 8xxx series.

Ahh... you are correct. I fat-fingered it. It is indeed the 7950 GTX and you have answered my question. Many thanks.

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(Troll warning) You can find nVidia 8400 card with 256 MB of memory pretty cheap these days. (Troll warning)

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(Troll warning) You can find nVidia 8400 card with 256 MB of memory pretty cheap these days. (Troll warning)

Will they fit in his Laptop?

Claggy

(Troll warning) You can find nVidia 8400 card with 256 MB of memory pretty cheap these days. (Troll warning)

Will they fit in his Laptop?

Claggy

There is always an external PCIe option.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

Ken i have a laptop with the same card a toshiba satelite . Card is to old for cuda . and i havn't been able to find a new card that will fit in the Lappy . The PCIe option Tbar is talking about is not a good idea unless you wish to have the lappy case in bits . You will just have to do what i do no GPU work on that machine .

Time to upgrade the Lappy sorry to old

EDIT ps if anybody does know of a card that will fit inside a Lappy i would be very interested in that info .

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Ken i have a laptop with the same card a toshiba satelite . Card is to old for cuda . and i havn't been able to find a new card that will fit in the Lappy . The PCIe option Tbar is talking about is not a good idea unless you wish to have the lappy case in bits . You will just have to do what i do no GPU work on that machine .

Time to upgrade the Lappy sorry to old

EDIT ps if anybody does know of a card that will fit inside a Lappy i would be very interested in that info .

Glenn couldn't you use a pci-e extender cable for a gpu that way you would only have to make a notch in the case and have the gpu outside ? . Wouldn't be pretty but run a 750ti coz I got them cards and they don't have a power cable just all of the slot mate , I know its a bodge but should work :-)

As far as I am aware laptop "graphics cards" are just chips built into the motherboard, you cannot change or upgrade.

Of course there is this.

http://www.banggood.com/EXP-GDC-Laptop-External-PCI-E-Graphics-Card-p-934367.html

Slightly messy and possibly noisy!!

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Bernie not all Lappy's have the GPU on the mobo some have GPU cards like mine does . Usually if they have a Nvida graphic's then it will be a GPU card if it's got only intel graphics it will be on the mobo or as they are now on the CPU i'm not shore about ATI but newer models are a bit like intel and have the GPU chip as part of the CPU at least the newer one do the older ones might be a card , Not shore as i have not had the pleasure of taking a lappy with ATI graphics apart .

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Bernie not all Lappy's have the GPU on the mobo some have GPU cards like mine does . Usually if they have a Nvida graphic's then it will be a GPU card if it's got only intel graphics it will be on the mobo or as they are now on the CPU i'm not shore about ATI but newer models are a bit like intel and have the GPU chip as part of the CPU at least the newer one do the older ones might be a card , Not shore as i have not had the pleasure of taking a lappy with ATI graphics apart .

I've reviewed the service manual for my laptop with NVIDIA GeForce GT 420M, and I invite you to do the same:

ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_xps_laptop/xps-15_Service%20Manual_en-us.pdf
(5 MB pdf file: please nobody try to make that link clickable, because the BOINC message board software doesn't support FTP addresses. But pasting it into a browser should work)

It's clear that the NVidia GPU chip cannot be removed or replaced separately. Even if it could, it would be necessary to remove the heat sink first - a well-designed integrated heat disposal system is essential for laptops with even mid-range GPUs like this one. See how you like even these preliminary instructions:

Removing the Heat Sink
1 Follow the instructions in "Before You Begin" on page 9.
2 Remove the battery (see "Removing the Battery" on page 13).
3 Remove the module cover (see "Removing the Module Cover" on page 15).
4 Remove the memory module(s) (see "Removing the Memory Module(s)" on page 17).
5 Remove the palm-rest assembly (see "Removing the Palm-Rest Assembly" on page 29).
6 Remove the keyboard (see "Removing the Keyboard" on page 43).
7 Remove the display assembly (see "Removing the Display Assembly" on page 49).
8 Follow the instructions from step 9 to step 14 in "Removing the Top Cover" on page 65.
9 In sequential order (indicated on the heat sink), loosen the seven captive screws that secure the heat sink to the system board.
10 Carefully lift heat sink away from the top cover.

Richard my Lappy is old mate a core two duo i don't need to read the manual your is a i3 or i5 which is a different beast and it also depends on make model and manufacturer .

I have pulled enough Lappy's apart to have some idea of what i'm saying . ie: The manual says you can't use just any drive but that is b/s and there are no serviceable parts that is also b/s

I've had to fix plenty of them for friends all depends on the type make and manufacturer

For instance Toshiba have made special Lappy's that you can change the GPU's wifi cards and other things .

The newer ones i3 or i5 no they are a different beast but older Lappy's yes you can

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Yes, the WiFi module on my laptop is designed to be field-replaceable too - but it's a small, low-power module which doesn't require binding to the cooling system.

I'd also agree that anyone even remotely considering an upgrade should explore the manufacturer's documentation for the specific range and model before starting: apart from anything else, surgery on the scale I listed would almost certainly void any remaining warranty (not that it matters in my case, since this machine is already four years old).

If we're talking in broad, sweeping assertions without supporting evidence, I think I'd agree with Bernie: any laptop GPU with sufficient guts to be even considered as a CUDA or OpenCL cruncher (which is what we generally tend to be interested in on this message board) is highly unlikely to be field-upgradeable.

Don't you think i have pull my Lappy apart before asking if anybody knows where i can get a GPU card with Cuda from . It's got a 7950 and the next one up from that would be a 8700 which toshiba brought out the same model Lappy with . So if i can find someone that might be selling one i will be able to put that in . And i am not going to waste my time trying to prove it .

People have been shocked when they watch me work when i go to my tool box and get things like hacksaws or hammers to fix a computer but after watching me they say wow i've never seen anybody do that . So i get a bit annoyed when people think i have no idea about computers when i'm 52 yrs old and my first computer was a trash 80 . ie i was 17 so you think i mite know a freaking thing or two about them and fixing them mate

Some people are good at writing software and others don't know much about programming them . I fit into the type that is good with the hardware i can programme but i am not proficient at it but hardware i do know

I have had to fix computers at work at 1am with no copy's of software so i had to figure out another way to get the spectrometer working . there used to get chemical analasis of metals it's called a spark test and i had to fix one and i'm not a electrician and i have no formal qualifications when it comes to computers . Computers and electronic's is my hobby and has been since i was 15

So you can read the manual and believe what it says and pay big bucks to fix your machine i fix things myself and that goes for cars too .

as you can tell i'm peed off with your post

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Your best chances are if your laptop has the Graphics Card sitting in an MXM slot. According to wikipedia, "Toshiba uses non standard MXM on many of their laptops, but have produced some standard cards."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_PCI_Express_Module

An alternative, although not as cheap as buying just another MXM-Card on Ebay, would be to get a newer, refurbished or off-lease laptop. I have bought several off-lease Lenovo Thinkpads over the years and have not been dissatisfied once so far. I personally stick to the T-Series. But they aren't exactly known for their outstanding graphics power, they are more business workhorses. However, there are many off-lease Dell and other brands available too.

I see here that there has been plenty for me to research. I thank you all for your input. The computer in question is a Dell XPS M1710. Old, but still serviceable. I seem to recall looking for an upgraded video card sometime in the past, but fell upon power supply limitations that, at the time, made upgrading impossible. Granted, this was several years ago. Maybe its time to revisit that search and see what I can come up with. In response to the question about serviceability: The laptop is built much like an MSI laptop on that everything is accessible from the bottom; P.S., both HDD's, RAM and the PCI Express slots are just a few screws away. I will look for a 8xxx replacement.

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I see here that there has been plenty for me to research. I thank you all for your input. The computer in question is a Dell XPS M1710. Old, but still serviceable. I seem to recall looking for an upgraded video card sometime in the past, but fell upon power supply limitations that, at the time, made upgrading impossible. Granted, this was several years ago. Maybe its time to revisit that search and see what I can come up with. In response to the question about serviceability: The laptop is built much like an MSI laptop on that everything is accessible from the bottom; P.S., both HDD's, RAM and the PCI Express slots are just a few screws away. I will look for a 8xxx replacement.

Ive got 1 of them lappy's ive taken it offline here now but should still be on my list of computers the Gpu was a 8700 *2 would do mb's on the gpu but didn't like doing the ap v7' 1 bit and trashed all that were sent to it . There are the gpu's on ebay uk for £10 - £20 when I last looked before Christmas

I should have been a bit more care full when my nabour asked if i wonted it .I did whant a better one but should have checked it out a better .

Not to keen on Thinkpads but thanks , always had Toshiba and never had a problem untill now as they say buyer beware

It will do everything else i need so will keep saving my penny's , unless something pops up someware

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Thanks Mark i had herd you could still get parts i'll have a chook mate .

I can only try , it would be first gen cuda so might not work with latest version of Bionic some people are still running older versions . You didn't run luna did you and put the wrong cuda version on it ?

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I'm not paying your power bill ...

Isn't 58 processors and 7 GPUs a little over kill? LOL

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