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G73JH GPU Upgrade Help


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So i upgraded my cpu with a 920xm but want to upgrade my 5870m. what are my options here? which ones are the most compatible. Thanks for your help in advance.

Your Asus G73JH should be upgradable with an AMD 6970m, AMD 6990m or an AMD 7970m. I've never seen a thread or benchmark result with a working AMD 8970m or a R9 290X. ;)

Probably you may need to (blind) flash the vBios of the card or you have to flash a modified G73JH bios to get everything working. I don't know exactly what steps are necessary in order to succeed:confused:...

Some time back I read at NBR forums that someone managed to get an GTX770m working on his G73JH system, but as far as I remember he had to flash a custom zombie bios made from a G73JH and G73JW bios before the system worked.

@svl7 and me tried several cards in my G73JW (dead) and had only success with an GTX660m. :D I think there's a problem too because the vBios is stored in the G73 bios or at least partly. Svl7 should be better able to provide information on this subject. ;)

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It was me that managed to upgrade g73jh with nvidia 770m but it involves modding both system bios and vbios to get everythuing working corectly. Much easier is to go amd path as for upgrading.

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  • 2 months later...

As for 7970m it still involes doing a custom heatsink, but try to find a CLEVO one. Just upgrated to a DELL one today and while everything works perfect i have the gpu fan running at full speed which i'm looking to find a way to fix.

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  • 2 years later...

Just for peoples who are still interested by this subject:

 

I just did this upgrade ! (7970m).

 

Its a bit tricky, what I did:

 

For the Hardware part:

- Buy a 7970m from ebay (around 300€). => Note: I buy a Clevo 1.2 one ! Peoples say it is the only one which is 100% working

- Put your 4870 heatsink on it :

      - cut the non-GPU/non-Memory heatsink parts as the 7970m pcb differ from 5870 one

      - use the 5870m "X" at the card rear, you will have to carefully grow card holes with a cutter :-/

      - Now you are done with GPU/MEM

- Build a custom heatsink for VRMS/transistors/caps:

      - Google the card to find what components must be cooled

      - Find a large and flat heatsink (I use a chipset one from my old asus M2N4 SLI :) ) and cut it as a "L" to fit at the bottom of the main heatsink

      - Last problem: some components are not in contact with the heatsink !

      - find a metal plane (copper or alluminium) of 2mm high

      - make a "sandwich" on top of transistors block (2x2): CARD / 1mm thermal pad / metal plane / thermal paste / HEATSINK.

      - you will just have a "problem" with one component wich is not exacty the same height, use only two layers of thermal pad and you are done ! (Note: I often add a bit of thermal paste on thermal pad to improve contact).

 

Optional: You are done with the hardware part ! But you can also add a wire to disable the vbios in case of wrong flash ! It can be usefull in some case to allow the PC to POST even after wrong flash:) . Note: before wiring your switch, be sure it is "normally-open", I made this mistake and then my switch was always shorting the vbios...

 

For the software part:

Now your card is ready for flashing !! You can even try the card without... mine wad buy without vBios flashed so I had to.

Note: for this step, your G73 must HDD-less or any other bootable support in order to be sure it will boot on an usb stick.

To flash the card you will need another PC, some stuff and some softwares:

- a usb key (better with an activity light on it !)

- hp usb disk storage format tool

- a win98 rescue boot image ( win98boot.zip) Note: I think any other dos image should work..

- atiflash

- a working VBIOS :) => I use DELL VBIOS 015-017.XXXX EDIT: WITH ENDURO DISABLED !!

Steps:

1/ Create your Bootable usb key with HP SW + win98boot

2/ Test it on another computer. Note: best choose a non-UEFI computer !!

3/ create an "autoexec.bat" file with only this line inside: "md BOOTOK"

4/ put the usb key on your G73jh,turn it on, wait for a couple of minute and put it back to the other computer

5/ check if "BOOTOK" directory was created => if not, you did something wrong :-/ try it again

6/ Put atiflash.exe and your vbios file renamed as "bios.rom" (DO NOT USE UPPERCASE !!)

7/ open your autoexec.bat and add those lines:

       atiflash.exe -ai > INFO.TXT

       atiflash.exe -p 0 -fs -fp -reboot bios.rom > FLASH.TXT

8/ GO ! Put the usb on the G73, turn it on ... and pray :)

9/ wait 2-3 minutes, remove the key and reboot, it should work !

10/ If it is not working, check inside the key with another computer to see INFO.TXT and FLASH.TXT content

 

If all the past steps work, you can plug your harddrives and install Drivers.

 

I have it working in my G73 but performances are not really great (for a 7970m), I think it is because of my 120W Power adapter. I ordered a 240W Dell, I will tell you if it work ;-).

 

Good luke !


Edited by cclecle2000
correct
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  • 3 months later...

Super guide cclecle2000 :hyper:. I want to ask how do you finish your problem with cpu i7 920xm 70W TDP limit? Because I have same trouble with wprime app 8 threads running on my cpu i7 940xm. I have from Throttlestop program set multiplier 20/20/24/25 -tdp 89W / tdc 67A with turbo overclock active BLCK on 142 Mhz. It is maximum for my MB HM55 or is problem anywhere in something another?

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  • 1 month later...

Hi MaIsNeR !

sorry for the delay :).

I didnt fix it yet but now I know why it is not working !

It is because all G73jh motherboard are not exactly the same. Mine - and probably yours - was designed for the i5 configuration. So it do not have all the VRMS soldered ! Checkout your MB, around the cpu you should see some lacking component ( but footprint and trace are there).

So only two solutions:

- adding the lacking vrms, wich is not without risk because we dont know if there is others required part and/or software config.

- buy another motherboard designed for i7 config... best choice IMHO !

 

I will go soon for the second solution as you can find cheap MB from china...

 

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Hi my friend, I was reading your post and I have managed that new MB to my G73JH I wont buy now. It waste money and mainly time by me. I want to do at the soonest time upgrade atheros wifi to intel centrino advanced-n + wimax 6250 and upgrade original classic hdd 2.5 7200rpm to ssd disk samsung evo 850 500gb.

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  • 3 months later...

Hi MaIsNeR !

 

For your information, I did the upgrade, and I I proud to tell you it is 100% working !

I can now put the 920XM to 3,8GHz :).

 

Now I have to solve another big problem: HEAT !

This G73jh is HOT ! I am thinking about adding a third heatpipe/heatsink/fan block on the DVD caddy, plus another heatpipe from CPU to GPU.

Problem is custom heatpipe are expensive...

 

Also, I have a 6250 Intel Wifi chip :) If you do it you will not regret it !

 

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Hi, cclecle2000

 

great job man :-). Your max CPU clock is unbelievable ;-). I have my NB still at home and I am running my 7970M Clevo on 0.975V. It has more advantages. Incredible silent notebook, temps and battery life is almost now 4 hours :P. My vents on NB are almost for all time off :-D. I did at the end LCD display upgrade also by this guide section 5c - http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/ultimate-asus-g73jh-cpu-gpu-upgrade-guide-hybrid-heatsink-mod-soldering-desoldering-heatpipes-lapping-guide-more.763001/ or better video guide here >>>

 

 

 

I have this new LCD panel on my NB. Better resolution 1920x1080, endly antiglare surface and much better viewing angle ;)

lcd displej.jpg

Edited by MaIsNeR
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Okay people, I adding else overvolting and undervolting VGA 7970M bios from TnF :), because his down link on notebookreview forum is not active. Inside in zip file is launcher to flash using bat opening command in dos ;). You must only correct name and running path to flash file using app - for ex. notepad or wordpad, etc.

flash-clevo.rar

 

You can trying else this extra "cooling" utility working only on Asus G73JH :P.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/how-to-force-g73-fans-to-100.579780/

 

Edited by MaIsNeR
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