Jan 232010
Updating the graphics card from the Dual SLI 8700mGT, to the Dual SLI 8800mGTX. The 8800mGTX has double the memory (512MB on each GPU – total 1GB) and double the bandwidth. It is approx 3 times more powerful then the 8700mGT. System Specs of unit in video: Dell XPS M1730 – Sapphire Blue Intel Core 2 Extreme X7900 (2.8GHz/800Mhz FSB) 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM 2×200GB HDD / 7200RPM / RAID 0 (2x Seagate Momentus) Dual 512MB NVIDIA SLI GeForce 8800mGTX Ageia PhysX 100M Processor Blu-ray Disc …
There is no upgrade program for the m1530.
Upgradability depends on your GPU – is it on board or a seperate chip? If its onboard Im afriad you are stuck with it. If its seperate you could upgrade it, but would find a newer GPU that fits the system hard to acquire in the first instance.
Also bear in mind the system chassis and cooling may not be built for a more powerful GPU, and extra cooling may therefore be required.
nice guide, i have a question can i upgrade the card on my XPS m1530? (the model below yours) how do i find out if it is upgradable or if they have an upgrade program going?
Iv currently got the 8600m gs with 4gb ram and duo core 2.4, want to upgrade for mass effect 2 and bad company 2, every thing else is on recomeded system settings apart from graphics card.
Thanks
Due to the non-standard ports used to enable the GPU card to fit, your options are very limited. I believe you can upgrade to the 8800, or a 9800 – although the 9800 is quite rare – even more so then the 8800’s!
Excellent tutorial. I also have the M1730 and I want to upgrade the graphics cards, so this was very useful. Would you happen to know if any of the GTX 200M series cards fit? I’m waiting for a reply from Dell about this, but they don’t even recommend any video card upgrades on their website. Did you buy your 88s from Dell or from a 3rd party vendor? How did you know they would fit? There doesn’t seem to be any compatibility charts available so I can see exactly what my options are.
Its different in different laptops. The above procedure is for the Dell XPS M1730 only.
Ive watched a couple of these videos showing how to install another video card on a dell and in every video the computer is different but everything is similiar except the shape of the video card/graphics card. I am so confused which one I need.
*M17x
*M15x
Yeah, and Mx15 is like £1400 and Mx17 is like £1800, I don’t want to spend that amount of money because I could have got the same specs with the M1730 ;(.
It seems like they have shifted their gaming notebooks across to their Alienware range
(
Yeah, same here, except I hadn’t purchased one, so now I wont be able to without paying over 1K
.
I think they might have. I bought one on new years eve and since then I havent been able to source it on their webpage which is annoying
Has Dell stoped selling XPS M1730?
I am considering getting a new card for mine for Christmas, do you recommend the 8800 or the 9800? Do they have the same amount of power? What is the difference? Your videos are what convinced me to get the m1730.
Yes. If you can find the cards anywhere, it will fit. ;o)
good work man!!! i would be nerves taking mine apart, but with yr videos i would do it.
do u have any idea if this laptop is upgradable to the 9800’s dell baught out in late 2008?
So it IS in effect TWO gfx cards yes?
Yes, the one card has 2 graphics chips on it – one under each fan.
oh sorry that graphics card is a dual? both of them? sorry lol
still ausome video man
Wow man *respect*
or dont make any sense 
Jus a quick question, is that 8800M GTX only one? or is that dual SLI? cos i can buy one specially from dell with dual 8800MGTX but i dont see how you could fit another one in there :S and that looks like it has two parts :S
sorry if i sound silly
thanks, great video man!
If you can find one that wold really be appreciated, was well a couple of good CPU’s that we can use in the system
This company is giving out brand new laptops in exchange for you giving your opinion and filling in some surveys.. they are limited though.. go check it out at intelplanet . com
can you please do a video on how to change the cpu in a xps m1730
where can I by a graphics card? And about how much is it?
after you remove all your ati drivers on the graphics card, insert the card and run it like that. buy/download w/e a program called uniblue and check if the program sees the nvidia card. it should tell you to download the driver for the nvidia card, download it. install it, and restart the computer. after restarting the computer you either should have the maximum resolution of the card or the minimum, just adjust the resolution and the bits.
you’re done.
no. i uninstalled ati driver.
boot to safe mode and run driver sweeper on all ATI
and insert the nvidia card.
install drivers and restart
and still 640×480