is it possible to upgrade the gpu on my ASUS N75SF laptop ?

[fr33style]

Hi guys, I'm Mickael. I'm new on the forums !
I checked other topics but i couldn't find one about my specific laptop (asus n75s-n) so I'm opening a new one.

I'm a 3d generalist and since i travel a lot I've been relying on this laptop for my personal projects for a while. I thus tried updating is as it got older and older (bought it in 2011) by adding more and more ram (went from 6gb to 16) and replacing the old hard drive with a newer SSD.

I'm now feeling that the GPU is getting really outdated and i was wondering if there was any way i could upgrade it to something more recent/powerful. I don't want to spend money in a brand new laptop since I'm still satisfied with it for my everyday work. I know the graphic card is a separate dedicated one (and there is also a built-in, less powerful one so that i can switch depending on my needs. (This is supposed to help with the battery; but since I'm always plugged I just let the nvidia one do all the work.)
I don't know if it's welded or anything, sadly.

If not, what do you guys think about external usb GPUs ? Is it an option that's worth the effort ?

please find below the specs:
https/www.asus.com/Notebooks/N75SF/specifications/

processor: Intel® Core™ i7 2670QM/2630QM Processor
chipset: Intel® HM65 Express Chipset
memory: DDR3 1333 MHz SDRAM, 2 x 8GB
graphic card: NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M 1GB/2GB DDR3 VRAM
Hard drive: samsung ssd 840 evo 250GB + the old one as a secondary

Thank you very much for reading me !

 

[hang-the-9]

Open the laptop, see if the video card is in an MXM slot (will look a bit like a large RAM slot/card). If it is, it may be possible to upgrade it.

About a USB video card, any of those are a lot slower than the 555M you have now, or even the onboard i7 video.

You may be asking about an external setup that uses a PCIe conenction with an internal PCIe connection or PC Card connection on the laptop. That may work but is limited to PCIe 1x speeds so anything past a lower or low-mid gaming card will be bottle necked by it. You also need to have the card, adapter and a power supply to run the card with the laptop which makes it pretty much unsuitable for travel. I don't know anyone on the forums that recommends using an external adapter like this instead of just selling the laptop and getting a newer one. Cost will be about the same.

 

[magz1990nine]

It sits in a slot, under the aluminum tape-like adhesive strip. It should just pull out once those screws are removed but I'm not sure what else you could put into that slot, or if another GPU would even fit physically in the available space. I'm really not familiar with the logistics of it all. I personally have had good results from simply over clocking and blowing a ton of air up the ass of my n75sf. I regularly clean it, I'm sure that can't hurt. Its current state is 750mhz core, 1031mhz memory, 1500mhz shader and stable running 114 skyrim plugins (mainly visual overhauls) or heavily modded fallout 4 with very little grief. I worry more about overheating the 2670QM than the GPU, but I think you and I are locked in w/ theses DDR 3 setups. Assuming the interface were the same for some other GPU, space is an issue right? I haven't spoken with anyone else who owns an n75sf, the apparently made like 9 of them and scattered them to the farthest corners lol. If you get any response on this let me into the loop

 

[fr33style]

Open the laptop, see if the video card is in an MXM slot (will look a bit like a large RAM slot/card). If it is, it may be possible to upgrade it.

Hi guys !

I'm sorry i didn't reply earlier; I've been meaning to and, you know. I procrastinated a lot....😱

Anyway thank you for your detailed answers ! An external GPU is clearly off the table then; sounded kinda messy anyways.
I did open the back lid of the laptop and, well i'm not sure what a mxm slot looks like so i figured i'd just show you a picture:
Does this look like a mxm slot to you?
http/s10.postimg.org/bdk7z3e61/open_laptop.jpg

magz: yeah this is not a very common laptop indeed haha. I'm having a hard time finding any information about it on the internet ! But is was a pretty good one when i got it

Cheers

 

[hang-the-9]

You need to open the other side, under the keyboard. Where you are looking just has the memory slots, the video card would be on the other side of the motherboard.

 

[magz1990nine]

Yeah I'm not sure what an MXM slot is either but I'm pretty damned sure we can switch out cards, provided the physical space is ample. That pcie 2 slot that it plugs into is exactly the same as the 580m for example and the 580 crushes the 555 in every benchmark. the only thing would be the space. I never drag my lunky laptop around as is so I intend to very cheaply build a DIY water cooling setup (200 gph submersible fountain pump palm sized $9 on ebay, tubing $5 home depot, aluminum radiator $20 ebay, and aluminum water blocks (2) $8 on ebay, oh and an oversized resevoir (plastic hunk of crap from walmart) $3 and a few misc fittings at home depot $6) right at around 50 bucks. Compared that to the 200+ you would spend to get a setup and I feel like a winner. Laugh at those who say it cant be done as you do it. They laughed at Thomas Edison too when he said he wanted to talk to someone who wasnt even in the room, lol. If your intention is too keep your giant laptop completely mobile this isnt a solution for you but to reiterate, i firmly believe upgrading the card is an option. It has a slot its plugged into thats used on several other cards AND it isnt soldered to the board, although I wouldn't let that stop me if it were. I'm sure someone will predictably flame me for saying all this. However I am used to being told things arent possible by small minded people with no vision. Just because THEY cant do it, dont let them tell you that you cant Physical space is your limitation if you intend to change cards, and pcie 2 ofc but the 580m is a decent upograde if it could somehow fit, or if they make a 555m with a ddr5 that would be a pretty viable option. Your asus n75sf will also handle 16Gb of 1333 RAM although the specs on the site say 8Gb. Those specs are based on Win 7 parameters (the OS that came installed) So if you have upgraded OS which I have no doubt you have, then You're golden ponyboy. Anyone that also has one of these laptops will tell you the same (no offense intended to any previous poster of course). I think everyone here is here because they intend to offer help or need it themselves. This is my pearl of wisdom on this pretty rare laptop apparently, hope its helped at all. Good luck to you and let me know what you come up with, PM me or whatever

 

[magz1990nine]

On a side note, should you choose to sell it and upgrade (a very reasonable idea in itself) I very rarely see a refurbished one selling for around $1400 USD, so it will still fetch a bit of coin. I'm holding onto mine for sentimental reasons, you may feel the same, plus the screen is beautiful and matte. Again, let me know what you decide to do and good luck brother

 

[yrdn2003]

Open the laptop, see if the video card is in an MXM slot (will look a bit like a large RAM slot/card). If it is, it may be possible to upgrade it.

Hi guys !

I'm sorry i didn't reply earlier; I've been meaning to and, you know. I procrastinated a lot....😱

Anyway thank you for your detailed answers ! An external GPU is clearly off the table then; sounded kinda messy anyways.
I did open the back lid of the laptop and, well i'm not sure what a mxm slot looks like so i figured i'd just show you a picture:
Does this look like a mxm slot to you?
http/s10.postimg.org/bdk7z3e61/open_laptop.jpg

magz: yeah this is not a very common laptop indeed haha. I'm having a hard time finding any information about it on the internet ! But is was a pretty good one when i got it

Cheers

Hi there

As it turned out I have just followed your steps with upgrading my asus n75sf,
yet as you said still decent machine to rely on.

So far I have replaced hdd drive to samsung evo 840 500GB.
On my list is RAM upgrade to 16GB and graphic card.

How did it go with your upgrade?
What graphic card did you choose? Any thoughts about it?

I also liked what magz1990nine did say about not believing in impossibility of things to be done.
And to bring it back again I wonder how two 16GB chips would work, if would at all
since aida says motherboard will handle up to 32GB (scan results below)

North Bridge Properties:
North Bridge Intel Sandy Bridge-MB IMC
Intel Platform Huron River
Supported Memory Types DDR3-1066, DDR3-1333 SDRAM
Maximum Memory Amount 32 GB
Revision 09
Process Technology 32 nm
VT-d Not Supported
Extended APIC (x2APIC) Supported

Memory Controller:
Type Dual Channel (128-bit)
Active Mode Dual Channel (128-bit)

Guys, what do you think?

 

[magz1990nine]

Honestly I haven't gotten around to upgrading my GPU yet, but I have looked into it a bit, The watercooling setup I mentioned has worked out much better than I expected, Temps atm are 32c GPU & 37c CPU respectively, I OC to 790/1100/1580 clocks, way past Alienware clock limits when they used the 555m. Watercooling solves that little issue of being unable to control your fan speed on this model, 4 channel fan speed controller, w/ 2 Corsair SP120's on a 240mm rad, those fans are solid and pretty quiet. A true 3.1mmH20 static pressure, 62.blahblah cfm, cost like $20 delivered for the pair. I'm not "benchmarking" but I am definitely stress testing this setup, i.e. running games with 160-170 script extensive mods, and/or graphics heavy retextures and meshes. Thus far I've only crashed it once but heat wasn't a factor, scripting conflicts I suspect. So in summation, Suck it, guy that works at Frye's (you know who you are) For lack of a better simile, it's like a kid having all the knowledge in the world available online, and only using social media and watching nut shots on YouTube. If I worked at Fryes, I'd have built a cyborg by now. And watercooled it, suck it frye man lol. Seriously though you guys keep me posted on what you do to your computers guys and I'll do the same. There are basically NO threads anywhere about this computer, so lets keep it alive for the other n75 owners who may have questions that they cant find answers to anywhere else, I'll throw in my 2 cents, I had my Asus in 25 pieces just last week, so I dont need to break yours to tell you how it used to work lol

 

[magz1990nine]

Oh and thanks/props for putting the specs for the N75 up, I wasn't aware of its capacity

 

[Darkluna]

Edit: Okay, I just found this thread, which says that an upgrade is not possible 🙁
http/forum.notebookreview.com/threads/upgrade-to-geforce-gt-650m-from-555m.667866/

Hi, also have the same laptop and also the same wish for upgrading the graphic card 😀

Is there a special type of graphic cards I have to look for? Is every laptop graphic card possible?

Any help or updates to your progresses would be appreciated

 

[yrdn2003]

Edit: Okay, I just found this thread, which says that an upgrade is not possible 🙁
http/forum.notebookreview.com/threads/upgrade-to-geforce-gt-650m-from-555m.667866/

Hi, also have the same laptop and also the same wish for upgrading the graphic card 😀

Is there a special type of graphic cards I have to look for? Is every laptop graphic card possible?

Any help or updates to your progresses would be appreciated

Did some research and unfortunately GPU isn't upgradable.
I have tried to avoid disassembling my machine and watched entirely this vid
https/youtu.be/-v1e4EZiFug