Sony :: Upgrading The Graphics Card In The Vaio Z
May 17, 2010
The standard graphics card is an Nvidia GeForce GT 330m, but the laptop's gaming performance could be higher with a 335m or even a 360m (for its premium price, I would like the ultimate machine if possible). How do these two other cards compare to the first in terms of size/motherboard compatibility/power drain? In other words, could I buy the Sony Vaio Z and successfully upgrade the graphics card aftermarket, and if I did so how would the new card(s) affect the laptop's battery life?
Are there any guides that would help me into the guts of the machine, and could I possibly proceed without voiding the warranty?
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Jul 30, 2009
when i play WMP videos the video gets all messed up. is this a problem with the graphics card?
i have a geforce 8400? or something like this. ive heard of booting problems but i have none...its just windows media player. PES 2009 and project64 run fine graphics wise
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Aug 12, 2009
I've got a Sony Vaio FE model. The screen, processor, ram, wifi, etc. all work well except the graphics card (geforce go 7600). I can get my computer working but only at a resolution of 640x480. If I go to display properties and increase the resolution, the screen shows a bunch of white lines all across for a second and then restarts.
Its very hard to use a pc at that resolution! Sometimes I can change it to 1280x800 if i get the computer hot enough (weird, i know) but then (i guess) as soon as it starts to cool down the screen goes blank (after some time it will go back to 640x480 in 8-bit colour mode and show a nvidia nv4 error) and then I usually hold the power button to turn it off cuz I don't want to wait for the nv4 error which takes 10-15 mins.
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Dec 14, 2009
I have a Sony Vaio VGN-FZ21E, here are my specs:
OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7250, 2.00GHz.
Memory: 4gb.
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 8400m GT GPU.
My query is about the dedicated video memory and the memory interface.
The official Nvidia website [url] lists the specs as being:
CUDA Cores: 16
Core Clock (MHz): 450
Shader Clock (MHz): 900
Memory Clock (MHz): 600
Maximum Memory: 512MB
Memory Interface: 128-bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec): 19.2
Texture Fill Rate (billion/sec): 3.6
However, my laptop (under the Nvidia Control Panel, Advanced display settings, System Information etc) lists the specs as being:.................
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Jul 10, 2009
I'm fairly sure that my graphics card has died, the startup screen has a green grid whenever I turn the laptop on, and it only runs in safe mode.
I'm aware that in terms of pricing this could either be quite modestly priced, or really horrific, depending on whether or not the card is part of the motherboard.
if it's seperate or not?
The Spec of the laptop is here
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Feb 22, 2010
I'm getting a subscore of 2.3 with my nvidia card on windows7 experience index.
all the other components have an index of around 5.5.
This just doesn't sound right !
I'm using the driver supplied from sony.
also, I am feeling that everything is a bit slow (more then it should be)
anyone ?
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Mar 30, 2010
when I turn on my Z, the screen glitches two or three times upon hitting the login screen. Does this happen for anyone else?
Sometimes, (it's happened once or twice) my graphics card even failed upon logging in and had to be reloaded, and even, on one occassion, completely shut down my computer (Straight to black, green light turned red) in the middle of casual browsing.
Are these causes for concern? Should I return my laptop?
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Jul 18, 2008
i am getting an acer travelmate 5720 which is coming with inbuilt graphics card..x3100 graphics accelerator..i was wonderin hw this graphics card is.. and one more question is whether i can upgrade the graphics card from the inbuilt to any better cards...
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Dec 17, 2007
i have a dell inspiron 1505 notebook. I bought it new about 1 year ago, i had it upgraded from dell with the 1.86 core 2 duo processor 1 gb of ram and a 128 ati x1300 mobility graphics card. 1 year ago most games only required a 128mb card which was fine, but now most seem to run on 256, there was a 256 option from dell for another 80 dollars on top of the other upgrade fee i already paid and i did not think it was necessary. So i know there is one out there. I have searched around on the internet for a while off and on and i can only find reviews of products i can not find any info on where you can actually buy an upgrade for this computer... I would like to get it upgraded to the 256 if it would not be too much. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
And also i play Battlefield 2142 occasionally and it had a freezing issue on the load screen so i dropped the graphic settings down a bit then it worked fine. But it has happened again, and i dropped the settings down as far as they can go with no luck it still does not work, and the EA tech told me to look for an update for my graphics card which i did and installed one that said it fixed "some gaming issues" but it did not fix the freezing issue.
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Oct 20, 2008
can you update video cards on a laptop?
Mainly a acer aspire 7520-5311
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Jan 21, 2009
You can't Change your Graphics card, is there any graphics card that i can use through the PCI express slot, or the the expansion port? the laptop is hp pavillion dv2000 (exactly: dv2132ea) since i don't want to go through the hassle of changing my laptop. I just need a better vga card
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Apr 28, 2009
What is the reason behind this obscure leaving out of useful information
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Jul 16, 2009
Sony is providing Mobile Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD graphics card with vaio cs 24. Actually I am familiar with NVIDIA and other graphics cards but not with Mobile Intel one. So I want to know about performance, quality, limitations of this graphics card .
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Feb 9, 2010
laptop that has
1. Great style
2. Blu Ray
3. A graphics card that can do ok in gaming
4. A nice HD screen
I was looking at the E series and I kept hearing that the E series had a 5660 in it well
I went to the Sony website tonight and only shows the 5470 I think. The question I had was will Sony put the 5660 in the laptop or is the 5470 for a different country like the UK? Will the Full HD screen be available in the near future, or will they keep it like it is?
I was also looking at the f series with the i7. will the 330gt be that much better then the 5470 and if so Is it worth the difference in price? If you had a choice which one would you choose
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Jun 1, 2009
I have a Sony Vaio laptop, model number VGN-AR61. It is factory installed with an Nvidia 8400M GT graphics card which seems to have failed. Vista disables the device fter the machine has been ruuning for 5-10 minutes, with the generic error code of windows disabling the device after it has stopped working.
I read a thread somewhere that these graphics cards are prone to cooking themselves and failing.
If the video card has failed, is it integrated into the motherboard or is it a part that can be changed?
The machine failed 1 month after the warranty expired (13 months old).
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Aug 17, 2009
I have an NS notebook and I was wondering if I could upgrade the processor and the HDD.
All that it has on the bottom of the notebook is easy access for the RAM. If I am able to upgrade these parts I would have to remove the entire bottom. So is the CPU soldered on or not
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Aug 13, 2009
I made the mistake of falling for a CTO Z590 and not getting the specs I wanted, which included a 320GB 7200rpm HD instead of the slower 5400.
So, specs online indicated that a Scorpio Black was the right drive.
I've gotten it and have seen the steps on how to mechanically replace it.
My question, however, is advice on how I should go to transfer my data and switch OS.
I currently have Vista Business, 32-bit installed. I would like to go to Windows 7, 64-bit and then bring over my data. Going to 64-bit requires a full install.
Since I am going to switch over to the new drive as my internal drive, is it possible to swap the drives, install the new windows OS on a partition on the new HD, put the old drive into the external HD, and then transfer at my leisure files from the old HD on the new internal HD?
I'm a bit paranoid that once I disconnect the current HD, my data is at risk. Is this silly, or can I upgrade the way I just described?
Also, what are the benefits of partitioning my new drive for the OS as opposed to having everything on one partition?
Finally, the Windows 7 I have is still a Beta version and I have heard that if I install this version, come September of next year, I will have to do a full new install of a production version. Is this true? If so, what W7 64-bit version is available now? I don't mind paying.
I've been putting this off for a long time (have had the new drive sitting uselessly for over 2 months). I'm deployed to Iraq, so have no way to backup my data other than burning some DVDs and if I break something, no repair facilities.
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Aug 7, 2009
I am upgrading the RAM and hard disk on my PCG-TR2 and was wondering if anyone knew what kind of hard disk to buy and what will be the maximum capacity that it will support?
I hear its a 160GB IDE hdd I need to buy but thats the only info I could find out.
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Aug 4, 2009
If I do absolutely no gaming, should I pay $50 to upgrade from 512MB to 1GB on a HD4650 graphics card on the FW 490 I am about to order?
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May 11, 2009
I'm having a sudden problem with my FZ11S laptop. I've had it for just under 2 years and its just started playing up. Basically, I'm getting a set of either red, white or blue dashed vertical lines over the screen during the Vaio logo and initial bootup, followed by complete black screen and then blue screen dump, followed by automatic reset and through the same cycle. I've tried doing a complete recovery from the drive, and the screen works fine during the initial steps, but then goes wrong again when it does the first restart to begin reinstalling Vista. I ran the diagnostics programme in the recovery suite, and the CPU, RAM and HDD are all fine.
At the moment, I'm running the laptop with a CD booted version of Ubuntu. When using this, the normal version also does not work, but the low-graphics version does work, at 800x600 resolution only. The screen itself seems fine. Does this mean something has gone wrong with the graphics card?
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May 28, 2010
My Vaio is about 6 months old and is awesome (aside from the really super loud fan) and now it started to display red flashing pixels-mostly where black or dark colours should appear. Is this a problem with the graphics card? I'm hesitant to send it in because it was bought in sanfran. easy solution to fixing it? reformatting?
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Jan 10, 2010
I just picked up a 500gb HDD for my vaio for cheap which i'm gonna install soon, and also wanted to upgrade my ram and put on windows 7.
Can anyone point me in the right direction as to what the best RAM upgrade that is compatible with this model laptop. One of my mates has a spare 2gb ddr2 800 200 pin chip laying around, but i'm not sure if this is compatible.
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Jul 19, 2009
I've got a Sony Vaio VGN-SZ1M/B with 512 Mb RAM and a 80 Gb 5600 rpm hard drive.
What's the most I can make out of that laptop?
I guess 2 Gb RAM and a 160 Gb 7200 rpm hard disk?
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Dec 30, 2009
I installed Nvidia system tools earlier today, but didn't change anything (knowingly) at the time.
I then downloaded and installed batterybar which asked for a reboot, and upon restarting Aero had stopped working and 7 had apparently forgotten my gpu exists?
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Oct 27, 2009
I was thinking about upgrading to a 7200 RPM hard drive for my VAIO SR190.
I'm sure this voids warranty, but in the event that you need to send the laptop to Sony, couldn't you just put the original back in and they wouldn't notice?
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Mar 5, 2009
what sort of memory should i purchase for the machine? i know it's ddr3 but what pin count?
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Jan 16, 2010
I use my Sony Vaio SZ691N for the most part playing games on Speed mode. Yesterday while I was playing a game the screen started getting really fuzzy and blocky with static and then shut down and whenever I tried to restart it, the screen would be fuzzy/blocky/staticky from startup and then go into startup repair. Startup repair couldn't fix it as well as restoring from an earlier point.
I tried switching to Stamina mode and it worked fine. The screen was normal (just had to adjust the resolution) but when I try switching back to Speed mode, its the same problem and my laptop wouldn't start up.
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Oct 12, 2009
I've problems starting my Vaio SZ2. They occured one day without changing anything (Hardware or Software) before.
If i push the power button, the screen backlight turns on but remains grey/black. No vaio logo, no boot screen, no bios access! I unscrewed the whole computer (3 years old) and checked all the cables. Then i released the screen cable from the graphic chip and tried booting with an external display! And that worked!
It seems to be a problem of the display/display cable or the graphic card.
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May 28, 2010
I'm looking to buy the new Sony Vaio E series laptop which has a ati mobility radeon 5650. Thing is, the graphics card is underclocked to 450mhz so I was wondering is it possible to overclock it to its default clockspeed of 650mhz?
I've heard that the temperature is barely affected when overclocking this graphics card to its default speed. So would it be safe if this is true?
Also is it possible to install new ati drivers as I've heard that Sony doesn't allow you to. Alternatively does anyone know if Sony actually keeps up to date drivers on its site?
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Jul 16, 2009
I have owned my Vaio Z21WN/B since april.
Over the last few months the graphics seem to have deteriorated dramatically, particularly when using the 'speed' mode. The laptop will not play any high definition videos (even with a resolution of just 720p as well!) remotely smoothly, videos which play without a hitch on my 7 year old Pentium 4 with 1gb of ram and 256mb graphics! In fact, graphics and the whole PC itself seem to run much more smoothly when using the 'stamina' setting. This really makes no sense in my mind. It's quite irritating and disappointing since I wanted to be able to attach this laptop to the 42inch plasmascreen with the HDMI cable and watch films!
I upgraded to a new driver to see if it would help (using one of the driver packs made by nautis/dox in the 'discoveries on Vaio Z hybrid graphics' thread) but it has not helped at all, just made the 'stamina' setting even slower!
Will I get around a complete re-instal to factory settings?
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