XL201 Video Card Upgrade

[grahamjb33]

I have recently started using my Sony XL201 MCE 2005 running on WinXPSP2 for playing games and all was well until I installed MotoGP 2007. Whilst the graphics on this game are extremely good and even with the resolution set to its lowest, the CPU can reach over 90% power usage and the screen 'sticks' occassionally which makes it difficult to play.
I am thinking that as the standard card fitted namely the Nvidia Geforce 7600 GTL with 256Mb on board could be struggling with this game, the main CPU is trying to compensate and this is causing the high power usage.
If I am correct in my diagnosis I would appreciate advice on what video card upgrade would resolve these problems, eg a Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT? By the way... the XL201 is bog standard with 1Gb ram and no upgrades to date.
Great forum for info, keep up the good work everyone!
Thanks... Baler

[ITTroll]

They will work fine. PCI-Express 2 only offers more bandwidth, which will not be an issue with this class of cards.

[ITTroll]

Early reviews of the 9500 show that this card only has PureVideo HD Gen2 which means it cannot do 100% hardware decode of VC-1 material. So it looks like only the 9300 / 9400 will have PureVideo HD Gen 3 with full hardware decode.

[grahamjb33]

I'm the guy who originally started this thread and I thank everyone who has contributed so far, its interesting to hear all your comments and suggestions.

I have been patiently searching for other possible cards that would suit as an upgrade and have looked at many possibilities the latest being the PNY GeForce 8400GS 256Mb Low Profile PCI-E.

One thing that I haven't yet been able to establish is whether or not a small (8cm high) mounting bracket as fitted to the GeForce 7600 GTL can be exchanged for the standard size shown in the photos. The overall thickness looks within the 20-25mm maximum space currently available inside the XL201 case but I see in the PNY spec that it calls for a 400 watt minimum power supply and the XL201 is only rated at 297 watt, so there would also seem to be another restriction that may prevent future upgrades.

I haven't looked at power supplies yet but does anyone know if the XL201 PSU can be upgraded?

As always I would be interested in everyones comments.

Cheers... Baler

[ITTroll]

If you are still wanting to upgrade for gaming then I would not recommend the 8400GS. The 7600 you currently have has a more powerfull GPU for 3D. For improved gaming your options would be a low profile 8600 or 9600. However these are only available with active cooling and so will add noise and be tricky to fit (may require some case modification).

Of the cards currently available now, the 8500 will give you improved HD playback but not really give you any improvements for gaming. The 9300 / 9400 cards will arrive June or July and offer the best HD playback, however once again they will are not intended for gaming.

All these cards should be OK with the original PSU with the exception of the 9600. Peak power usage for the x600 cards is as follows:
7600 36W
8600 47W
9600 95W

[andysp5]

I see that Nvidia have released the 9400GT, the 9300GS and the 9300GE, but none of them look like they are passively cooled.
Are any of these suitable for an upgrade in an XL201 ?

[ITTroll]

The new cards appeared on the nVidia site for a period but have now been removed. I guess we weren't meant to know about them yet. Here are the specs if you missed them:

Model, Core Clock, Shader Clock, Memory Clock, Memory Amount, Memory Interface, Memory Bandwidth, Texture Fill Rate
9400 GT, 450, 900, 400, 256MB, 128-bit, 12.8, 3.6
9300 GS, 567, 1400, 500, 256MB, 64-bit, 8.0, 4.5
9300 GE, 540, 1300, 500, 256MB, 64-bit, 8.0, 4.3

All feature hardware decode acceleration for HD material.

The 9300 cards are low profile and so the correct form factor for the XL201. The reference card has a very small fan but I would expect passive versions with native HDMI to appear from card manufacturers.

The 9400 reference card is full height, but going by previous models, a low profile version may well appear further along the line.

[ITTroll]

Well it would seem that the 9300/9400 cards are not destined for retail and are only going to be available to OEMs and system integrators. The 9500 is now available but the only low profile version that has been announced has active cooling:

Galaxy GF 9500 GT Slim
http://www.galaxytech.com/Product_Details.asp?id=197

So far all the passively cooled 9500s are huge!
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=14729

Therefore it looks like a passive low profile 8500GT is still the best bet for the VGX-XL series. Of these the MSi NX8500GT-MTD256EH/D2 is probably the best bet (reports that the Leadtek one gets too hot). Dabs is one of the few places that still have stock of the MSi.

[grahamjb33]

I've just installed the MSI 8500GT and as you said, it was a bit big in width and I needed to modify the bracket holding the PCI slots so as to clear the big heatsink. I did it this way so as not to modify the heatsink just in case I needed to return it to Dabs.

The main reason for me changing the video card was because i was getting the 'black screen' at start up both in Vista and in XP and the machine started having startup problems... it would hang!

I would also see error messages regarding the video card and drivers, so I have gone for the 8500GT hoping it will solve these issues.

I had tried Vista for a short time but am now back to XP 2005 MCE because of the above problems, it seemed to be always going wrong... a nightmare! I'll see how it behaves now and if it seems OK then I may re-try Vista in the hope that the problems were with the 7600GTL card.

After running the machine for a while and then switching off, I checked to see how hot the sink was and it was very, very HOT! I may consider fitting a cooling fan in there if I can, I'll see how it goes.

By the way, the 7600GTL card had some wires plugged in next to the SPdif plug which didn't have a socket on the GT8500 so what are these and should they be plugged in somewhere else? Are they connected to the composite video connections on the reverse of the machine?

I won't be trying to play games on it just yet, I want to be sure that normal operation is OK.

I will keep you posted.

Two TV Tuners...

One advantage with Vista was the two TV tuners that I have installed worked fine (Avermedia & Hauppauge).

Now that I am back to MCE 2005 I cant get both to work at the same time. they will only work seperately even though Media Center sees them both during the signal setup.

I've read a few threads on the subject of configuring two seperate tuners but can anyone recommend an easy to follow step by step guide?

Thanks again for everyones input on my original post.

Cheers... Baler

[ITTroll]

Well I received my MSI NX8500GT-MTD256EH/D2 and found like others that the heatsink is too wide to fit. However rather than remove the PCI riser support bracket, I decided to follow the example of Timiboy from a German forum and modify the 7600GTL cooler.

It is fairly straight forward to remove the coolers from the cards. The top left corner of the 7600GTL heatsink must be removed to allow for a capacitor on the MSI card. A strip from the bottom of the heatsink must also be removed in order to clear motherboard components (the MSI card sits lower down). Then simply refit the modified cooler to the 8500GT with some fresh thermal paste.

After being switched on for a day the GPU temperature has settled at 65°C.

I have hosted some pictures of the process.







The extra cable on the 7600GTL is for the external video connections. As the MSI doesn't have this connector you do lose this functionality.

[Lar77]

thanks for the pic's IT Troll ......... could be very helpful if my Leadtek card has any problems, like never arrives.