topic Re: XL201 Video Card Upgrade in PCs & Accessories

XL201 Video Card Upgrade

grahamjb33 — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 18:34:22 GMT

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

Re: XL201 Video Card Upgrade

GavMack — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 19:47:56 GMT

It's not that easy to replace the card in the XL series, you need a low profile graphics card with a silent heatsink which isn't that easy to find. An 8800 consumes a lot of power and generates a lot of heat but I do believe others have found alternatives so search the forum for info.

I'm not sure whether your diagnosis is correct, stuttering as you describe sounds like you're short of main memory playing this game, it occurs when windows swaps out memory to virtual memory on the hard disc causing the 'pause' so I'd recommend going to 2Gb.

Another option for improvement is to install a second SATA hard drive into the XL and install your games on a separate drive. Because it's not the Windows boot drive the game will have uninteruppted access to it's data.

The final suggestion if would be to install a newer Nvidia graphics driver but as Sony don't provide the latest versions you have to hack the video driver's INF file to support the 7600 GTL..

Re: XL201 Video Card Upgrade

grahamjb33 — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:24:38 GMT

It's not that easy to replace the card in the XL series, you need a low profile graphics card with a silent heatsink which isn't that easy to find.  An 8800 consumes a lot of power and generates a lot of heat but I do believe others have found alternatives so search the forum for info.

I'm not sure whether your diagnosis is correct, stuttering as you describe sounds like you're short of main memory playing this game, it occurs when windows swaps out memory to virtual memory on the hard disc causing the 'pause' so I'd recommend going to 2Gb. 

Another option for improvement is to install a second SATA hard drive into the XL and install your games on a separate drive.  Because it's not the Windows boot drive the game will have uninteruppted access to it's data.

The final suggestion if would be to install a newer Nvidia graphics driver but as Sony don't provide the latest versions you have to hack the video driver's INF file to support the 7600 GTL..

Thanks a lot Gav... what you have said could be right. I will look for more info on the forums before possibly trying the options that you suggested.
Thanks again... I'll post my progress so that others can benefit.
Cheers... Baler...

Re: XL201 Video Card Upgrade

achster1 — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:00:07 GMT

Baler

Let me know what you find out. The only card I've found is the Gainward Bliss 8600 GT 512 HDMI - PCI Express, HDMI out but able to do 1080p .....whoohooo..
Ta

Achster

Re: XL201 Video Card Upgrade

grahamjb33 — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 16:06:39 GMT

Baler

Let me know what you find out. The only card I've found is the Gainward Bliss 8600 GT 512 HDMI - PCI Express, HDMI out but able to do 1080p .....whoohooo..
Ta

Achster

Thanks Achster... I have now upgraded to 2Gb ram and whilst I had the lid off I added another 320Gb HDD primarily for storing TV recordings. I have re-tried the Moto GP07 game but haven't installed the game on the new drive yet, would it really make the difference? Still jerks when the CPU gets to 90%+ performance so I still wonder if the CPU is trying to help the Nvidia Geforce 7600 GTL cope but is sapping performance.
When I had the lid off I could see that it is very cramped in there and not much room. I would be interested in whether the Gainward Bliss 8600 GT 512 HDMI - PCI Express actually fits in the XL201 and how easy it was to do and what improvement to expect. Have you actually fitted one yet?
Appreciate any other help and suggestions that anyone will have on the subject.
Cheers... Baler

Re: XL201 Video Card Upgrade

FHB — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 20:17:43 GMT

The only card I've found is the Gainward Bliss 8600 GT 512 HDMI

This graphics card won't fit because it uses two slots and it isn't low profile either.
The only suitable card, that I know at the moment, is the new Leadtek WinFast PX8500 GT TDH HDMI. It's a low profile card with passive cooling. The 8500 GPU isn't really fast for gaming, but at least it has nVidia's VP2 engine built-in that will take most of the load from the CPU while decoding HD video content.

Regards,
Frank

Re: XL201 Video Card Upgrade

ITTroll — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:49:09 GMT

Has anyone tried the WinFast PX8500 in an XL series? I too am looking for video upgrade and was wondering if it fitted.

Re: XL201 Video Card Upgrade

ITTroll — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:14:11 GMT

I've had a poke around and found another couple of possibilities:

MSi NX8500GT-MTD256EH/D2
This is low profile, has passive cooling and HDMI.
http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&prod_no=1231&maincat_no=130&cat2_no=136#

MSi NX8600GT-MTD256E
This is low profile, has active cooling and HDMI. Quite rare to find an 8600 in low profile!
http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&prod_no=1232&maincat_no=130&cat2_no=136#

I'm not sure what they would be like fitment-wise though.

Re: XL201 Video Card Upgrade

FHB — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 20:01:36 GMT

The brackets on the MSI cards aren't low profile. Looks like a no go for the XL series, although the PCB's of the cards are low profile. Silly MSI.

Re: XL201 Video Card Upgrade

ITTroll — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:33:04 GMT

I believe they come with a low profile bracket so you can switch them.

Re: XL201 Video Card Upgrade

jamesbramsdon — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 12:20:25 GMT

Dear All

I know that people on the Forums at XL100.co.uk have successfully upgraded to the MSI 8500 low profile card.

It seems from this thread that there is now an MSI 8600 low profile card available.

Can anyone tell me if the additional power demands of the 8600 would be a problem for my XL201 if I decide to upgrade?

Thanks

Re: XL201 Video Card Upgrade

ITTroll — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:23:17 GMT

Oooh, I've just been reading about the new G98 core from nVidia. The first card to use the G98 will be an updated version of the 8400GS. This core features the third generation of PureVideo HD which now has 100% hardware decoding of VC-1 and H.264 material.

Geforce 7 series and 8800 cards only have 50% hardware decode, whilst 8600, 8500 and old core (G86) 8400 cards have 75%.

Looks like it might be worth hanging on for the new G98 core to filter through.

Re: XL201 Video Card Upgrade

ITTroll — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:30:23 GMT

If like me you are still waiting for the G98 based 8400, they may now be released as the 9400. The latest leaked ForceWare drivers have entries for the 9400 and 9400GS. It would seem to make much more sense to give the updated card a new name.

Re: XL201 Video Card Upgrade

clivadio — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 22:58:00 GMT

Hi guys,
since I tried a couple of things on my 201, let me give yuo my feedback.
I purchased the MSi NX8500GT-MTD256EH/D2, but it does not fit: even though it is a low profile, the passive heatsink is a little bit too thick, and it won't fit in the slot, no matter what. I even tried to exchange the heatsink with the one from the original graphic card, no success.
I exchanged it for the Leadtek 8500 passive, and that one fitted, since the heatsink is a lot thinner. I did see the difference: while with the 7600, CPU was at around 70% when playing the BluRay, with the 8500, it went down to 10-15%.
But I don't know if mine had a problem, it was burning hot, especially when decoding h264, and I couldn't watch a complete BluRay movie, it started to lag after an hour or so.
Another issue: no more sound on the HDMI, therefore no sound on the TV. The 7600 has a custom connector I guess to mix the sound into the HDMI output.

So after all, I changed back to the 7600

Regarding games: I do not play on that computer, so I cannot say

Those machines are not built to be changed...

Re: XL201 Video Card Upgrade

ITTroll — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:36:04 GMT

I have heard reports that the 8500 can get rather toasty so I don't think you got a faulty one. The new G98 core (which will be used in the rumored 9400) is based on 65nm technology which means it will run alot cooler. This may be your best option.

With regards to sound the Leadtek should have a connector and cable to allow SPDIF over HDMI. See here:
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1249/2

Out of interest can I ask which Blu-Ray drive you have and how you have connected it?

Re: XL201 Video Card Upgrade

andysp5 — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:13:01 GMT

So in summary, an XL201 owner (like me) who wants full Blu-ray decoding without the heat problems, needs to wait for a low-profile, passive, 9500 card?

Re: XL201 Video Card Upgrade

clivadio — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:04:33 GMT

Out of interest can I ask which Blu-Ray drive you have and how you have connected it?

I did not connect the Blu-Ray to the Vaio. I actually use another PC to rip blurays to the HD, and then read them from the HD. I'll purchase a blu-ray drive when a affordable slot-in will be available, today I cannot find any.

So in summary, an XL201 owner (like me) who wants full Blu-ray decoding without the heat problems, needs to wait for a low-profile, passive, 9500 card?

Yes and no: from my experience, the XL201 is enough to read Blu-rays from the HD (did not try yet from a Blu-Ray disc, but that should not make a difference)
It is enough to:
- add some RAM (bluray sw would consume more than 500-600MB)
- ensure that nothing is running in // to the bluray reader sw)

It's very rare to see some lags.

I'm using PowerDVD

On the contrary, i did not succeed yet to play correctly some 1080p mkv, whatever codec I use. But I'm still working on it...

Re: XL201 Video Card Upgrade

andysp5 — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:50:45 GMT

So does anyone know whether any of the new GEForce 9 series cards are suitbale for an XL201?
I see there is a 9600GT, is this a straight swap?
Does an XL201 user like myself HAVE to use a passive card, or can a fan card be OK as long as it's not too noisy?

Re: XL201 Video Card Upgrade

ITTroll — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:37:24 GMT

I needs to be a low profile card. I'm pretty sure there aren't any low profile versions of the 9600. Ideally the card should be passively cooled, but you could go with a fan as long as it is very slim - space is rather tight.

The best bet will be a low profile passive 9300 or 9500, once they are released. That's not a typo, the 9400 has now become the 9300 to signify the larger difference in performance.

Re: XL201 Video Card Upgrade

andysp5 — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:42:15 GMT

I notice the 9 series cards are PCI-Express 2 cards. I presume they will work on the XL201's PCI-Express 1 slots?