Downgrading a dell 9400 videocard

the cheapest card you can use is the ATI x1400, but you have to get one thats made for the 9400/E1705.

it is by no means a gaming GPU, but good enough for basic stuff with the laptop

The video cards from the 9300 (Nvidia 6800 go vanilla and ATI X300) should work in the 9400. However, if you get a dual pipe GPU from the XPS2 and try to put it in the second heatpipe does not fit by default. One option is to bend the heatpipe but that would be a bad idea. Another option is to use your current heatsink and to rearrange the (purple) thermal pads on it. You will rearrange these pads to correspond with the locations of the video card memory on the XPS2 video card.

Althought these cards look similar, they are not. If you use a XPS2 video card then it will either be the 6800 go Ultra or the 7800 go GTX and both have two heatpipes (dual heatpipe). The left heatpipe route (the place the left heatpipe extends to) has a different curvature for the 9400 than it had for the XPS2. As a result, the heatsink on the 6800 Ultra/7800 GTX will not fit in the case without bending the left heatpipe (bad idea). You will not be able to perform a casemod to fix the second heatpipe issue as its not something simple like breaking a tab. You will actually have to change the heatsink itself. I suggested you realigning the thermal pads on your current heatsink to correspond to the locations of the video memory on the 6800 Ultra/7800 GTX*.

If you use a 9300 video card then none of this should matter. You could use either the ATI X300 or the Nvidia 6800 go since both only have one heatpipe; namely, the one that extends to the right.

The difference between the ATI X300 and the Nvidia 6800 ultra is that the 6800 ultra is much more powerful. I'd say its about 10x as powerful or more. It will run games much better than the X300, but the X300 results in a higher battery life.

*There is still a problem with this method. If your current heatsink is single pipe then replacing the dual pipe heatsink from the XPS2 video card with a single pipe heatsink will cause the card to run at higher temperatures. Over time this will probably lead to card failure.

I'm downgrading my 7800 to an x1400. I found a really good deal and couldn't pass it up. However it just occurred to me I bought a x1400 for the Inspiron 6400 and I have a 9400. One of the posts here mentions making sure the x1400 is compatible with your system.

Is there no way to make the x1400 fit in my 9400? Would using the 7800 Go's heatsink work? I just contacted the seller on eBay. I hope they get back to me. I was so excited about the price, I completely forgot to check the compatibility. Damn.

Hi. I have a 9400/E1705. One of the last produced. Came with Nvidia 7900GS. After burning out two (under warranty) I upgraded to 7950GTX (which I'm still running).

 

I don't know why you want to downgrade, but IMHO you should consider the FX1600M (GP041).

 

I've been looking at one of these myself (or the FX3600M which I have in my M1710, - which is same form factor and chipset as 9400/E1705) Both FX1600M and FX3600M are a DX10 card, originally made for the Dell M6300 work station (Intel "Santa Rosa" based motherboard, which came out after what the 9400/E1705 is based on), but have the same form factor as the 9400/E1705, and so physically fit with a couple of minor case mods.

 

From what I've read, the FX1600M delivers slightly better 3DMark06 performance than the 7950GTX (despite only having 256MB RAM vs 512 on the 7950GTX).

 

As the card wasn't designed for the 9400/E1705, the BIOS sees it as an "unknown video adapter", however, according to what I've read on threads/forums, this doesn't affect this cards performance or functionality in the 9400/E1705.

 

Plenty available on eBay for around US$85 (which sounds like good value to me).

 

I suggest you do a search on this forum.

I'm weary of any nVidia card from the era. They all seem to have the failure problem from what I've read. A fx1600 might fail on me as much as 3 7800 Gos now have.

Don't like the idea of the 9400 not recognizing the 1600, either!

Hey. I can't dispute what your saying.

 

Both my M1710 and 9400/E1705 have been gamed on pretty heavily since day one.

 

Since replacement 7900GS #3 (and all cards of that era - 7950GTX, FX3600M) I've instigated my own  "management" plan ie never run at 1920 x 1200 res, no antialiasing, no overclocking etc, dismantle and clean dust, pet fur etc from between fans and CPU/GPU radiators every 6 months (I don't know this as a fact, but suspect that with later BIOS revisions for both the M1710, and 9400/E1705 Dell may have instigated some "management measures" of their own).

 

In short, - I haven't had a card burnout in 3.5 years now, despite heavy daily use (Did I just say that? Just as well I'm not superstitious - lol)

 

 

Thanks for posting your insight. Part of me wishes I would of looked into this more and maybe considered a FX1600, but like I said, I just want a stable card. I don't need power. And I really don't know if the issue with my 7800 is widespread with all nVidia cards around that time. I know there was a class action suit, so something was definitely wrong!

I got the x1400 I ordered from eBay yesterday, but haven't installed it yet.