Guide on how to upgrade the Acer Aspire 6920G
By Kris Verbeeck
Another fine Acer MXM machine. Acer seems to be using pretty generic MXM modules and they seem to work fine with both the HD4650 and HD4570 we are offering. Another piece of evidence: the 6920G. The 16" screen size hasn't been 
around that long and I'm not sure if I'm a big fan. But you know: there's no arguing taste. What I can argue: the choice of exhaust location is... odd. Not at the backside. Not at the side. No. On top right in front off the screen. Not sure what the plan there was? One of those hand-drying thingies you can find in bowling alleys comes to mind. Other than that: nice multimedia controls, nice blue LED touch.. But who am I kidding: I only care about the MXM slot! Originally equiped with a 9500GS, its owner felt the graphical performance was lacking even for rather simple games as WoW and even with a decent 2.4GHz Core 2Duo.
Robin, the machines owner, read this. As he's living not too far from us (albeit in another country) he decided to pay us a visit and see if his machine would accept the HD4650. Unfortunately, our regular camera was not available and my smart phones camera has proven to be a very poor substitute. As it is a fairly straigt forward story, this is not too much of a problem..
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Backcover. Easy enough: remove all screws that hold it. As they are all the same lenght, no extra care is needed. As you can see the battery is removed. Even though this was because Robins battery is dead, it is wise to do the same. |
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First, remove the fan. Secondly, remove the 4 screws indicated in red. This should allow you to remove the heatsink brackets and then the heatsink altogether. Unfortunately, in our case one of the two screws on the MXM cards would not budge. Not with some WD40, not with a set of screwdrivers.. Off course, drilling it would have been an option but metal scrap and notebooks do not mix that well. In the end we removed the 2 screws holding down the MXM card to the motherboard and wedged the entire heatsink + MXM card out of the notebook. Consider this a reminder to use the correct screwdriver! You should not have this issue. Removing the heatsink will reveal another heatsink on the MXM card. This one is secured on the back of the card, so remove the 2 screws in green and take out the MXM card. Remove the 4 screws at the back of the card. First, we applies fresh thermal paste to both GPU and CPU core. While there was obvious contact between GPU and it's heatspreader we were not 100% satisfied. So instead we applied a 1mm thick high grade heatpad. All that remains is assembling everything again. |
Robin is running Windows 7 and it would appear that accepts stock ATI drivers. If you run into a "no compatible device found" message, you may want to check this page. In addition, Robin installed 10.3 beta drivers and he claims to be quite happy with the result. Another thing you may want to keep an eye on is the alledged "throttling issue" as described and remedied here.
We checked both VGA and HDMI outputs and they were perfectly functional. As the HDMI output was tested through a HDMI2DVI converted, we can not vouch for the sound on the HDMI channel.
So, what's the result of all this? Robin ran some before and after benches...
3DMark05: 5300 to 10238
3DMark06: 3309 to 4857
Robin also had a go with Furmark and his temps peaked around 65 degrees, which is excellent.
The below link may only be used for the Acer 6920G notebook. If it is used for any other platform, we reserve the right to refuse returns or warranty. |
Your purchase includes the actual card, a thermal pad and shipping (registered regular postal service for EU, DHL for US, Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, Turkey and Switzerland). For EU customers, VAT is included. If you need a specific quote for your country, please contact us.