Vortex II 2nd Dead Graphics Card

Hey all.
I bought a Vortex II Laptop with a Radeon 6990M Graphics Card back in 2011. I've been very happy with it and, along with a 500GB SSD upgrade, it's still performed well for me. However, in 2013 it started showing a corrupt display when under load. I RMAed it and the card was replaced under manufacturer's warranty. The laptop was back to working well again.

Now, a week ago I began having problems again with the display, and it will now no longer display anything right from boot, either on screen or through HDMI. I've done some more diagnostics and attempts to rectify but basically it seems the graphics card's died again. :wacko:

I've now just got off the phone to PC Specialist support to see if they're able to help. However, obviously, the laptop's out of warranty, and despite the card being replaced, that's no longer under manufacturer warranty. The only they could offer me was a new, lower spec, GeForce 560M, for £240! Which I'd have to replace by myself.

Thus, I'm here, to ask what other options I might have? The laptop's still a good spec - 8 GB Hyper-X Ram, 15.6" Matte Screen, Intel i7-2670QM, and the 500GB Samsung SSD I upgraded. I think I'd manage with replacing the graphics card myself - I've done plenty of PC builds myself, though laptops are less modular and more...intricate. I'd been thinking of selling the laptop and using the funds towards an upgrade, but nobody's going to buy it in the state it is right now.

So any ideas? All help appreciated!

Regards,
-Deuce2400

Seems my only option is to replace the graphics card, but I don't want to downgrade. What other cards are compatible with this laptop? An upgrade of the card would be worth the efforts at least.

Seems to me you only have the third party option to get your new GPU if you dont want to downgrade

Hey Deuce,

Its a horrible situation to be inand your options are very limited £240 is a lot of money for a chip that there is no guarantee that this wont happen again. Perhaps there is a deeper problem with the laptop. £240 is almost half the price of a new laptop too. You could be looking at an Optimus V with a GTX860 which will out perform the HD6990m which is now regarded in the lower grade of the Class 1 mobile GPUs.

So my first option would be to keep the money towards a new laptop. Maybe not the option you want to hear but my honest opinion sorry.

Your second option Looking into getting the card or a replacement car is going to cost you about £400 and its just not a financially viable option in my opinion. Even the GTX580 is in the £400 price mark which i think was the Nvidia equivalent at the time then the architecture changed preventing upgrading further.

Hope this helps maybe you will get some more opinions but i feel the above is correct.