Thinkpads Forum

I've learned that the Lenovo T61 motherboards with Nvidia graphics that were made before August of 2008 have a problem with the GPU failing. What about the boards that don't have the Nvidia graphics / use the Intel graphics instead? Also what boards are compatible with the 14.1" widescreen T61 and what would be the "best" board to upgrade to, assuming I can find a board with Nvidia graphics made after the fix?

Welcome to the forum.
Boards with the the Intel graphics have no "GPU" failure issues.
As far as your NVIDIA options go the best available would be the NVS 140M for that format. None of the other motherboards (14.1" 4:3 and 15.4" 16:10) are compatible replacements and those are the ones that have the more powerful GPU options, the 15.4" T61p by a far margin.

FWIW, With these systems now being 14-15 years old now, intel and nvidia alike are just as likely to fail due to age (IMO).

I haven't seen any NVS 140 failures personally on the 14.1" 16:10 T61s, out of maybe 50 or 60 that my clients had in service (up until as recently as about 2 years ago).

I have 4 T61p systems with the 570 - 1 is an early build 14.1" 4:3 that just about never gets used. The rest are a 15.4s - one is the one I bought new in 10/07 that I retired (but kept) once it started showing early signs of failure (but still works for light duty), there's another that I built with a newer GPU (but not able to ID the system build date, so there is ambiguity over whether it is a revised GPU or not) and my last is based on a refurbished ~2010 board that doesn't have the defect.

I've found the Intel boards to be among the most reliable thinkpads of all time. Keep in mind that water finds it's way into the boards if you aren't careful, but barring that or power surges they seem to last very well.