So i buy my first laptop, a Toshiba sattelite, primarily just for business travel, and then decide i would like to try gaming on it.So i pop in battlefield 2,no surprise,it wont even start. Then i look to see if graphics are upgradeable since i dont know anything about laptops. While searching online i come across mxm upgradable pci notebook graphics. Holy crap,my notebook has a so called pci expansion slot, so what ever happened to that technology, all the websites i visited said nvidia developed it in 2004, is it ever going to surface??
![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
What hapened to MXM upgradable graphics?
- Thread starter mytiburon
- Start date
Some laptops already ship with MXM form factor video cards.
Your notebook has a mini-PCI expansion slot? Welcome to the club. It's not a video expansion slot though.
You're probably not going to get a video upgrade on that laptop. BF2 requires at least PS1.4 unless you get a patch, but if it's old integrated video it's not worth it anyways.
Your notebook has a mini-PCI expansion slot? Welcome to the club. It's not a video expansion slot though.
You're probably not going to get a video upgrade on that laptop. BF2 requires at least PS1.4 unless you get a patch, but if it's old integrated video it's not worth it anyways.
swatbat
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2001
- Messages
- 13,056
mxm has been out for a while but many of the big oems don't use it yet. Dell for instance has there own graphics card slots on the notebooks they sell that are different. Many oems still just have it onboard. From an oem standpoint it is one less part to fail and most of the time they haven't seen a market for it. Your best bet would be to sell the toshiba and buy a white box if you wanted something more upgradable.
yeah i just got that pci mini,its just a shame nothing can be done yet. Most of these oems are decent systems with the exception of 3d acceleration,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,one more question,just because they make onboard graphics,is it possible that there is a connection for a mxm board inside?
I have never heard of a laptop with a MXM slot using a chipset with integrated graphics. It might be technically possible, but very unlikely.
There are very few laptops that use chipsets with integrated graphics and have graphic card upgradability. My Inspiron 6000 is one of those. There's a connector on the board to install a X300 video card. It's not MXM and can only be used with the particular X300 upgrade board made for the 6000/9300.
swatbat
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2001
- Messages
- 13,056
pxc said:
I seem to remember sony making a dual graphics card notebook where you could run the intel one to save power or the nvidia one for a boost but that wasn't mxm and both were on the logic board so it is possible. I think it was Uniwill that made a bigger notebook that could run both. Can't think of the model but that may have had MXM(can't remember)
silentnswift
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2005
- Messages
- 262
This ABS notebook on newegg claims to have MXM II on it. But what other graphic options are there availible to slide into a MXM II Slot besides the 6600 in it?
Here is a table with all currently known MXM notebooks.
Both the 7600 and x1600 will be available on Type II. Furthermore, some notebooks that come with Type II are rumoured to have enough space to fit a Type III if needed. Some notebooks have a x700 on Type III (odly enough) and then there's the 'Arima Special'. This card shares some dimensions with Type II, has some of its own and might fit in some Type II's. Oh, and it's a 6800
Both the 7600 and x1600 will be available on Type II. Furthermore, some notebooks that come with Type II are rumoured to have enough space to fit a Type III if needed. Some notebooks have a x700 on Type III (odly enough) and then there's the 'Arima Special'. This card shares some dimensions with Type II, has some of its own and might fit in some Type II's. Oh, and it's a 6800
velusip
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2005
- Messages
- 1,579
mytiburon said:
The MXM upgradable graphics system for laptops was, like most things, a short-lived gimmick for the marketting crews to present to the public. There were three revisions of it and for each revision only one possible upgrade. There might be hope for laptop upgradability in the future, but for now it's not even worth your time and money to take advantage of...
The real use of MXM is a distributer benefit. It enabled distributers to have fewer default platforms in stock which can then be equipped with the consumers choice of GPU. Giving the consumer an option at a cheaper cost. That's about it.
This MXM concept would have been so perfect if the ATi and nVidia agreed upon a standard. Too bad that was impossible.
It would be to their benifit to work together; instead of persuading customers that their form factor is better, agree together on a managable standard and charge collectively more for it. Do what AGP did to desktops! baah, what an attractive world the laptop industry would be for the enthusiast.
It would be to their benifit to work together; instead of persuading customers that their form factor is better, agree together on a managable standard and charge collectively more for it. Do what AGP did to desktops! baah, what an attractive world the laptop industry would be for the enthusiast.
swatbat
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2001
- Messages
- 13,056
velusip said:
Yea this is where it is paying off right now. I wouldn't call it a gimmick yet but I don't really see it being this huge market anytime soon.
krizzle said:
Yea nVidia didn't get ati involoved in the design stage(not sure whos fault that is) so ati wasn't 100% onboard. Now ati does have some like x700 cards that are mxm though.
swatbat
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2001
- Messages
- 13,056
krizzle said:
Maybe I'm wrong then but I thought I saw some notebooks on rjtech that had mxm and had the x700 as an option.