Acer MXM Models and Cards

That extra pin is likely extra voltage pins.

 

Please forgive me for my ignorance.

So it should be a 2.1 type MXM-HE just to keep it simple .

Why all the different types. PCI-E is pretty standard why not do the same with MXM. It is just a silly world.

Allright then. I will try to sell it in the marketplace. Thank you again for explaining it to me again. Edit: After reading the rules for selling it seems I am not a 'full member'. I must be a member for at least one month and have more than 20 posts, but they should contribute the community. How do I know if I did this??

 

That is what I'm thinking too.

It seems to be MXM-HE

Because of the different sizes of the notebooks You can't put a MXM-IV monster in a 13" notebook, it would burn almost instantly. At least on air cooling, if you have liquid nitrogen, you'll delay the burning with couple of seconds

Just make another post, as most of the members do

 

That makes sense. But things are getting very complicated for me this way

Uhm... so now it should work but 20 posts allmost looks like he joined to sell his stuff.. which off course I am not. I allready learned alot of things here.

 

Thanks triturbo, I almost forgot about MXM-HE!
And spaanplaat, the reason it's so confusing is probably because MXM cards weren't designed for the end-user to replace. It's more or less a benefit to the OEM.

 

Sadly you are right, it's not intended for end user to mess-up under the hood of his lappy. Thanks God we can take advantage of it after all, even with all of the complications it's still better than if you have for example DELL or Apple, the only way to upgrade their GPU is changing your laptop

 

Yes I understand we aren't suppose to upgrade the lappies but that doesn't mean they can't make a standard in the connector. Even if it is a 13 inch lappie or a 18 inch it could have the same connector. Sadly it is not. The world is full of competing standards which in my opinion is very annoying. Take DVD-R or DVD+R.

Let's just hope the 4850 will be there in a MXM-III formfactor for us

 

Hello to all and thank you to TehSuigi for this thread which was very useful to me ..

I'll try to be short :
- My mother has an Aspire 9920G but the gpu is dead.
- She has asked to a computer store a quote for reparation : they ask her $380, which is very expensive for her
- i don't need to upgrade her video capabilities, but only to make the screen work again (she does not play video games)

My question : from the 2 posts i quoted above, i understand that any of the listed MXM-II card would theoretically do the job in my mother's laptop.
Is that correct ?

Thanks for your help ...

Anthony

 

Think of the extra pins as the 6 pin PCI-e connector. The less power consuming cards dont need it, to keep them small as possible they wont include it.

 

Awsome thread.

I think in time MXM will become only more popular. Yes it's intended for the OEM, but it saves them SOO much time and effort it only makes sense that you'll see more standardization. Why design 2 motherboards with custom GPUs when you can design 1 and release 2 editions with different GPUs in the MXM slot.

As for the different connectors, some cards just need more power. Including pins that aren't neccessary for weaker cards just wouldn't be practical for a manufacturer. So I bet we'll always see many different MXM variants and standards.

I think the biggest problem with end user upgradability is whitelisting of MXM modules that many OEMs are putting in the BIOS.

 

No, we wont. It's already history with the new MXM 3.0 standard - one connector, two types. Type A for the small GPUs, Type B for the more powerful ones, that's it. The difference is in the size, if the laptop is large enough (8935G for example), it can accept both, because there is enough space for doing it. Smaller ones are limited to Type A, mainly because of the space, but lets not forget the heat factor too

Yeah, that is pretty bad, I know for sure that till now Acer hasn't such practice.

 

Hey Anthony, welcome to the forums! I hope you stick around.
It's best if you go for an MXM-II card that was originally sold with the system - another 8600M GT if possible, and maybe the 8600M GS. Stick with similar cards just so you don't run into incompatibilities.

@triturbo: *coughcoughAspire5920Gwhitelists9600MGTcough*

 

I completely forgot about this This HD4650 thing, spin my head off

 

Thanks for the reply and the advice
Now, do you know any website that could provide a 8600M GT replacement for my mother's laptop ?
Thanks
Anthony

 

This link was originally posted by classic77 in a different thread here..it points to an HD4650, but methinks you could navigate to see an 8600M GT.

http://www.notebook-doctor.com/it-pi-n-Acer_VG_M9606_005_VGA_BD_M96_1GB_DDR2_500MHZ-pId-1881718.html

 

Thanks for the reply
I realize that the price for a replacement 8600M GT GPU has to be around $300 (i checked acerparts and notebook-doctor)
This is still expensive for my mother
A last question : do you think this eBay item is what i need ?

thanks
Anthony

 

Leave 8600M mate, you'll need to buy another one, sooner or later, because they are all faulty. Search in eBay for MXM 3650 or mobility 3650.

 

Bump bump.
We've now confirmed that the Aspire 5935G, and thus the GeForce GT 130M it's sold with, are MXM-A. So much for an Nvidia-based upgrade path - the Radeon HD 4650 looks like the best bet for MXM-II machines.
And speaking of MXM-II, the Radeon HD 4570 seems to have appeared in both MXM-A and MXM-II forms - the former in the 5935G, the latter in some 6530G configurations.

 

.... aaaand this means that 5935G can borrow 8935G's HD4670 DDR3

 

Precisely.

 

Thanks for the advice Triturbo
But now i don't know what to do, because on the contrary, Techsuigi advised me to stick with similar cards (to 8600M GT).
See :

So, do you think a MXM 3650 be compatible with an Aspire 9920G, which is originally fitted with a 8600M GT ?

Anthony

 

Well, I choose ATi and I've never felt like I made a mistake It has similar or slightly better performance (8600M DDR2 vs HD3650 DDR2; 8600M DDR3 vs HD3650 DDR3), it runs cooler and most of all, as I already said, it's not going to die (at least I don't know for faulty or dead HD3650s).

 

I don't want to disturb you, the following question is only to be really sure.

You mean that on your 5920G, you successfully made the following upgrade :
GeForce 8600M GT DDR2 (NB8P-GS) => Radeon HD 3650 DDR2 (M86)

correct ?

Anthony

 

Well, no, I'd upgraded HD3470 to HD3650 But still, most of the 5920Gs are equipped with either 8600M GS (256MB DDR2) or 8600M GT (512MB DDR2) and they can still be upgraded, this is just an example. There is an owner of 5920G, that has upgraded his 8600M with HD4650, click here if you want to see it. You have an MXM slot in there, so in theory it would handle any card from the same type. Your type (mine as well) is MXM 2.1 Type II. Where "MXM 2.1" denotes the revision of the MXM standard (currently there is MXM 3.0 available, but you should not be worried from that) and "Type II" points to the size of the GPU I hope this helps, don't hesitate to ask if you have further questions

 

Ok, so if i try to sum up :
- 8600M is not known to be reliable
- HD4650 is known to be a possible upgrade from 8600M, at least in a 5920G
- consequently the same upgrade (8600=>3650) should also work in a 9920G
- furthermore, any of the MXM 2.1 Type II card listed on page 1 should be possible replacements for a 8600M GS

this sounds clear to me (thanks to your explanations !)

the only question that remains : considering that my upgrade approach is mainly price-related (rather than performance-related, like i think most of this thread's readers are) : among all the MXM-II cards listed on page 1, which are the one that would be the cheapest ?

by the way, about the cards listed MXM-II on page 1 : do they all belong to MXM 2.1 Type II standard ? (reading this post, i would think so, but i prefer to double check)

thanks for your help ...

Anthony

 

The cheapest would probably be the Radeon HD 3470, if you can find it. Otherwise, the 8600M GS will be the cheapest.
And let's not forget, MXM-I cards are compatible too - those are even more inexpensive.

All the cards listed under MXM-II belong to the MXM 2.1 Type II standard. The MXM 3.0 cards would be listed under MXM-A or MXM-B.

 

Exactly

Well, I just checked eBay, and the only available HD3470 is from OSStore and it costs almost €100, where you can find HD3650 for almost the same price The other possible solution is MXM-I GPU, as TehSuigi suggested, but I can't think of a good example, since the only one I know is 8400M and it goes in the same category as 8600M

 

Well, my 9300M GS is an MXM-I... Is that link right? $200 for the thing..they don't have any issues, except an unoverclockable GPU in my case.

 

Hello!, i have an Acer Aspire 5738 with a Intel 4500mhd. Does my notebook have the MXM slot??? im really interested in upgrading the graphics!

thnx in advance

 

Hi Kbzona, and welcome to the forums.
Unfortunately, if your system did not come with a dedicated GPU from the factory, it will not have the MXM slot, and thus cannot be upgraded. Sorry!

 

Well my laptops back to normal for the most part after installing that cursed T9900. Now I'm interested in upgrading the video card and RAM capacity. I have a 9600M GS DDR2 and I'm wondering what difference it would make to upgrade to a 9600M GT DDR3 or a 4650 or even a 4670 MXM-II if I'm lucky enough to find from an MSI. Now I'm just wondering which of the 3 is the best. Does the DDR3 from the 9600M GT make it comparable to the 4650 with DDR2? I've looked up the core clocks and all that and all I can assume is that it's better than what I have. I like to use Crysis as a video card standard now and I can play at 1280X720 on Medium settings with this card. Has anyone tried this game with the 4650 or 4670 or 9600M GT? I'm actually fairly interested in the two ATI cards since I've had fairly horrible experiences with nVidia and their mysteriously self-destructing cards. Does anyone have any purchasing links to the two ATI cards? Sorry for the mouthful.

 

Yes, the GDDR3's extra bandwidth puts it on par or slightly better than the Radeon HD 4650 DDR2.
The HD 4670 GDDR3 would obviously pants both, but that's dependent on whether the MSI vBIOS is compatible with Acer's BIOS.
The order, as I understand it, does something like:
HD 4670 GDDR3 > 9600M GT GDDR3 = HD 4650 DDR2 > 9600M GS DDR2

The purchasing link for the HD 4650 is here. The HD 4670 is not available from Acer in MXM-II format.

As for the gaming abilities of the three cards, I'd recommend posting in the Can My Laptop Run It? thread on the Gaming forum.

 

Thanks for the info TehSuigi. I've heard that the 9600M series is particularly overclockable but what about ATI's cards?

 

@EchoShade: i have 9600M GS with 256 DDR3 and have not been able to overclock it as i could with my original 9500M but...... i am happy with performance anyway (just under 5000 mark 06). maybe because it is an 'engineering sample' or maybe (hopefully) because i havent tried hard enough

 

EDIT: Moved posts to appropriate forum.

 

Hi guys, how are ya
I've just come back from my ACER retailer's spot where i got me some extra 2 GB of RAM and when they took off the bottom plate, I was surprised to see that all of the components were obviously removable, GPU most certainly. I've an ACER
5520G stu(ck)ffed with a Geforce 8600M GS, 512MB DDRII. As far as I read, an upgrade to the GT version of the same GPU is most likely possible, but also saw the 130M GT listed as an MXMII compatible. It seems that the 130M GT demands a little more power (23 watts) as opposed to both 8600M GS and GT (20 watts). My question is therefore whether having a 20-watt-GPU means that the PCI port is only able to supply 20 watts of current or it can feed a more demanding GPU.
My mobo is manufactured by ACER, model name says Fuquene. It has the nforce 560 chipset.
Am I right or wrong to pickup any MXMII compatible GPU with a current consumption anywhere near 20 watts and stick it into my notebook?

 

Afraid not since when I tried a 9600m GT it would only partially work.

It only runs 2d or cut down 3d clocks. You can change the cut down 3d clock parts by editing the bios but then you still have to wait 30 seconds extra each boot and you get no monitor outputs.

You could get an 8600GT GDDR3 or HD 3650 (possibly 4650 but thats unchecked).

 

You can stuff whatever GPU you want, as far as it's MXM 2.1 Type II. Those watts sometimes are misleading, for example - HD3650 is 30 watt GPU, where 8600M and 9600M are 23 watt, but both are running a bit hotter than HD3650 You can also take a look at HD4650, there is a 5920G upgraded with it. I'm not very sure, but I guess that your can run 9600M GT too (because 5920G can't), if you choose to go with nVIDIA. Another thing, since you mentioned that your chipset is nVIDIA based, you can give a try to BSEL Mod in order to overclock you CPU

 

@ triturbo: Поздрави в слънчева Испания от дъждовната София

Ookay, I guess I'll pass on the FSB mod since i've already blown a desktop's mobo some years ago, trying to unlock the multiplier on an Athlon XP. And I couldn't see anything for socket S1 and AMD CPU's so I assume it's a no go anyhow. But hey, thanks .
@ Meaker: Am I then to understand that those issues were due to the lack of sufficient current/watts?
And maybe you know some way, software or tool-based, to check what current the mobo is able to supply?

 

Thanks

I forgot that 5520G features an AMD CPU There was a much safer, software way, to clock your AMD CPU, but I can't remember it (I could be wrong though).

Nope, this is called MXM incompatibility and as far as I'm aware it's only 9600M related. It seems that when you're upgrading older machine with 9600M GT, it would either not boot (5920G), or it would boot with the above mentioned problems (5520G, ASUS C90S).

 

Hey de3pkeeper, and welcome to the forums!

The GT 130M is listed as an MXM-A card - completely incompatible with your 5520G's MXM-II slot. You're limited to most MXM-II cards.
The 9600M GT is a weird one - it's been white-listed in the 5920G's BIOS so it can't be used, but there's been a successful upgrade by a 6920G user. I'd stay away from it.
And there is no Acer-made GDDR3 version of the 8600M GT.

I would personally recommend the Radeon HD 3650 GDDR3, or a 9600M GS GDDR3 (downclocked core from the 9600M GT, but seems to work better).

 

Actually since Meaker mentioned the 30-secs-delay, I remembered that there were couple of semi-successful upgrades (6920G -> 9600M G T), but not a flawless one.

Second on that.

 

You are right. Guess i was just drooling so much over it that my perception got distorted hah.

Alright, I'll trust you on that and bury my GT desires. But it still kinda bugs me that 3650 ATI has got 30 watt power consumption. Call me ignorant but I mean like, how do you get something working with less power than it needs?

 

That's an error on Notebookcheck's end; 30 watts isn't the power consumption of the card, it's the TDP or thermal design power.

In other words, you're comparing apples to watermelons on the basis of their ability to fly.

 

ahaha

Alright so in theory HD 4650 should work? But where the heck do you get to buy one of those?

 

Carefully-guarded industry secret.
I believe you need to say that this is a replacement part for the 6930G series in order to buy it.

 

This whole thing keeps getting more and more intriguing hah. At least it's not like I need to sneak into ACER's headquarters and steal it

But now I'm thinking, is this "maybe working" worth the 260 bucks....

 

True - MXM upgrades are tricky business. But people have always been willing to take the plunge and do something stupid.

And that being said, it's also an expensive venture. You could also spend $266 or $270 on a sure thing.

 

And of course you could sell it off to someone else here in the forums if it doesn't work. (God forbid, for you. )

Although if you do buy a 4650, can you post a picture of it beside a ruler or something? Might open up my laptop one of these days, I'll look if it would really fit in my system.

On a side note, though, do you guys think the reason for the GT 130M being MXM-A type is because it is used with 14" screens or something that has a 16:9 aspect ratio? It seems I can't see as of yet a notebook that has that and a 16:10 screen ratio. (Now, I don't want to start a debate for the 16:9 vs 16:10, kinda biased towards the latter lol) Also, are there 16:9 notebooks that have the standard MXM type 2.1 (2.1 is the type for the usual MXM-I, II and III sizes, right?) that you've seen?

 

No, the reason the GT 130M is MXM-A is because it's featured in the Aspire 5935G which has an MXM-A port according to its service guide. The newer Acer models coming out now may be the shift to MXM 3.0 we've all been dreading.
All the 69xxG and 89xxG models are MXM 2.1, with the exception of the 8935G (which is MXM 3.0).