Area-51 m9750 suggested GPU upgrade

A friend of mine owns an Area-51 m9750 with a single 7950 GTX.

He wants to upgrade and is faced with 3 choices:

1 x GeForce GO 7950 GTX (for SLi)

or

2 x GeForce 8800M GTX

or

2 x GeForce 9800M GTX

I suggested he gets the 9800M GTX SLi for future-proofing, but can we be sure of the compatibility?

Also, do you know of any good shops preferably in Europe, where he can make his purchase?

 

Here a idea for you go on alienware site. Support and FAQ and check for the Answers.

I will say you will not be able to use the M17X 8800 Or the M15X.

You will be taking a chance on upgrading the system.

 

Sorry, we went over this a number of times now.

Read here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=278240&page=3

NO more videocard options for the Special-MXM cards in the Arima notebooks... M9700 and M9750.

 

you will only have the choice between 7950m-gtx, 8700m-gt, and quadro fx 1600m. out of these, i'd choose the 7950 in SLI.

 

Why is it so? Is it because the slots of the 8800 / 9800 are different or because of motherboard limitations?

Edit - I hope I checked well for my friend, his GPU is MXM Type III?

Neither the 8800M GTX or 9800M GTX are made in MXM Type III?

(Ugh I'm hating having to tell him...)

 

Each Laptop depending on the Oem makers and Motherboards. Tend to change the heat Pipping and fan so such so they can make the laptop run faster and cooler then the outdated laptops.

Let take my M17X laptop Dual 8600 gpu. The cooling system is Face upword so the fan blow down into the laptop to cool the heat pipping So the top of the laptop is alot cooler and so on.

and my M5550 the fan is on the bottem. So it draws air from the bottem and the top of the laptop tend to get warmer.

See it comes down to the Oem maker and how the MXM config are setup. Remember the laptop is not a desktop that can be upgraded alot.

 

And 8800M GTX is MXM HE type.
I hope for upgrade with 9800MGTS, perhap's GT...
But, I think i'm dreaming...

 

you are, i'm afraid... the 7950 differs from the 8-series and 9-series in terms of connectors, size, layout, thermal profile... sorry, but i don't think you'll be able to upgrade the m9750 to any of the newer GPUs beyond the 8700m-gt...

 

My friend told me:

I admit he confused me up.
He's saying that HE and IV are the same,
and that all 7950, 8800 and 9800 are type III...

wth?

 

Give him the facts. Get the GeForce GO 7950 SLI so he dont blow up his system.

People forget that Laptops are not as easy to upgrade as desktops. Plus the higher gpus might run way to hot for a older laptop. Then all you smell is burning Laptops.

 

I don't know why couldn't someone just tell him this: unlike other laptops such as sager NP5790, alienware m9750 used special type of MXM III, unless alienware support new cards, which is impossible, you stick with 7950 gtx or 8700m gt or fx 1600m. Period There is a reason why m17x or m1730 are much thicker.

 

^^ mostly correct.

The "Special MXM" is referred to only Arima notebooks (M9700 and M9750).

All current and last generation Clevo notebooks have a MXM Type IV... they were the first to have MXM-IV.

Clevo notebooks with MXM-IV:
- M570RU (aka. Sager 5790/1/2/3, Rock Xtreme 770, etc..)
- M570TU (aka. Sager 5796)
- M860TU (aka. Sager 8660)
- D901C (aka. Sager 9260/1/2)

 

tell your friend to come here and read everything we have discussed. I think we would be one of the first people to actually verify if stuff works or not (except the tech review sites *all the french ones seem to have info first*).

Upgrade to another 7950GTX. The 8800 and 9800 are out of the question.

 

i'm assuming his friend's german (like BP himself)... anyway, SLI 7950's is the highest he can go.

 

Isn't the D901c the only one using the mxm IV standard, they advertise the M570tu as a MXM 3 supported, but make no mention of it being IV. Also thought I asked this before when the MXM IV compliant advertisement was removed from the M570ru model when they had to do a motherboard update to support the 8800m gtx, while the D901c continued to be advertised as a IV compliant laptop. Pretty sure even Justin confirmed that. I know the M570 units support the mxm IV cards, but don't they use more of a proprietary system now?

 

Nope... its MXM Type IV.

The cards that are optional on the systems can be MXM-III since its compatible with the newer slots.

Ice-Tea (Master of MXM, and runs www.mxm-upgrade.com) and myself have talked about this many times... we were blown away last year when Clevo debuted the D901C and the M570RU with a never seen MXM Type IV slot.... which was confirmed to be a new Nvidia MXM Type that only Clevo had access to.

 

Why are they not advertised that way? They used to flat out say they where MXM machines, now they hide it in the specs.

 

Heres the thing.... Nvidia has not officially announced or launched the MXM Type IV format.

I remember Ice-Tea contacting Nvidia about it:

 

And another thing, is most mid-range to high-end notebooks (using Nvidia cards) at this time are probably MXM anyways.

Nvidia has been pushing their MXM standard for a while now, and its becoming more and more integrated into gaming notebooks as the years go by.

The most common MXM Type is Type II... which you would find notebook using 8400M or 8600M cards.

 

-.-' well that just makes it sound like other laptop makers don't want it supported and now nvidia is helping those oem buy not announcing it's available.

 

so do the MXM "levels" (I, II, III, IV, -HE) refer to age or performance?

 

MXM "levels" refer to the specifications to each modules capabilities (mainly size and power).

Its covered in www.mxm-upgrade.com

The MXM Type that has the higher TDP rating, will get to have the highest performing cards... since they can supply the power needed to run such a powerful component.

 

Its not that they [Nvidia] do not want to announce it, they might want a few years of tests with it using an innovative ODM like Clevo to design notebooks with it... to see if its going to be successful and maybe make improvements on the new MXM Type.

So far MXM IV has been quite successful with the 2007-2008 Clevo notebooks since they also are backwards compatible with MXM-III as well.

The only minor change to the high-end MXM cards was the EDID issue, which was addressed a while ago to fully support the G92's when Nvidia changed the system requirements those videocard modules.

Now it seems the new 9800M's have no issues with the current MXM IV slots.

 

Gophn, I get this now when I asked Justin about it.

my question was
Originally Posted by bwhxeon
I was under the impression that the np9262 was the the only unit that was mxm IV compliant is that still the case or are all the laptops using the 9800m gt from sager mxm-IV compliant."

Justins answer
On our spec sheet it says the 5796 is MXM‐III supported. I am not for sure if it uses MXM-IV?

 

Seems to be the best solution.

Whizzo, for clarification... Maltese girl here

 

oh, sorry, i just put forward the "german" because you bought from notebookguru.de...

 

http://lanthrax.com/forum_topic.asp?TID=cHx6Zg==

That's where my friend is posting.

 

uh huh. as said before, SLI 7950's the highest he can go. shame, really, the m9750 is such a stunner... too bad it can't be upgraded any further.