so is it official now that dell allows upgrading of the m17x's hardware ???

as in the ati gpu's ???

meaning the m17x has positioned itself much like a customizable laptop ???

 

I think that was one of the goals from the get go.

 

Wow great article.

http://www.semiaccurate.com/2009/07/26/ati-evergreen-mobile-parts-outed/

GDDR5 coming in August.

Is this what the M17x is getting?? Could be! Looking forward to getting a hold of the cards to compare against the 280M.

 

Heh I'm not blessed at all like that so probably not. ;þ


An update to that article tho: the GT300 has been taped out.

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/14857/1/

 

hmm so we wont see them in laptops really until this time next year will we?

 

No what this means is Nvidia is in deep trouble and that sucks because I always loved the Nvidia driver support compared to ATI.

Anyways from the article it seems to say that the 4870 is coming out this month.

 

I thought the 4870 is already out and its pretty similar in terms of performance to 280m. Is that true?

As for upgrading i think most gaming laptop company's try to avoid offering upgrade for the gpu because they would make more money selling a whole new laptop. Sure they offer up to 2 gpu upgrades sometimes but I think true desktop upgrade ability is not what the MXM standard aims for nor is it financially beneficial for company's. Then again I can be completely wrong as I am no expert and there are many much more knowledgeable users on this board than me, but thats just my 2cents

 

The article is about the 5000 series cards not the 4870.

 

Not necessarily true. You have to remember that sometimes people will be willing to splash out the smaller cost of an upgrade; but wouldn't be willing to buy a new laptop.

Whilst some of the performance gamers will; as they have a lot of cash, by offering an upgrade platform, they can still make money from the audience who have cash; but not enough/aren't willing to buy a whole new laptop.

Kinda like saying, oh why not just sell someone a new car, instead of upgrading the audio side? Well no, because someone might be perfectly happy with everything else; and if they can't upgrade the part, they won't bother. The car manufacturer will make no more money if this is the case; if they offered the upgrade part however; then they have a sale on thier hands.

A lot more people can afford a $500 video card set, than can afford a $3000 new laptop; and its 'easier' to spend the smaller figure. The guys who want/need a whole new laptop will probably still have the cash/need to buy that new laptop Better to sell 6 parts for $100 profit each than 3 new laptops with $150 profit. (example figure)

That said, if the rumour I heard is that series 5 ATI parts will be pin compatible with older 4 series parts; then perhaps we will see 5 series upgrades for both the M17x and M17.
Would be extremely sweet if true!

 

Hmm that definitely makes sense and seems like a viable argument but then the question is.. what is stopping company's to demand a standard MXM or something similar to desktop that can more aggressively support at least 1 or 2 generation of cards? Is it due to heat sink tech? or case design? because it seems that even the clevo's despite being extremely flexible have barriers when it comes to gpu's upgrades due to manufacturers changing card pin's all the time. Im not saying they shouldn't change pins I just feel that in comparison to desktops the tech for gpu changes within a matter of months.

 

the 4870 is NOT out ... DAMN you ASUS you made most peoples lives harder

 

Hell, Im more interested in the possibility the ATI 58series parts COULD be MXM2.1
If they're board/pin identical to the 4series parts; then theres a slim chance they could provide one based around the MX2.1 system, if the 8x8x bandwidth isn't a limitation (which it may *start* to be once we're hitting these things).

Still, these 4850s seem pretty nice anyway; they're pretty much equal to my 4870 and for something I can walk around with...thats awesome

 

no the 5 series won't IMO

i think they are talking about 4870 DDR5

 

would the DDR5 4870's be DX11? or 10.1

 

10.1 DX isn't until the end of the year MAYBE

 

Evergreen isn't the 4870 it's the R800 GPUs which are 40-nm parts that support DX11. The RV870 for example has long been rumored to be the GPU for the HD 5870 card. The other GPUs are rumored to be the RV830 and RV810.

If Evergreen is pin compatible with the 4000 series then it means the GPU die (and just the die) will have the same pin set up since that's all ATI really supplies to card and notebook manufacturers. That means if an OEM wants to use an Evergreen GPU in one of their existing notebooks they won't have to redesign the motherboard (if the GPU is welded directly into it) or design a new PCB (if the card loads into a connector). They will have to also change the VRAM type though.

ATI launched the 4870 GDDR5 along with all the other 4000 series 55-nm GPUs back in January but no notebook manufacturer has used a card like ATI's reference 4870 in a laptop.

 

What about this article? [Click Me]

 

For Nvidia. ATI plans to have DX11 ready for Win7 launch. If these cards are out in August they'll make good on that.

 

If these cards are out in August(speculatively), how long would we estimate until the M17x adopts them?

Are we even sure that they will? aside from the new developments on the new bios code, that is.

 

obviously soon if they already added the code

 

Not really convincing for me though
They could just be preparing for future developments..and we don't know how soon in the future.

 

...if that doesn't convince you along with our service manual and Chaz
then you never will be

if they didn't release it now then why do it now ?

 

Also..seeing how the system is based on an Nvidia chipset with the 9400M..how would the ATI cards react/perform?

would they put in a new motherboard all together?

 

I'm just being pessimistic...

..ever since Halo 2, I've learned to never get my hopes up
what a cruel lesson it was

 

M9750 had a nvidia chipset and 3870's worked


ITS ALREADY BEEN STATED IT WILL WORK!

 

OKAY!
remember Moo, you don't have to answer if you don't want to, chillax.

and sure it'll work, but to what extent?

I doubt to their full potential.

 

prolly 90% it won't scale 100% but it will still STOMP the 280