MXM Cards still hard to come by?

Hi everyone,

I've done some searching (on this site and google) to find info about MXM cards and everything I've found seems old (2006/2007). I did find a link to MXM Upgrade but they seem to be offering only a few older cards (8600/3650). Where are the new ones (9800 GTX/3870) coming from?

Is it still the case that you can't really buy MXM cards for a given laptop, or perhaps there are other channels I haven't uncovered yet?

Thanks

 

It's still generally the case that you cannot just walk into a retailer's and order up an MXM card for whatever notebook you've got in mind. If a particular notebook comes with an MXM-based card, then you'd have to contact a reseller who sells that brand to see about obtaining another MXM card for that same notebook.

 

Or try Ebay.

 

That's a good point that I forgot about - at least for systems that have the ability to upgrade from one MXM-based card to another, such as some of the Clevo/Sager systems, you may find a reasonably priced, gently-used MXM card from another owner who's upgrading.

 

Certain Clevo/Sager retailers might be able to get you the 8800M GTX or 9800M GTS. Expect an uphill battle though, many of these guys don't like selling the cards only.

 

It all depends which laptop you are trying to put it in. If you have one of the high end clevo/sager models they have proprietary cars and you will likely have to hook up with a reseller to get one.
If you have a more middle of the road lappy (15.4" would be a good indicator) you aren't going to be able to put one of those high end cards in anyway, but you can get up to a 9600 with cards found on ebay.

 

Proprietary MXM cards??

 

that is actually not true.

in the past generation models (D900K/T, M570A/U, M590K/KE) they were proprietary.... pre 2007 models.

the recent high-end models have standard MXM Type IV slots which supports Type IV cards, Type III cards, and Type III with HE tab cards.

so far the MXM-IV for Clevo notebooks (M570RU, M570TU/ETU, M860TU, D901C) have seen:
- 7950GTX
- 7950GTX SLI (with Clevo D901C)
- 8700M GT
- 8700M GT SLI (with Clevo D901C)
- 8800M GTX
- 8800M GTX SLI (with Clevo D901C)
- 9800M GTS
- 9800M GTS SLI (with Clevo D901C) ... not confirmed yet.
- 9800M GT
- 9800M GT SLI (with Clevo D901C)
- 9800M GTX*
- 9800M GTX SLI (with Clevo D901C)
- Quadro 1600M
- Quadro 1700M
- Quadro 2700M
- Quadro 3700M*
...... more to come.

* not recommended for the M860TU... due to power and heat.

Thats a lot of videocards that's supported by one MXM Type IV slot...

 

I stand corrected, I had somehow thought the IV slot only accepted IV cards, the fact remains, what notebook are you trying to find a card for?

 

Let's not forget, MXM slots of one size can also accept smaller ones in most cases. e.g. an MXM-II slot can take an MXM-I card.

GeForce 8600M GSs and GTs are quite populous on eBay, along with the occasional Radeon HD 3650 or GeForce 9600M GT.
Anything bigger than an MXM-II card, however, is exceedingly hard to come by.

EDIT: Although I will mention that Acer MXM cards might be located through parts resellers if you know the FRU numbers...

 

Wow, thanks for all the replies!

I ran into some articles that the MXM stuff was mostly useful only for resellers since you can't buy cards. After noticing how few cards I could find I got a little worried and decided to ask here.

I just ordered a new N5797 with a 9800M GTX so I'm not looking for a card right now, just checking to see what things might look like in the future. One of the things I liked about the Sagers was that it seemed that you could replace the CPU/GPU/HD later on. So I'm just checking up.

Thanks again though!

 

Well Loos, good thing you checked.
As MXM-Upgrade posted a while ago, newer GPUs will be released in the newest version of the MXM form factor - completely incompatible with the current slots.
Which means the 9-Series and 3xx0s will be the last/best ones available for the current set of notebooks.

 

not really the physical form factor.... rather there will be a mechanical difference.

In any case, we wont know about compatibility until those new MXM 3.0 (not Type III) modules appear.

 

If we're lucky, they'll stay on whatever MXM standard they're on now and we'll have HD 4xx0 Radeons and 1x0/2x0 GeForces in MXM-II and MXM-III.