MXM x1900 available and benchmarks

Hi guys,

Just wanted to say that I now have x1900 cards available.

I tested it in the Amilo Pi/AW5550 and it works. Notebook gets rather hot though. It was tested with a Farcry benchmark for over an hour, no problems reported. Fan ran at close to full speed, marginal heat gains can be made by hardwiring the fan.

I have a new solution for that, but it still requires soldering.

During benchmarking I saw peak power consumptions of up to 4.2A. That means that the Amilo Pi power supply is stressed pertty close to it's maximum of 4.5A. While this should theoretically work, I certainly do not recommend it.

As for the x43x/AW5700, card should work too but the fan will not react to the card. There are two possible solutions: the NCH ACPI control script or hardwiring the fan. My "v1" solution for that consists of a relay, and a USB cable. During normal operation, you just let it cool based on CPU temperature, if you want to game you plug the USB connector which connects to the fan through the relay and makes the fan run full speed.

A "v2" solution uses an internal 5V supply (harder tol solder) and a thermal switch that will have the fan run 100% if the heatsink gets too hot. This is a "cleaner", automated solution.

The power supply of the 3438 should obviously be sufficient.

Both cards will required the heatsink to be modified.

Benchmarks can be found here ->

http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/benchmarks.xls

 

Thanks for the input, Ice-Tea.

I´m a little bit disconnected with this MXM thingy myself...

Could you please tell me whether or not it´s known what type of MXM platform will be using the upcoming (hopefully) 8800s?

In case you don´t still know it, and since I´m buying a new laptop, any tip to maximize my chances to get a "fully compatible" machine?

(As far as I understand, even if I have the right MXM type and the laptop is physically big enough, it won´t work if I don´t have the required amount of watts, right?)

 

Thanks for the info + benchmarks Ice-Tea. I have to say I'm not that impressed with the MR X1900 from the benchmarks. It does have a measurable performance increase over the X1800 but the difference is not that significant.

 

Wel, only thing that's changed is the extra pixel shaders. Seems to do a lot better in newer benchmarks than in older ones, too.

It seems to hold pretty well agains a 7900GS 512MB while consuming about the same. Which is not a bad thing, really. They can't toucht the 7900GTX but I don't think this was the whole idea. They seemed to be targetting the 7900GS and that seems to have worked out alright I guess..

Andario: you are asking for an answer on a question with a lot of variables. MXM Type, 8800 power consumption cooling solution, power brick, mechanical compatibility and last but not least: if the manufacturer plans support for it.

Current MXM Type III or higher notebooks:

AW 5x5x, AW 97xx, Fusjitsu-Siemens Amilo Xi and Pi, probably MSI GX700, Asus Z84, HP nx84xx(maybe)

 

I know, I know, it looks more like a miracle than a regular question. But I always thought that "miracles" were practically the nature of your business, anyway...

I appreciate it. I will check those models out. Thanks man.

 

"Ice-Tea; bringer of miracles"

I kinda like it...

 

Isn't the Pi 15,4" and MXM 2? I know that the Pi1556 is (both). Because fitting a x1900 in a 15,4" is AWESOME!

 

Ok Ice-Tea this is a little off topic for this thread, but after all you are a miracle worker and it is MXM.
I was wondering if you knew the thermal output/power consumption of the 8600gt cards that the asus c90 is using as compared to say an mxm2 6600.
Excaliburpc has the modules from the c90 for sale by themselves and the price is low enough for me to be able to consider it.
Have you looked into these cards? Do you know if they would work in the average uniwill 259?

 

just curious ice tea, what drivers did u use? and where did u get them. thanks in advance

 

Is the mobile X1900 actually based on the desktop X1900 (R580) architecture? As in a heck of a lot more pixel shaders, but the same number of ROPs/texture units as the X1800?

 

i think it was based on the x1950 pro...not the x1900...

 

The Pi is indeed a 15.4" notebook that normally comes with a Type II card. But it has the same motherboard as the Xi series notebooks. The cooling part is almost the same albeit a bit less powerfull.

I don't know about xcaliburpc.. And I haven't tried any 8600 cards yet. So I can't really comment on that

Omega drivers

36 pixel pipes instead of 12, I believe

 

Freaking awesome. A x1900 in a 15,4"! Although it would have been more impressive if the 8600M GT wasn't out.

 

Actually; those tests with the 7900GS have been done well before the 8600 was out

 

Is that in the link? I'm too lazy to install Office, so i can't read excel-files (maybe there's a viewer, like there is for powerpoint files). Still awesome. I kinda (only kinda) wish that the pi1556 wasn't out of stock when I went to get it (i haven't seen it since).

 

The link contains benchmarks of 7600, 7900GS, x1400, x1800 and x1900 cards. Openoffice works nicely

 

I have Office (XP, 2003, 2007), it just takes too long to install, and i can't be bothered. However, i found a freeware microsoft tool called excel viewer 2003, which enables me to view excel files (a powerpoint viewer exists as well).

Microsoft should have made these tools a part of windows.