The new "upgradeable" gfx cards

I just found these forums today so this has likely been discussed and I missed it. From my understanding many of these "upgradeable" graphics cards are available in notebooks now but it is really up in the air as to how they will be upgradeable and when.

I'm a desktop gamer thinking of venturing into the laptop world and obviously being a guy that builds my own systems this seems to be a godsend but I can't find any really info on how upgradeable they will be and it is looking like it may all hinge on a sytem builder by sytem builder basic much unlike going to newegg buying the card you want and installing it.

As it stands now I have very little need to go above a go 6800 (price/preformance) but this will be outdated very soon for my needs while the rest of the system should be within range for 3 years or more from past experience. The lack of options in graphics card and availabilty to upgrade RAM / mobo has always been the reason I stayed away from laptops. Throwing 2k away every year makes little since to me. Anymore info on upgrading the graphics cards?

 

Actually, if you are a serious gamer, the 7800 GTX would probably be your best bet for not having to replace it every year. It is MXM compatible (assuming they stick to the plan and make higher end cards that will be compatible). It's only available in 17", so I'm not sure if you were looking at 15.4" or exactly what size? The Sager NP-5720 has it at powernotebooks.com if you want to take a look there.

 

As it stands not I pretty much only play DAoC and WoW every now and again and the 6800 is fine for either. The price/ preformance issue is that while the 7800 gtx is obviously the best card on the market it is also about a $400 upgrade. The 7800 gtx will be the card I want in another year or so when the 8800 gtx (? who knows) will be out and the 7800 gtx will cost me much less to upgrade to. I'll have ended up buying a 6800 and 7800gtx enjoying decent preformance for less than the price of a 7800 gtx now hopefully if the desktop comparision is an indicator.

I found out long ago that I really do not need the top of the line latest card (I play mmorpgs) and that I will have great preformance and save money just upgrading every year to year and a half. That's why I'm so curious about how the upgrading on laptops will work. I just can't see throwing money out on the newest card hoping to insulate from future upgrades if there are other options. See what I mean?

 

I hear what you are saying, and agree with it, it would just be so much easier if Nvidia and ATI came out with a guide that said what will be compatible with which card and the scheduled release dates . But that would be too easy.

 

Unfortunately...they can't know that. No way to know compatibility for products that don't exist yet. They don't know if future chipsets will operate within the power constraints of the MXM interfaces. They also don't know if the cooling solutions will physically fit in different laptop configurations.

Upgradeable video is nice...but until there's standards on physical sizes and available cooling space, it will never be the same as desktops.