Why can't I use an MXM card from any vendor?

I have a Dell Precision M6600 outfitted with a FirePro M6100. For the time being, it's performance is acceptable. In the future, though, I may want to upgrade the GPU. According to my research on the forums, the best Nvidia GPU I can put in is a 680M, and the best AMD is probably the 7970M, and I would most likely have to use a card originally from a Dell. Now in my desktop, I can put in anything from an XFX 8800GT to a Radeon 5750 to an EVGA 980Ti. If the MXM slot is just an adaptation of the PCIe slot, why can't I pop in any MXM card (within power and thermal limits) into the slot? Why do I need special BIOS support?

 

Power draw and the laptop's ability to dissipate heat are probably the most crucial factors. Even with no BIOS restrictions, these factors play a major role in how far you can upgrade. You can't really compare laptops graphics cards with desktop cards because of this.

BTW, you're not gonna see a big boost in performance from an m6100 to an AMD 7970M or 680M GTX. The m6100 is already a powerful card on par with both of those.

 

Well, for example my laptop can support up to a Quadro 5000M with a 100w TDP. The 970M also has a 100w TDP, but I can't upgrade to it. That really chaps my hide.

 

Dell probably only officially supported Firepro and Quadro cards. I found a thread where someone tried a 970m on an m6600. He was able to boot into Windows but got stability issues and BSODs. Maybe a modded inf file can get the right drivers installed, or maybe something BIOS related is preventing it from working right. I don't know and it seems like too much risk to buy an expensive 970m with no guarantees that it will work.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-m6600-precision-workstation-notebook.786837/

 

Maybe the W7170m would work, but that's if you find it (it's a DELL). Then there's M5000M, but it's ridiculously expensive. If you don't need to upgrade in the coming 6 months, wait for the new gen GPUs (if you need professional equivalents, the wait would be like 3 months longer than that).

 

This is good to know because I was looking at the M6600's since Alienware has become crap. I think I will go to Eurocom, Sager, Clevo, or Origin and drop anything Alienware or Dell completely.

 

The M6600 is a downgrade from your current system. M6700, M6800 and the new Precision 17 (7710) are more like it and the former two are guaranteed more compatible too, while the later comes with the newest GPUs (but soldered CPU).