so MXM is truly dead now?

no grumblings of future MXM AMD cards? guess my m17x r4 is truly aging unless i can get a 1070N then?

 

That or mod a 1080 with external power

 

not just yet, but its getting increasingly harder to source current cards in standard MXM format.

 

I'd wait to see if companies like Aetina produce a MXM 3.0b RTX 2060 or something. It took awhile for the 10 series to come out so expect at least until the end of the year to see if anything is produced in that kind.

 

correct, itll definitely take a while until we get to see any standard MXM cards for the 20 series, if at all.

 

Nvidia has killed MXM support, so no native designs from them, its now up to 3rd party's (Gecube, Aetina, MSI, and Clevo for the 1000 series) to design "reference" designs. I have no clue about AyyMD designs, but given that Vega for laptops could be competitve if fed enough power (say 150W or so)

 

Vega doesn't need 150W in a laptop to be competitive.
A Vega 56 properly undervolted and overclocked performs as GTX 1080 while pulling less power than GTX 1080 (desktop of course).
Problem is that OEM's never really optimize the desktop voltages of gpu's (let alone the laptop GPU voltage), so they usually just cut down the clocks to reduce power consumption (which works, but in some cases such as the GL702ZC, they drop the clocks too low. In the case of GL702ZC, Asus could have easily kept the clocks at 1200MhZ, undervolted the GPU and call it a day - and it could still be limited to about 75W - about 9W higher than what they originally limited the GPU to - or heck, just limit it to 80W TDP - aka same as mobile GTX 1060 and it would probably perform better - but alas, OEM's don't do this kind of thing, even though they technically should).

 

Then prove it, sorry if I don't believe you when V56 @ 120W TDP is only barely at 1070 levels.
Even a desktop V56 won't beat a 1080, heavily power modded and the like. V64 has a chance with power mods/OC, but even still will just about break even in a majority of title's

 

Here you go:
https://www.hardwareluxx.de/index.p...vega-56-und-vega-64-im-undervolting-test.html

120W TDP V56 is also underclocked heavily vs its desktop counterpart... too much if you ask me (and unnecessarily so).
The OEM's apparently know jack about proper optimizations when it comes to AMD gpu's (which are heavily overvolted from factory). They simply underclock them and hope for the best.
Even the GL702ZC RX 580 still had room for an undervolt and can easily achieve -93mV on the core (that's practically applicable across ALL GL702ZC models). Thanks to Asus meddling though, they locked up the GPU to such a degree where it became impossible to do anything but undervolt via software alone.
But otherwise, some people managed to extract their RX580 VBIOS and modify it to include 1200 MhZ core clocks and undervolt.
Temperatures were barely affected as a result - they effectively rose to just under what the stock config shipped with.

OEM's are supposed to optimize laptops properly dependent on the hardware they have... but they don't do this.
Heck, Asus even used a standard chassis from another model to use for GL702ZC.
OEM's will just use a 'standardized' chassis and cooling design for various models of their laptops and then configure the hardware to function to work within those limits... which is idiotic as they should be designing the chassis/cooling around the hardware that's inside each unit.

Furthermore, majority of games on the market which reviewers use are optimized for Nvidia.
Those games that are more optimized for PC for example, tend to perform better on AMD hardware consistently (but they also run pretty good on NV hardware as well).
V56 is often between 1070 and 1080 in those areas, whereas V64 is usually above 1080 - other times, V56 is on par with 1070 most of the time, and V64 on par with 1080.
Also, why did Nvidia release 1070ti?
To combat Vega 56 of course.

 

Nothing in that article explicitly states that V56 @ 120W TDP would outperform a 1080, or back to my original point, disproves that it needs 150W to be competitive. Also, the GTX 10xx series cards are at stock, not accounting for the utterly massive OC they can achieve on their own

 

And not accounting for the fact that a 1080 after overclocking and undervolting can outperform stock settings while only using 125-150W.

 

well the last guy to put a 1080 in an m17x r4 could barley keep it cooled. even the 1070N with upgraded GPU heatsink is JUST in check in the m17x r4, granted this is not the alienware section. seems like i'm hedging my bets by getting an MSI 1070N if i can even find one now since i waited too long. at not from woodztack. maybe i'm better of actually trying to use my 980m.

 

The cooling can be modified, the compatibility is what is key.

The MSI 1070s can be found easily on ebay, many are going for 500 USD lately.

 

Most 1070's run decently cool in the M17X R4/ 17 R1, and you can buy the "turbo fan" (or M6700 13CFM fan) and 5 pipe heatsink

 

No need for that fan, M17x 11.4 cfm should cool the 1070 just fine.