PCI-M laptops?

[DANK_AS_gay]

I keep finding laptop versions of graphics cards with PCI-M connectors on one end. I was wondering what laptops or AIO's have this connector.

GTX 770ti 3GB

Older laptops with this connector could easily and cheaply upgrade to a more modern, capable machine. 

This also allows for All in Ones to be more powerful, and more capable, and if I am not mistaken early 2010's iMacs have this connector.

[jaslion]

These are called mxm cards.

 

You could TECHNICALLY upgrade them.

 

But 90% of the time you could not as these laptops got bios locked to ONLY use specific cards and that was that.

 

So yeah whilst you technically could in reality it was near impossible to do so and rarely anyone ever did.

 

Mxm cards have stopped being made a couple years ago for gpu's so there are no new ones out.

[DANK_AS_gay]

14 minutes ago, jaslion said:

These are called mxm cards.

 

You could TECHNICALLY upgrade them.

 

But 90% of the time you could not as these laptops got bios locked to ONLY use specific cards and that was that.

 

So yeah whilst you technically could in reality it was near impossible to do so and rarely anyone ever did.

 

Mxm cards have stopped being made a couple years ago for gpu's so there are no new ones out.

Imagine making a whole new form factor only to lock it down and not allow anyone to use it.

[jaslion]

Just now, DANK_AS_gay said:

Imagine making a whole new form factor only to lock it down and not allow anyone to use it.

The problem also was that there wasn't a standard standard as even when you could upgrade the gpu it didn't mean the cooler would work for it too.

 

In the end it was a nice try but failed due to all the locking down and you not being able to even purchase a mxm card new.

[Biohazard777]

19 minutes ago, DANK_AS_gay said:

Imagine making a whole new form factor only to lock it down and not allow anyone to use it.

It does have one use for the end buyer, easily replaceable.
With a soldered GPU once it dies you either have to replace the whole laptop mobo or pay for very delicate repair... remove the soldered GPU, find a working replacement and then BGA reball the new one on the mobo using special tools, this kind of repair can easily cost you more than a whole used but working laptop mobo.
I personally had an MXM 8600m GT die in a MSI GX700 laptop, ordered a working used MXM card (same model) from ebay for 50$ and replaced it myself in an hour. That laptop still runs today, way better than sending it to a landfill IMHO.

 

16 minutes ago, jaslion said:

The problem also was that there wasn't a standard standard as even when you could upgrade the gpu it didn't mean the cooler would work for it too.

Yep beside cooling problems one more problem people usually don't think about is power delivery.
Hard to justify a larger power brick and over engineered power delivery on the laptop mobo for a part most users will never upgrade.

[jaslion]

11 minutes ago, Biohazard777 said:

Yep beside cooling problems one more problem people usually don't think about is power delivery.
Hard to justify a larger power brick and over engineered power delivery on the laptop mobo for a part most users will never upgrade.

This people managed to get a certain model of msi's big boi gt lineup to accept 900 series cards up from the 700 series it was locked too and SO MANY DIED as A LOT of people tried to put in 980m's and stuff when that laptop was only made for up to a 760m as it came with lower end power delivery.

[BondiBlue]

One common place you'll find these cards is in older iMacs. The Late 2009 through Late 2011 iMacs used MXM GPUs, and it's a good thing as the stock cards are notoriously unreliable. It also allows for upgrading those iMacs with much more powerful GPUs. 

[doubleflower]

On 8/12/2021 at 9:15 PM, jaslion said:

These are called mxm cards.

 

You could TECHNICALLY upgrade them.

 

But 90% of the time you could not as these laptops got bios locked to ONLY use specific cards and that was that.

 

So yeah whilst you technically could in reality it was near impossible to do so and rarely anyone ever did.

 

Mxm cards have stopped being made a couple years ago for gpu's so there are no new ones out.

Even the MXM form factor and its implementations itself are completely different across laptops/AIOs - you simply cannot swap out the MXM card from one machine and use it in another machine without very extensive modifications (ranging from heatsink mods all the way to a display upgrade, due to some modern GPUs do not support LVDS which is used in some older machines) 

[doubleflower]

On 8/12/2021 at 9:15 PM, jaslion said:

These are called mxm cards.

 

You could TECHNICALLY upgrade them.

 

But 90% of the time you could not as these laptops got bios locked to ONLY use specific cards and that was that.

 

So yeah whilst you technically could in reality it was near impossible to do so and rarely anyone ever did.

 

Mxm cards have stopped being made a couple years ago for gpu's so there are no new ones out.

Also, they are very expensive, when you consider that a MXM card can cost the same as an entirely new laptop, not to mention it's not a simple plug and play implementation like regular PCIe graphics cards on desktops due to differing implementations of the MXM standard across laptop models and OEMs

[doubleflower]

On 8/12/2021 at 9:47 PM, Biohazard777 said:

With a soldered GPU once it dies you either have to replace the whole laptop mobo or pay for very delicate repair... remove the soldered GPU, find a working replacement 

A BGA reflow is actually quite a bit cheaper than a laptop board replacement, and MXM cards are not exactly cheap to begin with 

[Biohazard777]

36 minutes ago, doubleflower said:

A BGA reflow is actually quite a bit cheaper than a laptop board replacement.

I said (and described) BGA reballing, not reflow.
Reflow can be done by a trained monkey using a hot air station, it will sometimes work for a few months, sometimes for a few weeks. It can be done more than once but each time can be the last time you do it, and typically each time you do it will fail even faster. Reflow is a band-aid, not a permanent solution.
 

37 minutes ago, doubleflower said:

and MXM cards are not exactly cheap to begin with 

That depends... for some laptop models you can find an MXM GTX 1060 2nd hand for 250-300$, which sure isn't cheap but isn't unreasonable IMHO. I would rather replace that than sell a dead laptop for parts and get a new one for ~900$ (with a 1060 again). And yeah for some models that 1060 MXM would cost 500-600$, that wouldn't make any sense to replace heh.