Using MXM GPU to PCIE...Anyone?

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fminus

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Oct 27, 2015
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I cam across this today.

Has anybody any experience with using one of them? I had an idea of getting one and throwing a 970m .

This is to have a "powerful" GPU with a low TDP that that is smaller than a full sized one.

Thoughts?
 
That's pretty cool!

What kindof cooler are you planning on mounting on this? Are you just trying slim everything down?

Otherwise, you could consider under clocking a normal GTX 970 to get to the ~100W range and mounting a slimmer cooler.

For example, if you did this with a mini GTX 970 it would probably be cheaper and have a smaller footprint.
 
Well, I have emailed/skype the owner of the mentioned URL with no luck. I haven't really thought of a cooler yet. I would think some heatsync pads...and some third party gpu cooler. GTX 970 I had before..the mini gigabyte one..HATED it..Super loud. The ideal ..IDEAL setup would be a streacom FC8 Evo fanless. Cut a hole in the back where the vents are and mount a card there horizontally.
 
The 970m isn't equivalent to a desktop 970, though it's still no slouch.

Unless you already have a spare 970m, you're much better off buying a "proper" desktop card as it is likely to run substantially cooler/quieter and offer better performance. Once you put enough fan on that thing to get good temps you will be just as loud.

It's a neat idea, but more of a "solution in search of a problem" I think, now that there are "mini" variants of cards like the Fury Nano out there.

If the mini desktop cards are too loud for you the solution is an AIO water loop.
 
Silent-circuit: I ended purchasing another GPU that has one of those semi passive...0db mode. The reason I was looking into the MXM route, because I want to fit it to fit in a case thats aesthetically pleasing to me. This is purely a personal reason, and I know there are other solutions out there (Such as the fury nano) you mentioned.
 
Would the MXM card really be that much smaller than something like a Nano, though? I guess that's where I get confused.
 
I have 3 of these such/similar boards for engineering / R&D / OEM purposes.

Unless you know what you are doing, I strongly suggest you don't buy any of those MXM adapter cards (just so you can normally use an MXM card on a desktop, unless you are doing super basic troubleshooting such as testing if the MXM card powers up from a consumers point of view), otherwise you are throwing money away.

For one thing, the adapter cards are gigantic. They are not made so you can actually close it up into a desktop case with the side panel on.

Here, I took a picture of mines just as an example.
qMYQOfK.jpg




silent-circuit said:
Would the MXM card really be that much smaller than something like a Nano, though?
Click to expand...

It can be, see the GTX 980 (notebook) and the GTX 980M as an example.
 
Notebook GPUs are more expensive for less performance as well. For example the GTX 960m and GTX 750TI are the same chip and perform basically identically (I have both).

If you want a really cool desktop GPU, maybe just pick up one of those. The 750TI runs very cool, even if you overclock the hell out of it.
 
evt said:
Unless you know what you are doing, I strongly suggest you don't buy any of those MXM adapter cards (just so you can normally use an MXM card on a desktop, unless you are doing super basic troubleshooting such as testing if the MXM card powers up from a consumers point of view), otherwise you are throwing money away.
Click to expand...

So are you suggesting that these adapters just don't work for continuous use? Do the operate at full x16 bandwidth? Are the display ports and HDMI ports up to spec?

Otherwise, what would be the problem as long as you found an appropriate cooler?
 
jb1 said:
So are you suggesting that these adapters just don't work for continuous use? Do the operate at full x16 bandwidth? Are the display ports and HDMI ports up to spec?

Otherwise, what would be the problem as long as you found an appropriate cooler?
Click to expand...

The adapters should work for continuous use, they are all pinned out for 16x lanes and the DP/HDMI ports 'should' be in spec.

One of the biggest problems is the vBIOS and/or uncertainty with custom MXM cards. All MXM cards typically have a fixed output display protocol that dictated by said vBIOS.

For example, you buy a MXM adapter card that has DVI plugs but the MXM GPU is set for DisplayPort. (or even worse, you have a MXM GPU that has a custom pin-out).
 
evt said:
The adapters should work for continuous use, they are all pinned out for 16x lanes and the DP/HDMI ports 'should' be in spec.

One of the biggest problems is the vBIOS and/or uncertainty with custom MXM cards. All MXM cards typically have a fixed output display protocol that dictated by said vBIOS.

For example, you buy a MXM adapter card that has DVI plugs but the MXM GPU is set for DisplayPort. (or even worse, you have a MXM GPU that has a custom pin-out).
Click to expand...

Thank you for this, I was just going to ask about continous use with them. Would you happen to have a rough estimate on the dimensions of the card?

Also...when you mentioned vBios, is that why companies like this ask about output configurations?
 
fminus said:
Thank you for this, I was just going to ask about continous use with them. Would you happen to have a rough estimate on the dimensions of the card?
Click to expand...

The biggest one with the double-width is 8" x 12", the smallest (blue) one is 7" x 9"

fminus said:
Also...when you mentioned vBios, is that why companies like this ask about output configurations?
Click to expand...
Yup.
 
Evt: Thank you so much for that. I would like to order a card sometime in the future, but it seems all these places have a minimum order of 10 cards...do you know where I can get just one?
 
fminus said:
Evt: Thank you so much for that. I would like to order a card sometime in the future, but it seems all these places have a minimum order of 10 cards...do you know where I can get just one?
Click to expand...

Not really, the MXM adapter boards are not meant for consumer/end-users.

They are for engineering/development/OEM purposes.
 
You wouldn't be able to sell one of the many cards you have? :) But side note, what is the general price of one?
 
evt said:
I have 3 of these such/similar boards for engineering / R&D / OEM purposes.

Unless you know what you are doing, I strongly suggest you don't buy any of those MXM adapter cards (just so you can normally use an MXM card on a desktop, unless you are doing super basic troubleshooting such as testing if the MXM card powers up from a consumers point of view), otherwise you are throwing money away.
Click to expand...

Is there anything special to do for these desktop-MXM adpaters to work? I got a couple of the Red (AMD) "Eurocom" boards from ebay, and a few MXM3 cards (all AMD Radeon types for now), but my test rig does not boot if this is installed. It boots fine without it installed, using the motherboard Intel-based VGA port, and it also does boot fine with Radeon HD6xxx generation desktop board or an Nvidia Quadro 600 desktop board.

My test rig is an oldish Core2-duo generation tower. Is this maybe just too old? This test rig is my first line of defense to check aliveness and safety of ebay cards won't destroy my mor eexpensive development systems...
Would any BIOS trickery do any good?
Would a newer test rig motherboard be better? (It does work with desktop HD6xxx generation newer than the HD5450 MXM card that fails to boot)

The MXM3 cards I am testing are Radeon HD5450, HD6970, E9260, WX7100, all from Ebay, and am waiting on HD7970 to ship, may take a while during the plague...

I am not experienced with these adapters or with MXM3 cards, and need to learn. The adapters did not come with any instructions, but does light up. I do have a 6pin power wire connected in addition to the motherboard PCIe slot connection.

I appreciate any advice!

(I am interested in these for engineering and driver purposes related to project at https://www.powerpc-notebook.org/en/ )
 
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