A solution for iMac, iBook and PowerBook upgrading desires?

rolandgrolandg
Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
Hi there!



Just found this article at the German heise-Website:



It's about the upcoming NXM pseudo-standard introduced by nVidia to broaden the ease of integrating graphics hardware into notebooks.



It basically is a PCI-Express connector with added channels for the display output. The standrd also defines the cards specifications to be used in the slot.



This standardisation could lead to universal interchangeability. If it weren't for the main "Mac problem", the Video-BIOS.



Another problem is that NXM still is a proprietary pseudo-standard and nVidia seems to be unwilling to open it up to its competitors namely ATI.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    ~ufo~~ufo~ Posts: 245member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by RolandG

    Hi there!



    Just found this article at the German heise-Website:







    Don't you mean German Scheisse website?



  • Reply 2 of 8
    rolandgrolandg Posts: 632member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ~ufo~

    Don't you mean German Scheisse website?







    Heise actually is one of Europe's largest tech-related newsservice. If you meant "Scheiße" as in making stuff up, be assured that they don't.
  • Reply 3 of 8
    ~ufo~~ufo~ Posts: 245member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by RolandG

    Heise actually is one of Europe's largest tech-related newsservice. If you meant "Scheiße" as in making stuff up, be assured that they don't.



    hehehe, nevermind, it was a wink @ southpark.

    I haven't a clue who Heise are and therefore have nothing against them.



    only messing
  • Reply 4 of 8
    ensign pulverensign pulver Posts: 1,193member
    [Cartman] Mom, if you were in a German Sheisse video you would tell me right? [/Cartman]
  • Reply 5 of 8
    rolandgrolandg Posts: 632member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Ensign Pulver

    [Cartman] Mom, if you were in a German Sheisse video you would tell me right? [/Cartman]



    Must have missed that episode then. Or maybe they didn't broadcast this season over here yet.



    But back on topic: What's your opinion on NXM?
  • Reply 6 of 8
    a j steva j stev Posts: 79member
    Sure, its a good idea, but will it be adopted? I have my doubts.



    You would think that Steve and Mr Ive would question the tech and the cost (of development and the cost of the GPU) to do this. They sell notebooks for the practicality and the profit margin, not the upgradability \ If they were going to do this, they would have to keep it to the 15" and 17" Pbooks. No room for it on 12" or 14" ibooks / Pbooks



    There is also the question of power usage...the german site refers to MXMs using between 19 and 45 watts Thats as much as the CPU! What about battery life...isn't it crappy enough already in the Pbooks. Plenty of people seem unimpressed with 2.5 hours in the latest manifestation.



    OK...that's apparently less than desktops, but what do current GPUs (ATI 9200s and 9600s as well as Nvidia Go5200) use power wise?
  • Reply 7 of 8
    rolandgrolandg Posts: 632member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by a j stev

    Sure, its a good idea, but will it be adopted? I have my doubts.



    You would think that Steve and Mr Ive would question the tech and the cost (of development and the cost of the GPU) to do this. They sell notebooks for the practicality and the profit margin, not the upgradability \



    This is basically a process of standardization like adopting PCI, USB et al.. Usually this lowers the prices because manufacturers don't need to think about how to integrate all the graphics related stuff (RAM, GPU etc.) and the graphics module would be produced in much higher amounts because every notebook maker will use them.



    Quote:

    If they were going to do this, they would have to keep it to the 15" and 17" Pbooks. No room for it on 12" or 14" ibooks / Pbooks



    There is also the question of power usage...the german site refers to MXMs using between 19 and 45 watts Thats as much as the CPU! What about battery life...isn't it crappy enough already in the Pbooks. Plenty of people seem unimpressed with 2.5 hours in the latest manifestation.



    OK...that's apparently less than desktops, but what do current GPUs (ATI 9200s and 9600s as well as Nvidia Go5200) use power wise?



    How much do current models consume? I think it does not really matter (power consumption wise) whether GPUs come in standard (MXN-)modules or whether the manufacturers integrate the GPUs directly. If the next generation of mobile GPUs is to consume 19 to 45 watts there is little Apple can do about it.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    mmmpiemmmpie Posts: 628member
    Apple would be idiots not to use it. Just like they use SO-DIMMs for memory, they will need to move to socketed graphics for notebooks.



    Reason number one: when ATI or Nvidia release a new chip Apple can implement it in their product line without a logicboard redesign.



    They also achieve economies of scale by being able to purchase a large number of cards ( into the future ) and as time goes by that single product can move down the product line ( starts in the high end laptop, ends in the low end laptop ) without any hardware design work being done to facilitate that migration.
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