interchangable graphic cards between brands?

[EaglePryde]

Just out of curiosity.

On desktop PC's you very much can pop in any graphics card if you have the correct port for it, no matter the brand of the desktop PC

I wonder if this holds true for laptops aswell. I have a MS-1762 Laptop with a GTX 675m inside.

I've seen ASUS Laptops with GTX 780m inside that have the same type of slot. In theory i could push such card inside my graphics slot (i know that it wouldn't fit in the casing) but just in theory..would it work similar like with desktop PC or is there something that makes it impossible to work.

[svl7]

The mobile equivalent to the PCI-e standard is called MXM, current revision is 3.1 (backwards compatible to 3.0). It's a standard that specifies a mechanical and a software interface for mobile GPU modules.

Alienware adheres to those specs pretty well in many of their systems, e.g. AW17, AW18, M18x R1, R2, M17x R2, R3 and R4, M15x.

MSI has shown decent MXM supports as well in the past.

Clevo is a bit weird, while they praise themselves for full MXM compatibility (especially the reseller called eurocom), that's simply not the case. While the mechanical interface is MXM, the software mechanism is crippled in most systems and usually doesn't allow you to get a next-gen or even two gen newer card to work properly. That's really a pity, cause those systems could have great potential if the firmware was as well implemented as in for example AW systems. A reason to restrict MXM functionality is obvious... some OEMs don't want you to be able to upgrade the GPU for years, they want you to buy a new system.

That's why Asus doesn't adhere to the MXM specs AT ALL. Different module size, layout, and especially software interface. No MXM compatibility there.

Tl;dr: Mobile GPU equivalent to desktop PCIe GPUs is called MXM. With Alienware and MSI systems that use MXM you have a good chance that you can upgrade your GPU. With Asus you simply can't. With Clevo it's usually pretty tricky and newer gen cards than the system was shipped with most likely cause issues.

[Khenglish]

in general mxm cards between Dell (Alienware), Clevo, and MSI laptops are interchangeable, with some exceptions. ASUS is NOT included. They sometimes reverse the mxm connector pinout. Even when the pinout is not swapped they will use a different form factor.

The MSI version of the 780m has been confirmed to work in your laptop (see here). Clevo cards and MSI cards are usually identical, or close to identical so I would expect the Clevo card to work as well. I do not know if the Dell version of the 780m will work in your laptop.

[chad720]

Hello guys, I was wondering as i have a dead 9300m gpu on an asus f8s (reverse mxm 2.x) if I could put another mxm not reversed on it (just to try out if mobo is OK). The fact is that the mother seems to boot fine without the gpu (boot sounds) but when I plug in the reverse mxm card it behaves as it has a short somewhere. I allready have a 8600m mxm from an acer, so if somebody have tryed to do the swap between mxm normal and reversed without getting some white smoke with burned silice smelt, then I would like to try it. I had allready searched mxm normal and reversed pinout without luck on the second one, so if anyone can confirm compatibility I would appreciate that.

thanks in advance

Chad