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- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5This is stupid.
You can upgrade your CPU on your motherboard, too. But honestly, who just goes out and buys a faster CPU these days? I dont' think I have EVER done that. When it's time to buy a new CPU, I'm not just looking to jump it 100mghz or something. It usually involves building an entirely new computer, because the CPU I want requires a new motherboard and new RAM. The same will happen with videocards. It will be like upgrading your Schwinn. In the end, it is still just a schwinn - not a motorcycle. - sergio, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Seumas: I've known plenty of people who upgrade processors without needing to upgrade their motherboard. Just because you don't do it, doesn't mean others don't.
- Otto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It's an interesting, but ultimately somewhat useless, idea.
Here's the thing. With graphics cards, you really don't have a lot of middle ground. Either a person needs a gaming card with some hardcore 3d processing, or they don't. There's very little in-between there.
For the person doing 2D only and not playing the heavy 3d gaming, hell, the graphics chip on the motherboard is usually good enough for that. Only reason he'd ever upgrade the graphics is to get, say, DVI or something like that to match his new big LCD monitor. And even then, he's going to go low end.
Now, while there's a big range of prices in the hardcore 3d gaming cards, *all* of the ones made in the last few years have special heatsinks and such attached to them, because they're pumping through huge amounts of power. Many of these have special fans, baffles, ducting, etc. So for these, the card is designed to match the processor in a very important and useful way. Yes, modders tear them apart and watercool the things, but modders do all sorts of crazy *****.
So who's the market for these upgradable cards?
-Not the non-gamers, they're good with what they got, and won't be needing to make their 2D go any faster.
-Not the gamers, their systems almost uniformly require specially designed cards that can deal with the heat they're pumping out.
It's a neat idea, but I think it ignores fundamental facts about the marketplace for graphics cards. Cards are freakin' cheap, the chips are expensive. This sort of upgradable card won't save anybody any money, not really. It's just a way to lock somebody into an "upgradable" solution, where you can only buy the upgrades from a single vendor. - KorbenDallas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2 The graphics card was demonstrated as a conceptual model and the manufacturer did not demonstrate it in work. MSI is known for showcasing products that would never be sold for money.
Damn. - CaptSnuffy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1it seems like MSIs concept stuff is always aimed at providing cutting-edge components with some kind of legacy support. If a company was legitimately developing a upgradaeble gpu system, I would expect something more along the lines of a socket on the motherboard. Why bother with a board to act as a middleman and (likely) cause compatibility issues for the consumer? You'd need to have a graphics board that's compatible with the mobo, and then on top of that you'd need GPU/s compatible with the board. And as other commenters above have already said, upgrading alone can't keep you updated; to prevent your system becoming obsolete you need to replace everything in one shot. This is why I personally think the PC industry sucks. They make these amazing progressions in their technology, charge a huge premium for it, don't drop the old hardware prices much, and then release games that basically force you to pay up for the new hardware or else you can't run them. You would upgrade but that compatibility problem is there, if you want to upgrade your system it's all or nothing, and then it costs even more. I have a solution to the problem that a lot of people are accepting now: boycott the new stuff. Buy your hardware behind what's currently top-of-the-line! You get bang for the buck, and you're telling the PC industry that they need to end this madness. If they aren't making money from this constant push they'll realize what they've done and appeal to the people. It's not going to happen unless a lot of people join in. This is a real problem, these companies are ripping you off. A lot of companies clock back their high end video cards to sell at a lower price, covering mroe of the market and making more money. It costs them extra to clock back that card, and then they sell it for less. If they could sell that at the lower price while still making a profit, why can't they sell the better stuff at those prices too? It's because they still sell the high end at the high price, and while people buy it, they'll sell it.
- KorbenDallas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@vonskippy
Here's your upgradeable keyboard:
http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/ - Zaitsevs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1yeah Seumas
have you ever overclocked your video card?
100mhz makes a difference if it's ram. - vonskippy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Wow, I can't wait for the MSI keyboard with upgradeable keys. In other words, this is another useless tech gimmick that will never see actual shelf space.
- Matt2k, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I went to upgrade my motherboard last week from an Athlon XP 2500/Abit only to discover that it was hard to still get the right socket to fit the CPU. So I had to get an Athlon 64 while I was at it. Oh, and of course the new motherboards don't support AGP either, so I have to buy a PCI Express video card to replace it.
I mean, it's not like the XP2500 was really that old, and I probably could have picked a supported MB from newegg, but the system was dead in the water and it was Saturday morning and I needed something fast, so I could work on Monday. Local shops don't bother carrying that older stuff anymore.
Upgrading is rarely worth the effort. I know that's what everyone SAYS when they build their own computer, but in reality, it almost never works out that way. Who's going to put a shiny new processor in their system when your drives are running on some 40GB platform, for example. There's always another bottleneck somewhere. - Bluezdood, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Seumas,
I would have to disagree. Currently there are motherboards (like mine) that support more than one family of processors, namely socket-939. It would indeed make sense for me to upgrade to a cpu with a different core (which I plan on doing) or perhaps even make the jump to dual core. Don't start out buying limited or cheap components, and suddenly upgradability makes sense. - Osiriscky3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1my god the son of a bitch has done it
- tmcleroy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0that'd be cool if it works
- Jalada, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I think this is more of a proof-of-concept (as the article suggests), rather than an actual viable product. It's cool that it can be done, but I don't think I'd buy one.
People have referenced to the old Voodoo cards. Anyone thinking what I'm thinking, and that this could actually have been an idea from Voodoo that has moved to MSI, when Voodoo developers scattered from their company closing down? Do I remember rightly that they had some secret projects people never knew about? - sung, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0wow that's a long card, still not as long as my 3dfx voodoo card
- ceekay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Stupid... all the board is besides the memory and GPU is some interconnects. After a couple years of a graphics card burning away in your PCI-X slot, the solder & leads are probably getting old and could use a replacement.
- Vektuz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is ridiculous
* Firstly, you're not upgrading when you replace those mini boards. They are new video cards, plugged into a minimal framework. You're really buying a new video card each time. The cost will probably be about the same. There is therefore no benefit - except that you're locked into buying only their products.
* Secondly, some of the greatest gains in performance and detail are to do with not just whats on the chips, but the very layout of the boards and the pipeline itself, which will not be alterable with those boards.
* Finally, due to the plugin architecture, performance is guarinteed to suffer. in addition, it will not outlast the next generation of socket types, etc... - kris2pe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0What a show-off!!!
Hey I'm MSI I got this cool device that everyone wants & needs! But I won't sell it muhahaah!!!
What a joke!!! What a waste of RD expense!!! What a... am (Lost 4 words) DIGG!!! - LooterMcBeer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It even says its not for production
- lowbot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0>The performance gain in one generation of processors is not enough to justify dishing out another
Athlon 1400 (or something crappy like that) to a 2800 makes quite a bit of difference for what I use my machine for. If all you do is play videos and browse the web, then keep buying new low-end machines as they come out. - Guspaz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Has nobody noticed that MXM modules cost even more than desktop graphics cards that have similar GPUs? So to upgrade this "videocard" would cost more than buying a new card.
- RWVolkl158, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Seems like this would be a lot more useful if they just made standard video cards with expandable memory slots (today)... Say the card ships with 256MB of memory on board, then you could double it or something on your own. It still might not be all that useful, but it would make more sense to more people than this.
- joey222, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0this is a good idea but not worth the cost.
And GPU take a major leap sp fast this days, this kit wont be off any use for the money for it - sephiroth99, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0 dstart wrote:
"Holy ***** thats hot!"
And big... look at that! It would go right it the hdd bay area! - Tweekster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Seumas:
what are you babbling about.
just because you dont do something does not mean you are representative of that market.
you dont count in that market essentially. people like me who do throw a new cpu in because its a cheap upgrade to do are this particular market.
most graphics card dont offer anything to me. i could care less about gettinga new one, but getting some more power for the right price is a good thing. - Mookid77, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yep I found an upgradeable video card went from 2MB to 8MB! Woot!
- Punisher2K, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0An upgradable card that will cost as much to upgrade as getting a new card.
What a bargain. - kamisama, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0ohyeah if they bring that out thats just another thing they can change the socket for every 6 months forcing you to upgrade ...
- pcgeek101, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0For years adorers of powerful graphics boards wished that they could only replace graphics chip and memory on their adapters without dumping the whole product.
- Rhomboid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I have a Matrox Millennium card from 1996 that was upgradable with a daughtercard. And guess what, I used it to add more video RAM. This is nothing new.
- KevinJ, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0umm... u can make ur shwin a motorcycle if u clip a baseball card near the back tire!
- h4lofourt33n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Very Cool, however, that thing is massive!
- notkevin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I can see upgradable RAM, but not GPU. Remove the RAM and GPU and what is left? $20 worth of stuff? I could have swore I had a graphics card about 15 years ago that had upgradable memory, I believe I had 128k in it.
- Tobey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Remove the RAM and GPU and what is left? $20 worth of stuff?"
Exactly. I think It's a dumb idea. - mianos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The cost of the GPU and RAM are 99% of the cost of the card. Wow, for the small cost of a completely new card minus 1% you will be able to upgrade your old card! Value nup, not dugg.
- ByteGuerilla, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Great... now they just need to start producing worthwhile graphics components :P
- Argentice, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It's not just useful for upgrading, it's also useful when buying new. -- It gives you the option of choosing what clock speed you can afford together with a cheap "mother"board, which are all the same so can be made more cheaply.
- mono, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The cost of a graphics card is the GPU and memory. Who frickin cares if you toss the whole card, or just the GPU/Mem to swap it out? It's still gonna cost the same.
- culebra, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0That pic reminds me of the fabled computers of yore. You know those BIG ass ones that did....things. I dunno maybe a modem, or even a hard drive controller. Yah, those were the days.
- sergio, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Seumas: It really depends on what you start off with. I can see your point to an extent since I am completely rebuilding a machine right now. However, my new motherboard supports Athlon 64, FX, and X2. If I were on a tight budget right now, I would go with the 64, then upgrade later, selling the 64 or reusing it on a slower box with other spare parts I have around the house. But I'm not on a budget, so I got an X2, and the next rebuild in a few years would most likely entail a new motherboard again.
I think this is kind of nifty. Not really for the GPU, since that is the bulk of the cost in a card. What I'd like is the ability to add more VRAM to a card. - covrigel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0that thing is huge!
- coolguy69, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0look at the size of it.. reminds me of the voodoo 5'ies
- AETAaAS, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Ive used MSI graphic cards, and mobos, so I dug this :D
I must say, its a pretty interesting concept, but Im worried that the infrastructure of the base card may not keep up with the GPU and RAM technologies to come. - vernsan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I wish they made gpu for most laptops out there easy to replace like ram. Just plug in and you got yourself a new video card with better than before performance.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Oh that is so cool. probably not worth the cost tho..
- robbh66, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@dwebtron
Its plausible, but pointless. CPUs and GPUs are both animals, but two completly different species. Like getting a dog to pull a plow and an ox to watch the home at night. - c0uchm0nster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Lots of people commenting have valid points:
MSI is known for not following through with concepts they show off.
Laptop gpu's are slightly more limited and harder to get ahold of than desktop graphics cards.
HOWEVER, a lot of the comments are idiots who either didn't read the article or don't know much about the components involved.
The system uses Nvidia MXM. This is not new/cutting-edge tech. This is just new in the desktop pc area. In fact, if you have a laptop with an Nvidia graphics card, you're using a system similar to this card right now. Now then: the MXM interface is backwards compatible, which means MXM HE (I just scanned the article, I'm guessing that's what this card uses) will run almost any nvidia go cards (which I think started way back 6-7 card generations ago?). So there's your upgradability. True, the system isn't for "power gamers" (aka rich kids) who spend $1200 on the latest and greatest sli setup, another $800 on the cpu, and $400 for the motherboard and ram. For example, a couple of my clients have had me upgrade their graphics multiple times for their child's latest videogame. They started with onboard, moved to bottom of the barrel to save money, moved up a step or two when that didn't work for the next game, etc etc. The whole time I didn't have to touch anything else on their systems besides the graphics... So yes, we know it's not a plausible technology for power gamers, but when has a money-saving product EVER been the right choice for that 2% of the market? - Dustyb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Ever since I got their K8N Platinum I've liked MSI, now Im in love.
- shiftless, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Guh, what would be the point? First you'd buy the card with the first generation of chips, then get replacement chips
But who do you sell the first generation of chips to?
I'd rather just upgrade in whole cards. - nogami, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0So you upgrade the CPU and memory modules... Leaving the board the modules plug into, which is likely worth almost nothing because it contains nothing except for the slot interface and some power filters and such...
I can't see this being a big savings over just buying a new card... - SweetsGreen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Cool, but not really practical.....unless the chip/memory upgrade was really cheap (less than $100), I'd rather buy a new card for 2-300 and be sure I'm getting the faster card for my money.
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