Cheapest laptop with a replaceable 16x pci express video card?

[RockGuitarDude]

what makes a laptop's dedicated gpu replaceable? can all of them be swapped? I am interested in a 16x pci-express one so I can upgrade in the future to the next gen cards.

Thanks all!
Jason

 

[V00D00]

Sorry bud, but that doesn't exist.

 

[RockGuitarDude]

what about all the ones with the dedicated x700 mobile? they cant be upgraded? why have I seen an upgrade for a dell for a 9800 card...

 

[RockGuitarDude]

???

 

[Matthias99]

There are a handful of laptops using NVIDIA and ATI-specific upgrade modules, but they're pretty rare and I'm not sure any upgrades are available for them yet. I'm sure if you look at some recent laptop reviews you'll find them.

There hasn't really been an 'official' spec for replacable laptop graphics yet.

 

[RaiderJ]

I think NVIDIA is working on the "MXM", or something like that. Supposed to be three different sized modules for different cards. Maybe then we'll have desktop-like flexibility in a laptop.

 

[WW2Planes1]

I think that ATI and NVIDIA each have their own specs for "upgradable" laptop graphics.
Both of these are based off of PCI-Express technology, but I'm pretty certain that each is proprietary.
NVidia's is called "MXM", ATI's is "AXIOM".
All of ATI's X series mobility cards (Radeon Mobility X300, X600, X700, and X800) support AXIOM, however, I don't know if all notebooks with Mobility Xx00 GPUs have AXIOM, or if it's merely an option that the manufacturer can support if they so choose.
Nvidia's Geforce GO6xxx series are most likely the only ones to support MXM (I don't think they extended support to previous versions of their mobile GPUs).
ATI says that AXIOM includes "FlexFit" which basically means that all of the Mobility cards are the same size and thus completely interchangeable. (I don't know, however, if the cooling solution that comes with your Mobility X300 will be robust enough to cool the X800 you upgrade to). I'm pretty certain MXM is similar but I can't find that specifically stated on Nvidia's website.

I don't know what the cheapest notebook is, but it would probably have either a Mobility X300 or a Go6200.