Need advice on these RTX cards from Goofish. (M17x r4 120hz eDP)

[Mikiiiiiii]

Hi Everyone! 

 

I am new to NBT and have been researching alot about the Alienware m17x R4 and mxm gpus. I had no idea this forum existed until a week or so ago and so far its been an amazing resource for helping me learn about notebooks & gpus. 

 

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone here ever bought an mxm card off goofish?  (Chinese ebay so to speak). And if so, did you have any problems? (Service, gpu issues, etc). I've stumbled upon this listing for an "eDP compatible" RTX 3060m MXM GPU: 

https://www.goofish.com/item?spm=a21ybx.search.searchFeedList.1.42b83008AFGGvR&id=714262546456&categoryId=126856282

 

Do you think this is legitimate? It's definitely a Frankenstein card so one has to question it's quality. But would this be able to work in an Alienware m17x R4 w/ 120hz 3D Screen? Anyone willing to try lol? The die is definitely offset and would require some heatsink/chassis modding. However, the RTX 3050ti card seems to be perfect by the looks of it. 

 

I also found a HP Quadro RTX 4000 MXM gpu that looks like a bargain. Even comes with it's own heatsink, perfect for use in an MXM PCIe adapter card. I'm not sure how rare the RTX 4000 cards are as alot of posts talk about the 3000/5000 cards but not the 4000. Rumours also have it that HP RTX Quadro cards can support internal eDP displays with the correct vbios, which is a huge +1 for me. However this is unconfirmed, so if anyone has any info, please feel free to shout out!

 

https://www.goofish.com/item?spm=a21ybx.search.searchFeedList.1.42b83008AFGGvR&id=714262546456&categoryId=126856282

 

Any tips & advice would be greatly appreciated! I just want to be as informed as possible before making a large financial decision !

 

Apologies if I'm breaking any rules with the link posting & advertising and whatnot.

 

Thanks!

 

[GuitarG]

HP one is Quality Sample, because it is "Model 0MB" and additionaly first Rev (A). HP Quadro RTX surely supports eDP, though. I'm using one taken from Zbook 17 G6 in my 8570W. Remember that you have a lot of modification to do with it. X clamp is 5mm offset, so are two mounting points too.

As for green RTX I don't know anything I could help with.

[Mikiiiiiii]

3 hours ago, GuitarG said:

HP one is Quality Sample, because it is "Model 0MB" and additionaly first Rev (A). HP Quadro RTX surely supports eDP, though. I'm using one taken from Zbook 17 G6 in my 8570W. Remember that you have a lot of modification to do with it. X clamp is 5mm offset, so are two mounting points too.

As for green RTX I don't know anything I could help with.

 

Interesting...

 

That confidence in HP Quadro RTX cards being supported by eDP is all I need. Happy to go the extra mile to perform all the necessary modifications. I was even looking at some schematics for the ZBook 17 G6 and it seems like it does support it (at least for your Dell). However, I've heard that even if it does, it needs to be on the same display channel? DP_C if I recall correctly. I wonder what mods would need to be done if that turns out to be the case. 

 

On eBay, you have HP Quadro RTX 5000 cards going for $800 AUD!! So this one seems like a steal - providing it's not cooked. I wonder if there's any difference in performance or reliability with QS vs normal cards too.

 

I'll probably try get in contact with the seller for more details just so I don't end up falling for a scam lol. 

 

Thanks for the reply!

[GuitarG]

Quadro cards are (or at least were) a lot more tested for high quality and reliability. They are made from better silicon dies than consumer grade chips. My previous Quadro P5200 had almost a non existent resistance on VCore, it was much more efficient than typical GPU.

For your question, it depends on how your laptop generate graphical output. There are generally 2 ways, using internal GPU as internal display driver or dedicated GPU only. With first one you can safely assume most GPUs will work. With second options, you have to be careful. Mxm card have to use correct vbios and drive internal display.
On schematic you can read that laptop can output in serveral ways, you can disable Intel iGPU and use eDP-dGPU only.

Quality Samples may don't have *final* specs - in worst case you may have downclocked GPU, no Nvidia PhysX, Raytracing etc.  It depends

[Mikiiiiiii]

8 hours ago, GuitarG said:

Quadro cards are (or at least were) a lot more tested for high quality and reliability. They are made from better silicon dies than consumer grade chips. My previous Quadro P5200 had almost a non existent resistance on VCore, it was much more efficient than typical GPU.

For your question, it depends on how your laptop generate graphical output. There are generally 2 ways, using internal GPU as internal display driver or dedicated GPU only. With first one you can safely assume most GPUs will work. With second options, you have to be careful. Mxm card have to use correct vbios and drive internal display.
On schematic you can read that laptop can output in serveral ways, you can disable Intel iGPU and use eDP-dGPU only.

Quality Samples may don't have *final* specs - in worst case you may have downclocked GPU, no Nvidia PhysX, Raytracing etc.  It depends

 

Yeah, almost anything can work in SG mode with the right drivers, with some caveats being slight performance loss here and there. 

 

Looking at the schematic for the Alienware m17x R4, it says that it's using normal DisplayPort with the PS8321 mux switch?  I've read that they're electrically the same so it would make sense. Just wondering if this opens the possibility of using other RTX Quadro cards that have only DP 1.4 outputs - providing they don't have some nvidia whitelisting, electrical incompatibility, and what not.

 

I'm glad I didn't immediately impulse buy that GPU then, it's probably marked down so much because its missing something. What model & revision is your HP card? There's another card on eBay that's Rev D Model XW3E, but I'm not sure what differences it has compared to every other revision. 

 

Cheers.

[GuitarG]

8 hours ago, Mikiiiiiii said:

 

I'm glad I didn't immediately impulse buy that GPU then, it's probably marked down so much because its missing something. What model & revision is your HP card? There's another card on eBay that's Rev D Model XW3E, but I'm not sure what differences it has compared to every other revision.

I have same model & revision, so that one seems more safe choice. Differences are much more stable behavior, hardware bugs fixed. Using my P5200 as example, in rev A that card would burn its power delivery if used with +90W bios. With rev D it could use 110W for long time with no problem.

Model and revision says about board, not core used.

It is true about perfomance loss in SG, up to 15%.

For that alienware it seems you may have two options: 1. two board versions, one for edp other for lvds 2. one board version using single connector and two different lcd cables (like my HP). With eDP you would have much more LCD panels to choose from (LVDS is on its last breath).
DP signals are different than embededd DP, eDP drives with PWM internal LCD brightness, use of closed-lid hall effect swtich for turning it off when closed, most important ones.

[Mikiiiiiii]

19 hours ago, GuitarG said:

I have same model & revision, so that one seems more safe choice. Differences are much more stable behavior, hardware bugs fixed. Using my P5200 as example, in rev A that card would burn its power delivery if used with +90W bios. With rev D it could use 110W for long time with no problem.

Model and revision says about board, not core used.

It is true about perfomance loss in SG, up to 15%.

For that alienware it seems you may have two options: 1. two board versions, one for edp other for lvds 2. one board version using single connector and two different lcd cables (like my HP). With eDP you would have much more LCD panels to choose from (LVDS is on its last breath).
DP signals are different than embededd DP, eDP drives with PWM internal LCD brightness, use of closed-lid hall effect swtich for turning it off when closed, most important ones.

 

No worries. I'll play it safe and wait for a more reasonable deal for your revision of card to show up on eBay. As for Goofish, it seems like a lot of people had headaches trying to buy something from their storefront, sometimes not receiving the correct item or having to go through a proxy due to their international payment method not working. 

 

I appreciate the feedback. Thanks to your advice I feel much more informed now. Hopefully I'll be able to track one down soon and maybe use this thread to report my findings!