Feature Articles

World Exclusive Preview: MSI's MXM SLI Card

By Dr. Jimmy Tang - 6 Jan 2006

MXM SLI - The Future?

MXM SLI - The Future?

If you think about it, MXM SLI does open up a lot of possibilities for different sorts of hardware configurations. For one, it shows that you can indeed configure SLI using MXM modules and it will only be a matter of time before notebook manufacturers begin offering gaming laptops with SLI capability. In fact, the thought of an SLI gaming notebook is attractive. Think about it, if you were to purchase a notebook with a GeForce Go 6600 today, a notebook capable of SLI may give you the option to increase its performance by simply adding another similar GeForce Go 6600 MXM card.

Of course, on the desktop side, MXM SLI offers cooler and quieter graphics with fairly good performance. Although it may be viewed as a novelty, we think it's far cooler than any dual GPU cards we have out there. Imagine a card with MXM that uses a simple heatsink and a small fan that's quieter than your regular chassis fan.

MSI told us that the card works just like an SLI setup and it can work with either one MXM for a single GPU setup or two MXM for an SLI configuration. As usual, the SLI rule still applies - you're required to install two identical MXM modules with the same graphics chip and memory capacity.

According to MSI, the card will work with all types of MXM modules too, including MXM Type I, II and III cards. Thus, you can see that MSI has pretty much given the card much flexibility. For cooling, MSI has yet to settle on a viable solution but they have tested it successfully using two small coolers with only a 4cm fan. Of course, with MXM's lower heat output, MSI indicated that they have the intention to use fanless heatsinks. That would ultimately make the world's first fanless SLI card!

The MSI MXM SLi card with two MXM modules installed.

This is not the final installed position. The cards will be fully parallel with the base card when properly installed. The screws on the base card will securely lock the cards in place.

Here's another view of the MXM modules before it's securely fastened to the base card. As you can see, the card will have the usual DVI and analog RGB outputs, along with an S-Video port too.

Here's the rear view of the card.

Judging from what MSI has done with the SLI technology and further extending it to MXM, the future does look promising. We do not know how it will develop, but we're excited that it holds much promise for gaming on the notebook. On the desktop side, it may be a novelty, especially for those who want to have a quiet SLI graphics solution.

Well, that's all we have for you right now. You'll be sure to hear more from us when we actually get hold of a unit to test. Stay tuned folks!

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