World Exclusive: MSI Geminium-Go (MXM SLI Card)

Speeding Up Notebook Graphics – The MXM Route

Until about two years ago, mobile graphics subsystems have always lagged the mainstream dedicated graphics cards on the desktop, let alone the top-end gaming cards. This gulf in graphics processing capability in the mobile front was solely due to technical and cost limitation issues that revolved around reducing the footprint required, graphics interface as well as cooling the dedicated graphics unit within the notebook. However, advances in semiconductor process, graphics and packaging technologies together with the standardization of mobile graphics modules since 2004 have greatly pushed forth advanced dedicated graphics options in many current notebooks. Case in point is NVIDIA's MXM graphics module.

Ever since the debut of the MXM graphics modules, the time to deliver a mobile GPU that's of equivalent standing to its desktop counterpart has been steadily declining and that's all thanks to the electromechanical specifications laid down for the adoption of MXM graphics modules. By standardizing the module's size, its retention mechanism, the electrical power envelope and cooling requirements, manufacturers need only design their notebooks based on the MXM specifications and can forego grappling with any other technicalities. Thus, it's no surprise to find notebooks offering best-in-class graphics such as the GeForce Go 7800 series, which would definitely leave the vast majority of ready-to-order desktops systems in the dust.

With laptop graphics subsystems rivaling desktop platforms, dual graphics technology is probably the last frontier that's yet to materialize on the mobile front. Although mobile graphics modules have advanced just as fast as the desktop counterparts, the need to further double up graphics processing power on the go hasn’t really existed outside the very niche group of hardcore LAN party users. However NVIDIA has already made known in the distant past that SLI on notebooks is just a matter of time and though it's not exactly to address the benchmark-maniacs, it would serve as an excellent upgrade path whereby consumers having MXM based notebooks, can plug in an additional MXM module of an identical class and they've instantly got themselves an SLI notebook with double the graphics crunching throughput. This greatly extends the lifespan of a notebook from its initial configuration. Now take this very same concept and repackage it for the desktop computers and what you get is our recently previewed MSI Geminium-Go that rides on the PCIe x16 bus and can accommodate up to two MXM modules and have them operate in SLI configuration.

Why MXM On The Desktop?

While most desktop computers have the luxury of space to accept various expansion cards, including graphics cards in all sorts of sizes, they are also unfortunately rather power hungry (or even power-inefficient for some models) and more often than not, come with coolers that spoil the silent computing movement these days. MSI's Geminium-Go attempts to overcome these issues by adopting MXM graphics modules for the desktop space.

You would have to note that the notebook graphics processors and the MXM graphics modules themselves are very highly optimized for low power consumption and low heat output. It is for these reasons that notebook graphics parts cost more than their desktop equivalents for they have to meet more rigorous standards. Given these characteristics, MSI sees that there's a likely market space in the desktop segment who would appreciate the use of mobile graphics modules. In our own view, we already notice the trend in desktop systems reducing in size, form factor and even take into consideration of system acoustics. For those building small form factor systems, power isn't a luxury and the lower the power requirements of the parts that makeup the system, the more reliable the SFF is in the long run where there the reserve power may be put to better use for further expansion in the future.

Looking at this in another perspective, ever wondered why the Intel Pentium-M processor is so sought after by enthusiasts despite the fact it is an expensive notebook processor? Again, the same reasons crop up which include low heat/noise output, reduced power consumption (as opposed to the regular desktop CPUs) and the chance to overclock the processor to ridiculous limits thanks to good engineering.

Speeding Up Notebook Graphics – The MXM Route

Until about two years ago, mobile graphics subsystems have always lagged the mainstream dedicated graphics cards on the desktop, let alone the top-end gaming cards. This gulf in graphics processing capability in the mobile front was solely due to technical and cost limitation issues that revolved around reducing the footprint required, graphics interface as well as cooling the dedicated graphics unit within the notebook. However, advances in semiconductor process, graphics and packaging technologies together with the standardization of mobile graphics modules since 2004 have greatly pushed forth advanced dedicated graphics options in many current notebooks. Case in point is NVIDIA's MXM graphics module.

Ever since the debut of the MXM graphics modules, the time to deliver a mobile GPU that's of equivalent standing to its desktop counterpart has been steadily declining and that's all thanks to the electromechanical specifications laid down for the adoption of MXM graphics modules. By standardizing the module's size, its retention mechanism, the electrical power envelope and cooling requirements, manufacturers need only design their notebooks based on the MXM specifications and can forego grappling with any other technicalities. Thus, it's no surprise to find notebooks offering best-in-class graphics such as the GeForce Go 7800 series, which would definitely leave the vast majority of ready-to-order desktops systems in the dust.

With laptop graphics subsystems rivaling desktop platforms, dual graphics technology is probably the last frontier that's yet to materialize on the mobile front. Although mobile graphics modules have advanced just as fast as the desktop counterparts, the need to further double up graphics processing power on the go hasn’t really existed outside the very niche group of hardcore LAN party users. However NVIDIA has already made known in the distant past that SLI on notebooks is just a matter of time and though it's not exactly to address the benchmark-maniacs, it would serve as an excellent upgrade path whereby consumers having MXM based notebooks, can plug in an additional MXM module of an identical class and they've instantly got themselves an SLI notebook with double the graphics crunching throughput. This greatly extends the lifespan of a notebook from its initial configuration. Now take this very same concept and repackage it for the desktop computers and what you get is our recently previewed MSI Geminium-Go that rides on the PCIe x16 bus and can accommodate up to two MXM modules and have them operate in SLI configuration.

Why MXM On The Desktop?

While most desktop computers have the luxury of space to accept various expansion cards, including graphics cards in all sorts of sizes, they are also unfortunately rather power hungry (or even power-inefficient for some models) and more often than not, come with coolers that spoil the silent computing movement these days. MSI's Geminium-Go attempts to overcome these issues by adopting MXM graphics modules for the desktop space.

You would have to note that the notebook graphics processors and the MXM graphics modules themselves are very highly optimized for low power consumption and low heat output. It is for these reasons that notebook graphics parts cost more than their desktop equivalents for they have to meet more rigorous standards. Given these characteristics, MSI sees that there's a likely market space in the desktop segment who would appreciate the use of mobile graphics modules. In our own view, we already notice the trend in desktop systems reducing in size, form factor and even take into consideration of system acoustics. For those building small form factor systems, power isn't a luxury and the lower the power requirements of the parts that makeup the system, the more reliable the SFF is in the long run where there the reserve power may be put to better use for further expansion in the future.

Looking at this in another perspective, ever wondered why the Intel Pentium-M processor is so sought after by enthusiasts despite the fact it is an expensive notebook processor? Again, the same reasons crop up which include low heat/noise output, reduced power consumption (as opposed to the regular desktop CPUs) and the chance to overclock the processor to ridiculous limits thanks to good engineering.

The Driver Panel

Of course no normal drivers would recognize this specialty graphics card, so MSI shipped us an appropriate set of drivers, which turned out to be ForceWare version 77.72 with support for the MSI Geminium-Go. Here's a few screenshots that highlight some the more pertinent details of the card:-

Test Setup

We tested the MSI Geminium-Go on an MSI K8N Diamond (nForce4 SLI) motherboard with an Athlon 64 3500+ CPU and 1 1GB of Corsair DDR400 operating in dual-channel mode. The following are a couple of graphics cards and their respective modes tested for this article, all of which were tested with ForceWare 77.72 driver set:-

• MSI Geminium-Go (GeForce 6600 MXM) - SLI
• MSI Geminium-Go (GeForce 6600 MXM)
• NVIDIA GeForce 6600 128MB - SLI
• NVIDIA GeForce 6600 128MB
• NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT 128MB

Take note that the desktop GeForce 6600 graphics cards run at the reference clock speeds of 300/550MHz, while the GeForce Go 6600 MXM operates at 300/600MHz. Thus, you can expect the MXM based MSI Geminium-Go to have an upper hand in all performance results. The benchmarks used for this article were limited to the following:-

• Futuremark 3DMark05 Pro (version 120)
• Unreal Tournament 2004
• Quake 4
  
   

Results

Installation was painless and everything went just as well as enabling SLI on any regular desktop system and graphics card combo. Just as we expected, 3DMark05's shader intensive synthetic tests are an excellent test of any graphics engine and having a second engine made available via SLI, performance increased almost linearly with about 80% improvement.

However in actual gaming tests, utilizing existing game engines, we saw noticed that there were other processing bottlenecks in the system which capped the MSI Geminium-Go with a pair of GeForce GO 6600 MXM graphics modules at only 30% improvement when compared to a single MXM module at work. However it's no fault of the card, but rather the limitation of this low-end GPU design and the game engine's emphasis too.

Well, we've just demonstrated that MXM for the desktop and MXM SLI are totally feasible and they perform just as well as the desktop versions, minus the heat, noise and lofty power requirements. While it has proven to work swell and has many positive attributes, it is unfortunately not the best alternative for the cost conscious folks until this idea progresses mainstream. The industry has hinted of the possibility of developing upgradeable graphics cards just as how one would upgrade their CPU and whether this turns out to be true in the future, the MSI Geminium-Go is definitely the fist to peddle a concept that's somewhere along that line of thought.

Looking forward in the near timeline ahead, since MXM SLI has been successfully demonstrated, MXM CrossFire shouldn't be too difficult to conjure, and it might just be around the corner. So watch out for any such announcements as well as the interesting developments taking place within the PC industry as a whole at the moment.

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