Here's a question :)

[Nym]

Hi!

I just remembered something and thought i'd post it here to see what you guys think, here it goes:

Ok, two months ago I bought a 24" iMac, I sticked with the base model because at the time I couldn't afford any upgrade, as for RAM I can always upgrade it in time, however, the big debate around the upgradable GPU being possible never quite answered me a basic question.
So, everyone said that the slot MXM (I think) is upgradable, only problem is that at this time, there aren't MXM compatible video cards available for me to plug on my iMac, the basic question is, what If I buy the 7600GT that comes as an option in the 24" iMac? Can it be bought somewhere else besides the BTO option Apple gives us? If I could get my hands on a iMac 7600GT then I could upgrade my GPU right? seems logic

Thx in advance and sorry if this question had already been posted

 

[robbieduncan]

Unfortunately these are very specialised components normally used in laptops. I've never seen one for sale at a consumer level. Worse than that you need one with a Mac/EFI boot ROM, not a standard PC/BIOS boot ROM. The only people using this setup is Apple so the chances of getting the card from elsewhere is basically nil.

Your best chance is to find a friendly Authorised Apple Repair Centre or technician who is willing to sell you the card as a repair part from Apple. This is probably going to be $$$ (a lot more than the upgrade price).

Sorry

 

[Nym]

Humm, yep, that sounds logic too
The thing is, Apple could (not should) give you the opportunity to upgrade later on, selling some specific parts (like the GPU's) online or at the Apple Stores, I don't know, it seems logic, if I have a non-welded GPU I should be able to just buy a different one from Apple and put it in place, especially because it's specific hardware, not acessible anywhere else.
Not that I'm having problems with my 7300GT, it serves my gaming needs, however, it would be nice to know that I could get that upgrade along the way because at the time of purchase I just couldn't afford the better GPU.

Basically, the only way I can get a 7600GT compatible with my iMac is to steal one from another iMac right? Maybe in a year or so Nvidia starts selling EFI MXM graphic cards, who knows?

You said going to the Apple Store, unfortunatelly there isn't any in my country

 

[robbieduncan]

You said going to the Apple Store, unfortunatelly there isn't any in my country

Not an Apple Store. They almost certainly would not help you. An Authorised Apple Repair Centre is an independent company who are certified by Apple, but not owned or run by them.

Which country are you in?

 

[robbieduncan]

I've found somewhere that actually sells MXM cards! Unfortunately I don't think any of these are EFI compatible...

 

[dpaanlka]

That site you listed has this to say about Apple:

Apple joins the rank of Quanta: looks great, but offers no compatibility. The 24" iMac uses a card that is based on the MXM formfactor but offers no compatibility. A reader of MXM Upgrade has tried several MXM cards in his Apple, including a reference 6200 card MXM Upgrade has send him, and none of those worked. If we are correctly informed, this comes from an incompatible vBios and this behavious was also seen in the past with incompatible AGP cards.

Some great potential was lost here. As Apple is using desktop GPU's, the thermal budget should be plenty to install whatever notebook card you'd want.

Maybe some smart folks will figure out a way to flash the Bios one day. MXM Upgrade will be happy to assist with such endeavours if we can.

 

[robbieduncan]

EFI vs BIOS. Just like the Mac Pro. It's not a matter of not being compatible. It's a matter of moving on past a 20+ year old legacy subsystem to a more modern forward looking boot system with EFI.

I more PC manufacturers followed Apple (and did what Intel want) then this would not be an issue.