Possible GPU upgrade for Precision M4600

I passed that schematic along to gecube. They were pretty emphatic about no edp or lvds on most of their mxm 3a cards (with the exception of the hd5450). They also stated that their gtx1050 is a desktop chip, and therefore doesn't support lvds).

Here's the message I got from one of the gecube reps:

RX560晶片本身不支持LVDS，需要确认AMD本身是否有RX560移动版晶片
GTX1050使用台式机晶片，不支持LVDS。
GTX950m/960m仍有部份库存，这比较不确定是否支持LVDS。
E8860/E6465长期会备库存
HD5450我们会改移动版晶片，以便支持LVDS，但是晶片交期还没未
2/26（一）正式开工后，待向AMD申请vbios及确认库存状况后再回覆您。
具体时间要看VBIOS申请回来的时间，目前无法确认时间（建议您先行退款，待VBIOS申请回来时，再安排购买）

You can run it through translate, but they want me to get a refund and wait for their techs to confirm that they have stock/"apply" for bios.

I'm going to see what happens, but in the meantime, I'm ordering a gtx965m. I only have a week or two before my friend comes back from china, and I already got the m4800... So why not?

@KhronX Thanks for that pinout!

 

Yeah your opportunity wasnt a good one considering Lunar holiday most shops barely reopened yesterday or today I think

 

Well, that's the thing - at least essentially, there isn't (or shouldn't be) much of a difference, if any, between the "external" DisplayPort, and eDP - the protocol & signaling is the same.

LVDS being phased out, i can understand, it's nowhere near as efficient as DisplayPort (more wires needed, slower speed, etc), but i'm skeptical about that no-eDP.

Hmm... I'm starting to get some really naughty ideas. I'll have to see where i can get a cheap DisplayPort plug, and fabri-cobble (© AvE) a DisplayPort-to-eDP cable. I've got a dead Acer laptop with a good eDP display... Y'know, just for kicks, to see if and how (inter-)compatible the whole thing is.

The "questionable" part might be the I2C connection to the EDID EEPROM, but still... Worth a shot

 

Yeah, but on the flipside, spring festival is the only reason I had a friend returning to china in the first place. Shipping and import duties would be cost-prohibitive, and my taobao/alipay account just got shut-off =(.

 

I wonder if whatever feeds the laptop panel pins on the mxm board just isn't populated. If these cards are intended for commercial display, and not laptop use, they might be sending an output signal to only the pins feeding external displays.

With regard to their request for schematics for output, isn't the hdmi signal different from the dp? They probably just wanted to know which pins were hooked up to hdmi... Right?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort#Compatibility_with_HDMI,_DVI_and_VGA - in one word, not really.

Besides, in the M4800, the HDMI output is "behind" a DisplayPort selector chip, and a DP (for the dock) / HDMI (in the back of the laptop) selector anyway, so that's a moot point.

I don't suppose you've asked how many (DisplayPort) outputs their RX560 cards have, did you?

Since they're not saving any board space or anything, and precisely since this isn't a dedicated card for ONE specific system, there wouldn't be much point in not offering all the outputs the GPU has, and leave it to the user / system integrator to use or not use the ones they need / want. But what do i know?

PS: I don't suppose they might be willing to show the card schematics, would they? So we can see what's connected (and/or what isn't), and where. Or hell, i'd even settle for some well-light high-res photos of the card. The ones on Taobao are kinda pathetic.

 

I'll ask about the schematics/highres pictures -I know they only support 4 display outputs on the 560.

http://www.gecube.com.tw/product.php?cid=28&id=77

 

That's fine, four's all that's needed anyway (internal display, HDMI, DisplayPort and a second one in the dock connector).

 

Bad News -gecube has confirmed that they only have a few engineering samples for the rx560, all of which are apparently lent out to other customers for testing at the moment. Apparently they do have some rx460 stock. I asked for a quote on the rx460, but I don't think I'll have enough time to get it at this point, besides, no lvds = not really that viable.

The good news is that this whole process caused me to pick up a cheap m4800 and a m2200 (hopefully), so I'll get to see if they play nice together. If gecube ever gets an engineering sample available for me, I'll probably try to get it shipped, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

That sucks....

M2200M seems to be very expensive though. GTX 1050M may worth trying.