Eurocom, offers a complete line of high performance VGA upgrade options ranging from AMD Radeon 7970M, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M, GTX 670MX, GTX 675MX up to GTX 680M that can be used in single and Dual (SLI or CrossFireX) operation. "At Eurocom, we have offered fully upgradeable notebooks to our clients for many years because we believe very strongly in the long term benefits it offers our clients; VGA upgradeability allows users to extend lifespan of their equipment without compromising performance " Mark Bialic, Eurocom President.

Eurocom offers three levels of graphics card upgrade options to clients at the time of purchasing a brand new Eurocom to ensure they can get a system that perfectly meets their performance requirements. Well after the time of purchase customers can also come back to Eurocom for aftermarket graphics upgrades to increase the performance and lifespan of their system.Presently, performance gains are primarily coming from graphics technology, allowing clients to increase performance with a simple graphics upgrade, such as AMD Radeon 7970M, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M, GTX 670MX, GTX 675MX or GTX 680M . The most important aspect of a gaming notebook is the graphics card. The graphics card is a separate computing device with its own professor cores and memory which are entirely dedicated to rendering graphics. A dedicated high performance graphics card is absolutely essential for playing new games at ultra high settings.

"Hard core gamers should consider fully upgradeable notebooks with MXM 3.0b graphics standard when looking for a new gaming machines to allow them to stay up to date with the latest GPU technology to slay their online opponents" Mark Bialic.

MXM 3.0b
MXM is a graphics connection standard for laptops and notebooks often referred to as Mobile PCI Express Module. The goal was to create a non-proprietary, industry standard socket for graphics cards. The current MXM standard is 3.0b and has a maximum power specification of 100 watts, 82 mm width and 105mm length with a 256 bit GPU memory bus.

Due to MXM 3.0b being an industry wide standard, notebooks or laptops that incorporate MXM 3.0b can theoretically be upgraded with newer or higher performing cards of the same standard. This allows users who have purchased an upgradeable system to improve the performance and increase the lifespan of their system with an easy upgrade.

Eurocom integrates MXM technology into its high performance notebooks because it allows Eurocom notebooks to support the most powerful graphics technology on the market while allowing for continuous upgrade options.

Upgrading notebooks can be easy when dealing with the right hardware, such as Eurocom or Alienware products, which are designed from the beginning to be upgradeable. The upgrade process is rather straight forward and consists of removing the existing heat sink and thermal solution, removing the graphics card and then installing the new card while adjusting the thermal pads and re-applying thermal paste to the GPU die. After the hardware is installed users then need to download the requisite driver software and they are ready to go. Occasionally the heatsink needs to be modified or a new heatsink is needed.

MXM 3.0b Specifications:

• Width: 82 mm
• Length: 105 mm
• Module Compatibility: A, B
• Thermal Compatibility: A, B
• Power Specifications: 100W
• Memory Bus: 256 bit
• Dual GPU Support: Yes

CrossFireX / SLI
Several ultra high end gaming systems such as the EUROCOM Scorpius, EUROCOM Leopard or EUROCOM Panther offer dual GPU support for AMD CrossFireX or NVIDIA SLI operation. Double graphics card operation offers significant performance gains because it has two cards working together to render the frame.

MXM technology allows dual graphics processing units to be integrated inside one notebook which an application of parallel processing for graphics, to increase the processing power available for graphics, especially in higher resolutions and ultra high settings.

Why Upgrade?
Why a user should upgrade their mobile system is a very important question.

"Often times Eurocom upgrade customers will contact us after owning their system from between 6 months and several years looking for improved performance without buying a new system or several costly upgrades. This is when we typically recommend VGA upgrades, because they are affordable, easy and provide significant performance gains to increase the lifespan of their notebook" Mark Bialic.

Customers can send their notebook to Eurocom technicians for the upgrade or we can send them a complete upgrade kit and support so they can upgrade themselves. Eurocom technicians test and verify the proper operation of graphics cards in a variety of notebook models. During these tests, Eurocom technicians benchmark the upgraded notebooks to verify the performance and optimal operation of the configuration.

Graphics Options and Upgrade Levels:
Eurocom offers a great deal of choice to customers on nearly anything associated with notebook components, including graphics options and performance levels. Below is the current Eurocom graphics offering:

Ultra High Performance
Single
• 4GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M; 1344 CUDA cores; 28nm
• 2GB GDDR5; AMD Radeon HD 7970M; Pitcairn Core; 1280 Stream Processors
Dual
• SLI; 8GB; 2x 4GB GDDR5; NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M; 1344 CUDA cores; 256-bit; 28nm
• CrossFireX; 4GB; 2x 2GB GDDR5; AMD Radeon HD 7970M; 1280 Stream Processors; 256-bit;

High Performance
Single
• 4GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX; 960 CUDA cores; 256-bit; 28nm;
• 3GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670MX; 960 CUDA cores; 256-bit; 28nm;
• 2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M; 384 CUDA cores; 256-bit; 40nm
• 1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M; 336 CUDA cores;192-bit;(40nm


Dual
• SLI; 8GB; 2x 4GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX; 960 CUDA cores; 256-bit; 28nm
• SLI; 6GB; 2x 3GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670MX; 960 CUDA cores; 256-bit; 28nm;
• SLI; 4GB: 2x 2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M; 384 CUDA cores;256-bit; 40nm
• SLI; 3GB: 2x1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M; 336 CUDA cores;192-bit; 40nm;

Performance
Single:
• 1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M; 384 CUDA cores; 128-bit; 28nm
Dual:
• SLI: 2 GB; 2x1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M; 384 CUDA cores; 128-bit; 28nm