Is it possible to upgrade my laptops video card?
- Thread starter HotFezz8
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When I looked to upgrade my laptop's video card I found out that the video card was a piece of a much larger unit that could not be upgraded separately so I forgot about even trying it and got a desktop for my more advanced business. I will say my laptop is rather old so my experience will probably not be the same as what you are facing. I will also say that I am far from an expert in the guts of computer upgrading and repair. Just wanted to give you what help I could.
Short answer, no. Long answer...yes.
It all depends on your laptop really, specifically the mother bored. Most laptops have integrated graphics cards that can not be upgraded as they are part of the mother bored, which lacks the ports to plug in the new adapter not to mention the space. Some however do have dedicated graphics cards and these can be upgraded. The cards for laptop GPU's are more difficult to find and can be quite expensive. Also they do not offer the same kind of performance of there desktop counterparts, so don't expect top end graphics. Generally they at the most will be able to do medium setting on relatively new games. (Starcrft I, MW3,etc...)
Installing a new card into your laptop can be quite complicated as you have a lot hardware all packed into a small space, but it's not imposable and once again, depending on the mother bored your laptop has, may be a lot easier. It really varies system by system.
All in all it's probably not worth the time and money to upgrade, if you must it's possible and you may want to have a look at e-bay to see if there are any decently priced second hand cards out there, that may save you some money. Just type the name of the card into google followed by 'review' to get an idea of the performance.
**EDIT**
It would be helpful if you told us what type of laptop you have. The manufacture and the model would be ideal.
It all depends on your laptop really, specifically the mother bored. Most laptops have integrated graphics cards that can not be upgraded as they are part of the mother bored, which lacks the ports to plug in the new adapter not to mention the space. Some however do have dedicated graphics cards and these can be upgraded. The cards for laptop GPU's are more difficult to find and can be quite expensive. Also they do not offer the same kind of performance of there desktop counterparts, so don't expect top end graphics. Generally they at the most will be able to do medium setting on relatively new games. (Starcrft I, MW3,etc...)
Installing a new card into your laptop can be quite complicated as you have a lot hardware all packed into a small space, but it's not imposable and once again, depending on the mother bored your laptop has, may be a lot easier. It really varies system by system.
All in all it's probably not worth the time and money to upgrade, if you must it's possible and you may want to have a look at e-bay to see if there are any decently priced second hand cards out there, that may save you some money. Just type the name of the card into google followed by 'review' to get an idea of the performance.
**EDIT**
It would be helpful if you told us what type of laptop you have. The manufacture and the model would be ideal.
No. Laptops that do have a graphics card, as in not a graphics partition in the motherboard, have mobile cards. Mobile cards are often unique to the laptop they are packaged into. An 8700m in Toshiba will most likely not be the same card as an 8700m in a Dell. Same memory chips and GPU but often packaged into a card of a different shape and size depending on the shape and size of the laptop and motherboard.HotFezz8 said:
In rare instances, a gaming laptop will offer multiple card options depending on the price point of the laptop. In these special cases, as long as the rest of the laptop remains the same with the only differences between the models being the card option, then it is possible to change cards.
My old Toshiba came with 8700m in either a 256, 512 or dual 256s in SLI with all models using the same case and motherboard. The level of difficulty and expense (mobile cards are not cheap, even used) would not be worth the change.
If you want a gaming laptop for cheap then look into refurbished gaming laptops. Gaming laptops are worse than cars when it comes to depreciation and the used/refurbished market is highly overlooked.
There are some seriously powerful mobile cards out there. There are quite a few laptops that can run Crysis 1 at maxed settings and pull some real good 3d benchmark scores. It's not so much that the mobile cards are peg-legged as they are just ridiculously expensive. A desktop card of the same chips and GPU will be much more powerful than it's mobile counterpart but the modern mobile cards are still nothing to laugh at. There are old mobile cards out there that will eat 360s and Ps3s for lunch.x EvilErmine x said:
Certain brands and series do allow for upgrades but they are an exception to a rule and it's not uncommon for manufacturers to even solder otherwise replaceable cards to the motherboard.HotFezz8 said:
But you could do this [http://hackaday.com/2011/10/19/beefing-up-your-laptops-gaming-chops-with-an-external-gpu/]