Need some upgrade help for my computer

[Bigeyez]

I have an Ibuypower laptop I bought like 4-5 years ago and I'm looking to upgrade it. At this point I think my graphics card is what I should look at replacing, but I'm not exactly sure what would be a compatible upgrade for my computer. I don't really have problems running games although I can't run some brand new stuff at Ultra High settings all the time like I used to be able to do. Nothing has pushed me to Low settings yet, but I imagine in the next year or so I'll finally start running into games that don't run too well on my system. I also wanted to start messing around with live streaming, but I quickly found out my video card just doesn't cut it for that type of thing.

Now the problem is that whatever card I replace mine with cannot be much bigger in size because even though my laptop case is pretty big compared to a regular laptop it definitely cannot fit some gigantic card in it. So it would have to be something with the same dimensions as my current card or maybe just slightly larger.

Here are my specs.

GPU: GeForce GTX 460M
CPU: Intel Core i7 960 @ 3.20 GHZ
Memory: 6.00 GB RAM
HDD: 500GB HDD
300W Chicony AC Adapter

I don't have a huge budget either so I can't go and spend hundreds. I don't need a bleeding edge system. Just something I could stream with and continue to play new games at Medium-High settings for the foreseeable future. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[DoPo]

The problem with laptops is that they are, on the whole, not really upgradeable. You could try it, but I wouldn't recommend - for one, in a lot of them, the GPU is soldered to the mainboard, so replacing it is impossible. In the cases when it is, then there are a lot of potential problems when it's being replaced - the most prominent, I suppose, would be temperature, followed closely by power supply. And, of course, size - that's a given. Your best bet for "replacing" a video card is using an external one but that's also generally inadvisable unless you're an enthusiast. I certainly wouldn't try upgrading a laptop unless just as a hobby.

Sorry, it's probably not what you were looking for, but that's the only advice I can give you - don't do it. The cost alone would be hight enough, you might be able to save it up and invest in a new laptop or a desktop in the future.

 

[SnowyGamester]

Second. You can upgrade the HDD, probably the RAM, maybe the CPU but when the GPU is your bottleneck unless you've got something built specifically to have an upgradable GPU you're out of luck with a laptop.

 

[Albino Boo]

Unless you laptop has a mxm graphics card you can't upgrade, and even then is has to be from the same manufacturer MSI probably. MXM cards are not cheap even either.