I have a Toshiba Tecra A9-S9018X. It has a dual-core processor, and the way its graphics card works, it converts RAM into Video RAM. The problem is it takes a lot of CPU power to do that, so if I am playing a game that requires a dual-core PC and graphics it won't work. If it just requires a single core and extra graphics, or a dual-core and normal graphics it works fine. I know that the PCI slot on my computer is able to transmit data at speeds fast enough to make an upgrade through that feasible, but I don't know what kind of upgrade that would be. I think a PCI card that added the equivalent of a new processor would work, since the problem is needing an extra processor to process the graphics as well as the rest of the game. I've tried Googling it, and found sites (and answers on this forum) from a few years back saying it was impossible. But i know how much technology can change in a few years, and this seems like a good idea. Does anyone know if one exists, or if I can easily (very easily) and cheaply jerry-rig something like it? Or if not, is there another reasonable way to make it work?
Is there a PCI card that I can get to add an extra core to my CPU?
- Thread starter Weboh
- Start date
Someone Somewhere
Titan
- Sep 23, 2012
- 22,291
- 8
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Uh... that's a laptop. It doesn't even have a PCI slot.
You can't put an extra core away from the rest - the latency gets too high. Plus there isn't enough bandwidth.
Just turn down the details and other settings, and accept that an old laptop not built for gaming is going to be gutless.
You can't put an extra core away from the rest - the latency gets too high. Plus there isn't enough bandwidth.
Just turn down the details and other settings, and accept that an old laptop not built for gaming is going to be gutless.
Fishwithadeagle
Honorable
- Nov 30, 2012
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Simply put, no. Just so you know, what you are talking about is not the case. Yes the video card does use your ram as vram, but this takes very minimal power from you system. It will slow down the ram in general because it is having to use it for two things, but this is not your biggest problem. The biggest problem is that you are trying to game on an integrated card which will not work very good for any kind of gaming. Your only option would be to attempt to either fit another mobo and everything in the case for the laptop or buy a new computer. Also, just so you know, the reason why single cpu games work better is because they are older and do not usually require the graphical prowness as many of the higher end games do. Getting back to the cpu thing, you could check to see if there is another higher end cpu that you could switch out, but I doubt it would be worth the investment.
@Someone Somewhere,
yes it does, on the side. That's why I specified what model it was.
@Fishwithadeagle,
I don't get why an integrated card would be less powerful. Apparently they are, but why? It seems like RAM is RAM; when I get more RAM for a computer, no matter what, the RAM acts like it's supposed and speeds it up. When I get more vRAM for my computer, it has to be made by Nvida or it doesn't act like it's supposed to and is just there doing nothing? What's the point of having that extra vRAM if it can't do anything?
@ss202sl, If it were possible, but it looks like I can't without buying a special small one and actually solder it onto the motherboard -- which I by no means have the skill to do. If there were an easy way to do an external one, then yeah.
@everyone else, Since a PCI card like that won't solve my problem, what will other than getting a new computer?
yes it does, on the side. That's why I specified what model it was.
@Fishwithadeagle,
I don't get why an integrated card would be less powerful. Apparently they are, but why? It seems like RAM is RAM; when I get more RAM for a computer, no matter what, the RAM acts like it's supposed and speeds it up. When I get more vRAM for my computer, it has to be made by Nvida or it doesn't act like it's supposed to and is just there doing nothing? What's the point of having that extra vRAM if it can't do anything?
@ss202sl, If it were possible, but it looks like I can't without buying a special small one and actually solder it onto the motherboard -- which I by no means have the skill to do. If there were an easy way to do an external one, then yeah.
@everyone else, Since a PCI card like that won't solve my problem, what will other than getting a new computer?
bryonhowley
Splendid
- Oct 24, 2011
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As was said above the only real choose is to get a new computer. Simply put your laptop is not going to do what you want it is not a gaming laptop. If you what to game on a laptop you need to get a laptop that can handle gaming and that means a laptop with a dedicated GPU which you do not have.
Fishwithadeagle
Honorable
- Nov 30, 2012
- 260
- 0
- 10,810
Weboh :
@Someone Somewhere,
yes it does, on the side. That's why I specified what model it was.
@Fishwithadeagle,
I don't get why an integrated card would be less powerful. Apparently they are, but why? It seems like RAM is RAM; when I get more RAM for a computer, no matter what, the RAM acts like it's supposed and speeds it up. When I get more vRAM for my computer, it has to be made by Nvida or it doesn't act like it's supposed to and is just there doing nothing? What's the point of having that extra vRAM if it can't do anything?
@ss202sl, If it were possible, but it looks like I can't without buying a special small one and actually solder it onto the motherboard -- which I by no means have the skill to do. If there were an easy way to do an external one, then yeah.
@everyone else, Since a PCI card like that won't solve my problem, what will other than getting a new computer?
yes it does, on the side. That's why I specified what model it was.
@Fishwithadeagle,
I don't get why an integrated card would be less powerful. Apparently they are, but why? It seems like RAM is RAM; when I get more RAM for a computer, no matter what, the RAM acts like it's supposed and speeds it up. When I get more vRAM for my computer, it has to be made by Nvida or it doesn't act like it's supposed to and is just there doing nothing? What's the point of having that extra vRAM if it can't do anything?
@ss202sl, If it were possible, but it looks like I can't without buying a special small one and actually solder it onto the motherboard -- which I by no means have the skill to do. If there were an easy way to do an external one, then yeah.
@everyone else, Since a PCI card like that won't solve my problem, what will other than getting a new computer?
Just to inform you, that port that you are talking about being on the side of the laptop is really made for a modem card. Only laptops like the x17 have a mini or whatever it is called pcie and they are really expensive to upgrade.
To get back to the other point, integrated gpus mean that they are build into the same chip that the processor is on. This means that they share the same connection to the mobo and they also share the same cooling system. In turn because companies like intel and amd have to keep the tdp and the heat low along with the size low, they are forced to cut the speed of the cards on thce laptops. A dedicated card has ram build into it. It is usually at around 2gb of gddr5 ram 256 bit. Someone correct me if I am wrong but standard ram is only 64 or 32 bit. this means that it theoretically has that many pathways. This allows much more data to be transferred into and out of the card along with calculations within the card. Standard pc ram is slowed and is better at lengthy numerical calculations, similar to the way a processor works vs a video card.
Adding more ram will not make the computer's video card run any faster unless it is a higher frequency or unless your system is maxing out the ram that you have, therefore causing a bottleneck on the data transfer rate. Even with this upgraded ram, there will not be a significant improvement in the effectiveness of your card due to the latency and speed limits created by the video card being integrated while the ram is on the motherboard creating a longer transfer distance for the data, therefore losing performance.
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