Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphic & Displays > Graphics Cards > Laptop and Graphic Cards?
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tubaloth   01-09-2008 at 05:37:42 PM

Over on yahoo Answers there is like a million people wanting to upgrade there laptop's graphic "card." I have been telling people this is impossible because there is no "card" in laptops. After doing a quick search, I guess there are some "chips" that can be replaced. So I decided to post here to the experts.

Can you upgrade your graphics on a laptop? Is it an at home job (like graphics on a desktop) or is it really just something the manufacture would have to do?

Has anybody upgraded there graphics on a laptop?

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Maziar   01-09-2008 at 05:48:06 PM
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You can upgrade the VGA on SOME laptops ( some Sager and other brands allow this for example fro 7950GTX to 8800M GTX or ... )

------------------------------ Q6600@3.4+ TT V1 Cooler,SAPPHIRE HD 4870X2,ASUS MAXIMUS FORMULA,4GB OCZ DDR2 800,LG W2452V 1920x1200
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sprucebr1   01-09-2008 at 06:06:55 PM
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I would think thats it not reccomended with most Laptops, although its not imposible. I'm sure there are some laptops out there in which its designed to have these things upgraded. Kinda makes me want to see if I can upgrade the video on my laptop.

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IndigoMoss   01-09-2008 at 07:19:53 PM
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Like Maziar was saying, there are a few laptops out there that allow it. These laptops are usually extremely high-end, probably only about 3% of laptops out there can do this.

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tomdrum   01-09-2008 at 07:45:10 PM
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yer as above.

Watch out for the near future tho as i predict a surge in these type of laptops allowing customization and including LGA 775 c2d

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quantumsheep   01-09-2008 at 08:26:19 PM
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IndigoMoss wrote :

Like Maziar was saying, there are a few laptops out there that allow it. These laptops are usually extremely high-end, probably only about 3% of laptops out there can do this.



More like 0.1%

Most people don't like spending any more than £500 on a new laptop.

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Silver Graphics badge TheGreatGrapeApe   01-10-2008 at 01:11:35 AM
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You can and actually the number is alot higher than you think. But it's tricky, and most importantly it's very difficult to find retail mobile graphics cards, since most companies don't sell them separately, they only offer them to people as repair parts. There are a few people who sell them like this guy;
http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/store.html

They are in a few different forms (primarily MXM, MXMII, MXMIII, MXMIV, and some Axiom..), and you are limited by the connection and by the power and thermal properties of the laptop.

Here's an example;
http://legitreviews.com/article/349/1/

Anywhoo, that should give you some insight.


Message edited by TheGreatGrapeApe on 01-10-2008 at 01:13:39 AM
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tubaloth   01-10-2008 at 07:24:50 PM
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So like Dell and HP laptops, they aren't ones that would be able to be upgraded? Or does it just depend on the model?
Thanks for the answer.

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Silver Graphics badge TheGreatGrapeApe   01-10-2008 at 08:00:31 PM
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Well in the link above it's a Dell that's being upgraded.

You really need to dig deep for the information to find out if it's possible to upgrade the laptop, and if there is an option that is an improvement, like if you're on MXMII and you already have a GF7600, there may be no better option for you so, techically it is an upgradeable laptop, it's just at the highest point it has.

Anywhoo, unlike desktops, tweaking laptops takes a ton of ground work a preparation, just to even find out if it's possible.

T.

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andytg7   01-10-2008 at 08:37:49 PM
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Like some of the posts have already said, it's not impossible. However, it's not as simple as opening the side panel, removing the old and popping in the new. Upgrading a laptop's graphics is primarily practiced on SOME high end laptops and SOME gaming laptops. These particular laptops are actually designed with slots on the side or a compartment on the bottom where with a little work you can remove the current card and replace it with another one. Some of these laptops actually carry full size cards rather than mobile cards as well.

But for the most part, upgrading a laptop's graphics isn't a possibility. A lot of laptops come with onboard integrated graphics, which aren't upgradeable. And the ones that come with mobile graphics, are usually designed for that specific card, so they aren't designed to allow access with the intent of removing the card, let alone do they have the potential to support better cards.

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runswindows95   01-10-2008 at 09:25:56 PM
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Overall, better off just spending the money on a new laptop with a GPU.

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