External Graphics Card

What exactly do you want to do with a graphics upgrade? Are you intending to play games?

I believe a few years ago a few companies played around with external graphics adapters that were essentially a box that installed a desktop graphics card and connected via a PCMCIA card. These were VERY expensive and gave VERY poor performance in comparison to how the cards would perform in an actual desktop. They were about $400 and didn't give you all that much. I have not seen anything about them in the recent years.

Honestly the best thing to do is sell your laptop to reclaim a bit of money and then purchase a new one with the devices you need. Laptop graphics never run cheap and are not upgradable, for the most part.

sorry for not specifying, yep it's for games. I am bothered by the lack of performance in the older games I play, and the newer ones like COD6 are just completely and utterly unplayable.

And as you say those boxes don't seem to be a great option. I don't think I'd spend much money on a new laptop either, I don't really *need* it, it would just be something that made my free-time more enjoyable.

thanks for the help!

If the laptop is used for work or to be mobile, you may want to consider a desktop that you can use for gaming. I have a sweet desktop and an old HP business laptop that I use for when I need to be mobile. The laptop is about 4 years old and still does its job. I save the tedious tasks for the desktop and gaming. Desktops are much less expensive to upgrade and also tend to have a longer life when you start talking about gaming.