upgrading a Toshiba's video card

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Hello all,

Is it possible to upgrade a Toshiba Satellite laptop's video card from a
32MB GeForce4 to an ATI 128MB ?

Does it require any more skill than upgrading a standard PC's video
card?

Or do I have to send it to Toshiba to get this done?

Any info much appreciated!

--

"I hear ma train a comin'
.... hear freedom comin"

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 Quaoar <quaoar@tenthplanet.net> wrote:
> Stimp wrote:
>> Hello all,
>>
>> Is it possible to upgrade a Toshiba Satellite laptop's video card
>> from a 32MB GeForce4 to an ATI 128MB ?
>>
>> Does it require any more skill than upgrading a standard PC's video
>> card?
>>
>> Or do I have to send it to Toshiba to get this done?
>>
>> Any info much appreciated!
>
> There is little possibility of doing this. In the first place, there is
> no aftermarket in laptop video cards; these are only sold by both nVidia
> and ATI into the OEM mainboard market. Secondly, it is the rare laptop
> that has a GPU/VRAM that is not soldered to the mainboard. Your only
> viable option, IMO, is to acquire a compatible mainboard that has an
> upgraded video adapter; it is remotely possible that Toshiba might sell
> one to you at whatever inflated cost, but eBay would be the best bet.
> Note that there are other considerations that make direct replacement of
> the video card impractical: additional cooling, additional power
> requirement, etc.
>
> This is one of the main reasons that some laptop users are moving to
> small form factor (barebones) systems.

alas.. I'll leave it for the moment and upgrade when I get a new system.

Thanks for the advice.
--

"I hear ma train a comin'
.... hear freedom comin"