How hard is it to upgrade the vid card in a laptop?

[Nolan75]

I was just wondering the difficulty of upgrading the vid card in a laptop as it is much cheaper to buy the memory from a vendor like Newegg.

Thanks,

Nolan

 

[wetcat007]

Originally posted by: Nolan75
I was just wondering the difficulty of upgrading the memory in a laptop as it is much cheaper to buy the memory from a vendor like Newegg.

Thanks,

Nolan

Might want to check out crucial.com for gaurted fit to ur laptop, it depends on the laptop really for install ease, I've seen ones that would take as long as 45 minutes to fully install memory and ones that would take 30 seconds.

 

[TronX]

So easy....

 

[m1ke101]

Shouldn't be too bad, I think the difficulty differs depending on what kind of laptop. On the toshiba I had, all I had to do was remove a screw on the back of laptop and stuck in the ram. On my old sony, it was a little more difficult but its definitely be worth it to install it yourself.

 

[Nolan75]

Cool, I just ordered a Dell laptop and did not order extra memory, just went with the base amount.

Thanks,

Nolan

 

[Nolan75]

Thanks for the answers guys, I have another question. How hard is it to upgrade the vid card on laptops? I have the Radeon 9000 mobile in mine with 32MB RAM and was wondering how hard it would be to upgrade this in the future.

Nolan

 

[vetteguy]

Originally posted by: Nolan75
Thanks for the answers guys, I have another question. How hard is it to upgrade the vid card on laptops? I have the Radeon 9000 mobile in mine with 32MB RAM and was wondering how hard it would be to upgrade this in the future.

Nolan

It will be basically impossible, as the video chipset in a laptop would undoubtedly be integrated into the mainboard.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: Nolan75
Thanks for the answers guys, I have another question. How hard is it to upgrade the vid card on laptops? I have the Radeon 9000 mobile in mine with 32MB RAM and was wondering how hard it would be to upgrade this in the future.

Nolan

That depends on a couple of things. 1st, if its integrated or not to the motherboard. 2nd, how much space there is and cooling because you can't stick a 9700 Pro in it even if it fits because it will be way too hot.

You may want to call up ATi and ask them in the Pre-Sales department.

 

[climb4]

Originally posted by: Nolan75
Thanks for the answers guys, I have another question. How hard is it to upgrade the vid card on laptops? I have the Radeon 9000 mobile in mine with 32MB RAM and was wondering how hard it would be to upgrade this in the future.

Nolan

Almost impossible!!! Everything is proprietairy and will cost more than you make in a lifetime to upgrade. LOL

 

[Nolan75]

I kinda thought that it might be impossible/tough, but I wanted to see what people thought. So the Radeon 9000 mobility chips are integrated into the motherboard?

Nolan

 

[Ketchup]

Originally posted by: AgaBooga

Originally posted by: Nolan75
Thanks for the answers guys, I have another question. How hard is it to upgrade the vid card on laptops? I have the Radeon 9000 mobile in mine with 32MB RAM and was wondering how hard it would be to upgrade this in the future.

Nolan

That depends on a couple of things. 1st, if its integrated or not to the motherboard. 2nd, how much space there is and cooling because you can't stick a 9700 Pro in it even if it fits because it will be way too hot.

You may want to call up ATi and ask them in the Pre-Sales department.

And how would it not be integrated? Let me give you a little hint here, IT IS INTEGRATED. Don't know if you have ever seen a laptop, but they are kinda small. And yes, a Radeon 9700 would not work, for reasons that apparently aren't obvious to everyone.

 

[sunase]

Actually a lot of late model Dell laptops do allow you to upgrade the video card. You should post what model laptop you got with this sort of question.

 

[corkyg]

Aside from the possible module replacement in a newer Dell - basically laptops do not have "cards." Their video chips are soldered on to the mianboard. Ergo, a video upgrade is not at all user doable in most cases. Try it and you void your warranty.

 

[Spicedaddy]

Originally posted by: ketchup79

Originally posted by: AgaBooga

Originally posted by: Nolan75
Thanks for the answers guys, I have another question. How hard is it to upgrade the vid card on laptops? I have the Radeon 9000 mobile in mine with 32MB RAM and was wondering how hard it would be to upgrade this in the future.

Nolan

That depends on a couple of things. 1st, if its integrated or not to the motherboard. 2nd, how much space there is and cooling because you can't stick a 9700 Pro in it even if it fits because it will be way too hot.

You may want to call up ATi and ask them in the Pre-Sales department.

And how would it not be integrated? Let me give you a little hint here, IT IS INTEGRATED. Don't know if you have ever seen a laptop, but they are kinda small. And yes, a Radeon 9700 would not work, for reasons that apparently aren't obvious to everyone.

The Dell Inspiron 8100/8200 vid card could be upgraded. Of course it's not an AGP standard card, and they don't make a 9700 for it, but you could buy them from Dell. I'm not sure about their new laptops though.

 

[Ketchup]

Originally posted by: Spicedaddy

Originally posted by: ketchup79

Originally posted by: AgaBooga

Originally posted by: Nolan75
Thanks for the answers guys, I have another question. How hard is it to upgrade the vid card on laptops? I have the Radeon 9000 mobile in mine with 32MB RAM and was wondering how hard it would be to upgrade this in the future.

Nolan

That depends on a couple of things. 1st, if its integrated or not to the motherboard. 2nd, how much space there is and cooling because you can't stick a 9700 Pro in it even if it fits because it will be way too hot.

You may want to call up ATi and ask them in the Pre-Sales department.

And how would it not be integrated? Let me give you a little hint here, IT IS INTEGRATED. Don't know if you have ever seen a laptop, but they are kinda small. And yes, a Radeon 9700 would not work, for reasons that apparently aren't obvious to everyone.

The Dell Inspiron 8100/8200 vid card could be upgraded. Of course it's not an AGP standard card, and they don't make a 9700 for it, but you could buy them from Dell. I'm not sure about their new laptops though.

Of course I would be proven wrong. See, this is what I get for being a smart-arse

 

[kaizersose]

even if you could replace it, you would pay through the teeth. my friend had to order a new ide cable for his laptop and it cost $140! theo only upgrades laptops are really meant to handle IMHO is hard drives and memory.

 

[ElFenix]

even the inspiron 4000 you could upgrade the video, tho the card only came bundled with the motherboard.

 

[sniperruff]

i think it'll cost a lot if you want to replace a laptop's video.

i wanted to sell my computer and get a laptop with cheap integrated graphics, that is until i see the half-life 2 demos =D

im guessing the cost of upgrading would be similar to putting together a new cheap athlon comp instead

 

[Ketchup]

Personally, I don't see the point in buying a laptop for games, or at least for current games. If you wanna game, use your desktop. You can buy a reasonably-priced laptop that will be more than adequate for web surfing, word processing, etc. A laptop that is good for gaming is going to cost an arm and a leg, and it probably won't even play games that will be released a year from now anyway. Just doesn't make a lot of sense to me.