Upgrading Video Cards - possible?

[Cay]

Is it possible on laptops if the makes are similar? Eg., there are tons of good Centrino systems around with Radeon 9000s. Could I try to replace that with a 9600 later? Only if the laptop's maker specifically intended this option (eg, Alienware? They boast about their "upgradeable video"). Or no chance?

 

[dannybek]

I don't know about the centrino but the Dell 8000 series do have some sort of interchangable video cards.

 

[AndrewKu]

It is possible on a few select laptops, but there are several catches. The video card must be based on a modular design, because you can't upgrade a discrete package by "swapping." While people always boast about "upgradeable video" capabilties, this is a bit of a marketing gimick, at times. The video card in the end is validated and qualitied by mobile vendors (IBM, HP, Dell, etc...) not NVIDIA or ATI. You can't just go buy an system and assume you can upgrade even if it is capable of it. NVIDIA nor ATI will be selling or carrying upgrade cards for notebooks. To top it off, modular designs vary, which means the upgrade for one notebook won't be the same for another (cards are different in size, design, heat emissions, memory configurations, etc...). The upgrade will only happen if the mobile vendor has the upgrade capacity in their notebooks, AND if the mobile vendor sells/ships the upgrade option.