What can I do about my graphics of my laptop?

[omkarjtg]

Hey guys, I'm a newbie or say a noob in this field. I've a Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E330, core i3, Intel HD 3000, 4gb RAM.
My problem is that the graphics are so weak that I can't play most of the games! ;((
While I know I should've thought this before buying and the price is too low for what I've been asking, but it's too late. I don't have money for building a new gaming PC.
So my question is can I upgrade my graphics of my laptop? If not dedicated, I'm okay with Intel HD 4xxx-5xxx. And I've read about StarTech USB 3.0 to HDMI External Video Card, is it any helpful for my situation?

 

[jji7skyline]

Not worth buying any external graphics card adapters, they're too expensive.

Just save up for a good gaming desktop, you should be able to build one for less than $500 if you already have a monitor and a copy of Windows.

 

[Yuriman]

Seconded. There's not much you can do for your laptop.

 

[Aikouka]

Short answer... there's nothing worthwhile that you can do. I'm going to blab on about laptop upgrading for a bit though...

Unfortunately, laptops are a mixed bag when it comes to upgrades. In some laptops, you can upgrade almost anything, but in others (such as the new MacBook), you're stuck with what you've bought. Typically, most normal laptops allow for RAM, Wireless Adapter and storage upgrades. Thin laptops or ultrabooks typically restrict one or more of those.

CPUs are normally only upgradeable on larger laptops that actually have full-fledged sockets. It isn't guaranteed though. For example, my MSI laptop does not support upgrading the CPU, but last year's does.

GPUs are very rarely upgradeable. Now, you may be able to upgrade your GPU as part of a CPU upgrade if it's an integrated GPU; however, integrated GPUs aren't that powerful anyway, and the differences between iGPUs in varying CPUs isn't that high. This is especially because Intel has largely kept their more powerful iGPUs on BGA-only CPUs (i.e. they're soldered on).

Now, that pretty much covers what you're looking for since your GPU is built into your CPU. Ultimately, even if you can upgrade your CPU, it most likely will not be worth it. You have an Ivy Bridge CPU, which cannot be upgraded to Haswell or Broadwell as they use different sockets (1155 vs. 1150).

To talk a little more about GPUs (in case anyone else stumbles on this thread), dedicated GPUs in laptops are rarely upgradeable. There are laptops that use MXM cards for the GPU, but sometimes, the cards don't properly follow the standard. For example, ASUS's latest ROG notebook uses MXM cards for the 970/980 GPUs, but they cannot be upgraded with other MXM cards. MSI is promising two generations of upgrades for their MXM-equipped notebooks. Their upgrades includes the new MXM chip and the new cooler required. The latter helps explain why this isn't as common... it's niche and expensive.