Upgrading Graphics on a Laptop.

[BRL]

Hi all. I have just been on the phone to the laptop manufacturer who say that I can't upgrade my graphics card! I find this hard to believe, there simply must be a way of doing this?

[rotorcraig]

BRL,

Options for upgrading laptop graphics are generally little or nil; they are highly integrated with the motherboard to save on space and cost.

A minority of models are upgradable, but if your manufacturer says not then doesn't look good.

What make and model?

RC

[BRL]

Hi there. THIS (http://uk.emachines.com/products/products.html?prod=eMachines_M5124) is it. Here is the spec:
Display: 15.4" WXGA
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition2
CPU: Intel® Mobile Celeron® 2.5MHz1
Memory: 256 MB DDR
Hard Drive: 40 GB HDD3
Optical Drives: MFDVDRW 4X
Video: Intel® Extreme 3D Graphics UMA 852GM1
Sound: AC '97 Codec Audio
Built-in Stereo Speakers
Modem: 56K V.92 Fax/Modem
Network: 802.11g Built-in Wireless Askey
10/100Mbps built-in Ethernet
Pointing Device: Touchpad with Vertical Scroll Zone
Battery: 8-cell Lithium-ion (Li-ion)
Ports/Other: 3 USB 2.0 ports, 1 VGA External Connector, 1 S-Video Out, Microphone In, Headphone/Audio Out, 1 PCMCIA Slot (Card Bus type I or type II)
Software: Works 8, Money 2004, Nero, BigFix, PowerDVD, Acrobat Reader, Norton AntiVirus 90 day introductory offer.

I got it for stuff to do with work mainly. I was going to buy a TINY laptop, all singing all dancing thing but after reading comments on here about it being heavy and too much, I decided on something else. A bloke at work has one of these and after seeing it I went and bought it. I didn't know the graphics are crap on it or I would have gone for something better. Never mind, its not too bad and does the job for except the graphics card(wont run Half-life2),could do with upgrading it but they say no!! Can't believe that somehow hence the question. :)

[Tinstaafl]

BRL, most laptops graphics are chips that are often surface mounted to the motherboard ie permanently attached. This means the interface to the chip is also built in to the motherboard. They don't usually use a slot in board with additional electronics to take care of the communication between the graphics chip & the motherboard by presenting a standardised interfaceas desktops do.

That's what makes swapping graphics in a desktop so easy. There's a standardised interface that all graphics cards designed for that interface use, then the voodoo on the graphics cards does extra stuff to safisfy the graphics chip itself. That's why different brands & capability graphics chips can be used in a wide range of PCs

Some laptops have a plug in chip for the graphics. In this case you **might** be able to find a newer graphics chip from the same manufacturer that is pin & interface compatible with the old chip. Wouldn't hold out much hope though.

[Capt. Horatio Slappy !!]

Your Specs show an Intel Exteme Grafix chip.
Unfortunately this form of grafix acceleration is hard-soldered into your laptop's motherboard and upgrading will not be possible.
Manufacturers are going back to onboard grafix chips with shared memory architechture because they do not want the user to be able to upgrade components, much more money to be made from a punter who gets annoyed with his laptop's lackluster performance 12 to 24 months down the road and just springs for a whole new one.
I always buy laptops that are fully upgradeable.
Desktop systems use an AGP or Accelerated Graphics Port, a dedicated slot providing more bandwidth for data transfer than the old standard PCI slots, these come in speeds of 2x, 4x and the newer 8xAGP. ( soon to be replaced by PCI-Express )
Laptops may also come with a micro-AGP slot, the later ones are all 8xAGP and will allow you to upgrade your grafix card at will.

I would recomend PROSTAR laptops.

http://www.pro-star.com/

I always buy from these guys and get the best bang for the buck, my latest laptop specs are listed below:

15.4 Inch 1050 x 1400 pixel display
Intel P4 3.2 Ghz CPU on 800Mhz front Side Bus ( 1066 mhz poss )
1 gig of DDR400 memory ( 2 sticks )
60 gig hi-speed 7200 rpm hardrive
wireless and bluetooth
Highspeed ethernet + dial up
dvd/cdrw combo drive
24 bit 5.1 surround sound

and....8X AGP ATI radeon Mobility 9700 128 meg dedicated video

All the above components are upgradeable within reason, the motherboard will recognise any socket 478 Intel CPU.
And the grafix are whatever you want to buy: nvidia or ati that will fit under the keyboard and uses the micro AGP interface.
Ram may be upgraded to 2 GIG
Hardrive may be upgraded to whatever you want
DVD/CDRW drive may be upgraded to a DVD burner

I paid $1750 for the above laptop, a little on the high side but about $500 or more less than known namebrand laptops.

Any questions like if you want me to send you one marked as ' warranty return electronics ' LOL, then drop me an email .

Cheers Marc.

[email protected]