Which Video Cards Fit Into Laptops?

MOOSE

Mar 14 2006, 11:31 PM

I have a laptop and was wondering if there are any video cards that can fit into laptops. If anyone knows of any than please reply to this.
Thanx

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mastercomputers

Mar 15 2006, 07:22 AM

What laptop do you have?

I'm going to say this is not possible, usually the graphics card is integrated, and built specifically for that laptop, that even the drivers may be different that the vendor of the card does not make them but the vendor of the laptop does.

A lot of tests would have gone around heating issues, and adding onto it, you may cause problems for it. The only things that seem upgradable is the memory, hard drive space and if you're luckly the possibilities of having the rom drive upgraded.

You're pretty much out of luck when it comes to upgrading other things on your laptop.

Cheers,

MC

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wutske

Mar 23 2006, 04:06 PM

It is possible, it just depends on the model.
Bigger (desktop replacements) usualy have a PCIe slot in wich you can put a nice graka, but usualy laptops have a graphic chip integrated on the motherboard.

If you just want a 2nd vga card, you could consider getting a USB VGA card.

Maybe some info on the laptop could help us helping you

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HellFire121

Mar 24 2006, 03:42 AM

It is possible alright to change the video card.
Just find what type of slot the card uses and if you have it in your laptop.
I know that my friends laptop as an ati mobility card so you could try and get one of them, they are quite powerful for their size too.

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wutske

Mar 29 2006, 06:03 PM

QUOTE(HellFire121 @ Mar 24 2006, 05:42 AM)

IF the laptop has a videocard that is not integrated in the motherboard and if the laptop is made for a heavier graphics card (conserning the cooling).

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Aditya

Mar 31 2006, 08:34 AM

QUOTE(MOOSE @ Mar 15 2006, 05:01 AM)

I have a laptop and was wondering if there are any video cards that can fit into laptops. If anyone knows of any than please reply to this.
Thanx

Well it is not usually possible to upgrade graphics cards in laptops. The systemboard is so tightly integrated that its prohibitavely expensive, and mostly never done, consequently the 3rd party market for laptop graphics cards never really developed. The answer usually is to upgrade. Though it might be possible to upgrade using a PCMCIA graphics card but I don't know of a graphics adapter which can run from the PCMCIA port.

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marius

Apr 21 2006, 09:59 AM

only pci video card are allowed... and i think you'll gonna have a problem when it comes to updating the drivers... try too see ati.com and nvidia.com to see more info ... about using the video card at laptops

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wutske

Apr 23 2006, 11:03 AM

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/display...0202071454.html

QUOTE

Nvidia's MXM format is now appearing in various laptops, supported by both ATI and Nvidia, mainly with the midrange cards such as the X700/6600. Unfortunately it's not the holy grail many hoped it would, there are a couple of 'catches' with the system, firstly there are three (and possibly fourth) classifications of module, type 1, 2 and 3. Type 1 is the lowest type, this has the smallest physical module (and therefore is the most limited for ram) and has the lowest power and thermal limits. As you move from module up to the next, the module can by physically larger meaning there is more room for ram and the thermal/power limits are higher allowing for more powerful graphics cards. In practice this means that if you can upgrade your graphics card, it can only be changed to a graphics card with similar power and thermal limits - for example an Nvidia 6600 MXM (type 2 I believe) could not be upgraded to a 6800 Ultra or a 7800 as these produce far more heat and require more power than the module can supply but it's possible in the future a mid-range 7000 series card could be used.

Source: http://www.whatlaptop.co.uk/Forums/ShowPos...x?PostID=167829

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roggle

Apr 25 2006, 05:37 PM

Actually it all depends on the model of your notebook. If you could state what kind of notebook you have with its model number I may be able to look into what kind of upgrade options you have. However if you already have intergrated graphics, it's very unlikely that you would be able to fit a graphics card in.

Even those without one of those slots for slotting in a graphics card may have some upgradeability options especially the larger notebooks or those that when you buy/configure them have several graphic card options.

For example in my Dell Inspiron 8200, I upgraded it from a Geforce 440 MX Go to a Quadro 4 (Geforce 4 Ti) equivalent which quite a boost in performance. Had to scrounge around some part websites though and find a good price.

Beware though as most of the time, ugprading a graphics card in a notebook is expensive and not worth the money.

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