Upgrading Laptop Video Card?

[FruitRocks 0]

Is it possible to upgrade a laptop's video card? My laptop came with 128 Megabytes of integrated Intel video memory (with 4GB's of RAM, 64-bit, so it runs most games very well because it supports HD). I am not afraid of taking my laptop's casing apart, so is there any way I can upgrade it? It is a Toshiba Satellite A505-S980. If I can upgrade it, would any normal PC videocard be good, or are there special laptop ones that I should purchase?

[jlhaslip 4]

An "integrated" video is likely a chipset on the motherboard. Not easy to upgrade. Purchasing a new laptop would be the right thing to do, I am afraid to say.

[rvalkass 5]

My laptop came with 128 Megabytes of integrated Intel video memory (with 4GB's of RAM, 64-bit, so it runs most games very well because it supports HD). I am not afraid of taking my laptop's casing apart, so is there any way I can upgrade it? It is a Toshiba Satellite A505-S980.

Unfortunately not. As jlhaslip said, integrated graphics chips are build into the motherboard, so impossible to upgrade or swap around. Generally the upgradable components in a laptop are the RAM and HDD - apart from those, everything else is usually customised to fit one particular laptop or manufacturer, so it's very hard to get replacement or upgrade parts.

If I can upgrade it, would any normal PC videocard be good, or are there special laptop ones that I should purchase?

PC video cards are now reaching 12" in length, take up two PCI slots, run fairly hot and require 2 PCIe power connectors. I'm guessing that won't work well in a laptop Laptops with dedicated graphics use special 'mobile' versions of graphics chips. However, you don't often see these for sale because they are often custom designed to fit a particular model of laptop. Also, if your laptop doesn't have the space or motherboard connection for a new graphics card, it would be impossible to fit.

Sorry, it looks like a new laptop is the only option if you want better graphics.

[bluedragon 0]

Is it possible to upgrade a laptop's video card? My laptop came with 128 Megabytes of integrated Intel video memory (with 4GB's of RAM, 64-bit, so it runs most games very well because it supports HD). I am not afraid of taking my laptop's casing apart, so is there any way I can upgrade it? It is a Toshiba Satellite A505-S980. If I can upgrade it, would any normal PC videocard be good, or are there special laptop ones that I should purchase?

Yes it is definitely possible to upgrade Video card.
However, I don't know if its possible in your case or not.

I googled for your Laptops Specification but Couldn't find what I wanted.

There's no mention of the Chipset/Motherboard used in the laptop.


Anyways.. Since it comes with IntelŽ Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD I believe its either Intel G43 or P43/45 based motherboard.
( You can run some program and see what motherboard it has. Try 'Everest' or 'Sisoft Sandra' )

So technically it should have a PCI-Express slot where you can add up your graphics card.

But there are a lot more considerations before you go and do this.

1. The battery that comes bundled with your machine is a 6 cell battery. So if you add up another graphics card to the already existing hardware it'll increase its consumption and you won't get the battery time you are getting now. It might be reduced to half if you go for a good card.

2. I don't know much about Laptop cards . Supposedly they are marked with 'M' like 9800 MGT or 9800 MGS. But If they need extra power connector like in case of normal CPU cards how will you add that ? I couldn't figure it out.

3. Warranty considerations. You might call up Toshiba and ask them if its possible to add the card without their supervision



Personally, I think your card is good enough unless you want to go in for serious gaming. And If you are serious about gaming , You might consider going for an Alienware
Edited November 2, 2009 by bluedragon (see edit history)

[user681 0]

Unfortunately, you can't upgrade a laptop's graphic card. even if you can , the selection is very limited as to which cards you could use to upgrade

[rayzoredge 2]

I actually discussed this in another thread.You cannot upgrade a graphics chip in a laptop UNLESS you have a dedicated graphics chip to begin with and if it is a compatible form factor AND if you can get your hands on a graphics chip of the same form factor. Simply, yes, you can, but no, most likely you will not be able to.I've actually updated a laptop's graphics chip before. I used to have a Dell Inspiron 8600 and had access to a Dell Latitude "something." Both laptops had an NVIDIA dedicated graphics chip in it, and I found out through discovery (and the fact that Dell probably makes things easy to assemble by using the same type of parts for everything) that both graphics chips were of the same form factor (presumably MXM). I took both laptops apart and literally swapped chips, which brought my Inspiron 8600 from a 32MB NVIDIA card to a 64MB NVIDIA card, which made a comparable difference to warrant the upgrade. (I forgot what graphics chip was in it.)You will have to actually get a laptop with a dedicated graphics solution if you want to game on a laptop. That's actually how I choose my laptops, working from what's there for a graphics chip first, since you can't really replace the graphics chip very easily if at all. You might as well guarantee that you can't replace a graphics chip in a laptop.As far as the PCIe slot goes for laptops, I believe that they are reserved moreso for accessory cards than a replacement graphics solution. Not to mention that rvalkass is right about the size of a PCIe card, not to mention the special power consumption and performance specifications tailored to a laptop in comparison with a desktop variant...

[phonexia 0]

a video cardnvidia card would be perfect for gaming and also take care of your requirement as you can get varieties of card anywhere but try to get an original card with the papersyou can get with a 1gb video card if you are fan of blue ray videos and hign gameing skills