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Can I upgrade my Laptop's Graphics Card?

Discussion in 'PC hardware help' started by Ecnal, Apr 24, 2005.

  1. Ecnal

    Ecnal Member

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    Hi everyone. I recently got this laptop, and it's great for everything except gaming. I was hoping that I could find a better graphics card which would allow me to play new games smoothly, without rendering me broke. I have a Dell Inspiron 5160 with a 3.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 Processor with HT, 512 mb of Ram, and a (I believe to be) crappy, XGI Volari-XP5 v2.072. This thing has trouble running practically any recent game, if at all, from World of Warcraft, to Rome: Total War, to Brothers in Arms, even at the lowest settings. Is it possible to Upgrade my Graphics Card at all without spending a whole lot of cash? Thanks for your help!
     
    Ecnal, Apr 24, 2005
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  2. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    because it is a laptop than no as it is intergrated in the motherboard. how much ram is set aside from the 512meg for the video card & what directx version are you using??
     
    ddp, Apr 24, 2005
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  3. Ecnal

    Ecnal Member

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    I know that it is integrated into the motherboard, but I have heard that you are somehow able to swap certain graphics cards within Dell laptops. I am using the newest Direct X and the current graphics card is 32 mb. Than
     
    Ecnal, Apr 24, 2005
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  4. Ecnal

    Ecnal Member

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    I know that it is integrated into the motherboard, but I have heard that you are somehow able to swap certain graphics cards within Dell laptops. I am using the newest Direct X and the current graphics card is 32 mb. Than
     
    Ecnal, Apr 24, 2005
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  5. Ecnal

    Ecnal Member

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    I know that it is integrated into the motherboard, but I have heard that you are somehow able to swap certain graphics cards within Dell laptops. I am using the newest Direct X and the current graphics card is 32 mb. Thanks for the reply!
     
    Ecnal, Apr 24, 2005
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  6. Ecnal

    Ecnal Member

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    oops.
     
    Ecnal, Apr 24, 2005
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  7. cgram7

    cgram7 Member

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    crack it open and see if you have an AGP or PCI-E slot
    by the way i dont know jack about laptops !!
     
    cgram7, Apr 24, 2005
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  8. Ecnal

    Ecnal Member

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    What? Is there any way to figure out if I have those without opening it?
     
    Ecnal, Apr 24, 2005
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  9. jaydeeX3

    jaydeeX3 Guest

    if your video is integrated onto the motherboard, then no, u cannot upgrade it or replace it..... if u have a non integrated card in there then yes other then that no.... laptops are mostly proprietary
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 24, 2005
    jaydeeX3, Apr 24, 2005
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  10. ScubaBud

    ScubaBud Regular member

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    I believe that you can switch out the video card in that particlar Dell Laptop since they offer a couple of different types. But one very easy way to find out for sure would be:

    http://www.dell.com

    or

    call them and ask.

    Then you can let us know what you find out. :)
     
    ScubaBud, Apr 24, 2005
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  11. Ecnal

    Ecnal Member

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    Yeah, I went to Dell, which was horridly useless. I did have better luck on the Dell forums. I believe that the best video card I can get is an nVidia 5200, 64M card. I think that'll be enough for my needs.
     
    Ecnal, Apr 24, 2005
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