Gaming New graphics card for laptop?

[Theraima]

So as you may know, Im using a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Pi 2530 laptop for gaming and the graphics card it has now doesnt have any updates.. So I'm thinking could I buy some better graphics card for it and then take it to some kind of tech shop so that they could put it into the laptop? If thats possible, then could You Tempers give me suggestions for what to buy? Thanks in Advance!

 

[Rydian]

No, laptops don't work like that for many different reasons I CBA to type because it won't change the fact that the answer is "Definitely no".

 

[spinal_cord]

Although you can buy laptops with upgradable gfx cards, the vast majority are forever stuck with on-board chips. I suggest if you buy a gaming laptop in the future, make sure the specs specifically say you can replace/change the gfx card.

 

[FAST6191]

"doesnt have any updates"

If you mean drivers you can often abuse the stock/reference drivers into working for other devices-
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/modtool.php
http://www.downloadatoz.com/driver/article...rd-drivers.html

Otherwise what the other two said- if you had the skills and equipment necessary to upgrade it yourself it might just be worthwhile trying but otherwise stick to drivers.

 

[Joe88]

new drivers were released on 8/25/10
and new ones will be released on every month
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

 

[Originality]

Most laptops have the GPU soldered onto the motherboard, which means you need specialist tools/experience to replace. Some laptops on the other hand use a standard socket which offers limited upgradability (e.g. the customisation offers on Dell laptops). In most cases, you should look for the technical specifications for your laptop to find out what upgrades it supports, if any at all. To my knowledge, there are very few laptops at all that use "graphics cards" - only the GPU with specialized cooling specifically for the laptop/motherboard (which also means that upgrade options are limited due to the fact that you generally can't upgrade the cooling).

Tip: Opening up the laptop is the first step - look at the motherboard, locate the GPU, and try to identify how it's attached (i.e. hard solder, or socket).

On the other hand, finding a place to buy GPUs can be quite difficult, and it's almost always very expensive.

Finally, your case specifically - a quick google tells me your laptop has a Mobility Radeon HD2300, which is an IGP, and almost certainly hard-soldered to the motherboard. It's also a budget IGP (i.e. lowest of the range), so it's unlikely that your laptop can handle any better GPUs. Your best bet is a newer laptop, or a desktop (unless you really need the mobility of a laptop), or as above - updated drivers.

 

[Deleted User]

Even if you CAN upgrade your laptops graphic/video card, as others have said it really isn't wise to attempt it on a laptop that has it's laptop soldered to the motherboard. Laptops that do have limited upgradability generally also have a higher heat-threshold than other laptops as well. You can't just throw a much more powerful mobile card into a notebook without knowing whether or not the design can handle the upgrade. The CPU and GPU in most notebooks are core-parts among which the entire laptop chasis is designed around, that's why only certain laptops are upgradable.

Mobile GPU's are quite hard to find, they're usually produced with a laptop, the only place that I've ever really had any luck looking for my M15x (it's upgradable) is eBay, but even then, I've always been skeptical of buying major purchases off of eBay. The GTX 260M card that I've looked into generally ranges from $250-500 USD, which to be honest, is a good ways towards a powerful budget-build desktop.

 

[Scorpei]

Everything stated above is quite true however:

Mind you, a modern laptop has the PCI-E bus standard and has lanes available either via a mini PCI-E socket (mostly used for wlan and bluetooth modules) and via the express card slot. As such it is possible to build/buy extention modules in order to run a normal desktop video card on your laptop. The cheapest 'prefab' solution I know is the DIY ViDock:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-sof...diy-vidock.html
If you have a PCI-E slot available, and a 12V,3.3V power supply (any ATX power supply will do provided it has enough A over those 12V lines) together with either an express card slot card or a mini PCI-E card slot (and matching socket on your laptop) you can also build it yourself for roughly 15-20 bucks (you can get a diagnostics mini PCI-E card from DX for about 7 USD shipped and use that as a module on the laptop side). Naturally you can pretty much only use an external monitor and you can also not really leave the wall socket but it does give you great performance gains.

Great solution if you have a laptop and want to be able to use it normally but also be able to go to lan parties with it for example. Also, not sure if anyone linked it yet:
http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/

I am personally quite tempted to build one (have pretty much all the parts laying around, except for an express card slot card which I am willing to use as a donor), although currently I have a gaming desktop with a HD5770 and a quite a lot faster cpu and way more ram. Still it is a great piece of kit to have (and build

).

 

[raulpica]

The cheapest 'prefab' solution I know is the DIY ViDock:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-sof...diy-vidock.html

That has to be one of the most useless add-ons I've ever saw

Technically-wise is awesome, but the bottlenecks are so evident (heck, x1 1.0?!) that make it totally useless, even more if you place a powerful GPU card on it. And even need an ATX supply near it! In the end, it'd probably take even more space than a normal pc

I wonder why these people don't just cave in and buy a desktop

 

[Scorpei]

The cheapest 'prefab' solution I know is the DIY ViDock:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-sof...diy-vidock.html

That has to be one of the most useless add-ons I've ever saw

Technically-wise is awesome, but the bottlenecks are so evident (heck, x1 1.0?!) that make it totally useless, even more if you place a powerful GPU card on it. And even need an ATX supply near it! In the end, it'd probably take even more space than a normal pc

I wonder why these people don't just cave in and buy a desktop

Because a desktop is big and not very portable. Wheras a laptop normally is very portable. Say you buy a 13" laptop; Perfect for on the go and very energy efficient. Now when you come home and want to play a game you connect the vidock and a 24" monitor and game. You can generally get 2x speed lanes (using both express card and the mini PCI-e slot if available) which takes about a 30% performance hit versus a normal 16x slot. When you only have the 1 speed lane you have a 50% performance hit which is a lot but still way less then still working with the IGP. In the end this is the marriage between a gamer and someone on the go a lot with a kid named a relativly tight budget (not maintaining 2 machines). Compared to dedicated laptop grafics the performance is okay though not exactly worth the money (assuming you can find something with a proper videocard), however when new videocards come out you can easily replace it like on a desktop.

Also the space required isn't all that big (you can easily power the videocard with a different PSU then a atx psu, as long as it is able to supply enough power which a general laptop adapter is).

 

[Joe88]

asus was working on something nice called the asus xg
but they completely stopped development

 

[FAST6191]

That is new to me so thanks. I can not help but notice all the blurb aims it at three monitors at which point I would be more inclined to look at triple head stuff (especially given the price point). Not to mention they compare things against a $700 laptop- still valid but the definite presence of a marketing type is felt there.

On the other hand it might be a way to wrangle some more use out of a laptop screen (I have certainly never made the effort to repurpose them and I will take on anything else in that world) and I reckon with a sacrifice of the DVD drive and a bit of effort (and a word with some of those silent PC types) you might be able to make it internal or close to it.