Upgrade a laptop graphics card

V

vieya

Member
I don't know if this is the place to post this but I was looking into a laptop everything is good except the video card. How do I tell if a certain part(in this case the graphics card) is upgradeable? It's an HP ENVY dv6t quad edition. I'm reading that laptop graphics cards are built into the motherboard so basically if I don't buy it already with the computer I can't just upgrade it correct? Or can I buy it without a video card and then decide later to upgrade? Would I need to upgrade the motherboard as well? How does it work? Thanks.
 
With laptops, you are basically stuck with what you bought. Seems you it has onboard intel hd4000 and either gt635m or gt650m dedicated card. Do your homework before buying. Make sure it has what you need for what you want to do with it.
 
Oh okay, because I saw one without a graphics card on discount. So I was wondering if I could just upgrade later. The discount only has the intel HD 4000 but I guess if I actually want a graphics card I can't upgrade it later. I just wasn't sure because at the moment I am not using it for anything graphic intensive but I feel like I might change my mind later on just not right away I don't have that need for a graphics card. I originally thought I might be able to upgrade later on when I needed it. Thanks.
 
Yeah I'm fairly certain that most laptops, if not all, have their graphics chips soldiered into the computer so that you can't change it like the CPU. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I have never heard of a laptop having a graphics card upgrade. lol
 
Okedokey said:
Wrong.

In fact many laptops can be upgraded or have their gpus replaced. Heres just a few http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/Table.html and http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/z5610.html
Click to expand...

First of all, I said most laptops. Not all of them. And second, your first link has a list of laptops with graphics that are relatively ancient, compared to today's technology. Third, your second link points to an all in one, not a laptop. Ok some laptops can have them changed, but most of them have it soldiered onto the main board.
 
Yeah it's normally not easy to do either and probably best to just leave alone. As a rule of thumb I wouldn't really even consider upgrading a laptop much apart from your hard drive, RAM, and battery I guess. :D

If you don't know what you're doing, you're more likely to damage the laptop rather than upgrade it.
 
I upgraded the processor in my old laptop (hp pavilion dv6102od was xp now 8), I had a rare situation, but it was definitely worth it. It was a 1.8ghz solo (T1350) and I upgraded it to a 2ghz duo (T7200) for $20. It runs a thousand times cooler, the fan almost never comes on, and it can actually play HD video now rather that just being a studdery mess... But usually they change the socket before they make something worth upgrading to.
along with an SSD and 4gb ram, this thing will go for another few years.

And I saw the coolest thing the other day on a dell... you could get to the processor, fan, heat sink, ram, wifi card, and cmos battery under one panel. Too bad the one thing wrong wasn't under a panel... the power jack.
 
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ch91woo said:
First of all, I said most laptops. Not all of them. And second, your first link has a list of laptops with graphics that are relatively ancient, compared to today's technology. Third, your second link points to an all in one, not a laptop. Ok some laptops can have them changed, but most of them have it soldiered onto the main board.
Click to expand...

No, what you said is most, if not all. Very different from your attempted backtrack.

It used to be the case that you couldn't or its harder, these days with standardised discrete gpus in laptops its never been easier.

http://www.ehow.com/how_7252220_upgrade-asus-laptop-video-card.html

Secondly, with mxm you can readily upgrade. http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/

So actually these days its much more of a case that it will be plug and play.
 
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