Video Quality Upgrades

rationalthinking

rationalthinking

New Member
I'm looking for a way to upgrade or improve my video quality in my laptop. I do some gaming. But, mostly just multitasking and internet. I watch a lot of online videos.

System:
Dell Inspiron 1300
CPU: Intel Pentium Mobile @ 1.73GHZ
RAM: 1GB DDR2 SDRAM @ 533MHZ
HDD: 40GB @ 5400RPM
Video: Integrated Intel Media Accelerator 900 Graphics

Games:
City of Villains
Sims 2
Sim City 4
Madden 2006

I took apart my broken Dell Inspiron 6000 with an Intel Pentium M, Centrino @ 1.73GHZ. Would this be a better processor to use?

Please help me out on quick ways to improve and upgrade my laptop for higher video quality.
 
If I'm not mistaken, those two processors are the same. Centrino refers more to a set of chips rather than the processor itself.

There's really not much you could do for video quality on a laptop. You don't have a dedicated video card, and that's not exactly an upgradeable laptop.
 
For a laptop, not really. A better processor and more RAM would slightly help, but game quality and performance relies more on the GPU than anything else. That's how I was able to play Need For Speed Most Wanted on a Pentium III 733MHz :P
 
Ok.... thanks, i wanted to upgrade it to 2GB anyway. but for the price to do that I can sell it on eBay and use the potential 2GB money towards a much better rig.

Can you upgrade a video card into a laptop?
 
Yes, but they have to have a video card already in them so that there is a PCI/AGP/PCI-E slot where the old video card was plugged into. If not, then there isn't a agp/pci/pci-e slot.
 
Your previous post. Laptops don't have your typical desktop slots in them. You cant just throw any 'ol graphics card in a laptop. Most of them don't even have removable cards, it's all integrated into the chipset.
 
The_Other_One said:
Your previous post. Laptops don't have your typical desktop slots in them. You cant just throw any 'ol graphics card in a laptop. Most of them don't even have removable cards, it's all integrated into the chipset.
Click to expand...

Read my post again. I said that if a laptop already has a video card, then you can upgrade it, but if not, then you can't.
 
Again, there is no standard in video card sockets for laptops. A video card out of some Dell wouldn't work in another laptop. Also, even if they do have some dedicated card doesn't mean it's removable. Many older desktops and laptops did have dedicated video cards(didn't share memory, separate from chipset) but they were far from removable or upgradeable.
 
I don't think the Inspiron 1300 has a video card. It has the Integrated Intel Media Accelerator 900 Graphics. What is this? My Inspiron 6000 has a video card. There was a 64MB video card and then upgraded it to a 128MB.
 
rationalthinking said:
it has the intel stuff.... so that means a non upgradeable video card...
Click to expand...

yessum...

The_Other_One, you can upgrade some laptops video cards... like the very high end models with actual desktop processors/video cards in them... i'm pretty sure you know that, but possibly just overlooked it because of the circumstances ;)...
 
I never said you couldn't upgrade laptop video cards, hence my post at the top. I'm saying, just as you said, only a select few can be upgraded, and their upgrades are very limited.
 
how much would a 5400RPM to a 7200RPM drive improve my gaming performance? if any, would it be noticeable or not?

what would be my best upgrade for better performance with gaming since i cant upgrade any video card.

1. Upgrading from 2x512 1024GB to 2x1GB 2058GB
2. Upgrading my harddive from a 40GB @ 5400RPM to 80GB @ 7200 RPM
3. The most expensive way, upgrading my processor... which in that case I should just buy a new laptop if I do that.

Really looking at what kind of improvement option 1 or 2 would give me.
 
A faster harddrive would only help game load times, not actual frame rates or anything. Adding more RAM would help some, but RAM doesn't add performance either(well, not FPS's) When you run out of RAM, your system begins to use your hard drive(swap file) This might cause some lag, but mostly just poor load times and what not.

If you really want to play games on your laptop, you just need a new one with a dedicated video card.
 
i'm not worried about playing intense games on it... its my laptop that i carry around campus.. and sometimes between classes i play madden or something on it. just looking for a little improved performance. thats all.

thanks for the help! thank you.
 
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