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How to upgrade a Dell laptop video card?

Upgrading a video card in a laptop.Dell Insprion?

  • Hello, I got a laptop in 2010 and I use it to play games on at friends' houses. It always was known that my video card wasn't that great, and I'd always like to upgrade, but it seems to frustrating to figure out if I even can because I don't know anything about hardware. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Dell+-+17.3%22+Inspiron+Laptop+-+8GB+Memory+-+750GB+Hard+Drive+-+Black/4590243.p?id=1218493899249&skuId=4590243 That is the laptop that I have, and I am wondering if I can upgrade video cards from my ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 card that I currently have. I know that there are tons and tons of better cards, but I don't think too many, if any, would fit and/or work in my laptop. Thank you.

  • Answer:

    Unfortunately most laptops, including yours, are not designed with such upgradability in mind. The video card in your laptop is permanently secured to the motherboard, and thus non-upgradable. Even if you could remove it, most laptop video cards have different interfaces, so finding one to replace it would be impossible. If you want better graphics performance, you'll either have to buy a desktop or find a laptop with better built-in graphics. Technically, there ARE laptops out there that support upgrading the internal video cards, but they are so expensive right now that they simply aren't worth it.

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The video cards in laptops are not designed to be upgraded, as a general rule. One of the sacrifices you make when you buy a laptop is that you may not be able to upgrade it, except possibly for memory. The need to make laptops very compact forces them to be designed for very specific hardware, with little or no possibility of exchanging any hardware component for something different. If you want upgradable hardware, you're better off with a desktop computer.

Techwing

You cannot upgrade the video card in a laptop. They are built on to the motherboard (or processor, in the case of some AMD processors).

Beowulf

you can't upgrade it, you can only upgrade ram...

Michael B

I'm pretty certain that there is no way to upgrade the video card in your laptop, or almost any laptop for that matter. These video cards are very different from their desktop counterparts, which on the other hand are easily upgradable. The ones made for laptops are custom built and are not available in retail, and in many cases are integrated onto the motherboard/cpu. Also, even if this were somehow possible, it would likely void your laptops warranty. Anyways unless the manufacturer is advertising another video card option for the exact same laptop that you are using, this is not going to be an option for you.

sjaveri

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