Laptop graphics cards...

**peacemaker** · 10-16-2009, 23:53

I'm really bad with hardware-related things, so I thought I'd ask you guys....

Are (in general) laptop graphics cards interchangeable? I have an nvidia GeForce 9200M GE and it's decent, but not good enough for running my beloved large battles on ETW. I've been thinking of getting a new one but is that even possible? Or is the graphics card incompatibe with my computer?

by the way my computer is an HP G70T series, and i got it in January so it's pretty recent.

**Lemur** · 10-17-2009, 00:02

Are laptop graphics cards interchangeable? Easiest answer is no. Maybe even hell, no. True, there were a few abortive experiments back in the day with "modular" graphics on some laptops, but I haven't heard about such things in years.

So no. You want modular, you go desktop.

**peacemaker** · 10-17-2009, 00:36

Yeah that's what I figured. I've been thinking of getting a new computer but I figured if I can manage to just get a new graphics card in that'd help a ton. I've noticed on the 'customize your laptop' sites for major brands, there's an option to pick your graphics card. I just figured maybe if they can put in different things they can pull it out and put in a new one.

**Lemur** · 10-17-2009, 00:56

Well, often enough the same model laptop with a graphics card is using a different motherboard from the model without a graphics card. So here's your odds:

If your laptop has a PCI slot for a graphics card, and if there is a better card available and if it conforms to the thermal envelope and if it conforms to the power config and if it's still on the market and if you can get your hands on it ... then you can upgrade the card. If you have the tools and knowledge to do it.