Upgrading GPU

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Drizzt

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I know little about laptops but my friend got COD4 and he wants to play it on his lapto without his laggy looking gameplay.

I told him a few things


1. Reformat and downgrade (or upgrade :p) to XP
2. if possible upgrade from 1 Gig to 2 Gg ram
3. get a new gpu

bad advice? or if it was good advice i am now told by some other people that you cant upgrade a gpu in a laptop unless you buy it from the manufactuer for a increadable sum.

He has an HP Pavillion dv9000
 
Can you even replace the GPU on a laptop? Adding memory and devoting more of the shared memory to the onboard video is probably the best option.
 
I don't think that you can upgrade a laptop's GPU, but I've heard there are a handful where you can, don't think they are HP.

I would upgrade the RAM, it makes a big difference.
 
MSI laptops i know have room for graphics card, i would get a 8700M if i were you
 
thx, then i will change my advice and tell him to upgrade his ram...

i know you can upgrade laptop gpu's but i think its expensive and way harder to do then with a desktop...
 
Depends if it is a DEDICATED card or integrated, some, very few laptops have a dedicated graphics card with there own ram and such, and they have to be ordered from the manufacture for a incredible price for a small upgrade. You also have to remember, upgrading any gpu or cpu can and more than likely shorten battery life because of the higher power requirements, and cause more heat.
 
Not upgradable.

Here is a list of MXM compatible notebooks:
MXM List

If it's not on that list, it means it's proprietary. Generally, if your notebook uses integrated graphics, you won't even be able to find a proprietary card. If it has dedicated graphics already and you want to upgrade, you *might* be able to find a card, but only if the manufacturer offers it as an upgrade. Even then, you would have to buy it used, or pay a ridiculous amount of money to have a new one ordered.

I'm pretty sure that HP Pavilions with discrete graphics have GPUs and VRAM soldered onto the motherboard. So you would have to replace the entire motherboard with another motherboard that has a better graphics card. As far as I'm aware, the best you can get on a DV9000 is a GeForce 7600.
 
Fortunately this is something I've run across before.

First off, it is possible to replace a graphics card in a laptop. But only if the slot/socket fits the new one. For example, if your old card is AGP and the new one you need is PCI-E, then there's nothing you can do.

Second, Laptops are unique to desktops in that the graphics cards are not all shaped the same way. In a desktop, they're mostly rectangular and fit in their compatible slots almost universally, however ina laptop, the manufacturer has designed that specific machine to hold certain parts in a certain way. For example, My Dell Inspiron has a zigzagged tetris-shaped card (Radeon 9600). The 9800 however has a completely different shape to it, however and will not physically fit into the laptop.

All and all, while it may be possible, I certainly wouldn't recommend trying it. Given the price of hard-to-find mobility cards, I'd just tell your friend to buckle down and build a desktop.
 
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