Can I change my laptops graphics card?

Question

I have a HP Pavilion dv7-4270us and I want to put a better graphics card in it, but Im not sure if this laptop is like Alienware laptops which have the ability to change the graphics card...if it is, what website would be food for buying one?

Answer 1

hi jay

your spot on ... alienware laptops have whats known as "MXM" modules which are small expansion cards ( with a graphics chip on it ) which go into the specific slots built into these laptops .... however not all MXM modules are the same so on may not fit another ,infact i have one of these mxm modules ( in the shape of a geforce 8600M ) which was scavenged from a old laptop( not working ) i was given .....

however your HP Pavilion dv7-4270us is a pretty good gaming laptop ( as laptops go ) and from reviews ive read it will run games such as crysis ( which is good for desktops let alone laptops ) ... so what games are you having problems with ( or do you just want better graphics )

one option would be a external graphics card such as the "vi-dock"( http://www.villageinstruments.com/tiki-index.php?page=ViDock ) which allows you to use a desktop graphics card via your laptops "express cardslot " ... then the graphics card is installed in a external enclosure and is also powered externally ... however there are 3 versions with the vidock 3 allowing for cards requiring up to 75w of power ( eg HD7750,geforce gt630 ) ... the vidock 4 supports cards up to 150w of power ( eg radeon HD6850,geforce gtx550ti ) and the vidock 4 plus supports most high end card up to 225w ( eg radeon HD7850 and geforce GTX660 ) ..

the vidock does not come cheap with the vidock 3 costing $199 and the vidock 4 plus costing $279 ( http://www.villageinstruments.com/tiki-index.php?page=Store ),however ive seen the vidock 3 in action and i was pretty impressed .... and it was running demanding games with a mediocre laptop ...... pretty expensive but the best option for laptop owners

in summary you cant upgrade your laptop as it is .... however the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6370 which your laptop currently uses is a decent mobile graphics processor and with some ingame tweaking you should be able to run most games at playable frame rates ... however for superior performance the vidock range would be your best bet ...... ( note : the vidock still requires a graphics card so as you can imagine the complete package including a graphics card could cost up to $400 )

i hope this helps .. any questions let me know

good luck mate !

Answer 2

The good news is that this laptop does have a discrete video card, in this case it's a Radeon 6370M. So in theory you can replace it something else. The bad news is that they probably chose such a low power card for a reason. the TDP of that car is 11 watts. so you would need a card with roughly the same comsumption to keep your thermals in check.. Radeon 7570M clocks in with a TDP of 13-15 watts, and it's about twice as fast as what you have. But with that said, it's still not going to be enough GPU power to handle most modern games. The 7570M is roughly equivelent to an Nvidia GT 440 or Radeon 6570 desktop card. Okay for light gaming, but you won't be running BF3 on this thing.



Another issue is where to find them. Laptop video cards are both difficult to find, and usually pretty price when you do find them. The usual places like Newegg generally don't carry laptop video cards.

Answer 3

i'm sorry to make it easier to recognize which you are able to not improve the portraits chip on a working laptop or computing gadget. maximum computing gadget portraits is a chip not a video card. on an identical time as there are some laptops that have a discreet video card and dedicated Ram for video, Even those can not be upgraded by using incontrovertible fact that they are soldered to the mum board. i wish this helped.

Answer 4

If it's an HP, it'll have an integrated graphics card, so you won't be able to remove it. You may want to see if your laptop has a card slot though; if it does, you may be able to put another graphics card in and just set your system to use the new one. For computer parts, I typically buy from NCIX.

Answer 5

Hp Pavilion Dv7-4270us