Give Your Old Laptop a New Graphics Card with These DIY Kits

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
75,399
Think your old gaming laptop is ready for the scrap heap because it can’t keep up with the newer games? Eurocom has video card upgrade kits that will bring your old rig back up to specs in no time.

Right now, Eurocom has upgrade kits for a handful of recent Alienware and Clevo laptops that'll see them sporting GTX 880M, 970M and 980M GPUs, and there's even a couple $2,000 setups that will outfit your machine with a dual-GPU 980M SLI configuration.
Click to expand...
 
That's some crazy markup. You're still probably better off just selling your laptop and buying a new one.

It's too bad that they don't have a standardized form factor for mobile GPU add-ins.
 
So I could spend $1000 to upgrade a gaming laptop GPU...... or spend $1300 and buy a brand new gaming laptop with that same GPU plus better components across the board. Hmm.... I'll pass. I was intrigued when I read the title, because I recently bought a laptop with a 860m. Its decent right now, but I know a year from now Ill really be wanting something faster. Im just planning on building a new desktop at that point, but why anyone would spend 80% of the price of a brand new laptop just for the GPU upgrade is nuts.
 
They should make an Industry standard way to add a desktop GPU.

That way you can have a decent i5 with the intel graphics for the road, then get down to some decent gaming when you aren't.
 
Everybody here talking about "industry standard" for laptop - You realize MXM is the standard, so long as the video isn't integrated into the motherboard?

MXM I/II/III/IV etc is outdated, like AGP.

MXM A/B is current, since around the Nvidia 9 series.

I believe there are some minor problems switching from AMD to Nvidia, but AFAIK there is an upgrade path from something as old as a 9800M/260M/285M to one of those fancy 980s without much fuss.
 
We need to get rid of onboard graphics on laptops entirely IMO, and instead create an industry standard universal docking station with a powerful video card of your choice in it.

That way the laptop stays slim, light, and efficient on battery while sitting at Starbucks competing for who is the bigger hipster, but then can plug in at home or at work and game away with desktop grade graphics on AC power where efficiency is moot.
 
Ducman69 said:
We need to get rid of onboard graphics on laptops entirely IMO, and instead create an industry standard universal docking station with a powerful video card of your choice in it.

That way the laptop stays slim, light, and efficient on battery while sitting at Starbucks competing for who is the bigger hipster, but then can plug in at home or at work and game away with desktop grade graphics on AC power where efficiency is moot.
Click to expand...

Yes that definitely seems like a good idea. I would be very happy to see something along those lines.
 
Ducman69 said:
We need to get rid of onboard graphics on laptops entirely IMO, and instead create an industry standard universal docking station with a powerful video card of your choice in it.

That way the laptop stays slim, light, and efficient on battery while sitting at Starbucks competing for who is the bigger hipster, but then can plug in at home or at work and game away with desktop grade graphics on AC power where efficiency is moot.
Click to expand...

Well MSI and Alienware are testing those waters now.
 
caddys83 said:
Didn't alienware did this in the early 2000 or so
Click to expand...

It wasn't an Alienware exclusive. Several people have tried it. The problem being that the boards aren't exactly plug and play and are extremely hard to find.
 
If it was a reasonable price point, the effort of matching boards would make sense. But it's not, so the whole point is moot.
 
Ducman69 said:
We need to get rid of onboard graphics on laptops entirely IMO, and instead create an industry standard universal docking station with a powerful video card of your choice in it.

That way the laptop stays slim, light, and efficient on battery while sitting at Starbucks competing for who is the bigger hipster, but then can plug in at home or at work and game away with desktop grade graphics on AC power where efficiency is moot.
Click to expand...

That isn't a bad idea and you can kinda do it now. Dell used to have a huge docking station with an expansion port (PCI, I think) that you could feed a dedicated GPU. They don't now and I think the reason why is because people don't want to be chained to a desk with their laptops just to get graphics. It seems like a better compromise to get a little less graphics power and not have to worry about docking it at all or taking your dock with you so you can get all of the computer's capabilities.

There are also a few mod kits for DIY use of an internal PCI-E slot or an Express Card slot that lets you use an externally powered GPU but it's really kinda a kludgy solution and costs as much as the price difference in just getting dedicated graphics to begin with.

There's also the disadvantage of being stuck with an external monitor plugged into your external graphics card. Currently, there's no way to push the image from an external GPU back into the laptop's internal display without the GPU being built into the laptop to begin with.

All that said, I think dedicated graphics are becoming a lot less important as integrated graphics are catching up. Even the Cherry Trail Atoms (next gen all-passive 7 inch tablet processor) are getting 16 Broadwell execution units which ought to put them roughly on par with an Intel HD 4000. If it turns out to not be a slouch, stuff like Skyrim would run pretty well on a 7 inch tablet PC that costs like ~$150 USD (again...if they're price competitive with current generation Bay Trail tablets).
 
Ducman69 said:
We need to get rid of onboard graphics on laptops entirely IMO, and instead create an industry standard universal docking station with a powerful video card of your choice in it.
Click to expand...

You're thinking too much like a gamer, for most people the built in video is fine.

With the laptops I buy for work the last few year, the built in Intel video has been more than enough. It's always more cpu power, more memory and longer battery life that we need.
 
Yea this isn't new. I have an Alienware M15X, the first one they made after being bought by Dell, and it started life with 4 gigs of ram, I3 processor, and a Geforce 240. Currently has an I7, 8 gigs ram, and a Geforce 560. There are plenty of posts online of people putting the new 970's in this exact model, it can be done but most of the time its the laptop manufacturer that makes it harder than it needs to be and not the lack of an industry standard.

As far as heat concerns or power requirements honestly the higher up you go in newer generation stuff a lot of the time its not an issue because Nvidia / AMD have made great strides to make faster, more powerful hardware while dropping power requirements and heat output. (Nvidia lately a lot more than AMD with their Maxwell architecture)

And those are some really high markups but I'm sure its because they are trying to cover their ass's when someone tries to do an upgrade on their own, fails, and then returns the product when there is nothing wrong with it.
 
Oh nice, I can't wait to upgrade my Geforce 9600m GT. Wait... Where do I put the new card? FU LAPTOPS!

516293.jpg
 
so true, Ashbringer , These 'gaming laptops' are a rather puny market share. If you didn't specifically intend to buy the upgradable type you 99.9% surely can't.
 
I don't get how this article is written they first claim GPU upgrades are only for OEMs, then they say its great when an OEM is selling GPU upgrades?

The problem is still the same GPU upgrades are not universal these only work on some laptops IE clevo and alienware. Both of these are typically expensive compared to most OEMs. Everyone else who bought a laptop isn't going to have this option.

GPU upgrades are a great idea now days as CPUs have just stagnated top end performance wise but unfortunately I cannot upgrade my GPU and most others will not be able to. In my case the downsides of clevo / alienware were too big to justify buying their systems.
 
You can upgrade the GPU, but you'll have to replace the entire motherboard. I've done a few times and it's cheaper than the DIY kits. Whatever you have just go on Ebay and look at the features on the board. I've swapped AMD boards for Intel with discrete AMD or Nvidia GPUs.

They're cheap because majority of laptops that have gone bad are more common and therefore the parts are more in demand. Compared to the rare high performance parts which are not. People are generally too afraid to open up their laptops anyway, and if they do they'll get the exact part that's in it using the part number.
 
Wizzard said:
Everybody here talking about "industry standard" for laptop - You realize MXM is the standard, so long as the video isn't integrated into the motherboard?

MXM I/II/III/IV etc is outdated, like AGP.

MXM A/B is current, since around the Nvidia 9 series.

I believe there are some minor problems switching from AMD to Nvidia, but AFAIK there is an upgrade path from something as old as a 9800M/260M/285M to one of those fancy 980s without much fuss.
Click to expand...

Yep MXM has been around since 2004. The fact this is newsworthy on an enthusiast site makes me a bit sad at how much ignorance there is when it comes to matters concerning laptops.

Btw Eurocom typically has a hefty markup and charges a lot more for the same stuff.

For example the 980M could be had for $720 and the 970M for $450 at RJTech. If you're willing to risk EBay you could get potentially even better deals.

Yes they're still pricey even at RJTech's price, but that's the price of mobility (and lack of competition).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top