Laptop Graphics

[Duffman247]

I KNOW, trust me I KNOW. Laptops graphics cards are soldered to the board.
But has the industry looked at making interchangeable cards?
Like desktops. I wondered if they didn't want to take this path because they change the amount of bandwidth that they communicate with, or they can't agree on a socket or what...
I was curious if it had ever had been tried to brought to the drawing board.
Someone said it would kill the laptop industry because of how finite their power is, forcing people to upgrade more often then desktop users.

 

[AltTabbins]

There are interchangeable videocard laptops.
If the graphics are on the motherboard (GSM, onboard nvidia or ati), then you cant. If you have a laptop that has a half decent videocard, you can swap it. Example, my friend works at pcclub and bought a laptop with go7600 graphics. New new version came out that has the mobile 8600. He swapped out the card.

 

[bigdogchris]

Your an idiot if you buy a laptop to game on. There is this kid in one of my mcse classes that bought a laptop for a 'gaming rig'. The urge came over me to leave him in the middle of a busy freeway, with stakes driven into his feet.

 

[AltTabbins]

Your an idiot if you buy a laptop to game on. There is this kid in one of my mcse classes that bought a laptop for a 'gaming rig'. The urge came over me to leave him in the middle of a busy freeway, with stakes driven into his feet.

Its a good alternative to NOTHING if you travel a lot though.
Something with the 8600, 4gb of ram and a 1/2 decent processor is more than enough to keep me entertained on road trips etc. Also very nice to slip in a few games during class.

 

[Duffman247]

Uh, no i don't use a laptop for this specific reason, but thanks for your sarcastic and useless information.

 

[Mr. K6]

Your an idiot if you buy a laptop to game on. There is this kid in one of my mcse classes that bought a laptop for a 'gaming rig'. The urge came over me to leave him in the middle of a busy freeway, with stakes driven into his feet.

Don't post if you don't know what you're talking about.

Gaming laptops are great desktop replacements, and with the correct parts they can be a great little rig, especially for college students like myself. I had a P-M and 7800GTX-based Dell 9300 my first two years of college. Not only could I overclock the hell out of it, it could also run all my games maxed and go toe-to-toe with most desktops (8400+ in 3DMark05, IN 2005). Anyway, I sold it after it started showing its age last summer and the market went stagnant waiting for the G80 to migrate to laptops. DTR/gaming notebooks are expensive, but you buy from a good company with a good design and they're great.

To answer the OP's question, I originally had a 6800Go in my Dell 9300 and bought the 7800GTX and swapped it in. Interchangeable graphics cards have been around for awhile, but the problem is there is no universal standard in laptops like there is in desktops. It seems like most companies have them custom fit for their designs. However, if you buy from a big company like Dell, there's plenty of spare parts and trading to be done and you can upgrade and swap (at least you could a year ago, haven't been in the market since then).