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Is there anyway to upgrade to a better video card????

erikpmort

erikpmort

macrumors regular
Original poster
besides buying a macbook pro, is there anyway to upgrade the video card in my macbook? what about upgrading the hard drive, know of any that are bigger for a reasonable price? thankx
 
No there is absolutely no way to upgrade the video in the Macbook however, upgrading the hard drive is very easy and instructions are detailed in the Macbook documentation.
 
The GPU and memory is soldered onto the logic board (motherboard in Wintel speak). It cannot be upgraded. Only way to get better graphics is to wait for an upgraded to the specs and buy a new MacBook Pro.

While the MacBook hard drive can be replaces with ease, the MacBok Pro requires a fair bit of disassembly.

The MacBook was a ground-up redesign from the old iBook. But the MacBook Pro was just crowbared into the Powerbook chassis. Apple needs to do some rerious redesign of the MacBook Pro at some point.
 
Virtually every laptop on the market is in the same boat. Graphics cards can't be upgraded. It's one of the things you have to sacrifice for portability.
 
dynamicv said:
Virtually every laptop on the market is in the same boat. Graphics cards can't be upgraded. It's one of the things you have to sacrifice for portability.
Click to expand...

Actually there is a new Mobile PCI Express Module graphics card standard for laptops out there. The 24 inch iMac uses one (making it theoretically possible to update its graphics - were it not for the firmware/bios issues).

Apple are not using it in their laptops at this time.

http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.p...d_in_24_inch_imac_are_apparently_upgradeable/
 
MacsAttack said:
Actually there is a new Mobile PCI Express Module graphics card standard for laptops out there. The 24 inch iMac uses one (making it theoretically possible to update its graphics - were it not for the firmware/bios issues).

Apple are not using it in their laptops at this time.

http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.p...d_in_24_inch_imac_are_apparently_upgradeable/
Click to expand...
Hence the "Virtually" at the beginning of my post 🙂 It's there, but not used in most laptops currently on the market. It would be nice if Apple start to put it into the MBPs, but I can't see it going into the MBs soon, if ever.
 
dynamicv said:
Hence the "Virtually" at the beginning of my post 🙂 It's there, but not used in most laptops currently on the market. It would be nice if Apple start to put it into the MBPs, but I can't see it going into the MBs soon, if ever.
Click to expand...

if you still want it to be 1" thick, I would not expect to see it anytime soon.
 
DigitalN. said:
true, but I would much rather have a 1" laptop than an upgradeable video card.
Click to expand...

Probably representing that vast majority of Apple's market.... 😉 Although there does seem to be an influx of people who are more interested in video games since Intel came into the picture. Most of the graphics / design people I know who use Macs do not frequently complain about this issue.
 
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