Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Is upgrading gphics card for pb possible?

P

pipan

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 14, 2003
1
0
Hi!
If i buy a pb 12" today i only get a NVIDIA GeForce4 420 Go graphics card.
I I would like to upgrad that card is it technically possible to that? I mean to put in a NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go - 64 mb instead?
I know you cant get it at applestore for the 12" model, but is it possible for a Mac technician to do it anyway or is it physically impossible due to hardware incompability such as standards (agp), space och power voltage?
 
*sigh*, that seems to be the reason for alot of the reasos for upgrading a laptop. I know if I could upgrade my ATI Rage 128 Pro in my Tibook 667mhz, I wouldn't upgrade it, but now I can't run OSX that well. So I'll be buying a 15" Alubook
 
Sorry Portable Macs and Consumer Macs do not have graphics cards, they have onboard graphics chips.

If you want to upgrade your graphics card -- you'll have to buy a PowerMac and/or XServe.

Of course it's and expensive upgrade, with a very short battery life.
 
if you can find a pin for pin match to the GF4Go420, you might be able to solder the updgrade chip to it in place. for instance, i would bet the 440Go would match it. getting your hands on it might be another story...
 
Originally posted by MacBandit
There's only one laptop on the market period that I know of that has upgradeable graphics cards and that's the new one from Alienware. It's more of a desktop replacement then it is a laptop though as it is especially huge.
Click to expand...

Technically this is true. They sell different video cards at different prices for use with the same logic boards. This saves them money when they go to put the machine together plus they can get more money from you with an upgrade. This is cheaper for the manufacturer but it doesn't mean that the card is user upgradable... that depends on the video card manufacturers.
 
Originally posted by NavyIntel007
Technically this is true. They sell different video cards at different prices for use with the same logic boards. This saves them money when they go to put the machine together plus they can get more money from you with an upgrade. This is cheaper for the manufacturer but it doesn't mean that the card is user upgradable... that depends on the video card manufacturers.
Click to expand...

Actually from what I have read Alienware will sell upgrade video cards in the future so that owners of that lap top can upgrade it. They've even gone so far as to make it user friendly to upgrade. At least for a PC laptop. It only takes 20minutes to do.
 
Originally posted by MacBandit
Actually from what I have read Alienware will sell upgrade video cards in the future so that owners of that lap top can upgrade it. They've even gone so far as to make it user friendly to upgrade. At least for a PC laptop. It only takes 20minutes to do.
Click to expand...

Alienware sells 2 types of laptops. One is for gaming that you are talking about which is almost 2" think and weights around 13 pounds.
Another one is 1" thik and weights 5.5 pounds with battery.
If last one was upgradable, that would be awesome. Last one, just as major 1" PCs features crappy inegrated Intel Extreme 2 go video card, which ofcourse is garbage.

http://www.alienware.com/flash_pages/sentia_demo_flash.html
 
Originally posted by Rezet
Alienware sells 2 types of laptops. One is for gaming that you are talking about which is almost 2" think and weights around 13 pounds.
Another one is 1" thik and weights 5.5 pounds with battery.
If last one was upgradable, that would be awesome. Last one, just as major 1" PCs features crappy inegrated Intel Extreme 2 go video card, which ofcourse is garbage.

http://www.alienware.com/flash_pages/sentia_demo_flash.html
Click to expand...

No, as far as I know just the gaming/desktop replacement machine is upgradeable unfortunately.
 
my friends voodoo that he ordered has this option built on. its an inch think and weighs a little bit more than the powerbook. its a great option to pick up, but it is something apple will probably never pick up one, beause apple hates upgrading, they want you to get a whole new machine.

iJon
 
Dell also has upgradeable graphics cards on their 8500/D800 series laptops (and it existed on their previous top-end laptop model too.) They've been using daughter cards for their graphics chips in order to make it possible.

If ATI's FlexiFit is utilized, more upgradeable laptops may be on the way. So far, laptop makers have only been using it for their benefit and not passing it on to end consumers (saves money on manufacturing one board and then putting in whatever graphics card they want-- however they are still soldering the chips in.) I've talked to 2 laptop manufacturers and their reasoning is that with the vibrations laptops go through, socketed gpus (without soldering) have a good possiblity of coming loose and making the system unusable. How this compares to socketed CPUs, I don't know. (FYI, Panasonic's toughbooks and Itronix laptops (both built for extreme durability) have their CPUs soldered to the board for the same reason.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back