Probably Been asked, But can you upgrade a Macbook Pro non unibody GPU?

[DavidFulero]

Well Can you?
Mines a mobility Radeon X1600 and it says it connects by PCI-E.
So can I?

 

[r.j.s]

No, it's a part of the logic board.

 

[ayeying]

It has the bandwidth of PCI-E, doesn't mean it's actually connected via that port. Even so, you can easily have a soldered connection of PCI-E on the logic board.

In any case, your video card is soldered on. That goes for all the Intel Mac Laptops

 

[NewMacbookPlz]

It has the bandwidth of PCI-E, doesn't mean it's actually connected via that port. Even so, you can easily have a soldered connection of PCI-E on the logic board.

In any case, your video card is soldered on. That goes for all the Intel Mac Laptops

Just to add to this...

That goes for ~99.999% of all laptops sold. Very few have swappable graphics cards, and even with the ones that do (heavy gaming machines, a fractions of Alienware and the like), the upgrade choices are virtually nonexistent/very slim.

 

[DavidFulero]

Yeah I figured, just hoped cause it said pci-e
thanks

 

[m85476585]

My old Dell laptop had a socketed CPU and a removable but proprietary GPU. I almost upgraded the CPU, but I couldn't get a hold of one with the right FSB speed. I couldn't find an upgraded GPU for sale anywhere. I suspect I could have bought a similar model with an upgraded GPU and swapped it out, reselling the new one with the bad GPU, but then I might as well just buy a new laptop. Of course, there's no guarantee it would work at all depending on the rest of he hardware and the BIOS. I suspect Dell made these parts removable for easy customization.

These days, almost everything is soldered to the board to save space and weight.

 

[MacModMachine]

Just to add to this...

That goes for ~99.999% of all laptops sold. Very few have swappable graphics cards, and even with the ones that do (heavy gaming machines, a fractions of Alienware and the like), the upgrade choices are virtually nonexistent/very slim.

i wouldent go as far to say 99.999 but more like 85%


alot of dell inspirons have seperate video , most xps's also.


the upgrade paths are very limited.

soldering on board offers many more features and a cheaper production.

 

[NewMacbookPlz]

i wouldent go as far to say 99.999 but more like 85%


alot of dell inspirons have seperate video , most xps's also.


the upgrade paths are very limited.

soldering on board offers many more features and a cheaper production.

I was specifically referring to the laptops like Alienware and some XPS models where they were advertised as having user upgradable graphics, not so much soldered on solutions that could be rigged to work with other GPU chips.

Sorry for the confusion.