Can I upgrade my gfx card, cpu etc. on my laptop?

[b-dub92]

Hi I have an ASUS g53SW-XN1 I recently bought from Newegg.com. I was wondering, does anyone know if K can upgrade my gfx card in the future if I wanted to?? I know I can upgrade the HDD and I think I can the RAM. But as newer and better games come out with more demanding power each fricken month I was wondering if I could ever upgrade in the future if needed?? Right now I have a NVidia GTX 460m which fits me perfectly fine and I can play several games on full 1080p on ultra settings with no prob. But Can I upgrade that in the future? I know that it might not work with with my mobo or it might get to hot, or the psu might not be enough (which I know already, I cant play any game w/o the damn brick plugged into the wall). IS there anyone in these forums that would know this kind of information? HAHA anyways can I upgrade??? Thanks

 

[trogdor796]

The main parts that are upgradeable on a laptop is the HDD and RAM. The cpu is often upgradeable as well, but is also more difficult and a lot of times not worth it. As for the graphics card, the answer is no 95-99% of the time. I believe that unless your laptop uses a certain port for the gpu you can't upgrade it. However, there is always the option to use an express card slot or ViDock and power your laptop with an external card. I believe this requires additional power though, so your pretty much loose the portability and point to having a laptop. But if you don't need to game on the go, this solution may work. I'm not an expert on this though, so that's about all I know on it. I'm sure there are others on this forum that can explain it more. The 460m is still a great card like you said, and should be enough for most games for a while still.

 

[b-dub92]

I was thinking that also but my lappy doesnt have an express slot and I know that getting a external wont really make a difference because the laptop will either run on one or the other and i heard that there isnt such an external gfx card that is as good mas your main gfx card especially a gtx 460m. If it were to run on SLI that would be able to run on multiple gfx cards right? and interchangable in the future if needed?

 

[trogdor796]

Well, you could always get a Vidock then. At least, I think that would work. I don't want to say for sure, because to be honest, I just got a laptop and am still learning a lot about them lol. But there are many desktop cards that outperform the GTX 460m. Keep in mind mobile cards do not perform at the same level as their desktop counterparts. The 460m is closer to a desktop 450 than a desktop 460. What is your resolution? Many cards will likely be overkill for it. If you do get an external card, you likely won't need to for sometime. And even then, other parts of your laptop may bottleneck it.

 

[b-dub92]

Well my RES is 1920x1080, I understand that desktop cards are much better haha (trust me, I litterally spent a month deciding to go with power or mobility...I chose mobility) Also as of right now Im fine with the gtx 460m I get about 30-40 fps (which is a not ton, but enough for me) on RIFT during raids, PVP and dungeons. I love that game and my laptop handles it fine right now, but a year or two from now. Im sure there will be games out with much higher demanding power and im afraid that the gtx 460m wont be able to handle it then and I really dont feel like dishing out another $1100 for a new laptop when I couldve built a PC and could still run It 1-2 years from now on the most demanding games

 

[trogdor796]

2 years from now will your laptop be able to max out games? No, probably not. But it should still run them fine on medium-high settings. Hardware advanced much more quickly than the software that requires it to run. So unless you absolutely need max settings throughout the years, your laptop should be fine. You could even start saving for a desktop and just build one when your laptop becomes obsolete years down the road.

 

[b-dub92]

That is very true and I have been thinking about it alot haha, the wifey didnt like that I was spending that much in the first place to get a lappy so I could play my games on it though, Oh well!

 

[b-dub92]

BTW everyone buy RIFT, personally i think its a one of a kind and very unique game that is like no other. Player data base is increasing evry weak by the 1000's. My opinion its basically the "better" WoW with more mature comunity, better graphics and better game in general in MMO specs

 

[trogdor796]

Meh, next time she goes and buys her $50 bottle of perfume tell her you don't like it that she's spending so much to smell nice. Jk lol, you probably don't want to say that...It's just like cars and other things, you pay more to get something more powerful and better. As for Rift, I am a pretty serious WoW player, and I know some friends irl that tried out rift. They did say it was cool and I watched them play it. It does have better graphics than WoW, and I would not be surprised at all if it had a more mature player base...doesn't take much to top WoW on that lol. But my friends came back to WoW so we could all play together. WoW is just really fun for me playing with people I know, and I'm sure rift would be as well. Since Rift is an MMO, and a good one too, it should last many years, and if your laptop can run it great now it will run it great 4 years from now. So you will always be able to play that.

 

[b-dub92]

Best answer selected by b-dub92.