Muncywolverine
Member
I thought all laptop video cards were integrated. woops.
Is this a good comp for Skyrim?
- Thread starter Muncywolverine
- Start date
I thought all laptop video cards were integrated. woops.
Dagmar
Defender of the Bunnies of Skyrim
No, but they are much more expensive than desktops. My video card costs more than the entire computer your buying.
Muncywolverine
Member
Speaking of laptops... Can you upgrade the video card in a laptop you already bought? I've got a gateway laptop with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 integrated card in it (terrible i know), can i upgrade that? Might be cheaper then a new pc.
MrSparkle
Member
I doubt in on a Gateway. While it is possible on some laptops, it is much more complicated and time consuming then upgrading a desktop video card.
As you can see, it's no walk in the park
Muncywolverine
Member
By the way Dagmar i'm buying your computer lol. Parents caved to the "upgradable argument" i'm putting $250 down on it and owing them some favors.
Dagmar
Defender of the Bunnies of Skyrim
If it's integrated then its part of the motherboard and can't be upgraded.
In theory you can upgrade a discrete laptop video card but aside from the physical changing of the card being difficult, there could be other issues such as the compatibility of a new card and the video card heat sink, the compatibility of a new heat sink and the fans, tweaking of the BIOS and the CMOS, and finding the right version of a video card if the laptop manufacturer uses proprietary slot technology. Finding a replacement video card is also problematic as they are not easy to locate and as a result cost a lot of money. As a practical matter, for me it's simply not worth the time and effort to upgrade my graphics card with no guarantee of a good result.
In theory you can upgrade a discrete laptop video card but aside from the physical changing of the card being difficult, there could be other issues such as the compatibility of a new card and the video card heat sink, the compatibility of a new heat sink and the fans, tweaking of the BIOS and the CMOS, and finding the right version of a video card if the laptop manufacturer uses proprietary slot technology. Finding a replacement video card is also problematic as they are not easy to locate and as a result cost a lot of money. As a practical matter, for me it's simply not worth the time and effort to upgrade my graphics card with no guarantee of a good result.
my old desktop died too
I bought a new gigabyte motherboard and an Intel I3 3.3g dual core, ive put 8gb of corsair ram in and bought an Nvidia GTX550Ti 1Gb that came slightly overclocked to 970mhz, and i can run skyrim on ultra with a decent enough FPS and hardly ever lags.
the parts above and a new gaming case a new 7.1 creative soundblaster soundcard and a corsair CX 600 watt power supply cost me less than £400
to look at basic minimum you would want (in my opinion)
a 3ghz dual core processer or better
8gb Ram 1333mhz or better
a 1Gb graphics card at 950mhz or better
a power supply with plenty enough power to keep them going smoothly
some way to cool your system.
the cooling is quite important, i put all the new parts in my old mini case, and after 5 minutes playing i would lag like hell and the screen would start going funny because the GPU and CPU were getting way to hot so keep that in mind, not saying you need a new case, but need to create a decent airflow through the case (which would have been very hard with my old one) you can do this if you case can (or may already have) fans at front and back, have the front fan taking in air and the back fan blowing air out.
I bought a new gigabyte motherboard and an Intel I3 3.3g dual core, ive put 8gb of corsair ram in and bought an Nvidia GTX550Ti 1Gb that came slightly overclocked to 970mhz, and i can run skyrim on ultra with a decent enough FPS and hardly ever lags.
the parts above and a new gaming case a new 7.1 creative soundblaster soundcard and a corsair CX 600 watt power supply cost me less than £400
to look at basic minimum you would want (in my opinion)
a 3ghz dual core processer or better
8gb Ram 1333mhz or better
a 1Gb graphics card at 950mhz or better
a power supply with plenty enough power to keep them going smoothly
some way to cool your system.
the cooling is quite important, i put all the new parts in my old mini case, and after 5 minutes playing i would lag like hell and the screen would start going funny because the GPU and CPU were getting way to hot so keep that in mind, not saying you need a new case, but need to create a decent airflow through the case (which would have been very hard with my old one) you can do this if you case can (or may already have) fans at front and back, have the front fan taking in air and the back fan blowing air out.
