Upgrade of graphics card on Dell laptop?

snappieT

Hi.
My current laptop is wreaked, but I want to recover the graphics card from it and put it into a new laptop. I would like to buy another Dell with a useless (but still independent) graphics card, and swap them over.

Current Laptop:
Dell Inspiron 8600c
Radeon 9600 PRO 128MB Mobility

Potential host laptop;
Dell Latitude E620
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 110M 256MB

Anyone have any ideas if this is even possible?

Also, could people give me an idea as to how the x1400 compares to my 9600?

Thanks,
snappieT

Stephen

Laptop graphics cards are normally integrated onto the motherboard, so its most likely you can't do anything with it. Your old graphics card would be an AGP one also, any new laptop you buy will be using a PCI-Express bus.

petes

So you want to put your 9600 pro into the Latitude. I use this guys website for possible Dell laptop video upgrades:


http://www.bay-wolf.com/videoupgrade.htm



From the looks of it it the D600 series seems to be integrated right onto the motherboard.

ambro25

D600 owner for a while here, and I confirm the ATi M9 gfx chip is soldered on and non-upgradeable.

Dunno if they've upgraded the gfx chipset in D600s over the years (probably), but mine's a 1,6 Centrino of about 2 to 2 and a half years ago.

Depending on CPU and RAM in the D600, even though the M9 has only 32MB of VRAM, it'll still run BF2 in playable form (just...800x600, no candy at all, 25 to 30 FPS) and that's about the end of it.

Saying that, considering the host lappie has a Quadro card,
(i) Quadro cards are professional-grade gfx cards for professional gfx applications, so it may well outclass the 9600 you want to put in (or are you saying the Quadro in the host is fried?)
(ii) it may be possible to upgrade the Quadro, again because lappies with such cards, considering the applications/target market, are likely to be built with some gfx evolution path (but dunno if you can get the 9600 out)

Some DELLs definetely have upgrade path for gfx, but they are few so do your homework well.

Tom Dunne

snappieT wrote:

Also, could people give me an idea as to how the x1400 compares to my 9600?

Over on the laptop forum there is a sticky which points to a graphics card comparison website. All you need is there.

TerrorFirmer

The X1400 belongs to the same budget class but is a much better performer and supports newer features like SM3.0 that the 9600 doesn't.

snappieT

Oh, I thought the Quadro's were useless for 3D...
My current 9600 is removeable, for definate, I just need a laptop to put it into if there are any suggestions out there...

Thanks for your help so far btw.

KdjaCL

A Inspiron 1501 could be a cheap gaming laptop if specced out right.

But otherwise taking out gpus is a nonrunner as mentioned above.


kdjac

TerrorFirmer

The Quadro 110M is about the same as the 9600 anyway, maybe marginally inferior. It's based on the Go7300 (Which is basically a higher clocked version of the Go7200). It can still run games like Battlefield 2, Half Life 2 and similar titles relatively ok if you don't mind toning down the settings, which you'd have to do with a Mobility 9600 anyway.

Quadros are not designed for gaming, but they can game. Some of the high end Quadros perform the same as a 7950 - it's just they usually cost so much more and hence they obviously aren't recommended for games, being designed to acheive different things. But if you already actually have one, they by all means use it.

edit: SnappieT, what's the point anyway to be honest? Why would you want to buy a new laptop just to put a shoddy 9600 into? The cheapest DELL amd lappies for about 550 come with the X1100, which is almost as good as the 9600, and the next option up is the X1400, which is much better then the 9600. Neither laptops would take your 9600 in any case, its totally different to newer pci-e bus.

snappieT

Well, the 9600 was the real cost-hiker when buying the current laptop, and it still seemed pretty good, but you've convinced me just to go for a new laptop with a decent graphics card. I'm looking at one on komplett with a GO7300 now, aswell as the Dell with the Quadro 110M. I'm also looking at one with a NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300. Which would all of you suggest?

TerrorFirmer

I'd imagine the Go7300 is cheaper. Worth mentioning though, that its not a great card. Does run games like bf2 and hl2 fine, but at medium settings and for the newer titles its reverting to low....might want to look for something a bit more future proof really. That is of course, assuming you want to play games.

For games playing the minium I'd recommend would be a X1400 or a Go7400. If you have a decent budget, then an X1600 or 7600/7700

And if you really have money to throw around....an X1800 or 7900 etc. but then you are climbing into rather ridiculous price ranges...

Anti

I have a go7300 in my vaio. Perfect for running hl2, bf2142 and the likes at the laptops native resolution. No AA or AF, but it will handle details on medium/high. But mine has a core duo in it, so that helps a bit.

Also:

Latitude D600

This model can not be upgraded. The video chip is soldered directly to the motherboard.

So who ever told you that you can actuallly upgrade the graphics was missinformed.

snappieT

anti wrote:

This model can not be upgraded. The video chip is soldered directly to the motherboard.

So who ever told you that you can actuallly upgrade the graphics was missinformed.

Oh, nobody did, I was just curious myself.

Thanks for all the help lads!

DublinEvents

That Nvidia Quadro might actually be better you’re your 9600. Why not try to sell the 9600 to someone else?