Upgrading Graphics card any suggestions?

ok, so i need a new graphics card, I hear people talking about World or Warcraft all the time. So since the new one came out today I decided I might try it out. But before I go buy if I went to this Can You Run It? site to see if i could run it. And well I need a better graphics card, I have a Mobile Intel 45 Express Chipset Family (and this is for a laptop just to let you know) So what is a good graphics card I could buy for about $60. I would love to stay under for sure, But any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.:san:

you cannot upgrade laptop graphics as far as i can tell

did you read the comments on that "article"?
Just forget it. RAM, optical drive, hard-drive are all relatively easy to swap/upgrade on laptops.
Anything else, not so much usually.

trever, if you have an e1505, you only choices are GeForce GO7300 or ATI Radeon mobility x1400. Those are the only two graphics cards made to fit that slot.

Only certain laptops have the ability to upgrade their graphics cards, and usually if they have replaceable cards it would already have a pretty decent card in it to begin with. Since you said yours has Intel integrated crap it's not likely that you'll be able to change it.

Heck my laptop has a discrete graphics processor with dedicated memory and it's not replaceable.

Intel chipsets are built into motherboards, and those motherboards dont have a slot to add an extra graphics card. Cant upgrade on your laptop bro

yep laptop cards are built around the cpu to use a single heatsink usually. you would find it very hard to upgrade. also theres no way you are gonna get anything decent for $60...

No chance mate!

Without even going into the nightmare of physical challenges of even fitting a new card to a motherboard that hasn't even got the space, or slot for it, you'd have to be able to re-write the BIOS to recognise it, manage its power supply, AND ignore the existing chipset!

Out of the question.

Put this one down to experience and remember that laptops are primarily for mobile general computing, and for gaming they represent the absolute luxury/premium end of PC hardware when compared to the cost of equally powerful desktops.

If you want to play this life-sapping game you have no choice but to get another system capable of playing it, or upgrade a desktop PC you may have access to instead.

For a few hundred $ you could have a brand new desktop that'd play almost anything you throw at it.

To be honest, a laptop's gaming performance is not upgradable in any practical/economical sense.

If you spend a couple of thousand pounds on an absolutely top-end gaming laptop, you'll get a few years life out of it before it begins to show its age, and then a couple of years more with lower quality settings in your games, so not that bad an investment, but the initial outlay is huge compared to an equally as powerful desktop, and you have no choice but to pay all over again once you do need to upgrade, instead of just replacing the parts that need upgrading.

Besides, at those levels of performance, the only advantage a laptop offers is being able to move it from one location to another more easily; you'll still always have to plug it in because proper gaming takes a lot of power that batteries can't offer for any reasonable length of time.

So you'll end up plugged in to a wall anyway!

Finally, the cost of mobile chipsets can be as high as double that of their desktop equivalents. Basically close to the cost of a cheap desktop!

Basically, assuming you have no other options as far as access to an upgradable desktop is concerned, a new entry level gaming desktop, without a monitor, keyboard and mouse would set you back at least $400-500.

Not to mention Gaming laptops are massive and get hot as shit. Buy a Mac for laptops. Pc for a desktop.

Get a GTX 260 and i7 930 and an X58 Mobo with a sold 1KW PSU in a well vented case. Make sure you get a 7200RPM drive for faster loading. The X58 supports 6GB/s Sata so preferably get one of those. Cheaper than any laptop even CLOSE.

Toaster said:

Not to mention Gaming laptops are massive and get hot as shit. Buy a Mac for laptops. Pc for a desktop.

Get a GTX 260 and i7 930 and an X58 Mobo with a sold 1KW PSU in a well vented case. Make sure you get a 7200RPM drive for faster loading. The X58 supports 6GB/s Sata so preferably get one of those. Cheaper than any laptop even CLOSE.

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I did the same thing this summer but without the expensive stuff an i7 really isn't needed for high quality gaming. Most games right now dont support 12 virtual cores so a lot of it goes to waste. I got an AMD Athlon X4 2.9Ghz and it works great along with my new Radeon HD 6850. No need to spend so much on an intel processor if you don't need it. Put the money elsewhere like a good graphics card and reputable parts.

Yeah I have never been a fan of AMD Ati. Each to their own A lot of games DO use CPU power now in junction with GPU. Especially newer engines (Cryengine 3 W00t)

I have no preference for AMD or Intel, I just go with what I can afford and whatever gives me the best power for the least money. Seems to be AMD these days, who knows though, maybe intel is higher quality and whatnot but my AMD/ATI system is doing awesome.

i too have just upgraded to a hd6870, its a beautiful card. i have a phenom x4 black edition 3.2ghz with it btw.

Ah lucky you, I would have gotten the 6870 had I a little more money to spend

lol i got it half price through an education tax refund so it was actually pretty cheap
i was upgrading from a 4870