What can my GPU be upgraded to?

Hi all,

I was looking at upgrading my video card on my Acer Aspire 5742G and I was wondering what I need to consider in terms of what graphics cards can be used in my laptop?

It currently has an NVidia GT 520M 1GB and I want to upgrade it to a 2GB card if I can.

I figure I can stay in the same 500M series but any advice is welcome!

Thanks a lot,
StubbyHS

Most laptops do not make it easy to upgrade the GPU. Are you sure you know how? It isn't as easy as a desktop computer, and you will have to take it all apart. Does that void the warranty? Have you done this before?

Looking at the specs, this is a laptop and you can't upgrade the GPU. There are options to setup and use an external GPU but the cost would be tremendous.

bassfisher6522 said:

Looking at the specs, this is a laptop and you can't upgrade the GPU. There are options to setup and use an external GPU but the cost would be tremendous.

Click to expand...

Yup and most laptop GPU's are intergraded only a select few will do so also they do have extention gpu's but i mean you are better off just getting a xbox or desktop for the job be less of a cost risk

DustSailor said:

Most laptops do not make it easy to upgrade the GPU. Are you sure you know how? It isn't as easy as a desktop computer, and you will have to take it all apart. Does that void the warranty? Have you done this before?

Click to expand...

Yeah I've taken my laptop apart many times, not really worried about warranty etc.

I realise this wont be an easy undertaking but I would like to know if anyone has any experience with this and if there is any way to see if the card can be changed in and what GPU's I can use in this laptop?

You would have to get one with the same power requirements as the current one because the PSU probably has no spare wattage. And then I wonder whether it is worth the money.

You also have to worry about the heat management. Laptops give you no extra cooling options. You could alleviate the heat problem a bit by replacing the HDD (which produces quite some heat) with a SSD (which produces no heat at all). Then the available fans may be able to manage.

If you do this whole excercise because you want to run games, you should seriously consider a desktop. Stock laptops are extremely limited in their gaming capabilities.

nobody has pointed out the fact that the higher the RAM count on the GPU does not reflect the performance.
Only few games require large amounts of GPU RAM, Battlefield 3 maxed out just about tips the 1gb limit, but thats an exception.
Especially when you consider a laptop screen is not always 1080p or higher so doesn't need the larger memory buffer.