video cards for dell e1505

Hey, im looking yet again to upgrade my laptop. This time I want to know the best possible video card for gaming compatible with my laptop. Halo 2 wont run All posts appreciated!

You can't change the video in the E1505/6400, at least not without a complete mainboard swap. From what I've researched on this model, the base version used Intel 9xx series integrated video while more upmarket versions had some ATi video built in. Whatever the best video was available in this series is still underpowered for current games.

This is one of those laptop models where the manufacturer offered a wide range of options and short of having it in hand with a functional install of Windows with all the correct drivers, the only way to know what it shipped with is to use the service code at Dell.

But whatever it already has for video is what you're stuck with. There are some rather expensive adapters to connect a desktop PCI Express video card to the ExpressCard slot but you only get x1 speed and the video doesn't go to the laptop's screen.

Dell made a model of "laptop" some years ago with a modular design where the video controller section of the board could be changed. IIRC there were three or four different video boards available, with the top grade one being pretty good at the time. (I think it had at least 256 meg video RAM, possibly 512 meg.)

There was a high capacity battery available, but using it eliminated the subwoofer speaker built into the standard battery.

Fully loaded with the high capacity battery it weighed over 10 pounds! I very nearly bought one of those until I saw the weight.

It would have been nice if the industry had all joined together to develop a standard video module interface for laptops, but they didn't. The closest there ever was to it was Zoomed Video for 16 bit PCMCIA, for which there was very little hardware ever made - mainly due to the other limitations common to laptops of the late 90's.

What would be possible is expanding the ExpressCard connector to the full 54mm width, devoting 100% of the added contacts to more PCIe lanes. Dunno if a x16 connection could be made but even x4 or x8 would be a huge improvement over x1.