Acer 6935g Upgrade Possibility's

Hi all new to the forum as i wanted to learn a bit more about upgrading my 6935g graphics card if it can even be done, is searched but a lot of the threads were quite old so i thought id make a new one. I love the laptop its great even after 18 months but as the occasional gamer i play arma2 now and then and after reinstalling today i noticed the laptop struggles to run at very low settings even when not a lot is happening? Now i can only assume the graphics card has taken a battering during these 18 months because its used to play on normal settings no problems at all so can it be upgraded? And what are the limits if so? The obvious answer would be to upgrade i know because arma is a demanding game but i like the laptop as it does everything else fine so id rather avoid it if i can, any help is appreciated.

 

Graphic card can't "take a battering" and become slower because it has been extensively used. If it used to run the game fine but it doesn't it's either caused by a game itself (different settings or different patch) or by system settings (power settings or different driver version and/or driver settings).

As for the GPU upgrade itself- there's a thread on the subject here with all the details you need. You can upgrade to ATI HD4650 if you can find one.

 

Thanks but is that card much better? Cant seem to see anywhere selling one for a laptop either, i just thought since its not working as good anymore it had lost a bit of performance but if that isnt possible maybe its over heating it does get quite hot is there a thread on cooling around?

 

If it's overheating you should apply new high quality thermal paste.
As for HD4650- it is quite a bit faster but it's kind of hard to get hold of one these days. If you want to upgrade better do it now.

 

Yea i was thinking that but hesitant to open the laptop and play around with it something ive never done, one last question sorry i know one millions questions but i see these coolers around that go under the laptop anyone had any experience or had one that actually made a difference? Thanks again i do appreciate the replies.

 

There's a cooler buyers guide by X2P here.
Mind you it won't help too much if the thermal compound has disintegrated.
It's easy to apply thermal paste so no need to be afraid- although it would be wise to confirm that it's actually getting too hot before doing so.

 

dont want to create a new thread ive been looking at youtube vids on how to apply the paste but most of it is for desktop and what they do is just put it in the middle of the processor and not worry about the edges and the reason is that the processor lies in the middle of the.. whatever it is.

For laptops the processor is so small so we need to cover all of it right

 

Ive done paste on numerous pcs and xboxs ive just never done it on a laptop as this is my first one ive never even opened it, how would i check if overheating is the problem?

 

Use GPU-Z or HWMonitor to check on GPU temps while under load,
If you get to re-pasting the GPU do a CPU as well while you're at it.

 

According to the nvidia system tools im running arma very low settings for half an hour and im at 60c

 

Sounds like you're getting a bit of throttling going on. Have you made sure all of your vents are lint free? It only takes about 2 or 3 months before the insides of your laptop get covered in a thick layer of dust. I clean mine once a month with a duster and some compressed air. That sorted out my heat issues. I use throttlestop to make sure my games run smoothly.

Also, check to see if any programmes are eating up your RAM. I had this problem once where a hidden windows service was using around 3GB of RAM, making all of my games grind down to a halt. (IIRC it was windows media player sharing service)

 

Use throttlestop
ThrottleStop - Performance Adjustment Tool for Core 2 / Core i CPUs - XtremeSystems Forums

 

Thanks guys ive just cleaned it up a bit wasnt a lot of dust though was expecting a bit more after 18 months but ill check that tool out also.