No future upgrade of graphics card with a M1530 ?

Is there no way in the future I could upgrade the 8600 256mb graphics card on the on M1530 to maybe a 8700 or 8800 ?

I am new to laptops but shocked that they don't make laptops easy to upgrade surely Intel and Nvidia would want it like the desktop market were every one is upgrading all the time.

well makes sense to me ! but then again dell wouldnt sell as many laptops

one last point I notice ATI seem to be lacking in the laptop graphics card market as most laptops out seem to use Nvidia , with them now winning the desktop market I thought they would be doing well with laptops.

 

Nope. The 8800 is too big for a 15 inch notebook. They are also soldered on.

 

I am maybe considerng getting a M1710 with 790 gtx as I can live with Dx9 games as I am guessin its much faster than the 8600 in the M1530?

 

Wrong. Actually, the 15.4'' Alienware m15x has an 8800M GTX. You won't see it in an XPS line or any other 15.4'' notebooks from Dell because of quite a few reasons:

1) Heat, it needs a good cooling system to match its power
2) Battery Life crippled, the system only gets about 50 minutes of battery life.
3) Weight, all the extra weight from its cooling system and other powerful components means significant weight increases.

 

The Alienware is also significantly thicker than the M1530. That is why it fits. And we weren't even talking about the Alienware, not sure why you bring this up.

 

Yes, this card will be better than the 8600. They are really two different notesbooks. The M1710 is geared for higher gaming, while the M1530 is midrange gaming and portability.

 

midrange gaming = Assassins Creed and Call of Duty at MAX settings running fast and smooth

 

Was there something else that I said was incorrect and you'd like to fix? The 8600 is a midrange gaming card, I am not sure what point you are trying to make.

 

No your right, the 8600GT is the higher end mid-range card, but I just wanted the OP to know what exactly the 8600GT is capable of for midrange.

Though it is classified that way, some may think, "oh ok, so it runs Call of Duty 4 at probably medium settings, assasins creed at low to medium, etc."

Just trying to convey the fact the 8600GT is no slouch.

 

The 8600 is a very capable card for mid range, even able to play Crysis albeit at not the high settings of course.

 

Yeah, Crysis runs at medium, but hey, Crysis isn't the most optimized game out there and its just heavy emphasis on rendering. Many high end cards can't even handle that game very well. The only thing that actually handles Crysis the best is 3x g280's.

 

A lot of the time the 'lower end' GPUs are just as good as their big brothers and less demanding settings. Generally speaking, that means that they run great so long as filters are off and the resolution is reasonable.

I can't think of a super-high end card that's come out in the last few years where that wasn't the case. I generally would only pony up for one if I knew that I would NEED to to support my monitors ridiculous resolutions.

 

Yeah, though the X1400 is considered as a midrange GPU as well. Though it really can't handle CoD4 or Assasins Creed at even semi-above low settings, and is also Low settings on Halo 2.

 

OP: The 8600mGT is a solid card that will perform great. In theory you would be able to upgrade as these cards are swappable but the way that Dell manufacturers their notebooks, you can only trade the card for another offered in the same notebook. Thus so far, the 8600 is the most powerful card offered in the m1530 so you will have to put up with that one.

 

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xpsm1530/en/SM/index.htm

Correct me if i'm wrong but isn't the GPU of the M1530 integrated into the system board?

Unless Dell offers an upgraded GPU (Isn't the XPS rumored to be going away?) and you go to the trouble of buying a replacement system board for your notebook=$$$, looks like the chances of upgrading the GPU in your current M1530 are very slim.

 

No, the 8600M GT is soldered onto the motherboard on the M1530. It is not possible to upgrade or downgrade physically or theoretically.

Yes.

 

Most laptops do not have upgradeable graphics chips. There really is no standardized format for laptop graphics chips like there is for desktop graphics cards (PCI-e x16).

 

There are upgradable graphics like deathstick mentioned, which are for certain models like the E1505, or 1730, though for the M1530... its soldered on and is not like that.

 

You said the 8800 is too big for a 15" laptop period and he was giving an example of a 15" laptop that has the 8800. Do you really not understand why he brought this up?

 

I am talking about Dells, this is the Dell forum. They also stick PS3s and server chips into laptops. Does your post have a point other than trolling?

 

i get higher fps on my xps with a single nvidia 8600 than an alienware with dual nvidia 7950 cards, its like a 20-30 fps difference

 

Alienware is part of Dell for one thing. Second saying the 8800 is too big for a 15" notebook period and then trying to later claim you were only talking about Dells because you are in a dell forum is a joke and third your replies to Forte in this thread were totally trolling and that is why I was calling you out so I think it is pretty **** funny and hypocritical to now accuse me of it.

 

This only applies if you have a 2.4 ghz processor or higher (assassin's creed anyway) b/c I have 4 gigs ram, 8600, and a T7250 (only 2.0 ghz), and assassin's creed doesn't really flow perfectly. My CPU is the bottleneck in that game, so I guess I'll just set it aside.

 

With all's been said here, that's no longer an understatement anymore!