How Capable is my Inspiron 6400

Ok people, hi.

I've ordered this laptop from dell, I know it's not the best laptop, but as much as I could afford basically - came to £650

Anyway, what I want to know is, what are the limitations of the graphics card installed, and I know it's been asked a million times, but...

In this model, can I upgrade the graphics card, and what would I be limited to upgrading to?

INSPIRON 6400 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T5200 (1.60 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 533 MHz FSB)

OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium

LCD 15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display

MEMORY 1024MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x512)

HARD DRIVE 120GB (5,400rpm) Hard Drive

OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including software

GRAPHICS CARD 128MB ATI® Mobility™ Radeon® X1300 HyperMemory™ graphics card

Will the graphics card be ok for apps like 3dsmax, maya, etc.

 

Its quite a basic card, and will for somegames, but the newer, more power needing games, won't run very smoothly on it. However, it is much better than buying a GMA 950. Upgrade wise, I would normally say, that it is not possible, however, the Inspiron 6400 is still sold with a Mobility X1400. You may be able to upgrade, but it would cost alot of money, and also the performance increase certainly wouldn't be worth it.

 

Okay thanks, so the X1300 and X1400 are the only ATIs that will fit?

I think it's a PCI Express slot, does that mean any universal PCI Express card will fit, or just those two models?

The reason why I'm asking is because they were the only two options on the dell website, and both use this Hypermemory thing, but I'd rather buy my own graphics card which didnt steal RAM, but I'm not sure if that's possible to fit another ATI card. ?

 

You have to understand that notebook graphics card are not like normal desktop graphics cards. They are in a different form factor is almost all notebooks. That means that it is not possible to take a graphics card from one notebook, and simply transfer it into another. You can only use the graphics cards that were originally offered in the configuration. For yourself, that meas the Mobility X1300/X1400. In my opinion, any upgrade seems pointless, because the performance difference between the two is small, and certainly not worth the high cost of the upgrading the Mobility X1300 to the Mobility X1400.

 

okay thanks

 

somethign you might want to look into is they are making an external graphics card that you can plug in to your laptop using the expresscard slot. i dont knwo when its going to be released but it says that its going to be a 7900 by nvidia. you have to hook it all up and sit at a desk and use an external monitor but if your gaming at home it would work great... probably be really expensive though.