Is my video card integrated or discrete?

Hi.

I have an HP Pavilion ZD8220US notebook with an ATI Mobility Radeon X600 128MB video card. Unfortunately the video card has failed so I was hoping to replace it, perhaps with a salvaged one from eBay. After some research, and to my surprise, it seems this video card is actually "integrated" (hard wired) into the motherboard!

To verify this, I contacted HP support (via chat) and was told that ALL HP notebooks use integrated video, at least in the sense that the whole motherboard must be replaced in order to replace the video card. My first question, is this true?

I've replaced video cards in a few laptops from other makers and was under the impression that "discrete" means replaceable (at least with an indentical part). I considered the ATI Mobility Radeon X600 to be a discrete video card, but in my HP Pavilion notebook it appears to be a hybrid of sorts, i.e. an "integrated discrete card". Do I have this about right? And is this a common practice?

If all HP notebooks indeed "hard wire" the video hardware into the motherboard, then that's a big strike against HP. An otherwise relatively inexpensive fix becomes prohibitively expensive!

Insight and comments appreciated. Thanks!

- lapdaddy

 

Nearly all notebooks gfx cards are soldered/hardwired into the motherboard. Yes its true the whole motherboard will need replacing. Ive only seen quite a few laptops that could have replacable gfx cards, i dont think HP made any at all with this capability

Youve percieved integrated and dedicated wrong. When they mean integrated, its like desktop mobo's that come with a gfx out on it already(which uses system memory) and when they say Discrete it means it has dedicated memory assigned for the GFX card to use usually from a different company like nvidia. Both ways it will still be soldered into the motherboard

 

Thanks FlipFire! Your explanation was clear and informative.

I work mostly with Dells of which several have replaceable video cards, but they do seem to be the exception. But I did find one HP, the Omnibook 4150, with a replaceable card.

Hopefully in the future more laptops will be designed with upgradeable graphics.

- lapdaddy

 

this is the only drawback to HP. They need to make a gaming notebook like the dell xps.

 

At least they are putting the 8800 GTS inside of the HDX.

 

$4500? WOW....Kind of steep to play a few games!!!

 

If people are going to be spending $4500 for a laptop you better be going with a Sager NP9262. The reason I say this is because it is a true desktop replacement machine. You can get the Quad Core in there, upto 4GB of DDR2-800 RAM, 2X 8800m GTX (SLI of course, and are user upgradeable), 17" monitor with 1920x1200 which is true 1080p, upto 3 HDDs (200GB SATA 3.0 for each with a RAID config if you want), etc. If you wanna go check out the mother of all laptops here's a link:

http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np9262-ultimate-custom-laptop-built-clevo-d901c-order-ship-late-december-p-2273.html?wconfigure=yes