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    Downgrade video card?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by maumu, May 7, 2008.

  1. maumu

    maumu Notebook Consultant

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    Hi folks

    I'm currently using T60 which comes with 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 M54 Discrete Graphics

    I'm wondering if it is possible to downgrade the video card to... a less power-consuming card? Maybe X3100?

    Sounds silly? I don't know. I'm not into video/graphic designs and I don't game with the lappy... so kind of regret getting the model that comes with the ATI video graphics (although I must say it's quite impressive, so far).

    Any clue? :)
     
    maumu, May 7, 2008
    #1
  2. Patrick

    Patrick Formerly beat spamers with stiks

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    Nope. Can't do it. Most laptop gfx cards are build into the mobo.
     
    Patrick, May 7, 2008
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  3. neonlazer

    neonlazer Notebook Evangelist

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    Yep, only way is in my case, i screwed the motherboard so i decided to get a motherboard with X3100 instead of NVS140. My friend thought it was seperate..lol...its completely integrated into the motherboard
     
    neonlazer, May 7, 2008
    #3
  4. techboydino

    techboydino Notebook Evangelist

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    there are a lot of manufacturers that have removable laptop graphics cards. unfortunately Lenovo is not one of them. I would use the most stable Lenovo drivers which will give you the best case scenario for that card.
     
    techboydino, May 7, 2008
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  5. meekus

    meekus Notebook Consultant

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    Very rarely will laptops have removeable graphics cards. Laptops are *not* built for upgradability--they are built for compactness and portability.

    In almost all cases for every single laptop brand, the graphics "card" will be a permanent feature on the motherboard, regardless if the graphics "card" is an integrated (i.e. budget/sucky performance) or discrete (i.e. higher performance with its own dedicated GPU) video solution.
     
    meekus, May 7, 2008
    #5
  6. ssnseawolf

    ssnseawolf Notebook Consultant

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    nVidia has has an open laptop graphics card spec which allows for removable graphics cards, called MXM. As mentioned previously, Lenovo doesn't support such an interface.
     
    ssnseawolf, May 7, 2008
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  7. techboydino

    techboydino Notebook Evangelist

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    not entirely true my friend. dell among others has removable cards on a good portion of their laptops. most whitebook do also (clevo, compal, ect.) most people just dont know it. above all, the MXM is designed so you can upgrade specifically. its not mainstream, but they are definetely out there.
     
    techboydino, May 7, 2008
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  8. Greg

    Greg Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Even if the card is removable, you can never downgrade to an integrated card.
     
    Greg, May 7, 2008
    #8