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I have an HP 6910 with an ATI Radeon Mobility x2300 (HP page is wrong). I want to upgrade my graphics card to an NVIDIA card.

  • Is it possible?
  • What "socket" does my laptop support? I have no idea of its name (such as PCIe x16 on a desktop).
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Keep an eye out on thunderbolt technology. As per ntw1103 comments, it's soldered in meaning updating a problem. However, thunderbolt (like USB) is so fast, it could potentially develop into external graphic cards (amongst other things), with completely dedicated power, RAM, CPU (resources). Although this doesn't help you today, I thought it may be of interest. –  Dave Rook Dec 24 '12 at 8:23
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3 Answers

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Not easily possible. The GPU is soldered onto the motherboard. Below is a picture of the GPU enter image description here

While removing the GPU (probably with a heat gun)is possible, it is the job for an expert. Also, if you do manage to get it off, you'd need another GPU that would be compatible.

There is the possibility that you could buy another motherboard with a different graphics card, but the only other motherboard for your model I found has an intel graphics card. It might be possible to find a motherboard from a newer model computer that has the same layout, but is equipped with better graphics card.

I have done this before with thinkpads (x60t -> x61t, and x200s -> x201s motherboard), I wouldn't recommend it unless you are completely comfortable taking your computer the whole way apart, and can find some good pictures of the motherboard to make sure it would all fit.

Also, the HP 6910 is missing an expresscard slot, with some laptops it is possible to add an external PCI-e desktop card via an adapter, but this isn't an option for you.

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thank you, I will find a way to make the ATI work with Arch linux :P –  ttouch Dec 26 '12 at 21:54
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There's a formfactor for mobile video cards called MXM but usage of it is a little spotty - it isn't universally used, and there's many standard implementations with some non standard ones.

enter image description here

It doesn't seem updated but mxm upgrade is a good source of information on this, it doesn't have your model listed, and not all models list upgrade successfully. They seem to say that upgrades often don't work on HP systems

Even if your laptop uses a standard MXM varient(which it may not), there's a chance the bios may not support the new card.

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Most laptops have video chips and video memory soldered directly to the logic board. They don't use "slots" to attach the video card. I have heard of one or two laptops that had "upgradable" video cards. Based on what I read, and what I've read about other laptops, this is not one of them. If you want to "upgrade" the video, it's time for a new laptop.

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Tomorrow I will disassemble it to see if it's actually possible to upgrade the GPU. The upgradeable laptops are a lot! –  ttouch Dec 23 '12 at 21:20
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