Laptop upgrade questions

Discussion in 'Technology' started by AKS, Aug 9, 2017.

  1. I've got laptop I had used for work in the past that was pretty decent at the time of purchase, but I need to upgrade the video card for neuroimaging software. This is the model I have:

    https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314703

    The GTX 860M just isn't cutting the mustard for the 3D brainwave mapping software I'm trying to run. What's the best graphics card I can cram into this thing without something melting or exploding? I'm comfortable with swapping stuff in and out of a desktop, but I've never even attempted poking around inside a laptop due to having so little space inside. I'm concerned about space, heat, and power requirements.
     
  2. I was under the impression that graphics chipsets in laptops are soldered to the motherboard and not user-upgradeable.
     
  3. You can't. It's soldered.
     
  4. Above answers. That's why thunderbolt 3 was a big thing when announced so you could use external gpu's. But of course this info won't help you unless you have a new laptop with tbolt 3.
     
  5. Damn, that is unfortunate. I'm not sure what I'm going to do, then. I really don't want to buy a brand new multimedia laptop to use for just this program.
     
  6. I've seen a few external GPU videos on YouTube. It never seems to be cost effective.
     
  7. What kind of software is it? I have a hard time believing you'd have a GPU bottleneck. I took a look at 3D slicer and it seems you exceed the requirements by a good margin.
     
    • agree agree x 1
  8. I'm going to investigate whether I just have some sort of software issue causing it to not run properly. I'll be working with an instructor this weekend anyway and can ask about technical specifications needed for the 3D mapping function. I may have the wrong version of a player of some sort that's preventing it from running properly. I've updated all the main drivers already, but something more obscure could be causing the problems I'm having.