GPU PCI-E Explanation

[ShexMix]

I am a little confused about this. I have a disappointing graphics card for my laptop, and I was looking up external Graphics Cards. I saw something on the BestBuy website with Graphics Cards that included the acronym "PCI-E". I was wondering if these are cards that can be inserted into the PCI-E slot.

 

[Gamingspecialist]

Yes. Remember laptops can sometimes be extremely difficult to impossible to change the internals. It depends on which laptop you use.

 

[ShexMix]

By PCI-E slot, that is also known as the SD reader, right?

 

[Supernova1138]

Laptops don't have a full sized PCI-E slot. Some laptops will have a mini PCI-E connector on them, but it has very limited bandwidth, equivalent to PCI-E x1, and is not sufficient for a graphics card beyond providing basic display. You cannot connect desktop graphics cards to a mini PCI-E connector on a laptop. The SD Card reader is not a PCI-E slot, and you cannot connect a graphics card to it.

Most laptops simply do not have upgradeable graphics, and you're usually stuck with what it comes with. Some $1500+ gaming laptops will have a removable graphics card that goes into an MXM slot, and can be upgraded, though sourcing a laptop MXM graphics card is difficult as they aren't sold to consumers, only to laptop manufacturers directly.

As for external cards, I have heard about some enclosures you can buy to plug a desktop graphics card into and then plug that enclosure into the laptop. These enclosures tend to be expensive, they require to be connected to the wall, so you lose all mobility, and they also require a very high bandwidth external interface on the laptop, USB 3.0 at absolute minimum with something like Thunderbolt being recommended.

 

[Gamingspecialist]

No SD card slots are completely different. PCI-E slots are the long lines on the Motherboard that you can plug cards into Ex. Network, PCI-Storage, GPU etc.