I3 m370 upgrade to i7 m###

[dlcj21]

I have a laptop that has an i3 m370 in it. It has a dedicated ati hd 5470 graphics card in it (Can't remember if it's a 512mb or 1gb).

It plays some games pretty well and others its a dog on. I was wondering if upgrading the processor to an i7 would improve it's performance?

2 questions:
1) Is it possible to upgrade a i3-m370 to an i7-m### without having to change out the motherboard?
2) Will I notice enough performance gains to upgrade?

 

[C12Friedman]

Theoretically, you could upgrade to an i7-640M processor but that would be dependant upon your specific motherboard. You would not see much in the way of performance increase while gaming (at least not enough to justify the cost IMO).
If you can get ahold of a better GPU - mobile GPU's are very hard to find for the consumer, but I'm told there are sources - that would help a bit but, again, I'm thinking the cost/value may not be there.

 

[dlcj21]

Best answer selected by dlcj21.

 

[InvalidError]

If you can get ahold of a better GPU - mobile GPU's are very hard to find for the consumer, but I'm told there are sources - that would help a bit but, again, I'm thinking the cost/value may not be there.

The costs for aftermarket laptop parts are often outrageous indeed. Apart from commodity laptop components like HDDs and RAM, it is often cheaper to buy a new laptop than upgrade/repair individual parts.

When upgrading laptop RAM/CPU, there is also the additional worry about whether or not the BIOS will allow it even though the socket/slot should theoretically allow the upgrade.