Video card for Lenovo IdeaPad Y530

[tonedeth]

I just need to know what kind of video card to get for this laptop. I want to be able to run games like the Half Life series or Team Fortress. I'm assuming the integrated video (Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD) is not going to suffice. Any suggestions? Also, a useful link on how to install a video card into a laptop would be helpful as well. I built my desktop but this is my first laptop and I'm not real familiar with them. Thanks!

 

[frozenlead]

It's extremely unlikely that your notebook is capable of getting a GPU upgrade. Chances are if it has an intel integrated solution, it will stay that way for the rest of its life.


Google doesn't show anything telling me your notebook is capable. You're stuck with the 4500.

 

[tonedeth]

Yeah I was afraid of that. I looked all around and found nothing also. Oh well, I really bought it for school purposes. Maybe now I'll focus on my studies! Thanks for the reply!

 

[dwellman]

The y530 comes in two flavors: one with an intel chipset (G45?)and one with an nvidia chipset (9300?). Both of those are "onboard" solutions. In reality, there's not a whole lot of difference between the two in general computing, but the 9300 at least gives you a chance to play some recent games at medium settings at low resolutions, whereas the G45, well, um. . . not so much.

But, no, without a complete board swap, there's no way for you to update your graphics.

 

[pcfreak101]

From my understanding ALL source engine games, i.e. Half-Life series, Team Fortress, Portal, and a few others can run on EXTREMELY low end specs. Also, from what I read, the 4500MHD gives about equal performance to a Geforce 8400M G. This is an extremely low end card by todays standards, but most definitely faster then the Geforce FX5200 that I used to have. My FX5200 could play portal and half life episode 1 on medium settings, so from my estimations, you SHOULD be able to play the games you mentioned with your 4500MHD. You may have to turn the settings down to medium or low, but it SHOULD work.

 

[frozenlead]

You'd think so, but there's a major difference from Intel's technology and nVidia's.

Drivers, and experience. Intel's gaming chips perform poorly - Intel doesn't really know how to do it. Also, their drivers aren't so good for gaming. The nvidia chips carry more power, and nvidia has a lot of experience at making both the chips and the drivers.

 

[pcfreak101]

Thats true, but If he already has the games, it can't hurt to give it a try.

 

[tonedeth]

Yeah any hardcore gaming will be done on my desktop, so playing games on my new lappy will be a bonus, even at low rez. Thanks for all the input guys!

 

[seussman71]

Maybe the specs have changed since you were looking at the Idea Pads, but here's one of the latest builds they have on the Lenovo site:

Lenovo IdeaPad Y530 - 40516CU
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8600 ( 2.40GHz 1GHz 3MB )
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
15.4 " WXGA TFT with integrated camera AntiGlare 1280x800
NVIDIA GeForce 9300M 256MB
3 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz
320GB 5400
DVD Recordable (Dual Layer)
Intel Wireless Wi-Fi Link 5100
Battery - 6 Cell Lithium-Ion

I did a chat session with their support team and they mentioned that you could replace the 9300M with something else as an aftermarket upgrade. They don't have any options to change it before they ship it, but I was thinking about getting this (our company has a good discount offer with Lenovo, so the price is right), and then down the road replacing the 9300M with something else.

I'm hoping that the support person wasn't lying, but they straight up told me that I could put another video card in on my own down the road...

My only question is: what video cards CAN be put in these types of notebooks?

Thanks, in advance!
-m-

 

[cheaptofix]

notebooks cant have their video cards changed, their chipset built-in motherboard.

however its very rare but some laptops do, yes do have that option they use an external graphic card but they can never be upgraded because the card is custom made so it has to be the same one that was there before, I remember some IBMS had that, some Acers and Some dells but its just for the purpose when it dies you can change it with the same one.

get a pc if you're a real gamer, a quad or something

in 2004 manufactuers were thinking of doing that, they made some but it didn't make any profits and it turned out too expensive and laptops develope very fast so they gave up the idea of an upgradable video card on laptops...

 

[Guest]

I just bought a intel core 2 quad processor q9000 2.0Ghz for my Lenovo Y530 We'll see how it will work after upgrade