[weldon49]

I have an intel pentium® dual-core T4500 @2.30 ghz, 4gigs RAM with a horrible mobile intel® 4 series express chipset family video card. I understand laptops are not meant for gaming but i would like to know how external graphics cards work and how well they can hold up to new games like call of duty mw2. I meet all of the sytem requirements except for that annoying video card. From what i understand i can buy a external video card and plug it in through the USB port and "override" the internal graphics card. if this is true it also seems that i have to also have an external monitor and i cannot use the one.... you know attached to my laptop haha. So my question is how do they work, can i get one that i plug in and play games like normally on my laptop, and *cross my fingers* is there finally a way i can just get my internal video card just replaced with a better gaming card?

Edited by weldon49, 28 December 2011 - 10:54 PM.

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USB (even the new USB 3.0) does not have the necessary bandwidth for gaming graphics. The internal graphics interface/bus (whether PCI, AGP, or PCIe) of your current integrated graphics solution is much faster than any USB technology. So these external graphics cards are best suited for adding monitors for presentations - not for gaming.

[Digerati]

USB (even the new USB 3.0) does not have the necessary bandwidth for gaming graphics. The internal graphics interface/bus (whether PCI, AGP, or PCIe) of your current integrated graphics solution is much faster than any USB technology. So these external graphics cards are best suited for adding monitors for presentations - not for gaming.

[weldon49]

ok thanks for the information. so there really is no way to change my graphics card since its like built into my laptop?

[Digerati]

so there really is no way to change my graphics card since its like built into my laptop?

It depends on the notebook. The vast majority of notebooks use motherboards with integrated graphics solutions and there is no way and no room to upgrade or add a card. There are some high-end notebooks that use graphics cards that can be upgraded (if the notebook maker has one) but those notebooks are rare, and expensive.