Upgrade Laptop GPU

If you ever felt the need to upgrade your laptop’s GPU but found no proper way of doing it, then this guide is perfect for you. In this guide, you will get to know complete details on why you need to upgrade your laptop’s GPU, when to do it, and how to do it properly. However, before you move further ahead with getting to know all the information about the process, there are a few things that you need to keep in mind.

1. You cannot increase the life of your gaming laptop simply by swapping out the GPU.
2. The Eurocom updates that fascinate you quite often are not meant for smaller laptops. Instead, their upgrade options are usually only for the big laptops made by some leading manufacturers like Clevo and others.

We also have an article here about what is a good idle GPU temperature that you might be interested in.

Why You ever need to upgrade your Laptop’s GPU?

If you love playing games on the laptop and are always in search of the latest released games, then you must also be the person who takes great care of the condition of your laptop’s GPU. We assume this because a GPU plays an important role in supporting the games that you play. If your GPU is good enough, it will help you play your games with greater efficiency as it will prevent your laptop from bottlenecking; however, in other cases, it’s not possible.

So keeping these things in view, a good upgraded laptop is powerful enough to make your gaming day memorable, so you must think of upgrading it with the passage of time when you think of playing some latest released games.

Another best way to make your GPU support all your favorite games is that you should keep the CPU usage as low as possible and must have a minimum of 16GB RAM. This is because for playing your most favorite and latest games, your laptop requires not only an upgraded GPU but also a powerful CPU, increased RAM, and storage. However, even if it is not the only important component to make your gaming laptop capable, it is still a crucial component that you must need to upgrade to get the best performance of all times.

So, how you know that it’s time for GPU upgrade? If you see that your GPU is 100% in a game, but it is stuttering at the resolution and the settings that you want for your game, know that it’s time for an upgrade. When this happens, do not hesitate to take a step towards upgrading your laptop’s GPU.

Are all laptops GPUs upgradable?

You will be amazed to know that this up-gradation is only possible if you have a laptop that comes with an upgradable GPU. There are many versions that do not allow you to upgrade the GPU to its fullest, so figuring out what laptop provides you the option is best before you carry on the further procedure.

So which laptops’ GPUs are upgradable? Well! The laptops that come with the MXM socket allow a little upgradation feature in it via desktop. However, it is still possible to some extent. At the same time, the Clevo-based laptops are completely aligned with the GPU up-gradation process through an external desktop GPU. Along with this, you can also use the external desktop GPU with a thunderbolt three interface or some brand exclusive solutions.

Considering this, whenever you plan to upgrade your laptops’ GPU, we suggest you first figure out what laptop version or model you have and it is really possible to upgrade its GPU or not. If not, then sadly you have to buy a new laptop so that it can support your latest games and other heavy-duty tasks. If you feel your laptop is offering you the up-gradation option, then you can get ahead with the guide to understand things even better.

Do the CPU need to be upgraded along with the GPU?

First of all, you need to know whether the CPU needs to be upgraded along with the GPU or not, as it will clear much of your confusion regarding the issue. So, the choice for the up-gradation depends highly upon your needs for your Intel laptop usage: whether you use it for gaming or other purposes. If you use your laptop only for gaming purposes, you don’t really need to upgrade and make it the fastest of all. However, if you do a lot of video editing/encoding, then you might also be concerned about the battery life of your laptop; in this case, you must also look out for helpful processes on how you can upgrade your laptop’s CPU.

Is it possible to upgrade a Laptop’s GPU?

Although upgrading the GPU is a bit daunting task, it is not altogether impossible. However, before moving ahead to carry on with the process of upgrading a GPU, you must consider the types of laptops with different GPUs allowing you to have a completely different method for up-gradation.

There are basically two types of laptops: those which are with the integrated graphics that are permanently integrated into the CPU, and those which have both integrated and dedicated graphics. The difference between these two types of laptops is that the ones with the integrated graphics are best to use for simpler tasks like processing graphical videos, watching videos, and very light occasional gaming. While on the other hand, the laptops with both integrated and dedicated graphics are exclusively made to consume less power and deliver better performance.

Regardless of the type of laptop that you are thinking of upgrading a GPU off, the up-gradation of the GPU becomes a daunting task as the graphics processing units are either integrated with the processor or soldered to the board. So, to upgrade the GPU of your laptop, you have to be skillful enough to pull off such a challenging task.

*Note: Laptops are not made to be fully upgradable; however, if you still want to do it, you will have to upgrade the storage devices and RAM to get the optimal performance.*

Will the GPU up-gradation work?

If you are thinking about it working to support your daily heavy-duty games, then up-gradation of the GPU will definitely work. This graphics up-gradation will boost the visual performance of your computer, and it will help in image modification also. All these improvements will help you greatly in enjoying your gaming with a better mood and experience.

There is one other thing that will definitely fascinate you about this upgradation, and that is: you don’t only need GPU for better gaming, but it is used for other important functions also: the resolution of the videos you watch, the image quality of the video that you edit and many other tasks are based on the quality of GPU that you have in your laptop. When you upgrade your laptop’s GPU, you will get to enjoy the improved overall performance of your laptop.

So how to upgrade a laptop GPU perfectly?

Although it seems almost impossible to pull off such a daunting task, however, you can still upgrade your laptop’s GPU professionally by using your modern desktop GPU with your laptop that you desire to introduce up-gradation. As this external GPU/eGPU has its own power supply and PCI-E connection, you can easily plug it directly into the USB ports of your laptop.

Before starting to think of this thing as a perfect solution to the up-gradation of your laptop’s GPU, there is one thing that you must need to consider, and that is that these external GPUs are approximately 10-15% slower than the GPU itself. This lower performance can lead to a poor performance ratio. However, this method can work extremely well with the faster-transporting data means.

Nevertheless, there is one great thing about this external GPU connectivity, and that is that it offers complete compatibility with the similar model of manufacturing that you are pairing it with; as a result, it can transform your device into a better-performing device for the future. Also, it provides you with an extra graphics output that helps you drive an external monitor and also the laptop’s built-in screen. If you have HDMI output or DisplayPort, and VGA, the addition of this GPU will provide you with a third screen also.

If you want to know how to tell if HDMI cable is 2.0, we have a guide here.

Does this connection to external GPU help?

Nowadays, many laptops come with a CPU that contains a GPU, so if you want to upgrade your laptop’s GPU, you must have to remove the processor; that you might not want to do it as it can only be done by some professional and if you try to do this at home you might in return damage your whole device.

For this purpose, the addition/connection of an external GPU is worth doing as it will provide you additional performance. It can turn the device into a good gaming machine that will let you enjoy the time even better. These external GPUs can serve as a great solution to laptops that are facing poor performance issues mainly because of their integrated graphics.

If you are wondering if motherboards have integrated graphics, read this article here.

Some Final Words

Although it’s a professionals’ task to remove your laptop’s processor entirely and upgrade the GPU for you so that you can get better performance out of your laptop, this requires you to spend a lot of extra money and wait to get back your laptop to enjoy it once again. To avoid these hassles, this method of external GPU connection method is the best and convenient to do: even if you are a beginner user, you can do this very easily.