Installing New Graphics Card On Laptop

S

stephanec

Bloody Lungs
Hey,
I have a Lombard 400 w. a Ati Rage Pro. I was wondering if it is at all possible to change this graphics card in it. Could a buy a radeon mobility card or an nVidia nForce and install it in my powerbook. I know it sounds weird but can it or has it been done?
 
Unfortunately, nope. Laptops do not actually have a graphics card, per say. They have a graphics 'chip set' which is basically the graphics card build right into the mobo.
 
Hey, is it actually possible to put a new graphics chipset in the form of a PCMCIA card that we could just stick in our PowerBooks? WOuldn't that be cool? Has it actually been done before?
 
Originally posted by adambyte
Hey, is it actually possible to put a new graphics chipset in the form of a PCMCIA card that we could just stick in our PowerBooks? WOuldn't that be cool? Has it actually been done before?
Click to expand...

Actually this has been done before... Prior to the Lombard Series (wallstreet/mainstreet models), iXMicro (now defunct) made the ixMicro Road Rocket - which allowed Powerbooks to work with monitor spanning. Essentially the card was just a 4MB video card which fitted in the PC-Card slots, at the time they were expensive - however PowerBooks didn't have Monitor spanning capabilities then - well until the Lombard, Pismo and Mercury models came out with spanning built-in thanks to the newer graphic chip sets.

To my belief, I think they're are serious problems in making PC-Card graphics cards for the current PowerBook G4 down to the Lombard Models. These powerbooks took their Type 1 card support out for the more favourable Type II card support. Wallstreet models had support for 1 Type 1 PC-Card or 2-Type II cards. The later models now only come with one Type II slot. Which really restricts the size of the cards especially if you're trying to make a graphics card for it. iXMirco's Road Rocket was a Type I PC-Card. Size is one thing, but heat issues are another.

Now if you look on the other side of the fence, Wintel NoteBooks now come with their Graphics chip-sets on a daughter card which can be upgraded later on. Here's hoping for Apple to look into these type of architecture.
 
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