Ask the Doctor: Alien? Where?
Posted 03/27/09 at 06:15:58 PM by The Maximum PC Staff
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I have an Alienware Area-51 m7700 laptop computer with 2GB of memory and an Nvidia GeForce 6800 Go with 256MB GDDR memory. It’s three years old and runs fine, but I would like to upgrade the graphics to get better video response. I play World of Warcraft and occasionally have problems with the video becoming a bit choppy. Plus, with the economy in its current poor state, I don’t really want to buy a new computer anytime soon, so upgrading my current computer seems like a good, relatively inexpensive way to go. The problem is, when I talked to a tech support person at Alienware, I was told a video upgrade isn’t available for my computer because the current videocards work with only the current bus configurations, not with my computer’s bus. Is there truly no way to upgrade my laptop’s video?
—Thomas Oglesby
The tech support guy is right, Thomas. Each new mobile GPU typically runs hotter and requires more power than the previous iterations, and there’s no universal laptop graphics hardware spec. You’ve already got the best videocard you can put in your rig. You can increase performance relatively inexpensively by upping your RAM to 4GB—you can get 1GB and 2GB SO-DIMMs for your machine for nearly nothing, and that’ll help with your game performance—but since the m7700 runs on a 32-bit Pentium 4 processor, you won’t be able to utilize the full 4GB. Other than that, you’re out of luck.
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SUBMIT YOUR QUESTION Are flames shooting out of the back of your rig? First, grab a fire extinguisher and douse the flames. Once the pyrotechnic display has fizzled, email the doctor at doctor@maximumpc.com for advice on how to solve your technological woes. |
You're looking for help at the wrong place!
Submitted by rob41 on Sat, 04/04/2009 - 9:32am
It never ceases to amaze me how many morons are compelled to chime in with utterly useless information.
1. Your rig is plenty capable of running WOW.
2. You need to go to the Alienware forum at Notebook reviews. They have all the answers you need.
3. You don't need more ram to play WOW, but it's so cheap, so get some for other apps.
4. the auther is correct about not being able to upgrade the GPU on your M7700. You would need an MXM type three or four to be able to do that. Those types are about as universal as it gets.
5. Until you visit NBR, I suggest you do a clean install on your rig. Load WOW and enjoy.
6. Here's a link to NBR where myself or other members with valid knowlege will be glad to help you:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1018
Submitted by DMI PC Repair on Sat, 03/28/2009 - 5:12am
Holy crap!!! Are you serious? Updating the drivers won't do anything. And if you are having trouble playing WOW, the choppy frame rate is due to the lag in you internet connection. Up your bandwidth. A 1.5 Mbit DSL connection is fine but double it. Maybe even get cable. Hey Doc get a job!!!!!
I find myself sitting here
Submitted by Tekzel on Tue, 03/31/2009 - 6:24pm
I find myself sitting here staring at your response and wondering if you have any clue, whatsoever, what you are talking about. My guess is no. Do you think MMORPGs send and receive enough data to saturate a 1.5mb DSL connection, which probably has 256mb upstream. When would internet bandwidth EVER cause framerate problems? People play these games just fine on dial-up for goodness sake. The latency issues caused by bandwidth could NEVER be confused with video framerate problems, in this or any other universe. You really do PC repair for a living? Must be some some hick town, or from your moms basement (I had to put in the classic "mom's basement" jab, you know it).
Internet CONNECTIOn
Submitted by quadcoregammer on Sun, 03/29/2009 - 9:21pm
ITS THE internet connection that really helps in online play lik WOW or COD, not just the graphics all though they do help.
Get a cheap gamming notebook they arent that much any more.
P4 Laptop?
Submitted by QUINTIX256 on Fri, 03/27/2009 - 5:02pm
If you are concerned about the economy and you have a laptop that old,
do the economy a favor: Get a new laptop.You can have your recession. I'm not participating.
Starving a sick economy is not the solution.
[EDIT: Not having an emergency fund (no matter what shape the economy is in) and going into debt
(which contributes to inflation and limits your disposable income) isn't helpful either.
Save up if you haven't already.]
Submitted by SEALBoy on Fri, 03/27/2009 - 4:25pm
I disagree with the advice to upgrade memory. Your laptop is 3 years old and hence probably runs XP. If you're getting choppy framerates in WoW with 2GB of RAM, 4GB is gonna do squat. If anything, you're running out of GPU RAM, not system RAM.
What you CAN try is upgrading drivers, running at a lower resolution, or lower detail. You might also be able to find a faster CPU for your laptop if you can figure out what your laptop can support.
Hope this helps!
As far as I know, all CPU
Submitted by I Jedi on Fri, 03/27/2009 - 5:09pm
As far as I know, all CPU associated with a laptop are proprietary. Meaning that they cannot be changed out for a different, more better version, as heat issues and other issues would arise. Also, I was under the impression that a laptop's GPU uses the system's RAM and not its own RAM because it doesn't have a discreet graphics card. Finally, the best that I think that he could do is minimize the number of running applications in the background that he has, as well as lower his graphics settings in-game for max performance output from in-game. Sorry, friend, but that's the name of the game with laptops in most cases. He could upgrade to an extra gigabyte of RAM, that may help. Windows XP on a 32-bit will utilize 3 GBs of RAM, so it may be worth it from the 2GBs of RAM you have now.
Submitted by SEALBoy on Fri, 03/27/2009 - 5:46pm
A GeForce 6800 Go would almost definitely have dedicated memory and not share system RAM. I still stand by my opinion that 2GB is MORE than enough to run WoW on Windows XP, unless you're running a couple copies of Photoshop in the background. Adding more RAM can help with loading times, but often does very little for frame rates.
Submitted by QUINTIX256 on Fri, 03/27/2009 - 5:10pm
But I doubt you can get a "better" one for a cpu socket in an old P4 machine. They don't really sell any of those any more, but you can find plenty of laptop Turions and Core 2s here:
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=759&name=Processors-Mobile.
So no it is not impossible to upgrade a current laptop. And old P4 on the other hand...
Checking for background apps is a good idea. WOW should run fine on a 6800. Correct me if I'm wrong but that game is designed to run on low end IGPs.
Also please don't boldtext an entire post.
You can have your recession. I'm not participating.
Submitted by I Jedi on Fri, 03/27/2009 - 5:34pm
Even if he could upgrade the CPU, which as far as I know isn't possible do to. Again, heat issues and other issues that would arise with the motherboard inside the laptop. A Pentium 4 isn't exactly the best CPU out there now a days, but you are right, it should run WoW just fine. WoW itself requires a minimum of 512MB of memory, Intel Pentium 4 1.3 GHz processor, Nvidia GeForce 2 class.
Looking at his laptop and the Pentium 4 he has inside, it can utilize 64-bit technology, so he could upgrade his laptop to a 64-bit OS to get a full four gigabytes of RAM out of his system. Bottom line to said person who has this laptop issue... Your laptop is going to stay the way it is because most laptops are proprietary in almost everyway. If all you're getting is some choppy graphics from time to time, then make sure you're updated to the latest drivers from NVIDIA and mess around with the settings in-game and shut off all non-essential applications on your computer while playing in-game. Finally, as a last option, you can try upgrading to 3 GBs of RAM.
EDIT: It would appear I was wrong... Alienware laptops are apparently upgradeable on the CPU is a lot of cases. Looks like I was also wrong about the graphics card.
I know it opens up a whole
Submitted by ericzombie on Fri, 03/27/2009 - 4:23pm
I know it opens up a whole barrel of monkeys, but maybe the original question asker should look into MXM modules and try to find out which iteration of his he has, and if there are any upgrades possible to it. I know that a lot of those larger laptops, especially the alienwares, tend to have MXM capability, in which you can upgrade the graphics card. Keep in mind though that MXM modules are VERY hard to find online, and there are many different generations and specs of MXM, so even though it's a "standard" there's nothing standard about their family of supported cards. Just requires a lot of research. I found that my old Dell Inspiron 1705 had MXM capability, and I'd found people that upgraded to the 8xxx series of video cards, since the stock one came with 7800s. It was just really hard to find any concrete information on them, because they're not common upgrades at all. Since then I traded my inspiron for a Macbook Air, and just threw a few hundred into my desktop, and now it's a screamin' machine.
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