Thinkpads Forum

running a T60 with a Lenovo supplied ATI X1400 GPU, but would like to switch it out to a ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3850.

i've built desktops before, but this notebook stuff has me a bit stumped.

1) is it even possible?
2) where do you buy the cards (i did a bit of searching and the only way i can see to buy is in a new laptop)?
3) from what i can tell the T60 hardware should support the card (PCIe 16x) but will it support it fully?

the motive is gaming so if anyone has a better idea for a GPU, i'm all ears. i picked this card after a little bit of research and i'm kind of ATI biased.

atomMan wrote: 1) is it even possible?
2) where do you buy the cards (i did a bit of searching and the only way i can see to buy is in a new laptop)?
3) from what i can tell the T60 hardware should support the card (PCIe 16x) but will it support it fully?

Unfortunately, in a laptop, you cannot change the graphics card, as it is integrated on the motherboard. So short of an exchange of the motherboard, this is unfortunately not possible.

The only possibility with the present machine would be to plug one into a docking station which extends the computers bus, but I do not know, whether this is the case.

phenyl wrote:Unfortunately, in a laptop, you cannot change the graphics card, as it is integrated on the motherboard. So short of an exchange of the motherboard, this is unfortunately not possible.

And since no T60 motherboard was ever made with the Radeon 3850, it is just plain impossible. The best you can get is some T60p motherboard with FireGL V5200/V5250 (Radeon X1600/X1700 equivalents), or a (rare) T61p 14" 4:3 motherboard with the Quadro FX 570M (Geforce 8600M GT equivalent).

i don't doubt you guys are right, but i'm not understanding this - when i bought the T60, there was a sale that made it less expensive to get the it with a discrete graphics card then to buy the T60p.

on the ATI/AMD site, i see what sure looks like plug-in graphics cards (http://ati.amd.com/products/mobile.html) including my X1400.

The cards that you've seen are stand-alone GPUs that one would use in a dock.

ALL T6x series ThinkPads with disrete graphics have the card soldered to the board. Period.

Hope this helps.

atomMan wrote:i don't doubt you guys are right, but i'm not understanding this - when i bought the T60, there was a sale that made it less expensive to get the it with a discrete graphics card then to buy the T60p.

I don't see what you are getting at. the T60p tends to be more expensive, sale or no sale. Lenovo makes several motherboard variations with different GPUs, but as was said, they are soldered.

atomMan wrote:i've built desktops before, but this notebook stuff has me a bit stumped.

Desktop motherboards have a whole variety of expansion slots (IDE, PCI, AGP, etc.) to choose from, into which you can swap whatever board you want/need. Laptop motherboards don't have those same kinds of expansion slots. They do have other types of slots, MiniPCI Express, for example, but I don't believe you are going to find a gaming video card that has that type of connector. While it is true that some variations exist in the hardware configuration between the same model Thinkpads; to use your specific example, the video controller or GPU, those chips are soldered directly onto the system's motherboard and can't be swapped out.

And as it was also referenced earlier, about the only way you can add on a different GPU is to attach the laptop to a docking station which has the necessary expansion slot already built-in. However, there may be some physical size limitations as to the card that you can use in such a dock.

guess i'll be keeping an eye on the external video cards