Upgrading Laptop Graphics Cards

I have thought about upgrading my graphics card in my laptop. At the moment I have and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470. I have got a PCI express slot so would I be able to insert a graphics card into there?

Every second, technology becomes obsolete and outdated.? Its very common to upgrade your PC before taking the plunge to spend another mass of money to purchase an entirely new one.? The main bottleneck of any PC in today’s world is easily the video card…hence it’s the part you see upgraded the most along adding more memory (RAM).? Unfortunately, upgrading parts in a laptop is not the same as upgrading parts in a desktop…

Upgrading a graphics card is not exactly the same as it is on a tower.? Quite frankly, its really not possible as there is no real way to open a laptop up and swap out the graphics card which is usually integrated onto the motherboard or connected differently then a PCI-Express (or even AGP for some of our older systems).

I believe the PCI express slot you are referring to in your question is an Express Card slot.? They are a bit different as a PCI-Express slot is mainly use for graphics cards, while the Express Card slot in your laptop is more of a hot-pluggable interface for cards to extend support for FireWire, USB connectivity, SATA or SSD hard drives or even wireless network cards and TV Tuner cards.

Check out the picture difference here:

PCI Express:

Express Card:

At the moment, there has been an external graphics card released, the Asus XG Station, for these slots, but personally, your really better off upgrading to an entirely new machine!