Is there a way to upgrade my laptop graphics card?

[zeferino_coutinho]

I have an Acer Aspire E-15 Laptop, with Intel Core i7-6500U 2,5GHz and twin Turbo Boost, 8GB DDR4 Memmory, running a Nvidia GeForce FTG 950M with 2GB dedicated Vram!

Is it possible to upgrade the graphic card, even with an External Video Card Dock?

I woul like to be able to play the very actual Assetto Corsa Competizione to the full power... actually it is´nt playable when racing against more then 12 adversaries even with lowest graphic resolution and minimum video settings..

 

[Dunlop0078]

No I believe that GPU is soldered to motherboard, it cannot be removed without destroying the board and probably the GPU.

I am not too familiar with external laptop GPU docks but I believe most require thuderbolt 3. The fastest interface on your laptop is USB 3.1, I don't think that has enough bandwidth for a dedicated GPU.

 

[Math Geek]

you won't be able to replace the internal gpu. laptops are not made to be upgradable except in some specific (and expensive) models. you can do some research on your specific model and see if it came with a better gpu and then seek out a used one of those but you'll likely not get enough of an upgrade to make it worth it.

as for external dock, they usually take the thunderbolt ports to connect to. but some older ones used usb C first gen or so
https/www.anandtech.com/show/9963/asus-booth-tour-at-ces-2016-10g-switches-external-gpu-dock-usb-c/2

it all depends on what you have in connections to plug into. the docks are very expensive and don't include the gpu which adds to the cost. you might just be able to sell your old laptop and buy a new one for the same investment as buying an external dock with gpu.

 

[k1114]

Usb does not use pcie so cannot be used for an egpu. It's not a bandwidth issue as it's more than pcie 2.0 x1 which was the common way to before tb came around. Usb-c has different modes so it could just be usb which won't work or it will be specified as tb3 which has a pcie mode. That article was using a proprietary ic only found on that demo asus laptop. They just went with tb3 on their commercially sold laptops.

Those specs are over the minimum specs and people do play it fine so wonder if it's not the gpu but you are just overheating and throttling. Did you temps and usages?

But you can use an egpu via taking off the wifi card which uses m.2 which is accessed from the bottom panel. It has cheaper adapters available vs tb3. ~$80 I don't know if it's x4 on that laptop but you still need a psu and preferably a mid range gpu.

 

[zeferino_coutinho]

Usb does not use pcie so cannot be used for an egpu. It's not a bandwidth issue as it's more than pcie 2.0 x1 which was the common way to before tb came around. Usb-c has different modes so it could just be usb which won't work or it will be specified as tb3 which has a pcie mode. That article was using a proprietary ic only found on that demo asus laptop. They just went with tb3 on their commercially sold laptops.

Those specs are over the minimum specs and people do play it fine so wonder if it's not the gpu but you are just overheating and throttling. Did you temps and usages?

But you can use an egpu via taking off the wifi card which uses m.2 which is accessed from the bottom panel. It has cheaper adapters available vs tb3. ~$80 I don't know if it's x4 on that laptop but you still need a psu and preferably a mid range gpu.

Thanks K1114 for a so complete answer... I don´t think it overheated .. I tried to monitorise the usage of CPU and it reached 100% easy.. same for GPU.. I temperature always a lot bellow the maximum advisable, I tried to reduce the screen definition, an also to reduce the minimum the number of adversary cars shown on the game... As for a simple race against AI with a maximum of 10 adversaries the screen rate was acceptable.. but for the specific challenge were your race against 20 other cars, were you start last and have to reach at least 10th place... there´s no way of playing it... the lag between images is not minimally acceptable... I have my laptop and graphic card with the latest drivers installed...

So even if the laptop specification is above minimum, .it´s far from the advisable one... I guess...

Loosing my laptop Wifi capabilities seems to be a bit ... not wanted... and the rest of possibilities in your advice... don+t the all refer to using tb3 also? (and I see no tb3 capabilities for this Laptop on the ACER site list of specifications... )

 

[k1114]

I don't see what would get confused. M.2 is your only option. You need an adapter, gpu and psu. You also need an external monitor. What are your temps?

 

[zeferino_coutinho]

I don't see what would get confused. M.2 is your only option. You need an adapter, gpu and psu. You also need an external monitor. What are your temps?

sorry . just saw tb3 in some part of your answer and got confused... .. the psu is needed fr the adapter/GPU??...as for the external monitor.. no problem. I don´t use the laptop´s screen for gaming proposes...

And disabling the wifi inbuilt laptop capabilities.. that means I would need an usb wifi pen (more or less) to keep using wifi on my laptop... (and I trully need that...) isn´t it?

as for the possible adapter, what would you recommend??

Meanwile I got a minimum solution.. that is reducing the frame rate to a maximum 0f 30 images ps...

now the GPU wil not reach 100% usage.. but the CPU does.... so it seems that thi main problem is the way yhe processor is pulled by the calculations for the AI of the cars and the simulator calculations, on its own... I´ve read in several places, that this was a bit predictable as the game uses Unreal 3 engine... lots of guys are having some problem as me (saw that on several Foruns about this game), specially with higher resolutions and triple screen...

 

[k1114]

That's why I wanted to know temps to see if cpu was in fact the issue. Because more cars is AI which is higher cpu usage so getting an egpu will not help.