GPU Upgrade on ThinkPads (W530) ?

Hi everyone, my first time here.

I'm thinking about getting a W530. Specs and features are mostly fine, but the Quadro K2000M is too slow for my needs. Is there any possibility that I can upgrade it? Even a K3000M (75 Watts) would be way better with the 256bit GDDR5, but will it work on the W530?

It's usually easy to upgrade staff like RAMs, drives and even CPU on ThinkPads, but the GPU seems to be a strange exception. I only remember seeing one post (can't find it now) somewhere a long time ago that the guy upgraded the GPU in a ThinkPad with some hacking. Not sure if it'll be the same for the W530 model.

BTW, since W70X is no longer there, and W5X0 is top-of-the-line for now, why don't Lenovo put a faster GPU into this Workstation?

 

No the W530 has a soldered GPU, there is no upgrading it. I believe W500 featured a proprietary version of an MXM GPU but that was ages ago. W5xx series is only offered with mid ranged discreet graphics because of the size of the chassis. Unless they made it thicker so it could have proper cooling, it would have to move up to the 17" category.

 

Soldered GPU? I am a bit sad hearing that ... Anyway, thanks for the info.

None of those major businesses notebook brands provide faster GPUs on 15" models. (Don't want 17"s, too big/heavy for my standard.) Maybe I should consider a highly configureable gaming brand? They usually have massive tubes to get the heat out. But I doubt if they will be built as well as ThinkPads are.

 

the forth-coming ideaPad Y500 is said to have dual 650M GPU.

 

Only one is Alienware IMO, the M18x is the only Alienware (now ODM is Compal) that features an metallic chassis, the M17x, M14x and now deceased M11x utilize a plastic chassis.

Also don't get consumer grade graphics for rendering/CAD, they aren't designed for it and have different drivers than Quadro cards which sometimes have drivers tailored to each CAD program (Maya specific drivers, etc).

 

W700, I think you mean. But yeah, besides that all Thinkpad discrete GPUs are soldered to the motherboard and are not upgradable.

 

@Tsunade_Hime

Thanks.

Some gaming brands also offer Quadro/FirePro options, so it should be fine.

 

It's a shame the W700 didn't set a standard for Lenovo to continue use of MXM. Even if you never decide you need to upgrade a GPU, having that option, whether it's advertized or not, is a nice selling point.

 

Not to hijack this thread, but do you guys think that Haswell GT3 (supposedly ~2x faster than HD4000) will make Thinkpad discrete graphics cards obsolete?

 

For normal users, yes. But then again, the HD4000 has already done that. Power users who do CAD and/or game will need discrete graphics for the foreseeable future.

 

I guess what I meant to ask, more specifically, is if a GPU twice as fast as the HD4000 would be faster than the discrete graphics card of say, the W530 (K1000M/K2000M). Because if it is, I feel like it would be better to go for a quad core T540 with integrated graphics. I guess we'll have to see how much of a performance gap there will be with Haswell GT3 and the next discrete graphics cards that come with the T540/W540.

But yeah you're right, discrete graphics in general aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

 

Possible, but very unlikely.

Depending on which spec/benchmark you look at, the K1000 gives 2-4 times the speed of the fastest HD 4000. I won't expect this gap to close within 1 generation.