Graphics Upgrade

How do I upgrade a graphics card?

I have a Windows Vista Laptop. I think I need to upgrade the card because of what happens when I play the Sims 2. The people are stretched out all over the screen and sometimes only their heads appear. I heard that I needed to upgrade my graphics card (?). How do I do this??

Public Comments

1. On a laptop, you pretty much can't upgrade your graphics card. That's about all there is to it. On a desktop you just open up the side, pull out the old graphics card and slide in a new one. In laptops, 99/100 times the graphics card is built into the motherboard, which means the only way to upgrade it, is to get a new laptop.
2. Upgrading the graphics card in a laptop is basically not possible, most, if not all laptops have only onboard graphics, which means its built directly into the motherboard, not as a separate chip. So in order to upgrade the graphics you'd need a different motherboard with better onboard graphics. That however is not easy because laptops have proprietary motherboards which means they are each designed specifically for each individual laptop, and aren't a universal form factor like desktops use. So basically, you are out of luck, unless you by another Laptop with better graphics...
3. you cant upgrade a laptop, they are hard wired into the main board...
4. Yeah, I pretty much agree with the other guys about not being able to upgrade laptop hardware. You can try a couple of things, though. Look in Device Manager or your laptop's documentation to see what kind of graphics it uses. Then look on the manufacturer's web site to see if there's a driver update available. Check to be sure you're using the proper screen resolution in Windows. Last, you might go into the Advanced tab in System Properties and select another option besides "Let Windows choose what's best for my computer." You can always change it back again.