Can an old Thinkpad laptop Graphics board be swapped for a better one?

[Stavr0s]

Hello,

My old computer died a few months ago, (it was windows 7 and it was used purely to play older games) and I bought an old laptop off ebay to replace it to do the same thing, the laptop is a thinkpad with a 2gb M500M gfx board, I have noticed that there are quite a few 4gb m2000 dell graphics boards available, so wondering if they can do the job, or would it be incompatible with the lenovo?

Thanks

[MrJim]

Hello,

My old computer died a few months ago, (it was windows 7 and it was used purely to play older games) and I bought an old laptop off ebay to replace it to do the same thing, the laptop is a thinkpad with a 2gb M500M gfx board, I have noticed that there are quite a few 4gb m2000 dell graphics boards available, so wondering if they can do the job, or would it be incompatible with the lenovo?

Thanks

You don't mention the model number of your Thinkpad, but downloading the manual should let you know whether the GPU is upgradable. In my experience though, compatibility between different brands like Lenovo & Dell is pretty rare (although not impossible). Even if the hardware is compatible, the drivers might well check vendor IDs before they will install.

[kompukare]

I don't think any ThinkPads ever came with MXM graphics not that MXM isn't already mine field with major compatibility problems as MrJim said.

Searching for ThinkPad M500M gets me hits of a P40 Yoga and P50s. No idea about the Yoga but the P50s is a "proper" ThinkPad but being an "s" is is pretty slimline and while it seems to have SoDIMM slots, and M.2 that's about it:
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo....161463.0.html
ThinkPad maintenance manuals have become worse over the years but if there was anything upgradeable they would tell you.

[[GSV]Trig]

Depends how expensive they are, I'd be tempted to try it if they are cheap enough, not sure how much improvement you'll get though.

[Stavr0s]

Thank you all for the replies, however after much consideration I have returned the model I had (P50s) as there was some time left, and the manual gave the impression I couldnt do much about the graphics board, also there are slightly better models with better graphics abilities with not much difference in price, I am now torn between Thinkpad's and Dell's