Okay, so here's the problem: I bought Mass Effect for my laptop (Dell Inspiron 1525), but I need a new graphics card. I've found an ATI X1300, which can play it, for a good price. It says it uses a PCI Express x16 port, and I still haven't found out if the laptop has it. Dell.com is useless, so I decided to dip into the well of GT's knowledge.

So, does anyone know if a Inspiron 1525 has a PCI Express x16?

Often times a laptop has integrated graphics, which means you can't reasonably replace the graphics card. What type of graphics card does your laptop have presently?

Frisbeetarian wrote:Often times a laptop has integrated graphics, which means you can't reasonably replace the graphics card. What type of graphics card does your laptop have presently?

I don't know. Know any way to find out? The one I want to buy is an external one, so I think that may bypass the chip already in it.

Display adapter type Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family
Total available graphics memory 358 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 0 MB
Dedicated system memory 128 MB
Shared system memory 230 MB

I think that is what you have. I have a 1525 also. I hope this helped somewhat

plasmoidmonkey wrote:It says it uses a PCI Express x16 port

plasmoidmonkey wrote:The one I want to buy is an external one

These two statements contradict each other. As such, I'd like to suggest that your second one is wrong.

An external graphics card does not exist per se. What does work are a few recent gadgets that have come out recently like the Magma ExpressBox which will accept a PCI graphics card and connect to a laptop using the express card slot. Anything like this is going to be extremely expensive. It's a better idea to just get a new computer.

To answer your question fully, though, I still need to know what type of graphics card you have. To find out, go to Start Menu-> Programs-> Accessories-> Run, type in dxdiag, and copy down the type of card from under the Display tab.

Crazy_Ewok wrote:I think that is what you have. I have a 1525 also.

This is not necessarily true (the first part obviously ). A quick search shows the computer coming packed with a different graphics card than the one you mentioned.

Frisbeetarian wrote:
To answer your question fully, though, I still need to know what type of graphics card you have.

Okay, it says I have a Mobile Intel(R) 965 Chipset Family.

So your options now are to get one of the graphics station devices or get a new computer, sorry.

If your only goal is to run Mass Effect, though, and you have enough CPU power, you could try to run the game under an emulator.

Frisbeetarian wrote:So your options now are to get one of the graphics station devices or get a new computer, sorry.

Epic fail. Ah, well. That's that.