Can I upgrade video card in iMac

I would like to have a better video card to play some games. Is this upgradable by user on my iMac? this is a 24 inch iMac bought in 2010 (I think).

Only official user-upgradeable components for that machine are hard drive and RAM.
If you search Google you will find walkthroughs for upgrading the hard drive, processor, video card, etc. in some models, but you will void any future support from Apple for the machine.
EDIT: Correction, RAM is the only user-upgradeable component for that model.

Similar Messages

Can laptops get video cards upgraded?

Alot of my friends are telling me laptops have un-upgradable video cards. Is this true?

General rule of thumb:
If it has Intel GMA integrated graphics, it is definitively not upgradable.
If it has NVidia or ATI discrete graphics, it may be upgradable, but this is getting rarer and rarer. Even if it is, it is almost always not economically feasible.
As an example, the Dell Inspiron 8000 series (8000, 8100, and 8200) all had interchangeable video cards. It was actually economically viable to take the GeForce 4 MX designed for an I8200 and put it into the original GeForce 2-based I8000. However, the I8200 was last made back in 2002 or so. Newer Dells don't have the interchangeability that older ones had.
*disclaimer* I am not now, nor have I ever been, an employee of Best Buy, Geek Squad, nor of any of their affiliate, parent, or subsidiary companies.

Upgrade video card for compaq S6000CL

How can I upgrade my video card on my compaq S6000CL? I have vista installed (upgrade). I'd like to download the upgraded video card software and not have to replace the whole video card.
Thanks!

Hi pilot3579,
So, in looking at the specifications for your computer (Compaq Presario S6000CL Desktop PC support), it appears you might have to get a video card in order to enhance your graphics. Your computer came with integrated graphics, and though there is one video driver available on your computer, it can only be downloaded with the originally installed Windows XP operating system still in place. I know that's not exactly what you wanted to hear, but that is the situation you are looking at.
Ryan1216
I work on behalf of HP
The advice and opinions given here are my own and not those of HP

Upgrade video card for Late 2005 PowerMac G5

I am looking for an upgrade video card for a Late 2005 PowerMac G5, which has the PCI-Express slots. I need at least 256 MB of VRAM.
Since this computer is a discontinued model, there doesn't seem to be too many options for video cards. I've seen some cards like the NVidia 6600 or 6800, or even ATI's X800, but they appear to be difficult to find.
The one card that is readily available still is the ATI X1900, which looks great, but a little on the pricey side ($349).
I did notice the NVidia 7300 GT, which is more moderately priced ($145), but it only mentions being an upgrade card for the Mac Pro. Will this also work with the PowerMac G5 (Late 2005) model? I would hate to buy this video card and then find out that it won't work.

The only available upgrade card for the Late 2005 G5s is the X1900GT (aka G5 Edition). It's basically on par with the nVidia 7800GT that was available as a BTO option.
You can get the 7800GT and QuadroFX 4500 as replacement parts, but they're exorbitantly priced.
The Mac Pro cards won't work (even though they're also PCI-Express) due to the ROM on the card. It's only setup to work with the Mac Pro's EFI boot system and doesn't have the necessary code to work with the PowerMac's Open Firmware boot system.

HT3696 is it possible to upgrade video card in mac book?

Hi Folks, I'm a Mac Newbie, I was wondering if there is a way to upgrade video card on Mac Book? I'm trying to add final cut and it tells me my video card won't work with it, appreciate any suggestions. RTD

No, Macbooks like all laptops have the video card integrated with the logic board.

Upgrade Video Card To Something Else Other Then 8800GTS

I have a 8800GTS in my mac pro right now and when I play games I get some lag from it like bad frame rates and so on. I was wondering can you upgrade the card with a different one I have a 3850 ATI card but it doesn't have a Mac Pro check on it like the 8800 does on the bottom and I have some other 8800GTS cards as well they also don't have the check that applies to the Factory card. They are all from www.newegg.com and I was thinking if you can just put them in the Mac and away things go. I tried and I get a black screen and loud fan speeds. I let it sit for minutes to see if it's looking for drivers or if it takes longer because you are changing the card from Nvidia to ATI.
I'm not sure if its possible to change it.

You need an Apple version card for OS X. They need to have EFI firmware. That would be 8800GT. And Newegg doesn't sell (if they do, it would have to say "Apple" and "Mac Pro."
I have picked up an Apple version on Amazon from J&R.
eVGA cards have worked fine, kindof, flashed, as they have 128k ROM - but 10.5.6 'broke' or made changes, so there are risks.
You need this version:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB137Z/A
Or the 4870:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB999ZM/A

So im about to buy a mac pro, I just need help cause im not sure if it's worth paying more for instance, a hi-res screen compared to the stock screen, and will i really miss the .2 ghz and the upgraded video card if I get the 2.0 ghz mbp?

So im about to buy a mac pro, I just need help cause im not sure if it's worth paying more for instance, a hi-res screen compared to the stock screen, and will i really miss the .2 ghz and the upgraded video card if I get the 2.0 ghz mbp?

The_Tiger92 wrote:
So im about to buy a mac pro, I just need help cause im not sure if it's worth paying more for instance, a hi-res screen compared to the stock screen, and will i really miss the .2 ghz and the upgraded video card if I get the 2.0 ghz mbp?
It appears the 15" 2.2 ghz isn't worth spending $400 more for, but you get the 1GB Radeon 6750M that has four times the VRAM than the 15" 2.0Ghz model and about 167% more performance. High settings on all current games with over 50 fps.
If your not into 3D gaming or just light weight, then the 2.0 Ghz (last years performance) will suffice on low-medium settings at about 30 fps.
The 13" is rather poor as it has integrated graphics. 30 fps on only some games.
The high res screen is a excellent choice and the anti-glare is great for viewing just about anywhere.
No messy films to replace at $30-$40 a pop.
A lot of people bring the glossy screens back once they hear about the anti-glare.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2011/05/23/glossy-vs-matte-screens-why-the-pc-indus trys-out-of-touch/
Here's my 17"
In my opinion the extra $400 for another 2-3 years of use out of the computer is worth it.
Quad cores are more than enough for most uses for most people for many years, it's just a slow card is going to make the machine feel slow in rendering graphics in the future.

CPU rendering why can't a Video Card do the job?

I started noticing that the flash player rely on a processor
more than a graphic card, I kind of was hoping that someday that
flash would work off from video card as a rendering engine. Though
right now flash player playing flash files seems like it puts too
much stress on a processor for rendering flash I mean simply why
can't the video card do the work when processor takes up like 90%
of the job? and do the job more smoother? Just an idea I'm putting
out for adobe staff members.

What Portal provides is
authentication
authorization,
user management,
security ( SRAP),
content presentation frame work ( URL Scraper provider, RSS provider and JSP provider )
dynamic vpn ( through netlets you can integrate any tcp based network application )
Wireless portal :-),
and a variety of other features ..
I don't believe app server provides all these features. Requirements of these features necessitates a portal market which the portal server addresses.

Upgrading Video Card in the iMac

I've been very confused by what I have read on so many discussion groups. Is the video card in the 2.8 Mhz, duo core, Intel based iMac upgradeable? I know there is a standard plug in card, MXM, but am not sure if the 2400 ATI card I have in the iMac can be upgraded. I am sure it is a chore to access the innards of the iMac.

YC73, you can familiarize yourself with Apple's policies;Sales and Refund Policy. The link is to the US online store, but the policy is consistent, allowing for local laws, throughout the world.
As you can see from the policy, a built to order iMac is not returnable in the first 14 days, as a standard model would be. It is my understanding that something as simple as a RAM upgrade makes the Mac BTO.
As a BTO, the Mac is subject to the Apple Manufacturer's Warranty. It is repaired or replaced at Apple's discretion. It is reported by other's in the forums with experience, that Apple traditionally replaces a machine if it is repaired three times.
I hope this answers your question.
PS, Forgive Ricktorronto, he may have drank too much Apple Kool Aid recently. Most long time posters are usually more tolerant in their replies.

Can't restart after upgrading video card to a Radeon 9200

Hi All, I just purchased a Radeon 9200 AGP graphics card for my Quicksilver. I removed the old card which worked fine and installed the new card. As soon as I pushed the new card into the AGP slot the computer turned on and it started to start up. Then a rather load beep sound came through the speakers and the light on the front of the computer started to flash. I tried this a couple of times but it still will not start with the new card installed. Everything works fine with the original card.
Anybody have any suggestions?

Hi,
Welcome to the Apple Discussion Forum!
Did you purchase a regular PC version ATI 9200 video card that was 'flashed' for Mac use? Or, is it just a PC version ATI 9200.
Either way, a regular PC version won't work in a Mac, even though it fit's the AGP slot. If it's a 'flashed' card from an Ebay Seller it sounds faulty, get a refund.
ATI only offered a Mac Edition 9200 as a PCI card, not AGP. There was an ATI 9000 Mac Edition in AGP.
Regards,
Dave

Upgrading video card - Is it possible, and what would work best?

Hi there!
So, I play a lot of video games on my iMac, and lately I've been noticing major issues with my video card that just keep getting worse as games get better. For instance, in World of Warcraft I maintain about 6 frames per second in places with a lot of particle effects, and maybe 15-20 frames per second in most other places. I tried minimizing the window to about a tenth of the screen to see if it was just more than my card could handle at that resolution, and lo and behold my fps went up to over 30 in a place with lots of particle effects. On the downside, I have no desire to play at anything but fullscreen mode in games, and I'd really like to have decent framerates at high resolutions. This is the Graphics/Displays section copy pasted from my system profiler application:
ATI Radeon 9600:
Chipset Model: ATY,RV351
Type: Display
Bus: AGP
Slot: AGP
VRAM (Total): 128 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x4150
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-xxxxx-117
Displays:
iMac:
Display Type: LCD
Resolution: 1440 x 900
Depth: 32-bit Color
Built-In: Yes
Core Image: Supported
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Display:
Status: No display connected
SO, if it's possible to ugprade, I'd love some help on how to go about doing this, and what I should upgrade to, thanks!

Hello,
You can't upgrade the graphics card in your iMac.
Make sure that you have plenty of RAM in your system, that all non-essential applications are closed down during your gameplay (including not having too many widgets in Dashboard) and at least 15% of your hard disk is free. This should allow your machine to work at it's maximum.
mrtotes

Time to upgrade video card?????

I have a two year old MacPro 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel with 4 GB RAM, 4 internal 7200 rpm 500gb HDs and a NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT (256mb) video card. Would upgrading the video card improve the operation of LR2 relative to the rest of my hardware and if so, what make and model would folks recommend? Thanks in advance-

> That said, how much difference could he really expect when going beyond 4GB? In my experience with
> Windows, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of difference between 2GB and 4GB yet, and beyond
> 4GB it seems like the difference is due more to the 64bit aspect and less to the extra RAM.
On Windows, unless you do some deliberate messing around, applications receive a maximum of 2GB even
though the 32-bit processor can access 4GB. The remaining 2GB are reserved for the OS, device
drivers, hardware that's mapped into memory, etc. But that 2GB for applications is the maximum size
of *virtual memory*. If you have 2GB of physical RAM, the app will never get that much physical
memory because Windows reserves some for itself and drivers, etc. Because Windows needs some
physical space for itself, it can be a performance improvement to go to 3GB in a machine so that
applications can (potentially) have their entire 2GB address space in physical memory *and* Windows
can put itself in the extra 1GB of physical memory. Going all the way to 4GB of memory doesn't add
much beyond going to 3 because Windows tends not to need more than 1GB for itself.
Going beyond 4GB can make a huge difference depending on what kind of work you're doing. If you're
doing work with large images, it can make a huge difference and it has little to do with the CPU's
computational performance being any better. It's that the CPU can now address much more physical
memory and thus the app doesn't incur any performance hit paging to/from disk.
Hope this is clear - let me know if not.

Can't identify video card on Windows 8 and Skyrim is choppy.

I have a late 2013 iMac with the following specs:
8GB RAM
3.4 GHZ Intel Quad-Core
Nvidia GeForce GTX 775m (2 GB GDDR5 Memory)
PS: When I look for driver for this model, it doesn't show up in Nvidia's website. Also, it shows the (m) models as Notebook models. I'm so confused.
When I am in Windows I can't find my graphics card. It says something about Basic Display Adapter and I can't find my video card. Can anyone help? My computer should well be fast enough for Skyrim and it's crawling to the point where I can't even get into the game after 15 mintues.
Thanks.

did you install the boot camp drivers, specifically x5640, after windows was installed and hopefully before you ran the native updater in windows?

Can I upgrade graphics card of my HP Pavilion g6-1301tx Notebook PC?

Hi folks,
I want to know whether I can upgrade graphics card of my laptop. (like AMD to nvidia graphic card).
Now a days most of the high end games are not
working in my laptop and I'm pretty disappointed.
Please let me know whether I can do that. My laptop model is HP Pavilion g6-1301tx Notebook PC
Product Name g6-1301tx
Product Number A3V67PA
Microprocessor 2.3 GHz Intel Core i3-2350M
Microprocessor Cache 3 MB L3 cache
Memory 2 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Memory Max Supports up to 8 GB DDR3
Video Graphics AMD Radeon HD 7450M (1 GB DDR3 dedicated)
Display 15.6" HD BrightView LED-backlit Display (1366x768)
Hard Drive 500 GB SATA (5400 rpm)
Multimedia Drive SuperMulti DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support
Network Card Integrated 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet LAN
Wireless Connectivity Bluetooth 802.11 b/g/n
Sound Altec Lansing speakers SRS Premium Sound
Keyboard Notebook keyboard with home roll keys
Pointing Device TouchPad with on/off button and support for multitouch gestures
PC Card Slots Multi-Format Digital Media Card Reader for Secure Digital cards & Multimedia cards
External Ports
1 VGA
1 Headphone-out (Stereo)
1 Microphone-in
3 USB 2.0
1 RJ45
Dimensions 37.4 x 24.5 x 3.63 cm
Weight Starting at 2.3 kg
Power 90W AC Power Adapter 6-cell Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion)
What's In The Box HP Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone (VGA)
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hi:
Graphics adapters cannot be upgraded simply.
You would need to replace the motherboard with one that would have better graphics (if one exists for your model).
This would cost as much as buying a new notebook, so it is probably not a good idea to undertake such an endeavor.

Upgrade video card and power supply or upgrade my pc?

I have a :
HP
Series Pavilion Model M8530F(KT334AA) Type Media Center / HTPC Processor AMD Phenom X4 9550(2.2GHz) Processor Main Features 64 bit Quad-Core Processor Cache Per Processor 4 x 512KB L2 Cache Memory 5GB DDR2 800 Hard Drive 750GB 7200RPM SATA Optical Drive 1 SuperMulti DVD Burner with LightScribe Technology Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 9300GE with Hybrid SLI Technology with 256MB dedicated video memory, DVI and HDMI capabilities, and support for Microsoft DirectX 10. Up to 1919MB Total Available Graphics Memory as allocated by Windows Vista Audio High Definition audio Ethernet Integrated 10/100/1000Mbps network interface Keyboard HP multimedia keyboard Mouse HP optical mouse Operating System Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit Software Included Photo and Video
muvee autoProducer Basic: Automatically create professional looking home videos and burn to DVD
Entertainment
Cyberlink DVD Suite Deluxe: Automatically fix and edit videos and create CDs and DVDs. Edit, burn and archive data to discs.
Productivity
Microsoft Works 9: Includes a word processor, spreadsheet, database and calendar
Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition 2007 Trial: 60-day trial version
Adobe Reader 8: Read and print PDF file
PC Security
Norton Internet Security 2008: Protect your PC out of the box (60 days of complimentary live updates)
Online Services
Easy sign-up to major dial-up and broadband Internet Service Providers:
- MSN dial-up (offer included)
- NetZero Dial-Up (offer included)
- NetZero Accelerated Dial-Up (offer included)
- Juno Turbo Dial-Up (offer included)
- High Speed Internet Services Comparison Shopping
Motherboard Chipset NVIDIA GeForce 8200 Chipset
CPU CPU Type Phenom X4 Installed Qty 1 CPU Speed 9550(2.2GHz) L2 Cache Per CPU 4 x 512KB CPU Socket Type AM2+ CPU Main Features 64 bit Quad-Core Processor
Graphics GPU/VPU Type NVIDIA GeForce 9300 GE Graphics Interface PCI Express x16
Memory Memory Capacity 5GB DDR2 Memory Speed DDR2 800 Form Factor DIMM 240-pin Memory Spec 2GB x 1 & 1GB x 3 Memory Slots (Available/Total) 0/4 Maximum Memory Supported 8GB
Hard Drive HDD Capacity 750GB HDD Interface SATA HDD RPM 7200rpm
Optical Drive Optical Drive Type DVD Super Multi Optical Drive Spec SuperMulti DVD Burner with LightScribe Technology
16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+R DL, 4x DVD-R DL, 5x DVD-RAM, 16x DVD-ROM, 40x CDR, 32x CDRW, 40x CD-ROM
Audio Audio Chipset Integrated
Communications Modem 56K LAN Chipset Integrated LAN Speed 10/100/1000Mbps
Front Panel Ports Front USB 2 Front IEEE 1394 1 Front Audio Ports 2 Card Reader Front panel 15-in-1 memory card reader: supports SmartMedia, xD, MultiMedia Card, Secure Digital (SD), Mini Secure Digital, Compact Flash I, Compact Flash II, IBM Microdrive, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Pro Duo, RSMMC, MMC Mobile, MMC+
Back Panel Ports PS/2 2 Video Ports 1 DVI, 1 HDMI Rear USB 4 Rear IEEE 1394 1 RJ45 1 port Rear Audio Ports 6 ports S/P DIF 1 port
Expansion PCI Slots (Available/Total) (2/3) PCI-E x1 slots
(0/1) PCI-E x16 slot
Mouse Mouse Type HP optical mouse
Keyboard Keyboard Type HP multimedia keyboard
Physical Spec Dimensions 16.54" x 15.16" x 7.60" Weight 32.00 lbs.
Manufacturer Warranty Parts 1 year limited Labor 1 year limited
Sorry for the long copy and paste. I read that I can upgrade the video card and power supply. But atm when I play world of warcraft at ultra settings, I tend to lag really bad in the new instances with the new cat expansion that came out. I wanted to know if I should upgrade the video card and power supply for better performance or just upgrade my whole pc tower. Fyi, I am running a Acer X243w lcd flat panel monitor if that helps too.

My brother has a high end laptop with a built in, high end gaming video card (I forget which one). He's able to run the game on full-on Ultra.
I have an integrated video card which games the game on.. 'cartoon'.. mode. It's lower then low. When someone shoots a powerful spell at me, I go into a DOS Prompt. (not really, but it's pretty bad).
Funny thing is, I can still kick my brother's butt in any PVP match he wants to set up.
But I guess his graphics are pretty....
As for which video card works best, I'd have to do some research. After that graphics update they did with CAT, it's kind of a toss up again.
I am a Bestbuy employee who volunteers on these boards on my own time. I am not paid for posting here, and you should understand that my opinions are exactly that - opinions. I do not represent Bestbuy in any way.
: Open Mailbox

Can I upgrade video card in iMac

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