How to connect a video card to a laptop

To make your laptop is more productive as much as a stationary computer could be, it is worth paying attention to the possibilities of your video card. Any mobile video card is characterized by a high cost, but small performance. These measures are needed to reduce its size under a small laptop case. If you decide to connect a video card to your laptop, then this article will be very useful for you.

1
What will be needed to connect a video card to a laptop

First, select the video card itself. You can immediately clarify that the NVIDIA video adapter interface is much easier to connect to a laptop than AMD Radeon. In addition, the latest video cards require special drivers that you can simply not find and may turn out that all components you buy and connect, but due to the lack of some drivers, the video card will not work.

As for the generation of a video adapter, it is best to pay attention to the performance of your processor. Since all mobile processors are also trimmed and their frequency is much less than the one that has fixed computers, it is not necessary to choose a powerful video card. Stay on choosing a GeForce GTX 560 series card, GeForce GTX 570, GeForce GTX 660, GeForce GTX 670. The video cards on the series above can continue to the performance of your processor and only inhibit the laptop operation. If you still choose the AMD Radeon, then the optimal Radeon HD 7850 video cards and Radeon HD 7870 will be optimal.

After that, think about choosing a suitable external adapter. Without this item, it is not necessary, since the usual outputs of your laptop, like USB, will not be able to transfer the amount of data and at the speed that will be required. So, the main interfaces are called such names:

ExpressCard;
mini-pcie;
Thunderbolt.

Each of them has their advantages and disadvantages, the last interface is the development of Apple and Intel companies, it is quite rare, but is the best option today. It is also worth noting that video cards from AMD are well suited for this interface. In other cases, it is still worth giveing \u200b\u200bthe preference of NVIDIA, whose video adapters are optimized a little better.

When you purchased a video card and figured out what interface is equipped with a laptop, it's time to look at the body for the video card and the adapter. The outer body is like a power supply and without it. Sometimes it is much easier and cheaper to buy a separate power supply of about 500 W. Thus, you connect the video card not to the adapter, but to a separate block, which may turn out to be a better solution.

Adapter is needed just in order to connect an internal interface through it. The main names of such adapters:

Villagetronic. Pretty popular development is equipped with an internal power source. Does not support the MPCIE interface, and for ThunderBolt requires an additional adapter.
Firmtek. This adapter is developing only for Thunderbolt - PCIE. That is, for other interfaces it does not fit.
OWC Not equipped with its power supply, also created only for Thunderbolt.
Hwtools. A budget option that can be completed with a housing and a small power supply for an additional fee. Suitable for ExpressCard, MPCIE interfaces, via Thunderbolt adapter.
Magma. The most expensive adapter that does not support only MPCIE. It has its own power supply, a case for several video cards, as well as a cooler to blow the card.
Sonnet. Development only for ThunderBolt cards, has its own body and power supply to 150 W.

Based on this list, you can choose an adapter for your budget and interface. Spaning prices for adapters is very large, their price begins from a hundred dollars for a small HWTools complete set to a thousand dollars at Sonnet.

By collecting all components, you are ready to install.

2
Algorithm for connecting an external video card to a laptop

The most difficult already behind, the process of connecting all components is quite simple.

Disable your laptop.
Connect the adapter to the interface.
Turn on the laptop and after selecting the system immediately connect the second adapter if your adapter requires it. For example, if you bought an adapter VillagetRonic for the Thunderbolt interface and between them you need to connect Sonnet Echo Pro.
After that, the drivers will be installed automatically.

Important moment. If you have two video cards in your laptop: a built-in graphics processor and a video card, then you need to go to the settings and switch all programs and games to the internal processor. On the example, we show how to do it with the NVIDIA control panel.