upgrading my graphics card

[KingOfDreams]

Hey, so I want to upgrade my graphics card and I'd like some advice. I have a Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop that's about 4 years old and I believe I have an ATI Radeon 7500 in it. I can play KOTOR and KOTOR II without any major problems and 8500 is the lowest the games say they support. However, I want to play Jade Empire, another badass looking BioWare game, and it says that the 9500 is the lowest it supports (with something called Shader Model 2.0). I'm betting the game wouldn't work on my computer but I can't say for sure. So if I indeed upgrade, what should I get? I'm betting some cards wouldn't work in my computer since it's kind of old. And I don't have to get a 9500 either I bet. I was looking at boxes of some and it seems like you can install it yourself but that doesn't seem right to me. I don't know enough about hardware to do that, although I haven't read the instructions or anything.

 

[black_dust]

Hey, so I want to upgrade my graphics card and I'd like some advice. I have a Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop that's about 4 years old and I believe I have an ATI Radeon 7500 in it. I can play KOTOR and KOTOR II without any major problems and 8500 is the lowest the games say they support. However, I want to play Jade Empire, another badass looking BioWare game, and it says that the 9500 is the lowest it supports (with something called Shader Model 2.0). I'm betting the game wouldn't work on my computer but I can't say for sure. So if I indeed upgrade, what should I get? I'm betting some cards wouldn't work in my computer since it's kind of old. And I don't have to get a 9500 either I bet. I was looking at boxes of some and it seems like you can install it yourself but that doesn't seem right to me. I don't know enough about hardware to do that, although I haven't read the instructions or anything.

It wont work trust me
Shader model are a *****, top end GFX cards coming out now are with 4.0 so any computer that has below 4.0 cant play games for the 4.0, its a right rip off.

Anyway I suggest buying a desktop for playing games it will save you alot of hassle just upgrading to a card that will be out of date with in a year anyway! i dont know anything about laptop systems to dish out any advice on upgrading (even though the card you have at the moment wont play any games that have been out in the past 2 years )