Updating Graphics Card for MacBook Pro

I'm a bit late to the party here but I'm sure by now you have either built a pc or realized you can just connect an external enclosure to your macobok so you can use basically any gpu you want with a windows partition.

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This computer has got the graphic soldered. You can't change that, so you have to use that card for the games you have got

The GPU is integrated with the CPU and the motherboard. They cannot be changed.

i think you can buy an external graphics card holder for your macbook

im guessing you will be playing bf3 at a desk with a mouse etc so the limiting of the portability shouldnt be a problem

Even if you could it's doubtful the video will keep up with the demands of games. External video is rarely as fast as the internal is.

Or, if it is truly the most recent and less than 15 days old, you can return it for full no-questions-asked refund, then buy a proper 15" model with twin GPUs and up to 1GB of dedicated VRAM.

Or, if gaming is important get a desktop iMac i7 or Mac Pro.

Or if gaming all you plan to do on the computer, forget the Mac altogether and get a Windoze PC. Save a few coins in the process too.

You are out of options then.

i see now from Kappy's response that the expernal graphics card is not that amazing, however...

if you were considering that as i saw from your reply, you could put the money towards a windows desktop PC and use that for Battlefield 3.

I have never really looked into the external card holders, just someone told me about them once whilst mocking me for playing WoW on my macbook air... but i am guessing they are not cheap

For example there is a company here in the UK which lets you customise computers pretty thouroughly. Using the online configurator I put together a desktop computer which is similar in power to a 15" MBP, and it costed around £600.

Jon,

Like yourself I found that a customized PC is the way to go for PC games. For several years Apple sort of kept up with PC graphics ability making the Macbook Pros, Mac Pros, and some iMacs close enough to play recent demanding PC games.

The current trend of thinner and lighter for the Apple laptops has compromised the gaming capabilities to the point that I have switched to a PC Clevo P150HM for new games. I play Skyrim on ultra settings. The best thing about these PCs is the initial customability and some upgrading ability later.

One big question I have about the trend to Retinal displays is how much more graphics ability is required to just maintain the existing level of performance.

2012 MacBook Pro, Retina display

15.4-inch LED-backlit glossy

2.7GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7

16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM

512GB Flash Storage

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M, 1GB GDDR5

AppleCare Protection Plan for MacBook Pro

$3,598.00

Windows 7 Pro full version $299.99

Ready to PC game $3897.99

2012 Clevo P150EM

15.6” 1920x1080 LED-backlit glossy

2.9GHz Core i7-3920XM Extreme

32GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM

512 GB SSD SATAIII

NVIDIA GTX 680M, 4GB GDDR5

3 Year parts and labor warranty

Ready to PC game $3132.00

I did some reasearch for my macbook pro, and there is nothing taht you can do to change the INTERNAL graphics cad. But you can buy a USB adapter such as a vga video card adapter which will allow you to plug the adapter into a usb port and plug the chosen video card into the adapter and BOOM. You now have an external dedicated graphics card which will allow you to run games like battlefield 3 if you buy the appropriate graphics card. I know this is late, but I hope this helps.