Hey,

Sims 3 in coming out in June and unfortunately my laptop needs a new video card to run the GAME. My laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1501 with an ATI Radeon XPRESS video card. I was wondering if it is BETTER to get a new video installed in my laptop (I am not sure if this is even possible since I think my card is integrated chipset) or if I should just get a new laptop? I got my current laptop in August 2007, but I am leaning towards buying a new one. I want a bigger hard drive and more memory as well. If it’s better to get a new laptop which dell laptop would be best?

Also regardless of getting a new laptop or just a new video card, which card should I get? Here are the video card requirements that the Sims 3 website has posted;

Windows Supported Video Cards
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NVIDIA GeForce series
FX 5900, FX 5950
6200, 6500, 6600, 6800
7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950
8400, 8500, 8600, 8800
9300, 9400, 9500, 9600, 9800
G100, GT 120, GT 130, GTS 150
GTS 250, GTX 260, GTX 280, GTX 285, GTX 295

ATI Radeon(TM) series
9500, 9600, 9800
X300, X600, X700, X800, X850
X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950
2400, 2600, 2900
3450, 3650, 3850, 3870
4850, 4870

Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA)
GMA 3-Series, GMA 4-Series

Laptop versions of these chipsets may work, but may run comparatively slower. Standalone cards that are installed in vanilla PCI slots (not PCIe or PCIx or AGP), such as some GeForce FX variants, will perform poorly.

Integrated chipsets such as the ATI Xpress and the NVIDIA TurboCache variants may default to settings that are higher than what would be optimal for them. Graphics settings can be lowered to improve performance.

The NVIDIA GeForce FX series is unsupported under Vista.

Thank you so much, this is all so confusing to me.
You cannot upgrade your graphics card on a laptop. It doesn't work like that. The graphics chipset is integrated into the motherboard and cannot be removed.

Personally INSTEAD of getting a new laptop I would get a Desktop Computer. They are considerably cheaper and have the option to be heavily upgraded. Laptops are not designed to play such high-spec games, and those which can play it are undoubtedly very expensive.

If you have the money, go for it, but you could buy a desktop computer that can play Sims 3 for maybe half or a third of the price of a laptop.