Hey everyone, my name is Andrew and I currently own a Dell Laptop Studio XPS 1640.

These are my specs:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU P8600 @ 2.40 GHz
Memory: 4.00 GB
System Type: Windows Vista 64-bit OS
Manufacturer: Dell
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A07
Graphics card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3670
Graphics Card Memory: 2295 MB
Current Display Mode: 1366 x 768 (32 bit) (60 Hz)
Driver Version: 8.17.0010.1041

So, my situation is that I am currently an undergraduate college student and I just bought Starcraft 2 from bestbuy. I read through the Graphics Card Performance and Classification thread and found that my graphics card was Class 2 but even with that, Starcraft 2 starts to get laggy after an hour or so which is really bothersome when I am trying to have a nice long gaming session with a couple friends. I run the settings on medium to low and turn off lighting and some other things that seem to consume FPS, but I usually average 40 when I first start off and then it decreases to 20 and then below 10.

I cleaned the fans and everything, optimized registry, defragged the computer, have a great wireless connection ( no disconnects and good speed), and I think the processor should be able to handle it quite well. I downloaded the RealTempGT application and my core temperature is always below 70 degrees Celsius which is at least 35 degrees away from the TjMax temperature.

I want to know what are my chances on upgrading my graphics card and how should I go about doing so. I have read that it is extremely hard and that very few laptops are able to do so externally but I did read about the GeForce cards and some external PCI modules or things like that. I'm not entirely sure/educated about graphics cards completely so if anyone could help me in this specific situation that would be great. I would love to buy a higher end class 1 card (according to the thread) so money isn't too much of an issue, I just want an even nicer graphics card that will be able to run Starcraft 2 and future games very smoothly.

If I can't upgrade it at all, then just tell me directly but if there is a way that is practical and reasonable, then please tell me and educate me

Thanks for taking the time to read this, much help appreciated.

Andrew

Do you know what the GPU temperature should be around usually? Is there a real effective way to clean out the area for the GPU or does anyone even do this? (besides the fans and those areas) It might be the temperature because it runs my game fine at first and then after 30-40 min starts to slow down and the FPS drops a lot.