Changing Mb In My Laptop For Better Video Card For Games

Ok, here's my question. I have a Dell N7110 laptop (running Win-7) that I bought for strictly my online biz. I had a desktop for gaming but I've retired the desktop and the vid card in the laptop won't handle better games so I did some searching and it seems MY machine has the crappier vid which I'm assuming was less expensive when I bought the machine so I went w/that. I think the description per Dell is 'Intel HD 3000'. When I use any 'lookup' directly on the machine for the vid it just comes back as 'Intel HD Graphics Family'. Soooo I went and bought the better MB that has 'Optimus with Nvidia GeForce 525M 1GB (128-bit) + Intel HD 3000' which was only $110 as opposed to a whole new machine. So I'm going to swap out the boards - which is my first time doing this on a laptop as I would have just normally bought a better vid card which isn't an option for a laptop. I did a search for the MB for this machine and could only find 2 OEM boards (by part number) - the cheaper ones, I'm assuming has the crappier vid. The description on the MB I bought said 'Discrete 2GB Nvidia' so it HAS to have the better vid card. So here's my question: Went to Dell website and found there are 2 drivers for my machine w/the better vid (Nvidia GeForce). One says 'Dell Inspiron 17R N7110 Laptop nVIDIA Geforce GT 525M Graphics Driver for windows 7' and the other says 'Dell Inspiron 17R N7110 Laptop nVIDIA GeForce GT 525M GT540M Graphics Driver for windows 7'. How do I know which one I need? Any suggestions?

Specs for my machine:

Dell Inspiron 17R N7110 Specifications

• Display: 17.3″ HD+ (1600 x 900), LED backlight, glossy.
• Processor: Intel Core i5-2410M 2 x 2.3 - 2.9 GHz, Sandy Bridge.
• Graphics: Intel HD 3000 or Optimus with Nvidia GeForce 525M 1GB (128-bit) + Intel HD 3000.
• RAM: up to 8GB DDR3.
• HDD: up to 1TB at 5,400rpm.
• Optical drive: DVD burner or Blu-ray Combo.

Thanx for any help in advance!

 

BTW, the page I found the drivers are here: https://www.drivers-dell.com/dell-inspiron-17r-n7110-laptop-video-graphics-driver/ I did also notice there are 2 drivers w/the same description of the 'Dell Inspiron 17R N7110 Laptop nVIDIA Geforce GT 525M Graphics Driver for windows 7' but 2 diff sized files was the only diff I could tell - one at 212.66mb and the other at 15582mb. I've downloaded all 3 but not sure which one I should use. Maybe there's something on the new MB that would help? I used to work in a PC repair shop but back then desktop parts were pretty much easily swappable unless the machine was proprietary like a Compaq - yeah, that was a loooong time ago!

 

Oooops! Ypu're right! Hmmm... so then I still have 3 diff drivers. I'm guessing the best one would be nVidia GeForce GT 435M, GeForce GT 420M, GeForce GT 445M, Stereoscopic 3D, GeForce GT 525M, N12E-GE-B(LP)-GT 550M, N12E-GE-B ( GT555M), GeForce GT 540M, v.8.17.12.6594, A04 cuz it seems to have all the specs and was from a later date (maybe they decided to combine the drivers for the nVidia GeForce vid card). Or should I just go to the Dell website and it'll tell me which one I need? Never took apart an integrated vid card on a MB before. Not totally sure what will happen once I install the new MB will I even HAVE a display? Any suggestions?

 

Ok thanx! If that doesn't work I guess I'm on my own. Worse case scenario I'll have to put the old board back in. You guys have always been great and I just thought someone might have some experience w/upgrading a laptop. $110 costs far less than buying a whole new machine just to play video games so I figure it's worth a try! Wish me luck!

 

You could try Intel- and let it decide what you need,using this downloaded tool- I would just let Windows instal a generic driver, then go to get this tool ,myself -at least it's antoher choice
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html