W540 - is upgrade possible?

[zsolpyW]

Helo everyone !

I have a Thinkpad W540 TYPE 20BG-S00v00, i7-4800MQ 2.70GHz, NVIDIA QUADRO K1100M, 32GB RAM
I'd like to improve my gaming performance.

What's the fastest processor I can install? is it possible to replace the GPU with a faster one?

Thx

[TPFanatic]

W540 was optioned with a "better" K2100M GPU, but the entire motherboard would have to be replaced. The CPU is socketed so it can technically be "upgraded", but...
What sorts of games are you trying to run? You won't be able to make W540 internally faster than any other Haswell laptop from 2014.

I think the only meaningful upgrade option is an eGPU through its Expresscard slot or Thunderbolt 1 port. Then you can use any modern eGPU.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTSxdQuj8Bw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAEMZqpvu0M

It cost me $400 USD and change to get RTX 3060 and Thunderbolt 3 enclosure for my P71, for rendering. Much lower price than where things were during mining craze.

That said you may find it more cost effective to get an entirely new laptop with better CPU and graphical capability. Even older P15 has come down in price and blows my P71 out of the water. But I keep P71 because I like the big screen and novelty keyboard.