Disabling "Intergrated video" card

[Matt_Smi]

I have a Dell Dimension 2400, and it has that Intel "Extreme" 3D graphics crap built into the motherboard. In the future I would like to get a video card. But how would I go about shutting off the intergrated video card that is already in there?

[i3OSS]

Disable it in the bios.
How to get into bios:
1. turn on computer
2. press del or f10 or whatever button you need to press to enter bios
3. look around and disable it :)

[icallmedan]

When I had my Dell, and upgraded to video card, I went to Device manager, disabled integrated video, you just find it, right click, disable, and then installed the video card, and plugged the monitor into the card. I may have installed the card first, and then disabled though...Maybe HAL or someone knows...or try i3OSS's idea.

[Matt_Smi]

Cool, I checked out the device manager and saw the option to disable the video card in there. Now just what card to buy?

[Glaive]

Something from ATI.

[glc]

Do you have an AGP slot? If not, the extreme graphics is as good as any PCI card you will find. Also, how many watts does your power supply put out? Most high performance video cards *require* 300 or more watts to function properly.

[Matt_Smi]

I am pretty sure I dont have an AGP slot, it look similar to a PCI but is brown right? I dont recall seeing that when I opened the case. But I will check again. So if I dont have one I should not even bother getting a video card? No PCI cards are good?

[glc]

There aren't any PCI cards that perform much better than the Intel Extreme Graphics. Just make sure that you max out the frame buffer in the bios (shared memory allocation).

You bought the wrong computer to play games.

[Joeberg]

Originally posted by 123456789
I am pretty sure I dont have an AGP slot, it look similar to a PCI but is brown right? I dont recall seeing that when I opened the case. But I will check again. So if I dont have one I should not even bother getting a video card? No PCI cards are good?

It looks like this:

[Matt_Smi]

My motherboard looks very similar to that, with three PCI slots. But where the AGP slot should be there is nothing. But it almost looks like one could be installed there. Because my computor has an extra slot insert right in the place where that AGP card is on that Mobo in the picture. So it also seems like an AGP slot could be installed, is this even possible?

[Alienware_Dude]

Nope.

[Joeberg]

As AWD said, it can't be installed... Your more or less stuck with your Intergrated grahics... They do sell PCI Graphcs cards, but there not exactly 'up there' with the AGP cards...

[Matt_Smi]

Are you guys sure that a video card like the one linked below would not be better than intergrated? I dont really play or plan to play games on my comp, I use my PS2 for all my gaming. I just dont like the idea that the intergrated grapics uses up RAM in my system.

http://buyaib.com/gira9212ddrp.html

[glc]

It's only using 8 megs of ram at maximum buffer - that's nothing.

You can buy a LOT of ram for 75 bucks.

[Matt_Smi]

O only 8? I thought it was much more. I currently have 256Mb's of RAM, but after Chirstmas I will have 768. I guess I dont even really need a vid card if I dont game on my comp right? What else do they improve?

[Joeberg]

You don't need a better video card than the one you have if you don't game. Video cards improve the graphics of the games. 512mbs is enogh from RAM for most applications today; You don't neccesarily need 768Mbs or RAM.

[glc]

If you don't game, you can set it to use only 1 meg of ram for the buffer and it will look fine.