Old Video card

[wgjojotater16]

I have a computer that the operating system went nuts on me. Its somewhere about a 2000 , 2001 model. it has a video card the I was wondering if it was any better that the onboard graphics on a little socket a board I have been playing around with. My question is if I install the card on my board and its not no better than my onboard graphics. Can i go back to my onboard graphics, If so how would i go about getting rid of it, I'm sure just taking it out of the PCI slot it not a good idea

[Kov-Ice]

Sure. You can just go to Control Panel / System / Hardware / Device Manager and uninstall the display adapter for your card. Shut down and then remove it.

[Kiwi]

Most Socket A technology is pretty much year 2001 also. You shouldn't find that the VGA card won't fit. It is only within the past year or so that IGP's with decent graphics built in have been available, and those have been on newer MB's than your micro is. You probably will see an improvement, and at the very least, you free up some system RAM that the IGP has been using.

[glc]

Can't generalize, kiwi - it all depends what the motherboard is and what the card is.

[Kiwi]

The good thing about AGP is that it's mutually exclusive. If it's an AGP1, 3.3 V, only the right card will fit. If it's AGP2, greater flexibility and AGP2 cards deal with various voltages. An AGP3 card can only fit in either an AGP2 or AGP3 slot and can handle either 1.5 V or 0.8 V.

Nice to have a chance to get away with a "positive generality"; most times you have these kinds (similar) of questions, you have to be negative as a generality.

[glc]

But he may have a PCI video card - that's a different story. So would be a first generation AGP card that's only 4 or 8 megs. There are some socket A boards with some DARN good onboard video - like the NForce IGP - that's a GeForce 4 MX graphics engine that will put almost any mainstream PCI card to shame and all pre-Geforce and Radeon AGP cards too.

This is why we really need to know exactly what we are dealing with here before we make a blanket statement.

[wgjojotater16]

I forgot to add this it is a pci card ,Now that i got it up and running it is a 16mb card better that the 8mb on my motherboard .I think it core is running at 85 mhz .I can quite tell ,85 is what powerleap tells me. I cant tell who makes it it came with the computer when i bought it Guss it is just one of those no name things

[wgjojotater16]

While we are on the subject of APG1,APG2,APG3 I got an emachines that I use to play my games on since it is more reliable than my overclocked stuff .I bought it new this year it has a apg slot I want to put a graphics card it it so that I will be able to play more games .Being a person that has never messed with graphics card I don't know much about pci and I really don't know nothing about apg. My question is do I need to worry about APG1 , APG2 , APG3 when buying a new card . and what would be an good budget card I don't need the best thing on the market I just was to be able to play newer games

[Kov-Ice]

Originally Posted by wgjojotater16 I got an emachines that I use to play my games on since it is more reliable than my overclocked stuff.

What's the point in OC'ing your stuff so much it renders your computer unreliable? Maybe back your numbers down a bit so that it's stable.

[glc]

Yeah - it doesn't make sense to me to use a piece of crap E-machine to game on when you have better hardware.

The odds of the E-machine power supply surviving the added load of a gaming quality AGP card are not very good. They all ship with 250 watt substandard brand power supplies. A Radeon 9600 would probably be the strongest card the power supply could handle.

[wgjojotater16]

I upgraded up 450watt when i put in my new sata hard drive

[wgjojotater16]

KOV-ICE ,



On my overclocked computers the only time they seem to crash is during games .it will hold up for video encoding ,and other high draw programs .It just I got a great deal on my emachine and it just seems to be my staid by ,anything I seem to start to overclocking either something burns out on the mother board or I drive the operating system nuts. if I put my games on one that the motherboard "might" go out and the I replace it and have to register windows again . I don't like having go through all that to play games

[glc]

Welcome to the hobby of overclocking.

[Kiwi]

And what would be an good budget card. I don't need the best thing on the market; I just was (stet) to be able to play newer games.

Geforce 6600GT, still the best bang for the buck that will generally get the job done at a fairly affordable cost.

[wgjojotater16]

Thanks