Video and other stuff

[tesco]

As far as gfx cards go, get the best you can afford but bear in mind a couple of things.
- ATI cards are faster
- nVidia are well known for making drivers that work fine for 99% of people straight off the bat, while ATI are renowned for makng drivers that need a little tweaking and sometimes just don't work well for people.
Personally I'd go for an ATI and worry about sorting out crap later.
Right now I have a GF4 BTW.

not in all cases. some of the price equivlent nvidia cards are just as fast or faster than ati's cards. it really just depends which you're buying.

[harrycary]

for the record, nvidia doesn't make cards (or CPUs), they design the architecture of the processor(s). you'll see nvidia in the name or on the label 'cause the card manufacturers are obligated to due so under their licensing agreement.

if you don't find any setting for disabling your onboard video at may not be neccessary to do so. plug in your graphics card and go from there. go to your mobo mfg website first if it doesn't work.

[[Spam]]

Wouldn't telling us the motherboard model let us in on your secret?

You ask for help but leave that information out.

Intel 82845G

[[Spam]]

Well, I just opened up the case a couple minutes ago and I was shocked to see that there is no AGP slot. Damn store bought PC's. I'm building my own next time.

I might go with a PCI video card. And do video cards need a power source from the power supply?

One last thing, I noticed that there are many types or RAM. There is ECC/Registered and non-ECC/Registered RAM. Can these 2 type be mixed? I don't have any idea what kind of RAM is in my computer right now besides the fact that it's 256MB DDR266 SDRAM (PC2100).

[[Spam]]

Ignore this post.

[[Spam]]

What do you guys think of the Radeon 9200SE PCI with 128MB DDR RAM?

[lynx]

If you want Direct9x then I would strongly advise against getting that card, it does NOT support it. See the Manufacturer's Specifications if you are in any doubt.

Just for clarification, my FX5200 copes with directx9 games very nicely. Of course it isn't super fast, so I have to turn down the graphics quality, but what the heck, I'm playing a game not watching a high quality movie.

I've had a look around, I haven't seen any higher spec ATI pci cards, maybe because directx9 requires higher video rates that thay can't achieve on a pci bus. That really leaves you with one of the many FX5200 cards, or for a little more possibly the FX5700, such as this.

Cards of the spec you are talking about do not have extra power requirements.

Download Aida32 to get more info on your motherboard/memory.

[[Spam]]

What do you mean by the fact that the 9200 doesn't support DirextX 9?

I play Call of Duty: United Offensive regulary and it's system requirements says that a DirextX 9 compatible graphics adaptor is required. I highly doubt that my integrated video (Intel "Extreme" Graphics - 845G) supports DirectX 9. I only have DirectX 9 installed on my PC, that's all. So why am I able to play Call of Duty?