Graphics Cards

Cork

How do you know what type of graphics card is installed on your PC?

Can these cards be upgraded? Where are they available & how much do they cost?

What type of standard graphics card would you require for computer games?

Sleipnir

If you got a pre-built machine (e.g. a Dell), check the documentation or with the manufacturer.
Open up the computer and take a look.
Obviously the card will be the one you plug your monitor into. This card with either be plugged into a White Slot (PCI) or a brown one (AGP)
You can upgrade these. AGP is better but if you don't have an AGP slot then you can't get an AGP card.
Or, if the graphics are onboard (i.e. the monitor cable doesn't plug into a card that looks removeable) then they are on the motherboard itself and not really upgradeable at all. You'd have to buy a new motherboard.

What card you would get mainly depends on your budget so decide that first.


<EDIT you can check what card you have from Windows but it might not tell you whether it's 'on-board' or not. Which is important to know if you're upgrading.
Where in windows you can find what type of card you have depends on which version of windows.>

Civilian_Target

That depends how old your PC is. Anything newer than 1995 will take a PCI graphics card, should you buy one, but there are very few modern PCI graphics cards out there, because it's an old format. However, if you have no idea what you want and don't need a particularly powerful card, you can buy one of these with confidence.

Most grpahics cards require an AGP slot which has been around since about 1999. There are 2 different voltages available, so there's AGP 1.1 and AGP 2.0 slots, you can put AGP 1 cards into AGP2 but not the other way around. Check your motherboard/PC manual to see which ones your motherboard will work with, rule of thumb is 1Ghz up will work with AGP2.

If you're really not willing to take the risk about AGP1 or 2, but want something reasonably powerful that will play games for a few years, I recommend a GeForce 4 Ti card, which, if you can find them, cost less than €100 (they're often available on the For Sale board right here). If you have a pretty new PC though, and want games you'd be better off with something more powerful, such as a ATi 9600pro or 9600XT.

Installation is easy, for PCI cards simply open you PC, push the card into any slot that fits (they're usually white) and screw it into place. For AGP cards, you have to remove the existing card in the AGP slot (if there is one) which usually the highest slot in your motherboard. If you can't see one, and your monitor plug on the back of your computer is vertically aligned as opposed to horizonatally aligned, you don't have anything your AGP slot. To remove and existing card, you have to go into windows, right click my computer, go to device manager and choose your graphics card and hit "uninstall". Then shut down your PC, open it up, and remove the AGP card by unscrewing it pushing down the release tab at the back right of the card (if it's there, not all cards have them) and gently wiggling it out of its slot.

Then insert the new card in the old slot (it's small and brown) and make sure it's fully in (you shouldn't see more than the top of the metal contacts) and screw it into place.

And after all that, if you have a laptop, you can't upgrade the graphics.

Seth Brundle

correct me if Im wrong but does it not display the card type when the pc first starts?

neokenzo

Cant he just go to the display properties and check it?

Woden

aye probably

another way to do depending slightly on your windows version is to right click on my computer and click properties. if you on on windows xp click the hardware tab and then click device manager. regardless of your windows version find the device manager and open it.

click on the display adaptor and your graphics card should be there. for a pci or agp card look for a keywordl like, nvidia, TNT, Geforce, ATI, rage, radeon. for an onboard graphics chip look for a keyworld like intel.

good luck

data

[edit]just check overclockers and they have the 2500+ m, so i'd go with that , afaik those chips are multi unlocked so i see no point in getting the 2600+ or the 2800+ version you should get a good overclock out of the 2500+ let us know how it goes [edit]

Sleipnir

er, ATI etc do onboard graphics too, not just Intel.
The surest way is to look inside the box but by all means check device manager first.

Woden

fair enough i'm not massively familiar with onboard chips tbh