Curse

l Selling God l · Dec 18, 2005, 03:46 AM // 03:46

I thought I knew quite a bit about computers until people got into depth with me about video cards/graphics cards, which i found out i know absoutely nothing about. I have a couple of questions.

1. Is it possible to buy both a Video Card and a Graphics Card?

2. I have an Emachines, and from what i can tell this is the stock graphics card it cam ewith "Nvidia Gforce4 Mx Graphics" not sure if that is actually the card...if not can someone tell me where to find out what card I do have?

3. How can you find out if you have a seperate plug in for the card? Or if there is none at all?

4. Can I get some recomendations on any kind of card/cards that will make my computer run SO unbelievably smooth AND look great?

Any help/advice is greatly appreciated, thanks alot guys.

Tmm Ryan · Dec 18, 2005, 03:50 AM // 03:50

1. video/graphic card - same thing. unless u mean one of those tv tuner cards.

2. the nvidia gforce 4 mx graphics is ur gfx card + its bout 3-4 years old now.

3. Plugin?

4. you can get a more up to date graphics cards, but this will mean new mobo, therefore cpu, RAM, so better off building new pc from scratch.

hope this helps.

l Selling God l · Dec 18, 2005, 03:55 AM // 03:55

So I cant just buy a new Video Card??

Pharoke · Dec 18, 2005, 05:06 AM // 05:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by l Selling God l

So I cant just buy a new Video Card??

It is possible that you could buy a new video card.
A) What model Emachins system do you have?
B) Do you happen to know if you have an available AGP slot.

Old Dood · Dec 18, 2005, 11:43 AM // 11:43

Listen to Pharoke.....He makes a good point.

Now reading your post Selling God...you stated that your system has: "Nvidia Gforce4 Mx Graphics". This sounds like an on-board video set up. Meaning you do not have a video card at all...and it is a good guess that you do not have a dedicated video card slot.

Being that it is an E-Machine that is why I would think you would not have a dedicated slot. With that in mind you can still by a video card and install one. You would use one of your Regular PCI slots for it, and disable your on-board video via the BIOs on boot up.

As for what card to get? I believe some of the other members here have stated that Nvidia's FX5500 is one of the better ones for the job.

One way to tell for sure if you have a AGP or a PCIe(Unlikely the latter) is by unplugging your system and opening up the case and looking at the mother board. If there is a single slot (Brownish I think) offset near your Regular PCI slots then you have an AGP video card slot and then your world just got better.

Alias_X · Dec 18, 2005, 04:21 PM // 16:21

Hmmm...
I had the Nvidia GeForce 4 MX 400 card in my old comp, and I think that its the same card you are talking about, unless they tried to screw you over with some onboard replica of it.

I ran Guild Wars fine with mine, but for some games, it wasn't so cool. Also, it is an unsupported graphics card, so I missed some stuff I think. I could never see the video's with my old card.

I upgraded, and bought an AGP card. I bought the ATI Radeon 9550, which some will argue is another out of date card, but honestly, it runs all of my games beautifully. I got the 256mb version, and damn, I am seeing soo many things I never used to notice, and, I can watch the videos in it. I only have 256mb of RAM, so if I had more, it would probably be even better.

If you want a cheap upgrade, for around $100, you can get the ATI Radeon 9550 also. I have no regrets about buying this, except for maybe it is AGP, but it is one of the best AGP cards there is IMO.

ecirbaf · Dec 19, 2005, 07:47 AM // 07:47

If that's any indication I'm running GW failry smooth in 1280x1024 (at 85khz) with a good old Radeon 9500 Pro. So any graphics card that you buy nowadays should run the game damn well.

You can feel a little slow down in the areas with the snow particles (those are some darn good looking snow flakes !), but everything else is fine with maximum ingame graphics options.

My PC has 1 gig of memory onboard, the graphics card has only 128 mb DDR.

That said be sure to check the features. Alias_X above mentions the Radeon 9550, which has 4 pixel pipelines, the Radeon 9500 Pro has 8 pixel pipelines. Then 9500 Pro is discontinued though.

But generally the number of parrallel pixel pipelinesis a good indicator of the power of the graphics card.

The amount of memory on the graphics card is usually a commercial trick, dont buy into it. 512mb is not gonna help at all against a 256 mb if the 512 version has fewer pixel pipelines, especially when the card can use your main PC memory with AGP. You really dont need anything more than 256 mb on the graphics card.

By the way, the "MX" on your Nvidia card indicates a weaker graphics processor, avoid this like the plague.... buy a non-"MX" one, regardless of the amount of memory.