Video Card problem/question

[Ihatebestbuy]

Hi,

I am planning on changing my video card out. My question to this board is this. I have a Compaq with a built in video, how hard would it be to disable this and install a new, better video card? Also what is the best brand (Just opinion here of course) to buy?

I hope I can get some help here.
Thanks
Chris

 

[deuce]

Welcome back ihatebestbuy. I see you still hate best buy... I don't blame you. All you have to is disable onboard video in your bios... of course with a compaq that doesn't always work out as planned, but you shouldn't have any problems. As to which card... my suggestion is get an <img src=http://forums.techguy.org/attachment.php?s=&postid=298455> with DDR. Gforce is also good, but I would say use ATI. Not sure how much memory you want, but I have 64mb DDR and it works great. Well worth it.

 

[dogbonz]

Hey Deuce and Whomever,

I've got an ATI Rage IIc AGP.

Is that considered a 3d card ?

I think I'd better upgrade to
at least a 32 Meg card...

Suggestions ?

Thanks-

 

[deuce]

Whomever's name is ihatebestbuy... and he has a good message to spread... Anyway never mind me I'm not to be taken seriously but I do have some stories that complement his. As for your vid card... if your mobo supports 4x then I definately say go get a 4x AGP and use that, and get at least 32mb DDR. Any more than that is unnecessary for most people but is usefull for anybody. If you liked the ATI you have now then you might like to stick with them they make good products, but so do others. But if you aren't already at 32mb 4x already then you might want to catch up. If you game at all you will really appreciate the boost.

 

[Ihatebestbuy]

Deuce,

Hello once again Thanks for the suggestion, maybe I'll Give that Ati card a shot. You say all I have to do is disable my onboard video in my bios when I change cards. How do I do that? Also which size card do you recommend for my crapaq 533 with 20gb hard drive and 256mb of memory? thanks for the suggestions.

Chris (otherwise known as I Hate Best Buy)

 

[Ihatebestbuy]

Oh one more thing,

What about Radeon video cards? Crap? decent? Could go either way?

 

[Ihatebestbuy]

Ok, I just found out that ATI makes Radeon Cards. Shows how little I actually know about computers lol.

 

[dogbonz]

OK, Thanks guys.

Not TOO much of a gamer, but if I grab
one I definitely want it to work in real
motion. ";o)

We'll see what Santa does...

 

[deuce]

Dogbonz... if you are willing to spend the money (and it isn't all that much more) then even if you aren't much of a gamer you will appreciate 64mb DDR. ATI and gforce both make good AGP 4x 64mb DDR model cards for around $70. Once you go over $100 then you start getting cards that have 200 and 300 Mhz GPUs (graphics processing unit) for fast 32-bit 3D game play and such.

Chris... yes ATI makes Raydeon. If you go with ATI, Raydeon is the line to go with. What bios do you have? Somewhere in there (you might need to poke around as I don't know what you have yet) you will have an option to dsisable onboard video. I'm going to venture a guess as to say that you have phoenix bios because if my memory serves me correctly that is what compaq uses. I haven't used pheonix in awhile so I don't really remember much about it, just that the different sections are separated with tabs at the top of the screen, and the tab the farthest to the right says "exit". (wow I guess I'm alot of help...lol) Tomorrow I will try to take a look at a computer running pheonix bios and see where it is but right now I really can't come with anything remotely close to what it says in pheonix... otherwise list what each tab says and I can point you in the right direction... that is unless someone can help me out here first. As to which size... it is really up to you, but you should get at least 32mb... 64 if you don't mind spending a few $$ extra.

 

[Ihatebestbuy]

Mike,

I am not sure what bios I have. I dont know how to access it and find out. How do I get into my bios? In my device manager, it lists the bios as ACPI Bios. Thanks for the help so far. I am going and getting the ATI card, as soon as I can figure out how to disable the video, and make sure that I can set it up.

Chris

 

[Rockn]

The BIOS is something that holds a small piece of coding that enables your system to boot and run tests on itself. You should see a message during the boot process that tells you to press F10, Del or some other key to enter setup. It should come right after your vidio BIOS messages.

 

[deuce]

In the bios you will have to disable the onboard video and also tell it what video apature size or whatever is on the vid card. (it is in mb--forgot to mention that) As soon as you press the startup button what ever is at the very top after some numbers and stuff scroll by is usually the what bios it is and the version and date of last flash.

 

[Ihatebestbuy]

Mike,

I got into my bios today, there was nothing in there about disableing my onboard video, it was power management, ide devices, passwords, device manager and some other crap. I looked through them all, nothing about turning off my onboard video. F10 took me into the bios, so I can get in there, just cant do anything when I am there lol.

Chris

 

[deuce]

What bios do you have?

 

[Ihatebestbuy]

Mike,
I'm not sure, it doesnt say, the only id I can see is the one that says Compaq computer setup. Would Compaq VGA be the on board video?