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| | | Vista Beginner
 
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| | A while I had asked about getting a new pci-e video card for my hp, that already has a built in Nvidia 7100 card. I stopped by a Staples today and picked up an Diamond ATI HD2400 pci-e card. Does a card vrs. a built in video adapater make a difference? Well for me it certainly did, and thanks to whomever responded to my video request. The system is much speedier now and the graphics or more robust than before. So, it certainly was a good idea to do it. Though oddly enough the video card I first chose and returned said I needed a 300 plus watt power supply to run it, which I sure do not have. So I guess I learned something about what you need to look for in buying video cards these days. |
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| Does a card vs. a built in video adapter make a difference?
Depends on how you use the PC. If you're doing standard "office" work (word processing, presentations, spreadsheets, etc.), any built-in graphics is probably going to suffice.
But once you start using it for multimedia (i.e., videos), and/or gaming, then you're pushing performance demands into high refresh rates and lots of pixels -- and those DO make a difference.
Also, built-in video chips leech off system memory; video cards come with their own. So, a high screen res (1600x1200) plus lots of colors, are going to place noticeable demands on system memory when a video card isn't present. A machine with barely enough memory to run under Vista is going to crawl when you add the demand of processing video.
Given the low price of decent video cards today, the performance improvement from adding a video card is well worth it.
ASUS A832nSLI-Deluxe, AMD 64X2 4400 OC 2.4GHz, 3GB OCZ,
Running: XP Pro, Vista Ultimate 32-bit, Vista Business, Ubuntu 7.10, Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
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| | | | Vista Beginner
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| | Definitely right and I am hoping that people in the same boat as me, will be able to find there is an answer to the onboard video problem. The only question left that I have is does it hurt to overclock the video card, as I am using Atitool which was really is to work with and I was able to get the core up to 675 mhz. and the memory up to 540 mhz. . |
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| The two risks with overclocking are heat and instability. You should monitor your GPU temps if you're going to overclock it. Excessive heat will shorten the life of the GPU, and way too much heat will fry it. As to instability, that will show up when you stress the GPU, as in high-res, high-color, lots-of-eye-candy gaming.
But, using the ATI utility to overclock the GPU is the safest way to do it.
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| | | | Vista Beginner
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| | Thats sounds good. I am using Hardware Sensors Monitor 4.4.2.1 to monitor the GPU and I amm showing no artifacts as of yet at the speed I am running at. Gee, if all overclocking was this simple it would really be fun. Have a good day now!!! |
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| TBH overclocking is made out to be something to be really carefull with, but as long as you dont go stupid with it, there a good chance you can get a 5-10% speed boost over the stock.
Asus-SLI Deluxe, AMD x2 4400 (oc'd to 5000), x1900xtx (oc'd), 2GB Corsair XMS RAM 2-3-3-6 (4x512), 500GB Maxtor HDD w/ 32mb cache, 300GB Maxtor HDD w/ 16mb cache, Creative Audigy 4 (Daniel Driver Set), HVR-1100 Dvb-t hybrid TV card, 580W Hiper Type M PSU. 5.0 score on Vista Ultimate x64, 6040 3DMark 06' score on XP |
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| | | | Vista Beginner
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| | What do you recommend in software for overclocking the cpu? |
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| I think you said you're using an ATI card. If so, Catalyst Control Center (CCC) provides an option for overclocking the GPU. Sorry, don't remember the name and am not at my ATI box -- but open the CCC in Advanced Mode and down in the menus there is an option to overdrive the GPU. It allows you to increment it gradually and observe the results. Not bad for a free utility.
ASUS A832nSLI-Deluxe, AMD 64X2 4400 OC 2.4GHz, 3GB OCZ,
Running: XP Pro, Vista Ultimate 32-bit, Vista Business, Ubuntu 7.10, Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
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