Just Making Sure.... Thread

I have intergrated graphics right now. If I go to the store and get a better card, is the following right?

1. I go to device manager and turn the display adapters (intergrated graphics).

2. I shut down computer and open it up.

3. Put new card inside.

4. Load computer up and install drivers.

you gotta change the BIOS options and disable it in the bios rather than windows.

i tried to do that once but couldnt figure out how. mabey it will be different on this computer. ok i'll do that, thanks.

Cycle stopped. Continue on topic, please.

STOP SPAMMING

ok. Since this is a pc fix topic on graphics cards could some body post something on what graphics cards are crap and what is worth buying? Becaus I don't know much if anything at all about them.

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ror wrote: you gotta change the BIOS options and disable it in the bios rather than windows.

i never had to do that. when i bought my ATI 9800pro, i just uninstalled the card driver of my old card before exchanging it with the new card. Since there was no driver installed for the new card, windows used some cheap built-in driver. All i had to do now was installing the driver for the new card and then everything worked just fine.

if you're swapping from an AGP to AGP card you wouldn't, but if you had a PCI card (or onboard card) in and put in an AGP card in you'd have to swap the boot order.

With an integrated graphics chip:

Insert AGP video card, boot-up computer, go to BIOS straightaway, disable integrated graphics chip (should be an easy on / off function), exit bios, follow the manual that came with the graphics card. (That explain wheter you should or shouldn't let windows do it's job.) Finally, update both DirectX and your video card drivers.

When already having a previous video card in your PC (Wheter PCI or AGP):

Uninstall drivers for that card in windows. Shut down. Get card out, put new card in. Boot-up. Now follow the manual that came with your NEW graphics card. (Which will, once more, explain wheter you should or shouldn't let Windows do its job.) Now install the latest version of DirectX and your videocard driver.

Good 3D cards:

Budget: ATi Radeon 9600 Pro.
Good performance vs. low price (can run most games on max.): ATi Radeon 9800 Pro (Or even better: 9800XT)
Good OpenGL card (though will give just fine performance with DirectX): nVidia GeForce 6800
Good DirectX card (though will give just fine performance with OpenGL): ATi Radeon X800

Generally speaking; nVidia has the best OpenGL based video cards and will run games such as FarCry, Doom 3, Unreal (all versions) and Quake best and will usually have a slight performance advantage over ATi concerning OpenGL.
Radeon has the best DirectX based video cards and will run games such as Half-Life 2, and, well, practically all games out there (as a huge majority is DirectX based) best. ATi usually has a slight performance advantage over nVidia concerning DirectX.

I have had cards from both companies and must say that both deliver have delivered and are still delivering fine quality. ATi used to have some driver issues (or so I've heard) but they've improved on that and all the ATi drivers that I've had (I have my radeon 9800 pro for about 9 months now) have worked just fine. So which one to choose? Whichever you can afford, really. Both ATi and nVidia have, according to me anyhow, fine products. So I'd say: simply look which of the two offers the best card for the lowest price.

Like said before, I myself have been a very satisfied customer with both nVidia and ATi.