Computer Graphics

[irvinesub]

I just bought a new computer and want to upgrade the graphics card to a ASUS Radeon 9200se. I can I tell if it is compatible with my system.

[eastern]

First thing you will need to do is check if you have on board graphics or a separate graphics card. You will need to take off the side of the pc to see if you have the neccessary graphics port, this will be on the motherboard above the 4 or 5 pci slots. The ports are generally coloured green/brown or some other colour. If you have a port and it is a recent PC (last 4 years or less) you will probably have a PCi express graphics port. If you have all the above your laughing! Get your new card, remove your old card (carefully) install your new card, make sure its seated fully into the slot, this sometimes requires a good firm push, make sure its level when you push it down. When everything is back together start up your pc as normal let it settle down to the windows screen then install the new driver disc, this will overwrite the old driver and then all you need to do is restart and adjust your screen resolution. Make sure your new card is 512mb or 1gb as these will run better graphics/resolution and refresh rate.

[irvinesub]

I have an on board graphics. The PC is brand new this week and it has a pci express port. Only thing is that the graphics card that i have is out of my old PC and its AGP 8x with 128 video memory. Do you think that there's better on the market and if so can you sugest something.

[eastern]

There are lots of different graphics cards on the market, but they all use basically the same chipsets, I think most use Nvidia or Radeon, your best bet is to go to gaming forums if your wanting a gaming card, I used to sell cards for silly money to people who are only going to surf the net or play basic games, so dont get caught up in the "Ive got to buy the best" nonsense. I used to sell Sparkle, Asus, Radeon and a few others. Most people used to avoid the radeon chip and go for the geforce, I use a 1gb GeFroce 8500 gt and I cant fault it, I also run it at max resolution 1680 x 1050 and it works perfectly. You can buy these cards for about �40 to �50. As far as your old card is concerned Im afraid its either the bin or e bay!

[irvinesub]

Thanks for all your help.
cheers mate.