Need Help From the Gurus

[Antigone]

Well, it looks likes I need a new video card. I know just enough to be dangerous when it comes to computers, so I am asking for your recommendations on what I could get away with. I have done some searching on the web and ATI cards were mentioned quite frequently to solve my problem. Any suggestions on brands, etc. besides ATI? I will have to order over the internet so best places to buy would also be appreciated.

Thaks all.

[Rink]

ATI isnt a bad brand, depends on what you want, with ATI its an easier time with the drivers.

I have had ATI Rage 128 and NVIDIA GeForce video cards.

What kind do you have and what can you afford> is it a PCI type card or an AGP (different kinds of slots, i think the PCI is the lil white slots and the AGP is the long brown one.)

Most ATI cards i know of are PCI.

Here's a site that you might wanna peruse for video cards.

Pricewatch.com's site for all sorts of computer stuff. (http://www.pricewatch.com/)

[Antigone]

Rink-

I currently have a NVIDIA Vanta card. It is PCI. I have been having problems with gray lines across the screen on text, images, etc. I have checked some troubleshooting sites and they all seem to agree that this problem is the card and not the monitor and the cards are junk and fail. Most have replaced their cards with an ATI card and seem to like them. I'm unfamiliar with brands, so don't know which ones are considered good, bad, etc. The one recommeded by people with the same problem is the ATI Radeon 7000 32MB PCI Video Card which runs around $50-75.

[Rink]

Well the one I cited is old (The ATI Rage 128)

I know they have other ATI cards on that site, best bet is to shop around and see what you can find there on that site.

One good thing bout ATI video cards is their drivers are easy to install and its less problems because of that.

[Rink]

BTW how much are you looking to spend, and how much can you afford and what do you want to do with the new video card (are you a gamer that wants to play the latest games or do you just want a vid card for websurfing? depends on what it is you are looking for performance-wise.)

[Antigone]

Rink-

I'm not a gamer so I don't need too fantabulous of one. I mainly use my computer for web surfing, creating labels (cd's, etc) with graphics and basic program work (Word, Excel, etc.) My use is mainly just basic home use. I've been checking out the pricewatch site you mentioned and it looks like I can get one that may work for under $100 which is what I would prefer. Just not sure which one yet!

[Rink]

Friend of mine is tellin me the GeForce type cards are a good one to go with.

for me its a tossup, because I had the ATI card and the NVIDIA card so its hard for me to know what even I would want.

I know what I'd want for motherboards, sound cards and processors and even comp cases but the last thing for me to learn and discern is the video cards.

maybe someone else here could help fill in what I cant do.

Not being a gamer makes a big difference, as gaming one has to have a graphics card that can handle the workload

One other thing, it also depends on your comp's processor ability, what processor speed does your pc have?

[Rink]

You also can try ebay

check this out: Vid cards on Ebay (http://search.ebay.com/geforce-fx-5600_W0QQsofocusZbsQQsbrftogZ1QQfromZR10QQsosortpr opertyZ1QQsosortorderZ1)

[DoctorDoom]

For your use, any half-way decent card would be fine. The Radeon 7000 (http://www.ati.com/products/radeon7000/radeon7000/) is more than adequate for what you described. I'd recommend the AGP card, which is just all-around better. PCI slots are generic and made for all manners of cards. As such they are not optimized for video. The AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) is specifically designed for video cards.

Here's a typical motherboard. The board layouts vary considerably, but the card-slot area is an industry standard. The important section is at the lower left. That's where the cards plug in,

http://www.gup20.com/images/motherboard.jpg

If your board has the one labelled AGP Slot, you can use the AGP version of the card. If not, then it's PCI or nutt'n.

[Rink]

hey Doc, whats the ISA slot used for? Just curious.

[DoctorDoom]

The ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) is an obsolete technology that predated PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect). It's slow and CPU-intensive. It's okay for modems, sound cards, etcetera, that don't require a lot of system resources, but not much else. Modern mobos usually don't have an ISA slot because little if anything is being sold that would use it.

[Antigone]

Thanks Rink and Doc for all your help. I'm going to do a little more research on prices, etc. then get one ordered. I hate being a computer illiterate dweeb sometimes!! I did install an additional internal CD drive not too long ago all by myself. Not that difficult but my hubby thought I was a computer god. He is so easy to fool especially since he doesn't even know how to turn the computer on. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[DoctorDoom]

Actually, as complicated as everything looks "under the hood", they're really quite simple beasts. It all plugs together. The box I'm using is home-built, which took under an hour. I have parts for another one sitiing on a table waiting for me to get around to assembling it (actually rebuilding my daughter's fried HP shoebox that went braindead two weeks after the warranty expired).

The benefit is that the builder decides what will be in it, and it doesn't come with several gigabytes of "bundled software" that is mostly useless.

If you really want to dazzle the old man, build a box. It's a hoot.

[Rhino]

I know I'm a bit late chiming in, but if you have no need for fancy graphics, I have a Velocity 4400 you can have for free.