Upgrading onboard graphics

billy_the_kid_2

Hiyall!

I am looking to put in a cheap graphics card into my pc that has an onboard graphics chip. I want to know if it will be possible first before I waste any time comparing, etc.

First of all its a Tiny of 2002-3 vintage, running an Athlon 2000 with 256 mb ram and onboard S3 32mb graphics.

It works pefectly for all of my needs at the moment, however my son wants to play Warhammer 40k dawn of war, which will not run.

Like I have said, I dont want to replace the pc as its working fine and has never let me down. Has anyone done this? is it possible to disable the onboard chip and is it likely that the motherboard will have a suitable slot??

I really need some idea before I start, as removing the PC from its site and getting the back off will not be easy for me in terms of time and effort.

Many thanks if anyone can help.

Browntoa

download this

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

and run it, it will tell you what motherboard you have, post that and we can advise you what you can do

billy_the_kid_2

wow that was quick Browntoa, I'll run it tonite when I get home.

nickmack

Run the tool Browntoa mentioned.

To pre-empt the answer, most motherboards with built in graphics can be disabled in the BIOS.

The next choice would then be depending on the spec of your motherboard, you can get either a PCI or AGP graphics card and use that.

If it's an older PCI card you need, you might want to check eBay, if it's an AGP, you could get a cheap GeForce 5 or 6 series with 128Mb GRAM. Depends on how much you want to spend.

mr_fishbulb

It will be confirmed when you post your motherboard info but I'm taking a pre-emptive guess at it being an AGP port. Just because I've been seeing them since I had my old AMD K6 2-350.

There is no point looking for a really high end one as your processor will be the bottleneck and the extra graphics power will be useless.

I wouldn't suggest getting anything better than a Geforce 6200 or a Radeon 9550 (ebuyer do one which is overclocked to a 9600). So you're looking at £40 max inc VAT and P&P.

If you ever feel your system is getting a bit slow, chuck in some more RAM for a cheap boost. Your processor is still quick enough for most of today's demands but the RAM is a bit low.

Omertron

But, before you buy, make sure that the card will work with the game you are buying it for. Check either in the documentation for the game or on the game website as they should have a list of cards that work with their game.

billy_the_kid_2

Thanks all for your considered comments. I will post the data tonight. As regards the ram, I was considering doubling this at the same time as changing the graphics card as well as installing a usb 2.0 card and possibly a DVD burner (has a combo at the moment).

billy_the_kid_2

Hi folks, have now got back home, here are the results.

Operating System System Model
Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 (build 2600) Tiny Computers 7VKMLS 1.0
Asset Tag: 0123ABC
Processor a Main Circuit Board b
1.67 gigahertz AMD Athlon XP
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. 7VKMLS 1.x
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 07.00T 10/01/2002
Drives Memory Modules c,d
78.11 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
43.16 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-R1312 [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]

ST380020A [Hard drive] (78.13 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 5GC19J98, rev 3.93, SMART Status: Healthy 480 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot '0' has 256 MB
Slot '1' has 256 MB
Local Drive Volumes

c: (FAT32 on drive 0) 78.11 GB 43.16 GB free

Network Drives
None detected
Users (mouse over user name for details) Printers
Controllers Display
Standard floppy disk controller
Primary IDE Channel [Controller]
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller]
VIA Bus Master IDE Controller S3 Graphics ProSavageDDR [Display adapter]
AIC F-417 [Monitor] (17.1"vis, s/n 6455, October 2004)
Bus Adapters Multimedia
VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller (2x) MPU-401 Compatible MIDI Device
Realtek AC'97 Audio for VIA (R) Audio Controller
Standard Game Port


Obviously I have found out I have 512meg ram Woohoo!!!!

Browntoa

no agp slot but you could get a PCI graphics card

manual for the motherboard

http://europe.giga-byte.com/FileList/Manual/motherboard_manual_7vkmls_e.pdf

Browntoa

requirements for the game you mentioned

Minimum System Requirements:

Windows® 98/2000/XP/ME • DirectX 9.0b (included on disc),

1.4 GHz Intel Pentium III or AMD Athlon XP processor • 256 MB RAM • 2 GB free hard drive space • 4x CD-ROM drive

• DirectX 9.0b compatible AGP video card with Hardware Transform and Lighting and 32MB of Video RAM.

DirectX 9.0b compatible 16-bit sound card • Keyboard • Mouse.


Recommended Spec:

2.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent,

512 MB System RAM (required for 8-player multiplayer games).

nVidia GeForce 3 or ATI Radeon 8500 or equivalent with 64 MB of Video RAM.

mentions AGP video card as a requirement but I'm no expert on this area of PC's, I'm sure someone else will know if you can use a PCI card

billy_the_kid_2

Thanks, as I am still a novice in these matters, I use one of the standard PCI slots?

And I assume its not a PCIexpress card?

And this still begs the question, will it be worth doing, are there any reasonable cards available?

Many thanks again

Have just read your post re AGP card, therfore I'm !!!!!!ed as to my son playing this game??