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Computer graphics card?

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NutmegCT

NutmegCT

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My neighbor is thinking about replacing his eight year old Hewlett Packard desktop. I found and fixed a dodgy 24" LCD display and gave it to him, so he only needs the desktop. Doesn't want a laptop, tablet, etc.

Nearly every machine he sees for sale has "integrated" graphics. Part of the motherboard memory is used for graphics processing. Result: lower cost, but less available system memory, and slower graphics.

As he's into YouTube and other video, I'd think a separate graphics card - with its own memory - would be good.

Question: as long as a desktop has at least one free PCI slot, couldn't I just put a PCI graphics card in? Or is that a no-no?

Thanks.
Tom
 
I've put video cards on MoBos with integrated graphics several time with no issues. These were retail motherboards though, not OEM brands like Dell or HP. The difference may be in the BIOS that an OEM might use. I've seen Dell use fairly crippled software as far as my choices to change settings. In retail board BIOS, there is usually a choice to use onboard or add-on graphics chips. I don't think streaming video (Youtube) would need a dedicated video card though. The bottleneck would be the internet connection.
 
Thanks Greg. One thing we've noticed, something like Google Earth is graphics intensive. He can't run it now after it's last update - Earth says graphics card lacks something (I forget the details - maybe the latest DirectX?).

The BIOS limitation is another issue: seems the only way to find out if you can choose a PCI graphics card is just to try it - or find online m/b documentation somewhere. Or - heaven forbid - a knowledgeable tech person on the sales team.

Thanks.
Tom
 
Yeah, Google Earth uses 3D which needs to be crunched at the user end. Different animal than streaming video. Looks like the latest Earth needs DX9, newest version from Microsoft is DX11. Here are the reqs. for Google Earth

I'd see if there was an online owner's manual for any of the machines you're thinking of. There should be a setup section where it tell you what kind of changes you can make.

I just went to Dells' site and looked up a current model with integrated graphics. The Inspiron 660. The manual was online and it had a picture of the motherboard with a PCI-e x16 slot. The BIOS section of the manual however didn't cover anything on video cards. Big question mark there.
 
Compared to an 8 year old computer any modern computer will be fine.
I have a 1+year old Ivy Bridge based computer using just the integrated video and it is more than enough for YouTube or anything else I have thrown at it. The only reason you would need a separate graphics card today is for high end video games.
If you want to spend his money in a manner that will really make a difference get an SSD. it will make more difference than a video card.
 
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