Upgrading Your Video Card

AGP, PCI, Video Capture Card, Video Memory, IRQ's and all the other terms you can hear when talking about video cards can be confusing. But they are some things that you will hear and may need to know when talking about getting a new video or graphics card.

I'll first talk some about what a graphics card is and what it does for you. And then help you find the right one for you and your computer.

First, just what is all the talk about. A Graphics card or video card is the same thing, they are two terms used to describe the same computer component. It is an interface and processing card for the video portion of your computer between the computer and the monitor.

Whether you have an LCD or a CRT you need a graphics card, this may not be a separate card though. Many computer manufacturers have a portion of the motherboard or an all purpose card that has the graphics components on it. This is called on-board graphics.

You can tell if you have a separate card by going to your computer information section of the control panel. Click on the start button in the lower corner of your desktop. Then click on control panel. Click on system, then hardware, then device manager, you should have a pull down menu of the things on your computer.

Go to display adapters and double click on it. This will show what is hooked up as your display adapter or graphics card. If it says chip set or something with chipset in it, it is an on-board graphics card. If it has some thing else such as ATI or Nvidia and then a bunch of numbers and letters, that is a plug in card that runs your display.

There is a few things you need to find out before buying a new video card. Two different connectors are used to hook up two different kinds of cards and if your computer does not have the certain type of connector you need to know this before running off to the store.

The connectors are called AGP or PCI, this is just the type of connector that is used for the card. One is better than the other in the way it handles the information when it is used but if you do not have that one you have to use what you have.

NVIDIA Card w/ Replaced Heatsink

Credit: jeff gedgaud

Copyright: jeff gedgaud