Video Card help

Ok here's the lowdown. I've got a HP media center 7060n pc. i'm looking to upgrade my graphics card but i'm having the hardest time figuring ot what kind of slot I have or what i'm looking for. Everything I read says to check out ATI or nVidia cards. I know when I went to see what my computer says I have it says Intel 82915G/GV/910 GL Express Chipset. Can anyone help me out here? I need a higher end model also because of my gaming habits and I have new video editing softward that won't even run with the current graphics card I have.

Beta/Leon,


I just looked up the specs on your system. It looks like you have a limited amount of slots to work with on your motherboard. According to HP you have three PCI slots and no AGP slots.

Keeping that in mind, you will need a graphics card that has a PCI interface. Most high end graphics cards are either AGP or PCI-e (PCI Express) now as those are faster interface technologies.

Also you will need to see if you don't already have all three PCI slot populated already with cards.

I am not really that in touch with the video card world, perhaps someone on the gaming forum can provide better insight into the actual card model to look at. What I do know is that for Video gaming Nvidia seems to be the choice of most.

I habve attached a link to the Nvidia desktop products page to help.

thanks for the response...i'm beginning to think i'm going to have to save some money and replace the motherboard to so I can supe everything up more

Quote:

Originally posted by Beta671

thanks for the response...i'm beginning to think i'm going to have to save some money and replace the motherboard to so I can supe everything up more

Considering you expansion slot situation, I think that would be the smart route.

Do you know much about the nVidia integrated motherboards?

By integrated do you mean built into the motherboard? No more than the next geek. Integrated video is usually just a bare bones version of a graphics card that is built into the motherboard. Because of this the mfgs are limited in what they can offer in both performance and options.

yeah this blows...they still have the regular pci boards but i'm not finding anything even remotely built that'll work with pci

Quote:

Originally posted by Beta671

yeah this blows...they still have the regular pci boards but i'm not finding anything even remotely built that'll work with pci

The graphics industry moves pretty fast. PCI has all but been left behind in favor for the faster interfaces.

Some other items I left out...

Look for a DVI or better yet a Dual DVI output.

If you want to push the signal out to a high end display then look for one that has a HDMI output.

i would definitely stay away from a board with integrated graphics...or if it has integrated graphics, only plan on using it for a backup. I built my pc about 6 months ago, so i would suggest you go with a Gigabyte Motherboard and an Nvidia card. You also want to make sure that the motherboard you buy (hopefully Gigabyte) will fit in your current case, unless you plan on buying a new case.

stay away from onbord.

yeah i've learned this all way too late, think i got this pc in 2005 and it was fine, just sucks that some of my new video editing software won't run with this

Quote:

Originally posted by Beta671

yeah i've learned this all way too late, think i got this pc in 2005 and it was fine, just sucks that some of my new video editing software won't run with this

PM inbound

Quote:

Originally posted by ev1l0ne

...

The graphics industry moves pretty fast. PCI has all but been left behind in favor for the faster interfaces.

Some other items I left out...

Look for a DVI or better yet a Dual DVI output.

If you want to push the signal out to a high end display then look for one that has a HDMI output.

Just to expand on what he wrote:

There are now four (or three and a half) different graphics card (or VGA) connections. We'll call PCI Gen I. AGP would be Gen II. Like PCI, it is all but obsolete. Gen III is PCI-e. It's built on the PCI architecture, but uses a larger connector, so the two are not compatible. If you're shopping for a motherboard, you'll need to know a few things about PCI-e. It comes in two different sizes. PCI-e x1 is a rather small connector, and is used for things like sound cards and wireless adapters. Video cards use PCI-e x16. This is where it gets confusing. x1 and x16 denote both the size of the connector and the maximum bandwidth. However, an x16 slots does not necessarily have 16-times the bandwidth. x16 slots may also operate at x4 and x8. It is quite common to find a motherboard with three x16 slots, with only one or two of them operating at the highest bandwidth. The latest generation (Gen IV) is PCI-e 2.0. It uses the exact same connector as the previous version, but is capable of twice the bandwidth. Again, if you're shopping for a motherboard, pay attention to the actual speed of the PCI-e 2.0 slots.

As for the DVI, as mentioned you'll want the Dual Link DVI. Like the card connectors, it is a matter of bandwidth. Larger monitors ( 30" ) cannot run without it. Additionally, if you plan to playback HD content, you'll want to make sure that both your VGA card and monitor are HDCP compliant. If they are not, you may not be able to view copyrighted material.

Concerning Dual-link DVI vs. HDMI, I do not know if there is a performance difference between the two, but they are essentially the same thing. They both use the same language, just different connectors. You can buy DVI-to-HDMI (or vice versa) adapters. The biggest difference, HDMI carries audio, as well as video signals, where DVI carries only video. Since a computer's audio does not go through the video card, the only real concren here is what connector your monitor/TV uses.

Nice follow-up Dragon. Thx for the info.

Just to let you know, there have been a lot of nVidia failures on their current chipsets, seems like a pretty terminal situation right now so I would either hold on until it's been confirmed as fixed or look at an AMD card, more info here -

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/09/01/why-nvidia-chips-defective

Hope it helps, last thing you need after spending your hard earned cash is it failing a little way down the line, especially as it could just get replaced with another faulty one, good luck

thank you very very much on the replies...i've got a list of components that i'm looking to buy, when i get the complete list together i'll post them and see if anyone has any input about them

The problem with replacing a motherboard (mobo) everything needs to be compatible with it. Your Processor, your Ram, your NIC and whatever else you have in there. Now would you be interested in tackling on the project of building your own from scratch? Buying parts is more economic than buying from HP or Dell. Most of the time its just "know how." If you'd like, either me or I'm sure countless others could point you in the right direction if you want to build your own. In the end you might end up doing that anyway if you upgrade your mobo. Also, you said you're doing video editing right? Well that probably means 2 screens unless you're using Linux (Cube freaking rocks! lol). I have an nVidia 280GTX. When I bought the one I'm using it was the best you could get and its still pretty damn nice. Its got 2 DVI slots out the back for your dual monitor setup should you choose that.

Now if you do end up going all the way through building your own then I would suggest that you start with the processor. A lot of people would say the mobo first but in the end it doesn't make much difference. I would recommend AMD processors. In my experience a 2.0 gHz quad amd has move power than a 2.4 gHz quad Intel. Why this is I'm not entirely sure but thats my findings.