Gaming World Forums
General Category => Technology and Programming => Topic started by: Aten on August 10, 2009, 06:49:14 am
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So I bought a new PC today, everything is cool, the PC has an onboard graphics card (it has an asus motherboard) and the memory is 256mb. Now, my old pc had a nVidia gfx card with 64mb memory (it was an AGP card), but it had the output connections for AV, (which I used to connect to my TV and watch movies and stuff) which the new pc's onboard card doesn't have.
It's pretty important to me to have the TV connection, is there anyway I can use BOTH graphics cards? I just need the nVidia one to be connected to my TV while i use the onboard one for everything else, like gaming etc.
I can give proper specs when I get home.
edit:
using Windows XP pro Sp2
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usually when you put in an AGP card the onboard graphics are disabled, but surely there's a way around this. give us all the specs though, even though the ram of the card is lower it could be a better chip
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usually when you put in an AGP card the onboard graphics are disabled
oh man! That's what I was fearing. I don't know how much this will help, but this are the specs for the onboard card:
(http://pub.gamingw.net/47608/1_3.PNG)
and the other is a "NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X"
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Well your best bet would be buying an external video card (who uses integrated on a desktop on this day and age?). You can get a basic one with the the needed ports for like $50 if you're looking at new ones or less if you can find an older one.
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Thats all well and good, until you realize that where I live, 256mb is godsend, because the actual cards they sell are like....2 years old. As in stuff that USED to be cool 2 years ago is NOW being sold here, the only way to purchase top notch stuff is via online, but you gotta have a credit card for that.
Besides, buying a new card defeats the purpose. That the pc already has 256mb, and I go and buy ANOTHER 256 memory card just to see stuff on my tv is just silly. C'mon guys, isn't there any solution?
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Thats all well and good, until you realize that where I live, 256mb is godsend, because the actual cards they sell are like....2 years old. As in stuff that USED to be cool 2 years ago is NOW being sold here, the only way to purchase top notch stuff is via online, but you gotta have a credit card for that.
I know this doesn't help your immediate situation, but in the future get one of those visa gift cards. You can use those online, and they sell them at like gas stations and stuff so you should be able to find one in any area.
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Your card doesn't have Svideo out?
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I'm googling but it seems everyone says it's impossible to use an AGP and an onboard card at the same time :fogetshrug:
What if you plugged in the agp card, then disabled it in windows device manager and maybe windows would start using the onboard instead, and you re-enable it when you want to use the agp?
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it needs to be done at the bios level i think, but honestly how often do you use TV out? it'd probably be easier to invest in some thumb screws and pop the card in when you need it
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A lot, as in people are over at my place almost everyday to watch shit/play games and we use the TV out (connected to my 29" flatscreen). Guess I have no choice :sad: 2 things I can do at this point are:
1)Install the AGP card, pop it out when I need to use the hi-end pc one
2)Buy a cheapo card that has at least TV out and can be installed WITH the onboard card
So if I had a PCI card, for instance, could I run both the onboard and the PCI at the same time? Connect the pci to the TV and use the onboard for game stuff?
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find out your motherboard model and we can give you more help, i know from experience trying to find a pci card with video out is fairly difficult
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it needs to be done at the bios level i think, but honestly how often do you use TV out? it'd probably be easier to invest in some thumb screws and pop the card in when you need it
I have an usb audio interface and if I disable it in the device manager windows starts using the onboard soundcard instead so I guess it'd do the same thing with the videocard
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it's different because of the way AGP draws power iirc
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I'm not quite sure what you're problem is but maybe you could get one of those VGA(or whatever you use) to AV boxes?
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I'm not quite sure what you're problem is but maybe you could get one of those VGA(or whatever you use) to AV boxes?
This sounds interesting. I might have to hit some shops to see if they have something like this.
On another note, sorry guys, after all this, call me stupid, but I NOW find that this PC doesn't even HAVE an AGP slot, it has a PCI Express slot instead, so even if there was a way, my old AGP card wouldn't even fit in it :sweat:
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my tv has a VGA port, does yours?
if it does just get that cable.....................
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This sounds interesting. I might have to hit some shops to see if they have something like this.
On another note, sorry guys, after all this, call me stupid, but I NOW find that this PC doesn't even HAVE an AGP slot, it has a PCI Express slot instead, so even if there was a way, my old AGP card wouldn't even fit in it :sweat:
Can't you get a PCI-Express card then? Those are much better anyway... and much cheaper than an archaic AGP card.
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I'm not quite sure what you're problem is but maybe you could get one of those VGA(or whatever you use) to AV boxes?
These are probably more expensive than a new video card. It's been a long time since I've looked at them though, but last time I looked into getting one they were hella expensive.
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Built in intel video chipsets are shit. Put the nvidia card in and forget you had onboard, it's likely faster. More memory doesn't always mean faster video. There are 1gb CAD graphics cards out there that wont outperform older 128mb cards in video games.
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If he force the geforce in it will destroy the computer
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Speaking of onboard cards, do they make motherboards with laptop videocards like the geforce (number)m ones?
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Built in intel video chipsets are shit. Put the nvidia card in and forget you had onboard, it's likely faster. More memory doesn't always mean faster video. There are 1gb CAD graphics cards out there that wont outperform older 128mb cards in video games.
Yeah but like I said, the nvidia one is AGP but the motherboard has a slot for PCI express. Which means I've no choice but to buy one to fix my TV out problems. Thanks for the help tho guys.
EDIT:
Anyone recommend a good PCI express card? Seeing as I know shit about it, can someone point me to something good? I got the motherboard specs using asus pc probe tool:
(http://pub.gamingw.net/47608/stats.PNG
)
whats good for me based on that?
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Post what is avaliable in there
I'd get a geforce 7600 gs because it doesn't use a lot of power and since you've been living for that long with a geforce 2 it will be quite good in comparison, and those 8000 whatever geforces run way too hot and even if they can work at 100ºC that decreases their useful life
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So what kind of connector do you need? VGA, S-Video, or DVI? Or HDMI? Or Coaxial? Why are you hooking your computer up to your TV?
If you need a 7600 (GT, not GS... GT is faster) I have one sitting around that I could send you for around $30.
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Hey guys, thought I'd let you know. I was at the computer shop today and there was like a "huge sale everything must go!!!" sign, went in, asked about a gfx card and by sheer luck, they had one. The one they had was Nvidia Geforce 7300, for $71. I bought it. According to wikipedia, this is the down low on it:
GeForce 7300 LE
The 7300 LE (LE stands for light edition) is a scaled-down version of the 7300 GS. It has DDR2 memory, and a slightly lower core clock speed (450 MHz vs. 550 MHz) according to AnandTech[4] It is only available in the PCI Express interface. With good performance/price, the 7300 LE serves as a budget video card, though most consider it too inferior for the relatively small difference in price from the GS version.
Performance Specs:
* Graphics Bus: PCI Express
* Memory Interface: 64-bit
* Memory Bandwidth: 6.4 GB/s
* Fill Rate: 1.8 billion pixel/s
* Vertex/s: 338 million
* Memory Type: DDR-II
So yeah, $71, don't know if that's expensive or what, but to me it was freaking cheap since the normal price for gfx cards are like $200 plus here. It had a S-Video out, but came with a S-Video <-> AV plug so alls sweet for me now :)
EDIT:
So what kind of connector do you need? VGA, S-Video, or DVI? Or HDMI? Or Coaxial? Why are you hooking your computer up to your TV?
If you need a 7600 (GT, not GS... GT is faster) I have one sitting around that I could send you for around $30.
Dang, too bad man, if only you mentioned it sooner....
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Is that 7600 GT PCI-e?
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Wow the 7300 is an awful video card I actually have one of this sitting around I would literally ship to you for free... that's how terrible they are (... okay, you'd pay the shipping. but that's it... what like $6 maybe?)
But for your needs I suppose it will work. The fact that you paid $71 makes me die a little inside though... that's about what you'd expect to pay for a modern middle-of-the-road card... not an old low-end-card (the 7300 was bottom of the barrel for it's time). Where do you live that has video cards marked at such ridiculous rates? Is it impossible for you to buy online?
Is that 7600 GT PCI-e?
Why yes, it is
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Yeah, it may be expensive and/or awful, but it works just perfectly. I can even run NDS emulators now and I can watch stuff on my tv, which is why I got it anyway, so I'm happy with it. Live in Fiji btw.