Hope this helps…
Sometimes that new ‘value’ graphics card that’s on sale isnt always the best option for you.
And, most of the time, when you buy that new PC, the store that’s selling it you… is gonna give you a deal on a very fast PC with lot’s of bells and whistles, but with a poor quality or low end graphics card.
To run the newest and hottest video games that are out there…you will need a new video graphics card that has at least (minimum) 128MB of DDR memory on it just to play a normal game and one that supports OpenGL.
Video cards with 64MB of memory are slowly becoming extinct. You need 128MB just to run WinXP. Your video card alone is like its own little computer and you need lots of memory on that little card just to run the tiny processor thats on it.
For those of you who are installing a new video graphics card, first make sure that your motherboard can handle it and the card is seated properly!
If your motherboard has an AGP slot…use it!
A friend of mine bought a new graphics card for his pc, installed it in a PCI slot and wondered why he was having prob.'s with Direct3d, shading, pixels, etc.
I informed him to take it back to the store and purchase one that’ll fit into his AGP slot. After walking him through this easy task, his pc nows accepts the new graphics card.
Next: (use this option only if your pc doesnt have the “plug n play” feature)
When your pc boots up, hold down the DEL key to go into your BIOS. Under advanced options, set your AGP to AUTO mode or if your graphics card is AGP 8X, highlight this option, then SAVE ALL to accept changes and exit. Then Re-boot your pc in normal mode.
For “plug n play” users:
After Windows appears, Try to un-install the old video drivers that were previously on your pc OR just insert the CD that came with your new video card and let it install the new drivers for your card. Then UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE… your Drivers! (For example)
If you purchased an nVidia graphics card,but the video card says it’s an eVGA card with the nVidia engine, get the new drivers from nVidia’s website, NOT from eVGA’s website. These smaller companies don’t always update the appropriate drivers for their products on time.
Re-boot if needed!
Again, when Windows starts up…
In Control Panel, go to Appearance and Themes; then under Display, go to Settings and Set your Color Quality to Highest (32bit),click on to Advanced… make sure to check the box: Apply the new display settings without restarting and hit OK.
Click Advanced again, under Adapter,double check see if your new video card is showing;
click Troubleshoot… make sure your Hardware Accelerator is set to FULL, too.
It also can’t hurt to update the drivers for your monitor, too.
When buying a new video game…READ the side of the box and make sure first hand that your computer and video card meets the Requirements needed to play that game! As I read other posts here concerning voltage tampering…
I wouldn’t mess with the voltages that were factory preset to work with your motherboard, unless you were some sort of computer guru.
And if you were a pc guru, you probably wouldn’t need to look up an explanation on this Forum, on how to get your video card to work with that Hot new game you just bought.
Hope this helps…!
My system: WinXP SP1
Intel P4 2.66 GHz 533MHz FSB
768MB DDR 333MHz
Graphics: AGP 8x slot
nVidia GeForce4 AGP Ti4200 with 128MB DDR SDRAM
I never have any problems running any of the new video games or even the older ones. Why?
Because I have an awesome graphics card with lots of memory on it, a fast pc with lots of memory on it, and I keep updating my Drivers as needed.
You should do the same!
[This message has been edited by RedBuL (edited 12-09-2003).]