Re: about PCI video cards...

franciz3@xxxxxxxxx wrote: 
ok... im not sure if i am on the right newsgroup but i am going to ask
my question anyway...

well.. i am thinking of buying a new pci video card either online or
any nearest electronic stores (most likely online for cheaper prices)
because i have a built in graphic card and i dont have a video card
slot on my motherboard (AGP slot i think is what you guys call it).

I don't mean to sound like I'm talking down to you, but you appear to be a bit of a novice with computer hardware. Yes, it is called an AGP slot, but you must be very careful when you purchase a PCI video card if you're unfamiliar with terminology like this. There's PCI, and then there's PCIe, and the two are VERY different (ie - one will not work in the other!). I'd estimate that your computer is a couple of years old, yes? In that case, it'll require a PCI video card and not one the brand new PCIe cards.

I
want to upgrade it because i play world of warcraft and the game isnt
smoth as its supposed to be.

What brand of computer are you using? It sounds like a brand name, given that it's motherboard does not have an AGP slot.

The frames kinda skips everytime i run
around in the game... plus if im on a major area with bunch of players
in it, it definitely skips big time.. It's still good tho... it's
playable.. ive actually been playing this game on this computer for
3..4.. months now...

Even a basic video card, like an ATi 9250 or Nvidia 6200 based card, will be better than what's onboard. However, you pay a premium for PCI assuming you can get it. You will likely be best off ordering online. Which country are you in? The GPUs I listed above are VERY basic, and more powerful cards (which don't cost all that much more for some midrange cards) are a much better bet, but their availability in PCI is doubtful (though they will likely be available in PCIe format, and this is probably NOT what you want).

I'm tired of going to my friends house to play
world of warcraft for smoothier gameplay, so i decided to upgrade my
video card which hopefully solve my problem. Since i dont have a video
card slot in my motherboard... the only video card upgrade i can think
of is PCI video cards.... I am planning to buy a 256mb pci video card
(not sure of the brand yet). But are they worth buying? will it make
my world of warcraft gameplay smooth?

Unless there's another bottleneck or a software issue, it'll improve things a lot over the onboard shared memmory graphics.

If i do buy it, what happens to
my built in video card?

You'll want to enter BIOS and, depending on your BIOS, set the first display to PCI (you may also be able to disable the onboard video and thus increase available system RAM).

will it add up the MB of the old one to the new
one?? 

What? You're buying a new motherboard, too??

am i gonna hav to disable the old one?  ......... is there a way
to make my old graphic card faster than before???

The onboard graphics are slow, and the only way to potentially improve their performance is to turn off graphics features of the game (I'm assuming you already have the latest drivers and DirectX.


My computer Info:

OS:  Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2
Built-in graphic card:  Intel(R) 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV graphic card  (64
mb)
DDR RAM = 256mb + 512mb
Computer:  HP Pavilion a305w  (i know it sux)
Processor:  Intel Celeron 2.70 ghz
Motherboard: ( i dont know how to check sorry )


It'll be printed on the board usually.


please reply and help... need info before i buy it. thanks in advance
:-D


Cheers,

Ari


--
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