onboard video

I have a Duron 700 with 128 mb of ram. The motherboard has an onboard video card. After reading so much about how onboard video sucks, I decided to buy a new Ati xpert 32 mb agp video card.

After installing this video card, I have been extremely dissapointed. There is absolutely no difference at all when playing games like Quake 3 and NHL 2001. And it's too late to return teh video card and get my money back. In fact, the only plus side is that I have more ram because the computer doesn't have to share its ram with the onboard video.

So this is just a warning to those who have onboard video. Do NOT buy another video card because you will not notice any difference and it will be a waste of your money.

there may be several things you've overlooked in the process tho.

What quality is that card? I'm not familiar with it, but as a rule of thumb, if the card doesn't cost $100 or more, you can bet it's not all that great. A lot of cards can be found now for sub $100 prices that are good (the VooDoo 5500 for instance is around $80), but generally when you buy one of those $40 off the shelf cards, you're not any better off than you were with the original card.

Tweakfiles.com also has some files that may help you improve preformance of your card. Setup is the key here........and tweaks help quiet a bit. Have you run 3DMark on that card? What kind of scores did you get?

I wouldn't be so quick to say "don't upgrade from on board video". If done right, you'll see drammatic improvements.

Scratch (Jul 28, 2001 01:32 p.m.):
I have a Duron 700 with 128 mb of ram. The motherboard has an onboard video card. After reading so much about how onboard video sucks, I decided to buy a new Ati xpert 32 mb agp video card.

After installing this video card, I have been extremely dissapointed. There is absolutely no difference at all when playing games like Quake 3 and NHL 2001. And it's too late to return teh video card and get my money back. In fact, the only plus side is that I have more ram because the computer doesn't have to share its ram with the onboard video.

So this is just a warning to those who have onboard video. Do NOT buy another video card because you will not notice any difference and it will be a waste of your money.

Click to expand...

personally i think that onboard video sucks big time and have quite a bit of experience with them.i would never build a computer with onboard graphics for anyone who plays games or especially uses graphic intense programs like autocad on board graphics cant compete with an anything agp.i have an older 32 meg ati rage pro the benchmarks suck but it will kill any onboard graphics i can think of.

Yeah, my video card cost me about $60, but I figured a 32mb agp card is a 32mb agp card so why should I spend $300 when I could get this one for $60. Maybe I was wrong.

I will check out the site you mentioned to see if I can find some files that will increase my video performance. But I have one question though. Couldn't I have done the same for my onboard video? Surely there are files that I can download that will tweak and improve the performance of my onboard video.

As for that benchmarking software, it's too big for me to download (I'm on 56k) but when I have more time I will download the benchmarking software and compare the scores I get with the onboard card with the scores of the agp card.

But I still stand by my original statement, there is no difference between onboard video and my 32mb agp card, at least not any difference that is noticeable to the human eye. I'm beginning to think that all the people who talk about how onboard video sucks don't know what they're talking about. Anyways, thanks for the info.

another problem you may have with your new card is that the onboard videocard drivers may still be present or even worse i had a motherboard once, a crappy pc-chips with a 16 meg sis on board graphics chip that i couldnt disable no matter what i did.and did you do any or all of the bios tweaks that you can for video or use one of the tweakers programs for the ati you have, they work really well with my radeon but never tried them with my rage pro cause its just a backup card now.any how im sure you will get better results once you get to know your card.

the onboard video should not be used for games
period
ati cards suck too
cept maybe the raedons
the onboard video is only useful for 2d,despite what the manufacturer says
and there is a difference between those expensive cards and the cheaper ones
unfortunately tweaking your onboard video is not easy (that usually means overclocking,and often theres no tweaks available cause those that make the tweaks are gamers,who wouldnt be caught dead with onboard anything )

but i hope you get something sorted
this is why i use nvidia,it might not be cheap,but lots of people use it
hence lots of tweaks

Scratch (Jul 28, 2001 01:32 p.m.):
I have a Duron 700 with 128 mb of ram. The motherboard has an onboard video card. After reading so much about how onboard video sucks, I decided to buy a new Ati xpert 32 mb agp video card.

After installing this video card, I have been extremely dissapointed. There is absolutely no difference at all when playing games like Quake 3 and NHL 2001. And it's too late to return teh video card and get my money back. In fact, the only plus side is that I have more ram because the computer doesn't have to share its ram with the onboard video.

So this is just a warning to those who have onboard video. Do NOT buy another video card because you will not notice any difference and it will be a waste of your money.

Click to expand...

What kind of onboard gfx card did u have?? And are u sure u runned those games useing 3d accelrator instead of software?? Then u will notice a huge differences between those cards. Altough the ati xpert aint really an great 3d card. Get something like an geforce2mx or better to get great quality