If a mobo has an onboard video chipset do I need to buy a video card? And if I buy a video card also what happens to my onboard video chipset?
You should get a video card because onboard video is a joke. What you would do is go into the device manager right before you install the graphics card. You would then find the onboard video in the device manager and go to properties. When that window pops up there is a small bar at the bottom that says use this device (or something like that). Go down to that and set it to do not use this device. Your screen should now shrink down to a tiny size. Shut off your computer and install the new card. Plug the monitor cord into the graphics card and start the computer up. Install the drivers for the card and your set to go. In the end it will have the graphics card set to use this device and the onboard video to do not use this device.
Alright so if I'm putting my computer together I should hold off on installing the video card till I do what you said?
That's how I did it when I installed my video card in this dell. You could always try to disable the onboard video after you install the card, but your going to want to do it one way or another.
hold your horses, to begin with download, install & run PCWizard to identify if your system is able to accept either an AGP or PCIe card, if you disable onboard gfx you will also free an amount RAM (the amount of RAM shared with the onboard gfx) but the onboard (usually crappy) simply does nothing
I was just answering his first question. I would have got to asking about the type of expansion slot he had later.
thats not a problem, after all we are all here to learn, you'll now be better prepared in the future, one piece of advice, install Xmarks (originally called Foxmarks, recently changed their name) and bookmark anything that you learn and even if your system dies your bookmarks are safe & can be synchronized at anytime
