Up grading my graphics card

[coggledots]

I'm now looking into up grading my graphics card so i can convert some old party vids to DVD.

At the mo i've just got the bog standard intergrated one (Raster VIA/S3G KM400/KN400). I know i need to disable this before installing my new card (when i decide which one to go for! :S ) The thing is, i don't know how to get into it to disable it Everywhere i look i get told 'consult your PC manual' which i aint got & don't even think i've ever had one?

So.......could someone / anyone recommend a resonably priced AGP card & tell me how to disable intergrated graphics?

Cheers in advance

 

[MizzDeedz]

up to what type of spec can your motherboard handle?

also in order to recommend a card its first good to know the type/spec of the system it will be required to run on.

Im not a graphic card expert but i have fitted one or two in my own pc's at one time or another but it would help others who do have the expertise to help you

In order to disable the onboard graphics that you already have you will probobly have to go into the PC's BIOS settings.
PC's BIOS or CMOS. Most computers will give you a short startup screen when booting up that states something such as: "Press Del for setup or other possible keystrokes may include F1, F2, F10, F11, F12, Esc, Alt+Q and Alt+S. Once in setup, you may follow the menu prompts to navigate your PC's BIOS settings for anything that may disable Onboard Video.
Have a look and see if this is correct on your PC and make sure that you buy a card that is able to run at the speeds accepted by your motherboard, if you dont have a manual you will prob have to goto the manufactures website and check your AGP slot's speed in there before making any changes to your system.

Im sorry I cannot be of more help - I dont tend to mess around with the BIOS unless I have to but I have had to use it before now obviously to set CPU/memory/graphics cards setting on upgrades I have done myself at home.

If in doubt pay someone who 'knows about these things' to do it for you, lol - good luck!!

 

[coggledots]

Nice one Mizz Deedz I have delved into the BIOS before so that sorts the 'disable' prob hopefully (EDIT: I was thinking of just using disable in device manager?? Would this have same effect??)

I don't like paying peeps to do stuff to me PC as i quite enjoy the thrill/challenge of getting elbows deep into my trusty PC & doing it myself & learning something new about 'puters As for the PC details for anyone else who can help, I've got a:

Packard Bell desktop running on an AMD athlon 2700+ processor on an NEC (AKA Quaser?) MS-6786 motherboard with a gig of memory (hope this is the info needed?)? Aint got a feckin' clue how to find out what speeds this board runs at though?

 

[turpieaj]

Nice one Mizz Deedz I have delved into the BIOS before so that sorts the 'disable' prob hopefully (EDIT: I was thinking of just using disable in device manager?? Would this have same effect??)

I don't like paying peeps to do stuff to me PC as i quite enjoy the thrill/challenge of getting elbows deep into my trusty PC & doing it myself & learning something new about 'puters As for the PC details for anyone else who can help, I've got a:

Packard Bell desktop running on an AMD athlon 2700+ processor on an NEC (AKA Quaser?) MS-6786 motherboard with a gig of memory (hope this is the info needed?)? Aint got a feckin' clue how to find out what speeds this board runs at though?

http://www.oldskoolanthemz.com/forum/Specifications

• Form Factor: µATX 24.4 cm. x 22.4 cm Form Factor
• CPU Support
  • Socket -A (Socket 462) for AMD PGA Athlon processor at 3200 MHz and more.
  • 133/166 and 200 MHz Host bus speed (uses dual clocking to obtain 266, 333 and 400 MHz FSB)
• System Memory
  • Two 184-pin DDR SDRAM DIMM sockets
  • Support for single-sided or double-sided DIMMs (DDR266, DDR333 and DDR400)
  • Support for up to 2 GB system memory
• KM400A Chipset: VT8378 system controller and VT8235 V-Link south bridge Chipset consisting of the following
  • • High performance SMA North Bridge: Integrated VIA Apollo KT400 and graphics accelerator in a single chip
    • 64-bit Advanced Memory controller supporting DDR333, 266 and 200 SDRAM
    • External AGP 8x bus (pins may optionally be used for additional flat panel and flat panel monitor interfaces)
    • V-Link south bridge chip includes UltraDMA-133 / 100 / 66 / 33 EIDE, 6 USB 2.0 Ports, AC97 / MC97 link (for audio and modem support), LPC, SMBus, Power Management, and Keyboard / PS2 mouse interfaces plus RTC / CMOS on chip
    • 2.5 V Core and Mixed 3.3 V / 5 V Tolerant and GTL+I/O
    • 35 x 35 m HSBGA (Ball Grid Array with Heat Spreader) package with 552 balls
  • High Performance Athlon CPU Interface
    • Supports Socket A (Socket 462) AMD Athlon processors
    • HSTL-like 1.5 V high-speed transceiver logic signal levels
    • Support independent address, data, and snoop interfaces
    • 200 / 166 / 133 MHz DDR (Double Data Rate) transfer on Athlon CPU address and data buses
    • Built-in PLL (Phase Lock Loop) circuitry for optimal skew control within and between clocking regions
    • Four-entry command queue to accommodate maximum CPU throughput
    • Four-entry probe queue to stores probes from the system to the processor
    • Twenty four-entry processor system data and control queue to store system data control commands in two separate read and write buffers for data movement in and out of processor interface
    • Supports WC (Write Combining) cycles
    • Sleep mode support
    • System management interrupt, memory remap and STPCLK mechanism
  • High Bandwidth 533 MB / Sec 8-bit -Link Host Controller
    • Supports 66 MHz V-Link Host interface with total bandwidth of 533 MB/s
    • Operates in 2x, 4x, and 8x modes
    • Full duplex commands with separate command / strobe
    • Request / Data split transaction
    • Configurable outstanding transaction queue for Host to V-Link Client accesses
    • Supports Defer / Defer-Reply transactions
    • Transaction assurance for V-Link Host to Client access eliminates V-Link Host-Client Retry cycles
    • Intelligent V-Link transaction protocol to eliminate data wait-state / throttle transfer latency
    • All V-Link transactions for both Host and Client have a consistent view of transaction data depth and buffer size to avoid data overflow
    • Highly efficient V-Link arbitration with minimum overhead
    • All V-Link transactions have predictable cycle length with known command /data duration
  • Full Featured Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) Controller
    • Supports 533 MHz 8x, 266 MHz 4x, and 133 MHz 2x transfer modes for AD and SBA signaling
    • AGP v3.0 compliant with 8x transfer mode
    • Pseudo-synchronous with the host CPU bus with optimal skew control
    • Supports SideBand Addressing (SBA) mode (non-multiplexed address / data)
    • AGP pipelined split-transaction long-burst transfers up to 1 GB/s
    • Eight level read request queue
    • Four level posted-write request queue
    • Thirty-two level (quadwords) read data FIFO (256 bytes)
    • Sixteen level (quadwords) write data FIFO (128 bytes)
    • Intelligent request reordering for maximum AGP bus utilization
    • Supports Flush / Fence commands
    • Graphics Address Relocation Table (GART)
    • One level TLB structure
    • Sixteen entry fully associative page table
    • LRU replacement scheme
    • Independent GART lookup control for host / AGP / PCI master accesses
    • Windows 95 OSR-2 VXD and integrated Windows 98 / Windows 2000 miniport driver support
  • Advanced System Power Management Support
    • Power down of SDRAM (CKE)
    • VTT suspend power plane preserves memory data
    • Suspend-to-DRAM and self-refresh power down
    • Low-leakage I/O pads
    • ACPI 1.0B and PCI Bus Power Management 1.1 compliant
  • Advanced High-Performance DDR DRAM Controller
    • Supports DDR333, DDR266, and DDR200 (PC2700, PC2100, and PC1600 DDR SDRAM)
    • DRAM interface synchronous with host CPU (200 / 166 / 133 MHz) for most flexible configuration
    • DRAM interface may be faster or slower than CPU by 33 MHz (pseudosynchronous with 166/133 MHz FSB clock)
    • Concurrent CPU, AGP, and V-Link access
    • Clock Enable (CKE) control for DRAM power reduction in high speed systems
    • Allows use of either registered or unbuffered memory modules
    • Supports 6 banks up to 3 GB DRAMs for registered modules (4 banks up to 2 GB for unbuffered modules) ?Mixed 1M / 2M / 4M / 8M / 16M / 32M / 64M /128M x 8 / 16 / 32 DRAMs
    • Flexible row and column addresses 64-bit data width only
    • 2.5 V SSTL-2 DRAM interface
    • Programmable I/O drive capability for MA, MD, and command signals
    • Two-bank interleaving for 16 Mbit DRAM support
    • Four bank interleaving for 64 MB, 128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, and 1GB DRAM support
    • Supports maximum 16-bank interleave (i.e. 16 pages open simultaneously); banks are allocated based on LRU
    • Seamless DRAM command scheduling for maximum DRAM bus utilization (e.g., precharge other banks while accessing the current bank)
    • Four cache lines (16 quadwords) of CPU to DRAM write buffers
    • Four cache lines of CPU to DRAM read prefetch buffers
    • Read around write capability for non-stalled CPU read
    • Speculative DRAM read before snoop result
    • Burst read and write operation
    • Burst length 4 and 8
    • Supports CL 2/2.5 and 1T per command
    • 1T and 2T command rate which can be specified bank by bank
    • Decoupled and burst DRAM refresh with staggered RAS timing (CAS before RAS or self refresh)
  • Integrated Graphics / Video Accelerator
    • Optimized Shared Memory Architecture (SMA)
    • 8 / 16 / 32 / 64 MB frame buffer using system memory
    • Internal AGP 8x performance
    • Separate 128-bit data paths between north bridge and graphics core for pixel data flow and texture / command access
    • Graphics engine clocks up to 133 MHz decoupled from memory clock
    • High quality DVD video playback
    • Internal hardware VGA controller with true-color / high-color sprite for hardware cursor implementation
    • 128-bit 2D graphics engine
    • 128-bit 3D graphics engine
    • Floating point triangle setup engine
    • 3M triangles/second setup engine
    • 133M pixels/second trilinear fill rate
  • Extensive Display Support
    • CRT display interface with 24-bit true-color RAMDAC up to 250 MHz pixel rate with gamma correction capability
    • Direct TFT flat panel interface up to 24-bit data width supporting 18, 24, 18 + 18 and 24 + 24 TFT panels or LVDS encoders
    • 12-bit DVI 1.0-compatible interface for drive of flat panel monitor using external TMDS encoders
    • Interface to external TV Encoder for NTSC or PAL TV display
    • Support for CRT resolutions up to 1920 x 1440 and panel resolutions up to 1600 x 1200
    • Automatic panel power sequencing and VESA DPMS CRT power-down
    • Dual view capability where CRT and Flat Panel Monitor can have a different resolution and refresh rate
    • Built-in reference voltage generator and monitor sense circuits
    • I 2 C SerialBus and DDC Monitor Communications for CRT Plug-and-Play configuration
  • Video Support
    • High quality scaler (up or down) for both horizontal and vertical scaling (linear interpolation for horizontal and vertical up-scaling and filtering for horizontal and vertical down-scaling)
    • Colour space conversion
    • Colour enhancement (contrast, hue, saturation, brightness and gamma correction)
    • Colour and chroma key support
    • Hardware sub-picture blending
    • Bob /weave de-interlacing ode and advanced de-interlacing to improve video quality
    • PAL /NTSC TV output capability using external TV encoder
  • MPEG-2/1 Video Decoder
    • Motion compensation for full speed DVD playback
  • 2D Hardware Acceleration Features
    • BitBLT (bit block transfer) functions
    • Text function
    • Bresenha line drawing /style line function
    • ROP 3, 256 operation
    • Color expansion
    • Source and destination color keys
    • Transparency mode
    • Window clipping
    • 8, 15 /16, and 32 BPP mode acceleration
  • 3D Hardware Acceleration Features
    • Microsoft DirectX 7.0 and 8.0 compatible
    • OpenGL driver available
    • Floating-point setup engine
    • Triangle rate up to 3 million triangles per second and Pixel rate up to 133 million pixels per second for 2 texture, depth test and alpha blending
    • Hardware back-face culling
    • 16-bit,32-bit Z test, and 24+8 Z+Stencil test support
    • Z-Bias support
    • Stipple Test, Line-Pattern test, Texture-Transparence test, Alpha test support
    • Edge anti-aliasing support
    • Two textures per pass
    • Tremendous Texture Format: 16 / 32 BPP ARGB, 1 / 2 / 4 / 8 BPP Luminance, 1 / 2 / 4 / 8 BPP Intensity, 1 / 2 / 4 / 8 BPP Palletized (ARGB), YUV 422 / 420 format
    • Texture sizes up to 2048 x 2048
    • High quality texture filter modes: Nearest, Linear, Bi-linear, Tri-linear, Anisotropic
    • LOD-Bias support
    • Vertex Fog and Fog Table
    • Specular Lighting
    • Alpha Blending
    • High quality dithering
    • ROP2 support
    • Internal full 32-bit ARGB format for high rendering quality
    • System balance to achieve high performance
• VT8235 Chipset
  • • 16-bit V-Link for high bandwidth north bridge data transfer
    • Dual channel serial ATA / raid controller
    • UltraDMA-133 / 100 / 66 / 33 master mode eide controller
    • Integrated fast ethernet and eight port USB 2.0
    • Direct sound AC97 audio, keyboard / mouse controller
    • RTC, LPC, SMBUS, serial IRQ, plug and play, ACPI
    • PC2001 compliant enhanced power management
  • High Bandwidth 533 MB/s 8-bit V-Link Client Controller
    • Supports 16-bit 66 MHz V-Link Client interface with total bandwidth of 1066 MB/s
    • V-Link operates in 2x, 4x, and 8x modes and either 16-bit or 8-bit (for backwards compatibility)
    • Full duplex commands with separate Strobe / Command
    • Request / Data split transaction
    • Configurable outstanding transaction queue for V-Link Client accesses
    • Auto Client Retry to eliminate V-Link Host-Client Retry cycles
    • Intelligent V-Link transaction protocol to eliminate data wait-state / throttle transfer latency; all V-Link transactions
    • for both Host and Client have a consistent view of transaction data depth and buffer size to avoid data overflow
    • Highly efficient V-Link arbitration with minimum overhead; all V-Link transactions have predictable cycle length
    • with known Command / Data duration
    • Auto connect / reconnect capability and dynamic stop for minimum power consumption
    • Parity checking to insure correct data transfers
  • Integrated Peripheral Controllers
    • Dual channel UltraDMA-133 / 100 / 66 / 33 master mode EIDE controller
    • Integrated Fast Ethernet Controller with 1 / 10 / 100 Mbit capability
    • Integrated USB 2.0 Controller with four root hubs and eight function ports
    • AC-link interface for AC-97 audio codec and modem codec
    • HSP modem support
    • Integrated DirectSound compatible digital audio controller
    • LPC interface for Low Pin Count interface to Super-I/O or ROM
  • Integrated Legacy Functions
    • Integrated Keyboard Controller with PS2 mouse support
    • Integrated DS12885-style Real Time Clock with extended 256 byte CMOS RAM and Day/Month Alarm for ACPI
    • Integrated DMA, timer, and interrupt controller
    • Serial IRQ for docking and non-docking applications
    • Fast reset and Gate A20 operation
  • UltraDMA-133 / 100 / 66 / 33 Master Mode EIDE (Parallel ATA) Controller
    • Dual channel master mode hard disk controller supporting four Enhanced IDE devices
    • Transfer rate up to 133MB/sec to cover PIO mode 4, multi-word DMA mode 2 drives, and UltraDMA-133 interface
    • Increased reliability using UltraDMA-133/100/66 transfer protocols
    • Thirty-two levels (double words) of prefetch and write buffers
    • Dual DMA engine for concurrent dual channel operation
    • Bus master programming interface for SFF-8038i rev.1.0 and Windows-95 compliant
    • Full scatter gather capability
    • Support ATAPI compliant devices including DVD devices
    • Support PCI native and ATA compatibility modes
    • Complete software driver support
  • Fast Ethernet Controller
    • High performance PCI master interface with scatter / gather and bursting capability
    • Standard MII interface to external PHYceiver
    • 1 / 10 / 100 MHz full and half duplex operation
    • Independent 2K byte FIFOs for receive and transmit
    • Flexible dynamically loadable EEPROM algorithm
    • Physical, Broadcast, and Multicast address filtering using hashing function
    • Magic packet and wake-on-address filtering
    • Software controllable power down
  • Universal Serial Bus Controller
    • USB v2.0 and Enhanced Host Controller Interface (EHCI) v1.0 compatible
    • USB v1.1 and Universal Host Controller Interface (UHCI) v1.1 compatible
    • Eighteen level (doublewords) data FIFO with full scatter and gather capability
    • Four root hubs and eight function ports
    • Integrated physical layer transceivers with optional over-current detection status on USB inputs
    • Legacy keyboard and PS/2 mouse support
  • Direct Sound Ready AC97 Digital Audio Controller
    • AC-Link access to 4 CODECs (AC97 + AMC97 + MC97)
    • Multichannel Audio
    • Bus Master Scatter / Gather DMA
    • Dedicated read and write channels supporting simultaneous stereo playback and record
    • Dedicated read and write channels supporting simultaneous modem receive and transmit
    • 1 stereo DirectSound channel with source / volume control / mixer
    • 1 shared FM / SPDIF PCM read channel
    • 1 dedicated channel supporting multi-channel audio
    • 32-byte line-buffers for each SGD channel
    • Programmable 8-bit / 16-bit mono / stereo PCM data format support
    • AC97 2.1 compliant
  • System Management Bus Interface
    • Host interface for processor communications
    • Slave interface for external SMBus masters
  • Concurrent PCI Bus Controller
    • 33 MHz operation
    • Supports up to six PCI masters
    • Peer concurrency
    • Concurrent multiple PCI master transactions; i.e. allow PCI masters from both PCI buses active at the same time
    • Zero wait state PCI master and slave burst transfer rate
    • PCI to system memory data streaming up to 132 MB/s (north bridge data transfer via high speed V-Link)
    • PCI master snoop ahead and snoop filtering
    • Eight DW of CPU to PCI posted write buffers
    • Byte merging in the write buffers to reduce the number of PCI cycles and to create further PCI bursting possibilities
    • Enhanced PCI command optimization (MRL, MRM, MWI, etc.)
    • Four lines of post write buffers from PCI masters to DRAM
    • Sixteen levels (double-words) of prefetch buffers from DRAM for access by PCI masters
    • Delay transaction from PCI master accessing DRAM
    • Transaction timer for fair arbitration between PCI masters (granularity of two PCI clocks)
    • Symmetric arbitration between Host/PCI bus for optimized system performance
    • Complete steerable PCI interrupts
    • PCI-2.2 compliant, 32 bit 3.3 V PCI interface with 5 V tolerant inputs
  • Sophisticated PC2001-Compatible Mobile Power Management
    • Supports both ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) and legacy (APM) power management
    • ACPI v2.0 and APM v1.2 Compliant
    • CPU clock throttling and clock stop control for complete ACPI C0 to C3 state support
    • PCI bus clock run, Power Management Enable (PME) control, and PCI/CPU clock generator stop control
    • Supports multiple system suspend types: power-on suspends with flexible CPU/PCI bus reset options,
    • suspend to DRAM, and suspend to disk (soft-off), all with hardware automatic wake-up
    • Multiple suspend power plane controls and suspend status indicators
    • One idle timer, one peripheral timer and one general purpose timer, plus 24/32-bit ACPI compliant timer
    • Normal, doze, sleep, suspend and conserve modes
    • Global and local device power control
    • System event monitoring with two event classes
    • Primary and secondary interrupt differentiation for individual channels
    • Dedicated input pins for power and sleep buttons, external modem ring indicator, and notebook lid open/close for
    • system wake-up
    • 32 general purpose input ports and 32 output ports
    • Multiple internal and external SMI sources for flexible power management models
    • Enhanced integrated real time clock (RTC) with date alarm, month alarm, and century field
    • Thermal alarm on external temperature sensing circuit
    • I/O pad leakage control
  • Plug and Play Controller
    • PCI interrupts steerable to any interrupt channel
    • Steerable interrupts for integrated peripheral controllers: USB, floppy, serial, parallel, and audio
    • Microsoft Windows XP TM , Windows NT TM , Windows 2000 TM , Windows 98 TM and plug and play BIOS compliant
  • Built-in NAND-tree pin scan test capability
  • 0.22 um, 2.5 V, low power CMOS process
  • Single chip 27 x 27 mm, 1.0 mm ball pitch, 539 pin BGA
  I/O controller: WINBOND W83697HF I/O Controller with the following features
  • PS/2 Keyboard and Mouse controller
  • Floppy disk controller supporting one FDD with 360 KB, 720 KB, 1.2 MB and 1.44 MB
  • 2 serial ports, both 16C550 Fast UART compatible.
  • 1 Parallel port supporting SPP (Standard parallel Port), EPP (Enhanced Parallel Port), and ECP (Extended Capabilities Port) modes
  • 1 Fan controller
  Audio Chipset: Audio Subsystem for AC'97 processing using the Realtek ALC655 codec
  • DirectSound AC'97 2.2 Audio
  • Inputs and Outputs: Stereo inputs for Line-in, CD audio, Auxiliary, mono inputs for microphone
  • Mixer Features: mixer with stereo for Line, CD audio, auxiliary, music synthesizer, digital audio (wave files), and mono for microphone and speaker phone
  • Features: 3D stereo enhancement for simulated surround, power management support
  • Stereo microphone input with integrated preamp for enabling a 2-channel mic array
  http://www.oldskoolanthemz.com/forum/Connectors
  
  • 1 AGP slot with integrated retention mechanism
  • 2 PCI +1 Combo PCI/CNR slot
  • 1 DB9 serial port (COM A )
  • 1 Header serial port (COM B )
  • 1 DB15 VGA port
  • 1 DB25 parallel port with SPP, ECP, EPP bidirectional modes
  • PS/2 keyboard and PS/2 mouse ports (not swappable)
  • 6 USB 2.0; 2 rear ports + 2 front USB + 2 interne
  • 1 mono microphone input (Mic-In)
  • 1 Line-In
  • 1 Line-Out
  • 2 IDE connectors
  • 1 Floppy connector
  • Panel connector
  • 1 RJ45 connector
  http://www.oldskoolanthemz.com/forum/Winbond BIOS Specifications
  
  • Plug and Play
  • Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) 1.0
  • Advanced Power Management (APM) 1.2
  • Y2K
  • PC 2001
  • S3/S1 mode
  • Desktop Management Interface (DMI)
  • 2 Mbits flash device
  • Language supported: English

 

[coggledots]

wwwwwoooooooooowwwwww! Cheers Turpster I Take it this is my motherboards info lol! Thanks alot mucho appriecio fella, take it the info i needed was:

Supports 533 MHz 8x, 266 MHz 4x, and 133 MHz 2x

Am off on a graphics card hunt, me thinks Might even upgrade a few other thingy-me-bobs in the near future now i know what my board can cope with.

 

[turpieaj]

wwwwwoooooooooowwwwww! Cheers Turpster I Take it this is my motherboards info lol! Thanks alot mucho appriecio fella, take it the info i needed was:



Am off on a graphics card hunt, me thinks Might even upgrade a few other thingy-me-bobs in the near future now i know what my board can cope with.

If its an AGP your after and want to do video can I suggest tracking down a ati raedon 9800 all in wonder pro. They do video capture plus they have a TV tuner built in as well. You could pick up a second hand one off ebay at a very reasonable price m8!

Andy

 

[coggledots]

If its an AGP your after and want to do video can I suggest tracking down a ati raedon 9800 all in wonder pro. They do video capture plus they have a TV tuner built in as well. You could pick up a second hand one off ebay at a very reasonable price m8!

Andy

ati raedon 9800 all in wonder pro.

Copied / Pasted / banged on the bay, cheers fella

 

[JD7]

9800 AIW Pro - is a nice cheap AGP Card - i upgraded from that card around 9 months ago. No complaints, just required higher spec vid card.

 

[coggledots]

Can anyone tell me the difference between the 9800 pro & the 9800 SE