E-66 Posted November 21, 2006 Share Posted November 21, 2006 I've never used a PC with onboard video before and was wondering how good/bad it is for a non-game system? I'm trying to put together a budget AMD AM2 motherboard system and notice that many of the boards have onboard video.If I was to buy a video card it would be a basic $35-45 PCIe x16 card. Is onboard video as "good" as a basic card like that? If so, are there certain video chipsets to look for or steer clear of? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nitroshift Posted November 21, 2006 Share Posted November 21, 2006 If you don't plan on gaming, onboard cards are fine, especially for office use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jftuga Posted November 21, 2006 Share Posted November 21, 2006 I hear that running Aero under Vista requires a fair amount of video processing power. So if you think that you will be running Vista some time in the future, you might want to consider this. I sure some one who is now running Vista could elaborate more on this.-John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E-66 Posted November 21, 2006 Author Share Posted November 21, 2006 I actually just started using XP for the first time about a month ago, so Vista is WAY off in the future for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcarle Posted November 21, 2006 Share Posted November 21, 2006 Even the cheapest of all video cards will offer you a better end-user experience then any built-in video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E-66 Posted November 21, 2006 Author Share Posted November 21, 2006 (edited) Why is that?Onboard video won't be the reason I choose whatever motherboard I eventually choose, but if the one I get does have it I guess I can try it out and see what it's like before getting a separate card. Edited November 21, 2006 by E-66 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcarle Posted November 21, 2006 Share Posted November 21, 2006 On-board video just doesn't measure up to a dedicated video card. They use shared memory, share the CPU, share almost all system resources. The drivers are usually below average as well. Even some small games won't even start with on-board video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoffeeFiend Posted November 21, 2006 Share Posted November 21, 2006 On-board video just doesn't measure up to a dedicated video card. They use shared memory, share the CPU, share almost all system resources. The drivers are usually below average as well. Even some small games won't even start with on-board video.I beg to differ. Onboard video is every bit as good as a dedicated card IMO - unless you need 3D power and lots of video RAM. Definitely a bad idea for one that might run Vista or that wants to play games. But for anything else, it's more than fine.One of my PCs has onboard Intel GMA 900 video, and I love it. Right now it uses all of 8MB of my system RAM (it has 1.5GB). Big deal. It's plenty for anything that PC will ever do. And drivers wise, I believe you're 100% wrong here. The drivers for that integrated video are about a trillion times better and more stable than all the nvidia/ati drivers I've ever seen. It's also linux friendly (can't say that of many new graphics cards). And the price was more than right.I haven't had much problems with most laptop's integrated video either, and performance's never been an issue even once.Mind you, right now I'd get a card that can run Vista and WPF apps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E-66 Posted November 21, 2006 Author Share Posted November 21, 2006 (edited) Unrelated question but I didn't want to start a whole new thread for it...I've been looking at motherboards and some of them have 3 PCI Express slots on them. Under what circumstances would someone want to use 3 video cards? Edited November 21, 2006 by E-66 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcarle Posted November 21, 2006 Share Posted November 21, 2006 Unrelated question but I didn't want to start a whole new thread for it...I've been looking at motherboards and some of them have 3 PCI Express slots on them. Under what circumstances would someone want to use 3 video cards?PCI Express will eventually replace ALL PCI cards, that includes video cards, network cards, RAID cards, and whatever else that used to work with PCI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E-66 Posted November 21, 2006 Author Share Posted November 21, 2006 Ok, so they're not just for video. Gotcha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stead Posted November 21, 2006 Share Posted November 21, 2006 personally i'd recommened either hte newest ATI onboard or Nvida on board, i find with ati you can get a pretty resonable price motherboard (also having used ati chipsets in the past, i've found them to be very stable, and considering the price very appealing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LLXX Posted November 22, 2006 Share Posted November 22, 2006 Unrelated question but I didn't want to start a whole new thread for it...I've been looking at motherboards and some of them have 3 PCI Express slots on them. Under what circumstances would someone want to use 3 video cards?See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Link_Interface Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E-66 Posted November 22, 2006 Author Share Posted November 22, 2006 Interesting, thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonestonne Posted November 22, 2006 Share Posted November 22, 2006 anyone who says that onboard video is bad, is really tipping a personal balance.the PC i'm running now has a graphics card in it, but does have onboard graphics. onboard is good for when you install windows, because if your screen is black for too long, it means the picture is coming up on a different screen. if you only have one moniter, its hard to setup, always moving the cable back and forth to make it work at first.having a graphics card is any worse than having onboard graphics. onboard users have the advantage because their rigs wont heat up as fast with even basic usage, whereas cards can get blazing hot with what some people call minimal usage.card users have the advantage when it comes to performance, acceleration, and quality, 32bit and up compared to 24bit and down.its solely dependant on what your use is. if you're a gamer, a card would be recommended, if your version of intense gaming is a few rounds of spider solitaire, stick with onboard. its cheaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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