Value of integrated graphics on mobo

External Since: Apr 07, 2004 Posts: 2

"JULIAN HALES" <julianhales.DeleteThis@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:W5Wcc.33664
> My mate has a 1000mhz Compaq SFF with 64mb o/b ram(256 sdram), he brings
it
> round for lan games and on SOF2 has to drop detail level nex to nothing,
no
> agp slot, so i installed a PCI 64mb gfx card, now it runs the same jsut as
> good as my old 64mb AGP Gforce mx2 thing me jig card. found that hard to
> belive esp due to the fact of the pci bus speed wotsit.
>
> Im surprised how man pcs still dont have a agp slot.
>

Speaking of which ... I've been trying for ages to find a PCI card with
S-Vid out for a mate of mine who has just such a computer (AGP-less that
is!). Don't want to spend more than about £20-30. Any ideas?

a

External Since: Jan 03, 2004 Posts: 7693

On Wed, 07 Apr 2004 12:41:40 +0100, Lem <lem.RemoveThis@mail.com> wrote:

>Approximately what would it cost to buy a seperate graphics card
>offering the same sort of quality as the integrated graphics on a
>quality motherboard like:
>
> Asus A7N8X-VM (nVidia)
> Asus A7V8X-VM (Via)
> Gigabyte 7VN400M (Via)
> MSI-K7M2G-L (nVidia)
> etc

We can consider their value by looking at the cost of equivalent
performance... "quality" means little beyond performance unless you can
audition each particular motherboard to see how crisp the image is.

The Via integrated video is roughly on par with an nVidia TNT2 Pro. Today
you might find one of those on ebay or some salvage 'site for $15.

The nVidia, IF you use a pair of memory modules for greater performance,
is the rough equivalent of a Geforce4MX, which is about $30 value when you
catch such cards on sale or with a rebate.

The main issue might be what you need from the video. If you expect to
play anything but relatively old games, all but the nForce2 are too slow.
Either would be adequate for 2D use, email, office, web surfing and DVDs.