PCI graphics card vs Onboard intel video

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farcus

1626 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 437

#45880 4-Nov-2009 13:31

I have an older (approx 4 yrs old) IBM thinkcentre with an onboard intel 915GM video.
In BIOS I can see that this has 128mb of ram associated with it. I cn switch it to Turbo mode which then assigns 216MB.

The only available expansion slot is a PCI slot (not PCIE)
I am considering adding this card

Will I see any improvement at all running this over the onboard video I already have?

amorangi

63 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#270108 4-Nov-2009 17:57

Slightly, but you still won't be playing Crysis on it on full settings. What is your reason for wanting to use a graphics card?

farcus

1626 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 437

#270143 4-Nov-2009 20:00

amorangi: Slightly, but you still won't be playing Crysis on it on full settings. What is your reason for wanting to use a graphics card?

Not really looking to play games.

Main reason for looking for something different - I use Opensuse and since version 11.1 they have dropped i810 support from xorg. The actual intel driver in xorg for 915GM uses a lot of cpu time.

Apparently this may be fixed in the upcoming 11.2 next week so I'll check that out beefore deciding on the purchase or not.

The other - my machine meets spec for Windows 7 in everything but video (as 915GM does not support Directx 9 WDDM) and has some problems with video playback.
Was considering having a play with Windows 7 to see how I like it.