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Video Card Upgrades: How To
If you have been playing your favorite game, or watching videos, and the quality seems to be very poor, or blurry, or it skips around alot (losing frames), then it might be a good idea to purchase an upgraded video card.
One of the most important investments in your computer is the video card. The video card is what most people notice because it is what you see. Video Cards come with onboard memory, and the more memory that is included on the card, the better and faster the card can run. We would recommend that you have atleast 128 MB of onboard memory on the video card. A good rule of thumb is to try to stay close to the $200.00 mark or higher when purchasing a video card.
There are several different types of video cards. Some video cards include a TV Tuner on the card so that you can watch television or cable on your computer. Some video cards include video capture capabilities for video editing. What you need will depend on what you will plan on doing with the card.
We recommend the ATI 9800 All-In-Wonder Pro. This card does it all. It has a TV Tuner built into it, it has video capturing capabilities for video editing, and includes 128 MB of onboard system memory. Click here to view the video cards that we recommend.
You will need to do a little research to see what type of video card that you can install in your system. You can find this information from your motherboard of computer manufacturer's website.
How To Install
It is recommended that you always backup any important data from your system before you do any work on your computer. Shut down your system, then unplug the power cord from the back of the computer. Open up the case and touch the metal on the internal frame of your computer case to discharge the static electricity. Locate your old video card and remove it. It might have one screw that you will have to remove, then the card should just pull right out of the slot that it is in. Install the new card in the same slot and re-install the screw. If your old video card is built into the motherboard, then you do not have to remove it, but you might have to disable the video card before you can get the new video card to work. Once the new card is installed, then you can put your case back together, and plug your system back in, and boot up your computer. Once your computer is booted back up, it will prompt you for the driver disk of the new video card. Once you install the driver, you should reboot your computer.
Note: Specific instructions for your new video card will be provided with the documentation that is included with your video card.
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