Add a new graphics card


Tip
Today's graphics cards rip through once-daunting tasks like running full-motion video, and you can often buy one for half what you would have paid a year ago. These cards can help you grind through many of your toughest jobs--or lure you away from them by making the new 3-D games even more compelling! One warning: Your existing monitor may not be able to handle all that a new graphics card can do. Changing your graphics card can be one of the easiest upgrades, but remember the basics shown here.
1. Check your graphics. Before deciding what to buy, see whether your existing motherboard handles ISA, VESA local bus, or PCI cards -- or a mixture. Check your manual, or open your PC case and find the existing graphics card (attached to the monitor). If necessary, unhook the monitor and remove the card to look at its slot. In case graphics are built into the motherboard, read the next paragraph.
If graphics are built into the motherboard instead of on a card, you can still install a card, but read your manual or call your dealer to find out how to disable the onboard graphics. With some motherboards you need to move a jumper, flip a tiny DIP switch, or change a setting in your BIOS. Other motherboards switch off the onboard graphics automatically as soon as you plug in a card.
2. Buy your new card. If your PC's motherboard has a PCI bus, you'll find the widest selection of cards ranging from inexpensive to high-end. If your PC has a VESA local bus or an ISA bus, choices are more limited, the performance boost won't be as great, and the chance of installation hassles increases. Given the option, always choose a PCI or VESA graphics card over an ISA graphics card.
3. Prepare your software. If you're running Windows 95, you don't need to make any software changes before installing the new card. If you're a Windows 3.x user, exit to DOS (don't just open a DOS box), run the setup program located in the \windows directory, and change the Display setting to VGA before installing your new card.
4. Install the board. Unplug the monitor, remove the PC case, and remove the old graphics card, or disable the built-in graphics adapter if that's what you have. Ground yourself by touching the metal casing of your PC, grab the new card, and plug it in. Firmly tighten the screw that holds it in. Connect the monitor to the new card, but don't put the case back on yet.
5. Install the software. Software drivers should come with the new card. Turn on your PC. If you're running Windows 95, it should sense that a new card has been installed and ask you to insert the proper driver. If you're running Windows 3.x, you must install the driver manually. If everything's working, turn your PC off and put the cover back on.
- Stan Miastkowski


Category: Hardware
Issue: Mar 1997
Pages: 194

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