Technical Upgrading A Computer Graphics Card Issues

Graphics Card Issues

We recently upgraded the Matrox G200 SDRAM graphics card in a AMD K6III 450mhz CPU machine. We used 3D Mark 99 software to benchmark the system before and after the upgrade. The results surprised us.

The new card was a Geforce DDR Pro 32 MB AGP. Some of the results were slower than the 8 MB Matrox card. Bearing in mind the drivers were those issued in the box with the Geforce, we updated to detonator 6.33 drivers. This made some but not a lot of difference to the performance and benchmark results. Tweaks were made to the registry etc., until eventually the Geforce beat the Matrox if only just in every test.

Intrigued by this we investigated further. We installed the Geforce in a Intel Pentium III 800 MHz machine with the same amount and type of ram, hard drive etc. and ran the benchmark. What a difference. This processor definitely lets that beast out of the cage. Its worth mentioning that the cache, Chipset and RAM benchmarks on Intel Chipsets make a big difference to the likes of SIS, ALi, etc. Chipsets

Graphics cards sometimes do not seat properly and end up resting to high in the expansion slot. It may be necessary to loosen the two fixings, holding the back plate (and occasionally a screw holding the corner of the card to the back plate) so as to reposition the back plate, until more of the cards contacts are able to insert into the expansion slot.
The reverse is also common in today's cheaper expansion cards. The card seats well in the slot, but the back plate is to high so as to easily screw down. Again by loosening the back plate fixings and repositioning the card will seat better in the slot and screw down on the chassis, thus ensuring a secure fit and no strain.
It is important to remember that most screws and fixings found on connecting cables only need to be slightly more than finger tight.

More graphics cards are supplied with a fan and heatsink fitted to the main chip. It is common for the fan to stop, with no warning to you the user. Regularly servicing the inside of the computer gives you the opportunity to check its function (new PC cleaning guide soon) Because the cards usually end up upside down in midi and tower cases the heat is rising back into the heat sink and the fan is not drawing air down but drawing air up. The only good thing I can see for having expansion cards mounted upside down in a tower case (most PCI cards) is the dust settles on the back of the card and therefore easy to keep clean.

Installing today's graphics cards is quicker and easier than before. Most manufacturers supply very good set-up programs and as long as the PC's graphics driver is set to standard PCI graphics card (VGA) before installing the new card, everything should work first time. Some installations will also remove previous drivers. Remember to reinstall the latest version of direct-X after upgrading or reinstalling multimedia drivers.

Fitting A Motherboard

Legacy Expansion Cards