Graphics Cards

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#PCI_Express_2.0

Yes it should. The PCI Express 2.0 is backwards compatible with the PCI x16 1.0 and 1.1 slot motherboards. However, PCI-e 2.0 cards on 1.1 and 1.0 motherboards will not be able to run at their max capacity.

It all depends on whether or not the graphic card is an "AGP" or "PCI" (if your computer is newer: 5 years or newer, you should have an AGP port)the easiest way to tell is if it is an "AGP" card the gold part on the bottom will have 3 segments, where as "PCI" has 1 or 2. Its Very easy to install...first power down your computer, then unplug all the cables on the back (not always neccessary, but to make sure you have no power coming in at all, you can't be too careful) open the access pannel on your computer, if it is a tower, then it should be on the left side looking at the computer. You might have to take the screws off of the back, just look at the left pannel, then look at the back if there are 2 screws (1 top 1 bottom) then you take those out and set them aside. Some brands are different but this is just a basic explanation. If it is a desk top model (lays flat) then there should be 5 screws on the back around the cover to remove. You should have purchased an "ESD" strap from the electronics store where you bought your card, but if you don't have one, then just ground yourself to the chassis before you touch anything on the inside. Make sure that your computer is on a non-conductive surface, I.E. Rubber mat, plastic desk...etc Metal is not a good thing to work on. Make sure that you are not doing this on carpet either...don't want a static charge to zap your new card and everything else you touch do you? Once you have your case open, look for the AGP port. It will be close to the top of the motherboard, usually near all of your onboard stuff...USB ports, Printer Port. This will be a female slot, sometimes brown in color. It will sit slightly farther back from the rest of the slots. Remove the old card (if there is one) if there is no card you will have to take off the protective metal cover off of the chassis. Insert your card into the slot, carefull not to force it. If you have to exert a lot of pressure, then you are doing it wrong. Be sure to apply even pressure to the front and back of the card while you are inserting it. Once it is in securly, use the screw that came off of the protective metal dust cover, (if it had one) to secure the card in place. If you didn't get on off of the dust cover, then the box that the card came with should have one. Leave the case off, and plug only your power cable, keyboard, mouse, and monitor back in. Start your computer up and install the software that came with the card, restart, once your computer comes back up the way it should, shut it down, put everything back together, and enjoy!

A graphics card is not a acronym therefore it does not particularly stand for anything. A graphics card or video card is the electronic board or unit that produces the graphics and video images that are to be displayed on a monitor/tv screen.

You cannot use a 2.0 pci express card in a pci express slot because the technology is newer.

For example:

It would be like putting a playstation 3 game into a playstation 2 console.

no graphics cards have there own built in video ram

The above answer is only partially correct. If a computer had onboard graphics, where there is no dedicated graphics card, then the graphics chip is on the motherboard itself. In this case, it will use the system RAM for memory. This can reduce the total amount available to the system.

So if you have onboard graphics (no dedicated graphics card), then a dedicated GPU(graphics processing unit) could in fact increase available RAM. However, the difference is not likely to be large. RAM is cheap. Your best option is to buy more RAM for your system.

Yes, it supports upto Pixel Shader 3.0, so you can easily run Vista Ultimate Aero, and new games.

AGP or Accelerated Graphics Port succeeded PCI or Peripheral Component Interconnect as a technology to connect graphics cards to a computer's motherboard. PCI is still used to connect other devices like ethernet and sound cards.

AGP slots provide a dedicated link between the card and the CPU and thus providing faster communication between them. There are other enhancements as well. See the source for more. But the bottom line is that AGP cards perform much better.

But now AGP is getting phased in favor of PCIe or PCI Express which is even faster and can be used as the bus for all the devices in a machine.

Either a low profile AGP video card or a standard PCI card will do. PCI-E cards are not compatible.

NVIDIA geforce series FX (9500, 5950, 6200, 6500, 6600, 6800, 7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950, 8400, 8500, 8600, 8800, 9300, 9400, 9500, 9600, 9800) G100, GT 120, GT 130, GTS 150, GTS 250, GTX 260, GTX 280, GTX 285, GTX 295 ATI radeon series 9500, 9600, 9800, X300, X600, X700, X800, X850, X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950, 2400, 2600, 2900, 3450, 3650, 3850, 3870, 4850 Intel graphics media accelerator (GMA) GMA 3-series GMA 4-series

The graphics card man it should be located near your ram cards

The Video Graphics Adapter (VGA) was one of the first standards for video cards so that manufacturers could create increasingly powerful video cards that would be used in a variety of computer systems. VGA also represents the 680x480 resolution that was standard on VGA-compatible monitors.

Probably the nVidia GTX 295, that's hitting around £400.

This might raise the stakes: At evga's site the blackfriday is $1699.99.

how about a ge-force card for as little as £11,031.99

For ATI GPUs, it's called CrossFireX. For NVIDIA GPUs, it's called SLI.

More info check related links below.

I assume you're asking "how do I know what kind of motherboard I have" and not the usually much easier "which part in the computer is the motherboard" (it's almost certainly the biggest circuit board in there).

The only sure one I know of is to look for the manufacturer's name and model number silkscreened onto the board somewhere.

Alternatively, if it's hooked up and working, the power-on self-test may tell you, though sometimes these are a little more vague than might be hoped (for example, while it's likely to tell you the manufacturer and possibly the model, it may or may not specify the particular revision).

it's depends on what kind of software you are using, such as photoshop, if you selected a layer, it show nothing around the edge, but if you selected a specify object, it shows a moving dotted line around the graphic. For AI ( Adobe illustrator ) it shows a blue line with some small square on each corner and on the middle of each line.

Pixel shader 3.0 (and other variants) are hard-coded into the video card and its drivers. If you have a very fast processor and a good amount of ram, you may be able to get around the pixel shader requirement by downloading "3DAnalyze" or "Swiftshader 2.0" to emulate pixel shader.

More likely, the best option is for you to simply replace your video card with one which has native support for pixel shader.

Video cards with pixel shader 3.0 are very common these days, it is not an expensive upgrade & will improve performance on other programs as well.

Global Positioning Satellite

Any AGP graphics card (such as an NVIDIA GeForce 7600GS or an ATI Radeon HD 4760) will work. Depending on the power requirements of the card, you may need to upgrade your power supply.

DirectX 10.1 supports all DirectX 10.0 card, including the GMA X3100. However, DX 10.1 introduces new features that are not supported in the GMA X3100. Even NVIDIA hasn't released a card that uses 10.1 features yet.

Yes. It is pretty high, not unheard of, but still high.

While at the terminal...

Restart the system

Press Ctrl-D after "Dell Embedded Remote Access Controller" is displayed

Press "E" to enable/disable RAC

Press "R" to reset the Interface

Press "Y" to save

One AGP card is the ATI HD 3850

* HIS Hightech H385Q512ANP Radeon HD 3850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X HDCP Ready IceQ 3 Turbo Video Card - Retail IceQ 3 Turbo Tech overclock at 720MHz * http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161226

There are hundreds if not thousands of reviews of different types of graphics cards available online, viewing several of these is a good way to find out the basics and information on what graphics cards are most often recommended for specific purposes. A local computer technician or knowledgeable salesperson would also be able to provide information on graphics cards and answer any specific questions.

It depends on the specific model. Dell contracts several different manufacturers for their laptops and each has different habits of removable or not.

- AFAIK most of the XPS series have graphics cards soldered to the motherboard, but there are a few different motherboard revisions, so you can upgrade the motherboard E. G. m1530 has geforce 8400m or 8600m versions. m1730 has removable card and can be upgraded to 9800m GT or GTX SLI but only a Dell m1730 card. M1710 is actually the same as a Dell m90 or something and uses a few removable cards.

the studio XPS 1640 has motherboards with ATI 3670, 4670 and 5730.

-Dell Alienware m15x, m17x and m18x use MXM 3.0 B graphics just like most Clevo/Sager and MSI gaming systems. You can find and change out high end cards like AMD 6990m and Nvidia 580m in all of these.

- Dell Precision m6500 and m6600 also use MXM 3.0 B cards, come with professional Quadro and Firepro cards but can be changed for others. The m4600 uses smaller type MXM 3.0 A.

Anything released earlier than these laptops cannot use different graphics cards or can only use cards made for the specific model.

bibliographical information; notes