Computer Experts - Assistance Pls

Shift518 Automotive Shift518 Off Topic
1

Hello computer people, I seek your help.

My work computer is old, but has always worked fine. Mostly email, web browsing, Excel, some financial modeling software but nothing crazy. I recently jumped on the dual monitor bandwagon and it has changed my life. BUT it’s slowing everything down.

When you load an image or website or anything graphical, it crawls. Scrolling webpages drags along while the screen refreshes. This is a video card problem, right?

So no biggie, I’ll just replace the video card with something heavier duty.

Here are my questions:
Motherboard is an Intel D915PBL (915 chipset) with a PCI Express x16 (aka 1.0). I know PCI 2.0 retroactively works with 1.0 so my card options are wide open.

What cards work with the 915 chipset that have two digital video outs (HDMI or DVI works, whatev)? I can shop cards on the major sites but I’m having trouble confirming that they work with the old motherboard.

Next problem: If I do a new graphics card, will that solve all my problems? Or is there some other bottle neck in there somewhere (mobo, processor, etc)?

This is for work so I need it to function and be cost effective, not play Halo and be super badass. Cheap is awesome. Rather not rebuild the entire thing unless I had to.

I’m not super computer literate, just learning about this stuff in my free time, so layman’s terms would be appreciated.

The details:
Mobo: Intel D915PBL
Processor: Pentium 4 3.0ghz
Current vid card: Nvidia GeForce 6200 Turbocache

I want to make my two new baller monitors work!!!

Thank you.

2

I have a Nvidia GeForce 8800gts that I will sell on the cheap, it will support what you are doing just fine. How much RAM does your computer have?

3

4GB.

Might be down depending on price and the answers to my other questions above.

4

Here’s a pretty handy little chart you can check out. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fastest-graphics-card-radeon-geforce,3067-7.html

Also it’s a good up to date article about current graphics cards.

page 1: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fastest-graphics-card-radeon-geforce,3067.html

5

Thanks, Mike. I’ll check that out when I know this will work.

Anyone know the answers to anything in the first post?

6

That sounds like a threat, hope Vlad doesn’t see it! :ohnoes

PM Shady, he seems to be the computer guru or hopefully he see’s this thread!

7

If its a Mac, you need a PC. And vice versa.

8

Like you said any 2.0 x16 card should work. It will just be bottlenecked to the 1.0 specification. I ran a X1950 pro (2x DVI outputs) with that processor and the processor was a bottleneck on that system. 4GB is more than enough for what you have there.

Will it solve all your problems? I don’t know…it will help though. You should be able to pick up a card that will do the job for ~$50 or less I would think.

9

Thanks. Might just have to try and see. If it doesnt work, throwing it out and buying new is probably cheaper but that means I’m out the $50 for the card.

Anyone know an easy way to see if a certain card works with a certain chipset (915)? It’s not easy to find in the card specs anywhere. Do they all just work with everything and I’m missing something?

10

Had pretty much all the same issues you’re facing with my dinosaur when trying to run SW and large assemblies as I was running off the embedded graphics chip in the motherboard. Installed a dedicated graphics card thanks to Shady and 99% of the issues were resolved. Still not 100% perfect but far more tolerable, and my PC is far more feeble in comparison to what you are working with.

100% outside, non-expert opinion.

11

Replace everything and it should be okay.

12

Pretty much any invidia card will work fine with the chipset, I wouldnt worry to much about it. You could even run an amd/ati based card and it would work ok.

13

Thanks. I figured after an hour of research I’d have a handle on this but there’s still a zillion questions. Growing respect for these computer nerd superstar people.

Normally I would agree but business expense cheapness trumps coolness.

Figured that was the case. I wish there was an easy way to confirm. Newegg is reluctant to except returns on this kind of stuff.

I assume PCIE 2.1 works with PCIE 1, just like PCIE 2.0 does?

14

Who deleted my jfart posts ? Fuckin assholes . He needs to be reminded of what shift used to be like . That’s when jfart actually posted moreso . Who actually remembers jfart points ???

15

Oh yeah it’s a 32bit Windows 7 install. Guy who did it said it wasnt enough hardware for 64 bit. Matter?

Also, I see “64 bit” in the headline of almost all the graphics cards. Does that mean it will not work with a 32 bit operating system?

16

Hardware is hardware. The only times hardware won’t work is if you buy a SATA drive and only have IDE connections, etc.

Video cards are all either PCI, PCI-Xpress, or AGP. If your board has the necessary slot needed for that particular video card, your good. If you have PCI Xpress slots on your board, I’d stick to PCI Xpress 2.0. NVidia chips don’t use 2.1 yet…that’s only ATI really.

However…

Read first post and the rest I glanced at…but…in case I missed it…did anyone suggest the obvious?

Driver? This sounds like something that is driver related…meaning, similar to what happens when you first install an OS and don’t have the video driver installed. The one that Microsoft automatically installs doesn’t render as well, so pages “paint” themselves. Once you install the correct (or updated) driver, that issue goes away.

I’d start with a driver if you haven’t already. Your specs on your system are fine. You shouldn’t have ANY issues. I run Windows XP and NVidia GeForce MX4000 cards for many of my users in the office with multiple monitors. 6000 series NVidia card should be fine. It’s likely a driver issue. Now, if there isn’t a Windows 7 driver for your Nvidia card…then there is your problem. You’ll need a new card in that case.

Check NVidia’s site for the driver.

17

I updated the Nvidia driver for the card itself and it made no difference. Are there any others that I should try?

18

I updated my post after you posted (before I refreshed).

Was there a Windows 7 driver available on their site? I’m assuming you’d be smart enough (you’re one of our more intelligent members :lol) to know not to try an XP one if you’re running Windows 7, lol. If not, you could try a Vista driver (similar to 7).

This really seems like a driver issue to me. Like I said, I have machines in my company that are MUCH older, slower, with older video cards that use dual monitors just fine.

19

http://www.geforce.com/Drivers/Results/38915

This is what I installed yesterday. Seems to be the right one. Any other driver’s affect this problem?

Thanks!

20

Hmm…looks like the right driver to me.

Is the card new (doubt it - based on the model lol)? Or used? You can try the 8800GTS card mentioned above, but I don’t guarantee if it’ll work. That’s what I’m installing now on my machines at work (8800 GS) though. Most of my older computers at work are Dell Optiplex GX520 or GX280. Anything new is an Dell Optiplex 755 or higher. The older ones are similar in spec to yours (but with 1GB) and many of them have GeForce MX4000 cards in them. Not sure why yours is having trouble, unless the card itself is faulty.

The painting of your screens definitely is how a computer acts when no driver is installed though, which is why I’m thinking it’s a driver. It was just the first thing to check, but looks like you took care of it.