Dell 2400 (new) integrated video vs. older ATI Radeon

[NiKeFiDO]

I have 2-month old Dell Dimension 2400 with "integrated Intel 3D Extreme Graphics."
2.8ghz processor...512RAM...Basic all stock Dell.

I was wondering how this video would stack up against my friends older ATI Radeon 7000 (64mb ddr, PCI not AGP) video card. Think it's worth putting in my computer?

I have a motherboard from a Dimension 4600 that has an AGP slot so I'm going to replace my existing motherboard with that and get a 9800pro in a month or two...so for now ...this pci card better than what I have?


Thanks

 

[SneakyStuff]

ANYTHING and I mean literally anything beats integrated, go for it man (Reason being, once you install that, you free up 48MB oif system RAM as well)

 

[NiKeFiDO]

of course now i have new problems......
I put the card in, installed the drivers....then restarted as it asked...
but when it restarted....after the BIOS screen all I got was a black screen with a few white dots on the top
after another restart i got a black screen with a repeating band of green dots in the middle....

What should be my next move? If I download a driver (Cataylist?) from ATI site, I have to have the vid card in right?

I am able to go on this site bc i took the vid card out and am now on the integrated video...
Please help!!!

Thanks

 

[Mloot]

Although it will free up some of your RAM, if you plan on doing any gaming, then you'll quickly find out that the 7000 PCI is very comparable to the Intel onboard graphics. Check here for further details.

 

[NiKeFiDO]

good to know, thanks. That is OK since this is really a hold-me-over until I buy a newer vid card.
Any ideas on the problem installing this card?

 

[otispunkmeyer]

erm if u have intergrated then u will need to turn them off in the bios if u plan on using a AGP or PCI....i think anyway i had to do that with sound when i switched from onboard to an audigy

 

[NiKeFiDO]

"off" isnt really an option in BIOS...there is AUTO or Onboard. It knows there is a video card there becuiase when it is installed....it worked (kinda) until I installed the drivers and restarted.

 

[Avalon]

Well, if there is no disable option in your BIOS (odd), and installing the drivers for the 7000 resulted in no more screen, then try this. Go back to onboard, get back into windows, and uninstall the ATI catalyst drivers. Shut down, and put the card back in. Boot into windows, but before installing the catalysts, go to your device manager and find your intel extreme graphics device, and disable it from there. Then install the catalysts. See if you can try that.

 

[Schadenfroh]

only reason i would use it would be to free up a lil ram

 

[NiKeFiDO]

Interestingly (at least to me), I think my integrated system worked better than this card. In Counter Strike, the smoke grenades slowed down the game a lot with the vid card when it did not with the integrated. I can now switch in and out of CS and windows without CS slowing down when I go back into it (my FPS went way down with the integrated, but does not with the vid card) but CS as a whole seems a bit slower (esp w/ the smoke). Unfortunately, I have already had a "blue screen of death" thaks to this video card. Might just take it out and opt for a new vid card sooner.